47th Annual Soria Family Reunion

We just spent Labor Day Weekend in Fresno and Merced to celebrate the Soria Family Reunion. My Grandmother Eleanor Soria Olivarez' Family started this tradition 47 years ago. We have had it just about every year out at Lake Yosemite in Merced. Every year there is a theme, for instance, this year was Hawian. Along with everyone dressing to the theme of the year there is always a parade and performances. I will be updating the Blog with the performances later! My mom's cousins, the Contrares' brothers and their sister are famous for their wacky performances and my mom's uncles who are getting close to 90! are usually in the act.
We all had a great time, the weather was nice, we ate too much and got to spend time with my aunt and uncle from Montana and cousin Jason and his wife Lindsay from Arizona. And we were all enchanted with little Nathan, my cousin Patricia's little boy. He is the first boy in the great grand child generation!


The original 9 Soria siblings

Big Sur 09

In August we took a trip down to Big Sur to visit New Camaldoli Monastery. Cyprian was giving a retreat while we were there so John was able to sit in on his talks in between beach time, meal time and prayer time. We took a little trip down to Sand Dollar Beach for part of the afternoon and also went up the mountian to visit Jack, who is a friend of the community's. It was REALLY HOT while we were there, but we still managed to have a good time. We celebrated Luci's birthday with Cyprian and some of the Monks and enjoyed the beautiful views.

View of Big Sur from Jack's house

Fun times at Sand Dollar Beach!






Girls with Uncle/Nino/Cyprian :)

My new favorite picture...

Evie passed out before we even got back down to Hwy 1!

Evie's new hiding place

Evie has a special hiding place here at our new house! She found a little cabinet door that is just her size and she fits inside perfectly! When Lisa was visiting last week she would go inside and hide and then scare Lisa! I think Uncle Ryan called her and told her to scare Auntie Lisa! Ha!

My Birthday (yes i know, it was last month)

Yes I know my birthday was last month, but I found this picture on my camera and remembered I wanted to post it. The week leading up to my birthday I thought a lot about Marge and how much I would miss her this birthday, it being the first one since she passed away and all. She always, always timed her cards just right so they arrived right on your birthday, even if she was going to see you in person that day. She always created a little pocket in the card in which she tucked some fun money. :) I kept thinking that she wouldn't be there on my birthday, but to my surprise I found her. After digging through a bag of office type stuff Marina had cleaned out and passed on the the girls, I opened one up that day to give to Evie and found a name tag with Marge's name on it. It was in that one of a kind Marge Chiesa hand writing, no one on this earth writes like she did. It made me happy to know that Marge found her way to me on my birthday. I love you Marge and miss you so much. I will never doubt that you will be right here with me...

The parents to be!

Here are some pics of Lisa and Ryan at about 12 weeks! She is due November 22nd! We can't wait! Ryan is looking really good and is putting on all the weight for lisa! ha!

Chap and Rep

My Uncle Marty just emailed me some old pictures he found and I couldn't pass up posting this one. I am not sure if this is in mexico or at a mexican resturant. But seeing my grandma with a "King of Beers" in her had was priceless!!!! My grandpa passed away 7 years ago March 4th, I can't beleive it has been that long...But GG (as the girls call her) is going strong! She has beat stomache cancer and breast cancer and living life to the fullest at "the home" in Merced! Love you GG!

Oh Evie!

Spring has definitely sprung and the girls have been in the back yard playing with the sand and water table and picking flowers and putting sand on the dogs. I looked out yesterday to check on Evie and did not see her, so I went out to take a closer look and found her with a bucket of sand under the covered bench! she was perfectly content playing there, so i snapped a few shots and let her go about her business!