Brad Graduates From University of Arizona!!!

This weekend was Brad's graduation. He majored in Communications with a Minor in Business. Grandma and Grandpa Marx were able to join our family in the trek down to Tucson for this event. It was sure a great moment to definately be shared with Kara. Brad met Kara in his first year of college, so she has been with him through all of his classess, assignments, and study hours; not to mention, Kara has worked long hours as their source of financial support allowing Brad to plow straight through winter, spring, and summer semesters achieving his degree in 3 1/2 years. They are a dynamic duo together.

Way to go to both of you!

We enjoyed a nice BBQ at their apartment complex after the ceremony with the Durhams. Here are a few pictures:

(note Kara's 'future Dodger fan shirt'!)

(Charlie slept through most of the ceremony - except when someone behind us got excited with an air horn...)
Congratulations, Brad, we're proud of you.

Charlie's Blessing Day Charlie's blessing was on May 6th. It was a beautiful day to match Matt's growing family. After church we gathered for dinner at Matt & Ashley's house. Ashley made some really yummy marinated chicken, it was so good! She better watch it or the Sunday night dinners might get switched to her house! Brad and Kara joined us from Tucson so that we were all together as a family.

And in the category of "Brad never takes a serious photo..."

Ron & Kim Cruzin through April....

We spent last week with Dale & Shelly Heward and Dave & Nanette Pugsley. Long time friends catching up on life. We all agreed that we see ourselves still very young, but after a few days it dawned on us that we were sitting on a cruise ship, talking about our grown children and grandchildren, comparing our aches, pains and diseases....could it be that we are getting old???

NOT!

We had a blast. The ports we visited were Costa Maya, Mexico; Roatan, Honduras; Belize City, Belize; Cozumel, Mexico. Kudos to Dale & Shelly who put up with a THIRD visit to Costa Maya. I will let the record stand with them and not even challenge it! Not much to see there, and definately not worth a 2nd trip. there was a cool shopping building that had a big tower, so we climbed to the top to get a look at the Mexican scenery. It had a ramiumptom-type feel to it. This picture of Ron with an iguana was taken there.

My favorite place was Roatan. I think I could be persuaded to fly back there and stay in one of the resorts and see more sites. I took a bus ride throughout the island, saw stilt houses, native dancing, jelly making place, and a cool rickety little boat ride through a mangrove forrest. Ron went scuba diving.

Belize was my next favorite place. Ron & I took a bus ride to the Altun Ha Mayan ruins. They are estimated to have been occupied from 200BC through 1200AD and an estimated 10,000 people populated the area. I like things like this. We also got an education on rain forest plant medicines and how all the different plants are used for medical purposes, even by the locals today. Do you really think I could leave this comment without a scripture reference? "And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land--but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualitites of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases to which men were subject by the nature of the climate" Alma 46:40 Cool, huh!

Our trip ended in Cozumel, Mexico. Very tourist oriented. Ron went scuba diving again and I went into town with Nanette. We just walked around, got caught in a sudden downpour. Finally went back to the ship to take advantage of the spa's 'in-port special.' As I was arriving, Ron had returned from scuba and was going to go to town. I told him there was an Aztec wooden calendar that I would really like, I had them talked down about $100, but I wasn't even prepared to pay as much as they still wanted. Ron returned an hour later with calendar in hand - after bringing them down another $40 on the price. We have truly found Ron's talent in life.

On the second night Shelly and I were sitting waiting for the entertainment to begin when we decided we should play a digital-camera scavenger hunt game. So we came up with a list of 20 items that would need to be photographed on the remainder of the trip. the picture must contain you or your spouse in it. so the next few days we were all scrambling to get the pictures for our game. It may sound dumb to read about, but it was kind of fun. Maybe another blog will show some of the results of the game.