BKG 2010 Catch-up (Before Kenna's graduation)

It's been an eventful, crazier than normal, and fun few months. Gratefully Meg, Kenna, and now Marah have blogs so I feel less guilty about my tardiness. I can also strongly recommend that you click over to their blogs for a more amusing and detailed account of their adventures.

I last blogged about our February birthdays. So up next was... A belated Valentine card. My grandbaby is NOT a baby any more. Nineteen months and looking like a little boy. I'm sad.On to cars. Raz's dream car (after the "Transformer" movie) is a 2010 Camaro (this was a rental for a business trip). He took Bethany 'cruisin' to Sonic for a milkshake.Kenna bought her 1st car - with Grandpa Bud's guidance. Almost a college grad AND a car owner. Woohoo!Spring Break, known as 'intercession' in Tucson began with a sad farewell. The last "Fun Friday" at seminary with Sis. Margaret Summerhays. She's off to Texas.Bethany once again headed to BYU for a 'high school sanity break' during intercession.And was a college student for a week (without having to attend early classes or do homework). She flew back just in time to catch the last few hours of Coby's visit to Tucson.

Before the BYU semester ended, there was time for a few last adventures. Kenna headed outdoors (of course). It snowed (of course) - and kept snowing until June...

Marah attended her 2nd "Festival of Color" at the Hari Krishna temple. This time they were prepared - bought cheap, white tees instead of ruining their clothes. Sophomores are SO smart!

Life got extremely complicated when Marah's "Teaching English in Mexico" departure date was moved up 3 weeks to BEFORE finals week. No stress! Marah had to beg her professors to allow her to take her finals before class was actually over, packed, and checked out of her apartment. Roommate Kayle crammed Marah and all her boxes into her car and drove to my parent's home in Roy.

Grandpa Bud gave Marah a blessing before taking her to the airport.

Did I mention Marah's flight to Mexico City was from Tucson? I rounded up 3 pages of needed teaching supplies plus 4 months of toiletries and necessities. She flew in at 11PM on April 13th, we unpacked, repacked, and put her on the plane to Mexico 6 1/2 hours later. Whew!Pre-boarding "I" swap. Bethany's Itouch (which texts from Mexico) for Marah's Iphone. Beth is in heaven. She can now text 24/7 from almost any location...

Marah arrived safely in Puebla, Puebla, Mexico to live with her Mexi-family (as she calls them) and her BYU roommate/Mexico roommate and fellow teacher, Kellie Ostler.

The 5 teachers modeling their stylish teaching attire posing below the school's billboard.With Moroni - guardian/fearless leader of their ILP language program in Puebla.

What do 5 American college girls do when their school closes for 10 days? Buy bus tickets, stay at youth hostels, and go sightseeing. I'm VERY glad I thought Moroni was chaperoning them until they were almost on their way home...

First stop (after a night on the bus) - sunrise on the beach in Veracruz.

Quick stop to see the Veracruz LDS temple. (They also saw the Merida and Yucatan temples.)

Mayan ruins. First, Palenque and then Chichen Itza.

Plenty of jungle sightseeing and hiking. Marah called it "nasty, hot, and humid, but beautiful". Mishol ha waterfall, Ik kil crater, and Marah's favorite Agua Azul - because they got to cool off in the water! Last stop was Cancun and then a 20-hour bus ride home with some pretty intense sunburns...

Back home in Puebla, they visited the smallest volcano in the world.

Met some very friendly police officers...

And experienced Puebla's version of WWE wrestling - Nacho Libre style.

These are the photos I paste all over Marah's packages to keep them from being stolen or opened... Only Mary keeps them safe, not the patron saints or even Jesus... Hmmmm

One of Marah's favorite students Frida.

Back at home, Russell has been working on a small test site outside of Hollister, CA almost every week since November (he was working there when he had the two emergency surgeries). He comes home for about 36 hours to do laundry, mow the lawn, and attend to his Bishopric duties, then it's back to the airport.

I direct traffic. Bethany took this picture on a school night at 11 PM. Wish I could say this was atypical, but it is generally how my day ends - falling asleep with the pets (watching the news) while Beth is in the shower...

(More to come - starting with Kenna's BYU graduation - YAY!)