David's Graduation Trip--Tucson

I notice I didn't get any pictures with the guest of honor, David, in them. I actually forgot my camera at his graduation, but I'll tell you that he did it, we're proud of him, and we saw it. 

In Tucson we had a really nice time. We got to see all my siblings except Steven, who lives in Utah, my parents, my grandparents, and lots of cousins and aunts and uncles.

One night we were there my grandparents came to dinner and my mom made yummy ribs. It was very nice. Jana also came and we hung out on the back porch talking about nerdy things until we went back inside to play cards with my grandparents. Don't challenge my grandpa to Uno!

The next night Jay and I made curry and Jay made his signature rice balls. I couldn't help but think how jealous my brother-in-law Chad would be. When we visit him and Natalie next, we'll have to make lots of curry and rice balls. We'll also have to bring our rice cooker. It's hard to make rice the right consistency for rice balls in a pot on a stove. I ended up making 2 batches of rice, since the first was much too sticky, and the second was... still too sticky but the white people didn't know :) I appreciate Jay making those since I actually don't know how. He's really good with his hands and can do some cool things, and I let him at it. He made some with chicken and cheese filling and some others with red pepper and hummus filling (milk free for my dad and so good). I guess that made them multicultural rice balls :)

We also rented a hybrid--a Prius--the same car Gus drives on Psych. It was nice to have a quiet automatic with cruise control and good mileage. It's also good to know that we aren't putting wear and tear on our only vehicle. I don't think we'll ever buy a hybrid--they're expensive, but Jay and I are looking forward to one day, someday, getting a new car.

I saw an eye doctor since getting back for my yearly exam. I only mention this to say that I miss my Provo doctor! He had a machine that would take a very good image of your eye and he'd refer to it, compare it with last time's image and importantly, not dilate your eyes. This picture was instead of dilation and a lot less obnoxious. But I think his eye exams were a little more expensive--$65 instead of $55--probably to pay for the machine. So maybe It's good that my eyes were dilated since it saves me money. Maybe.

I played a game with the kids in primary during singing time I thought I'd share: I colored some clothes pins and brought in a mug, then had the lucky kid (chosen for good singing) kneel on a backwards chair, and drop them from nose level, into the mug. The clothes pin must touch your nose when you let go of it!  The colors were assigned to different songs, and any colors the kid got in, he/she could pick from those songs. (If the kid got in blue, green, and yellow, they could pick from singing 1 song of the blue, green, or yellow, but not the songs for the red or orange ones). And for younger kids, I let them do it without the chair.

We stopped in Phoenix to visit with favorite little sister. Little Foot made himself at home very quickly.

My nephew just turned 3. We were on Mount Lemmon and he was enjoying the big hill.

You gotta get down from the hill someway. Scootch, kiddo, scootch! At one point he actually fell and started rolling down for a few turns, above that scary log. He didn't feel hurt at all. Tough kid.

My cousin's pretty daughter. I think Tony's other daughter was working the camera.

My niece is so cute :)

This is the same miniature rose plant as I posted a picture of before. It survived so far, but  I just transplanted (transpotted. Ha) it so it would have more room. We'll see if it survives the upset. I had trouble removing it from the tin pot, so hopefully the roots will regrow.