Buried Alive!!

The last couple of posts I've written have been a bit on the silly side. This one will be more informative, but with my usual strange brand of humor. Things haven't really changed much as of late, with a few notable exceptions.

First, Marina graduated!! Quite tragically, both of our point and shoot cameras died right as the festivities started. Luckily, my dad had his camera, and took lots of pictures--now if we can just get him to send them to us! We are really happy the way graduation went; my sister, her husband James, my mom and dad all drove to visit us. It was a long drive for them, but we sure appreciated having family to celebrate with. Since moving out to North Carolina, we've not seen much of our family, so it was a nice treat.

Second, we flew out to Arizona for a few days to visit Marina's family, and to go to the temple with her parents. It was a really great experience. We also got to spend time with Kristine (Marina's sister), Les, Marc, and Loren (her brothers), Marc's girlfriend Tiffany, and the rest of the family as well. Here's a photo of Marina in Arizona with one her new dresses she got for graduation.

While we were in Arizona, we had the great fortune to have my sister Liz house sit and watch our insecurely attached dog. Fletcher grew quite fond of Liz, too!

Another event we're happy about is Marina's first 'grown up' job. She is working with a research grant that she had previously worked on during her Master's, except now it is full time and official.

Then, this last weekend, we went to the beach for the first time this year. We went with almost the whole Thayn clan, which was lots of fun. I did something I've never done before, and got buried in the sand (except for my noggin). It was actually kind of fun! Sand is pretty heavy, so breathing is kind of difficult, but other than that, it was fun.

And now, story time. I'm kind of a gorilla--in that I'm kind of a hairy guy. Well, when I was buried, I had to lay down in this pit, and then get covered in sand. When discussing it later on, one of the Thayn kids became quiet, and when asked about his thoughts, he decided that, "I don't want a beard on my chest!". Yep, I'm a gorilla. Beard on my chest, and all.

Well, that's all for now. Have a great week!