Chris and Austin

My first cousin's daughter, Chris, and her son, Austin, drove the 850 miles round trip from El Paso, Texas, to the Phoenix area last week so Austin could visit his college -- the University of Advancing Technology -- in Tempe.  On their way home, they stopped to visit us in Tucson.

Austin -- a self-professed computer nerd -- has been taking classes on line and plans to move to UAT's campus this spring.  But first he and his Mom wanted to make sure the high-tech college is what Austin really wants. It is. Austin is stoked.

Chris' husband Jimmy -- and by extension as it is with military spouses, Chris -- are in the Army. Over the 20 plus years they've been a military family, they have lived at Lewis McChord near Seattle;  Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Benning, Georgia; Stuttgart, Germany; and I'm not sure where else. Chris also spent time in Ohio with her mom (my cousin, Dicie) when Jimmy was deployed overseas. They now live in El Paso while Jimmy attends training at Fort Bliss.  

In addition to Austin, Chris and Jimmy have two younger boys: Jake, who wants a career in the Air Force and is in AF Junior ROTC, and Zack, who won two trophies playing Texas football this year. Chris says their family will move again in a few months to a still-unknown-to-them location.

It was great to see you! Have a wonderful experience at UAT, Austin.

Austin wanted to see a saguaro cactus up close, so we took him and his mom to one on the base. According to the local "cacti experts" we've talked to, no one really knows why a saguaro grows arms.

Sorry I almost cut your head off Chris, but this pic shows a saguaro (not to mention your faces) closer up.  Chris told me her dad said to tell me he reads our blog regularly.  Hi Rocky!

Chris and Austin are In and Out Burger fans and had stopped at one near I-10 on their way to Tempe. They were also up for a return trip with us.  If I had one word each to describe Chris and Austin, I'd use "vivacious" for Chris and "charming" for Austin.

Bev, Austin and Chris behind our car.  Austin asked a good question: Where do you kayak around here? Well, no where at the moment, although there is a kayak-worthy lake about 50 miles southwest of Tucson.  But there was lots of water at our last stop, Yuma, and we hope to use the boats  again when we head back toward Salt Lake this spring.  Right now the boats just make it easy to find our car in a parking lot.