Martinez Family Reunion Scrapbook

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Here is a scrapbook of the reunion. Since I can't bring or make a book for everyone, I brought it to you!

Feliz Cumpleaños, Rafa

On July 3rd would have been my older brother's birthday. He would be 36 years old had he not had Leukemia. Although he passed at the very young age of 16, Rafa was full of life. I remember that while he was hospitalized our family was approached by an author by the name of Erma Bombeck. She was on a mission to write a book about children with cancer. Her efforts became a success. She wrote a book titled: I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to go to Boise. As a result of this, Rafa's drawing of Garfield was published in her book along with many other ill children that contributed with a short story or drawing. His drawing of the silly cat was attached to a machine with bubble thoughts above his head thinking, "I hate this machine". This picture still astonishes me to date. This only demonstrated that even though he was ill he had a sense of humor and only looked at the funny side of life. I own a copy of this book and treasure it with all my heart. They say time heals the pain...and although 20 years seems so long ago, to me it seems only yesterday when I was thirteen and my brother left us...the pain and sorrow is still there. Rafa is the bravest person I ever met. I was privileged to have had him as my brother.

Tu hermana que te extraña y te quiere mucho, Carmen

Disney Bound!

In ten days we will be going on our first family trip to Disney World for an entire week. We will be traveling with Charlie's family. It might turn into a chaotic vacation with my kids, but we are sure to have a blast in the process. Charlie has been there before. On the other hand, it will be a first for me. So you can imagine my enthusiasm and eagerness to meet Mickey and the entire Disney characters-especially Cinderella. The kids are just as enthusiastic about going. They can't wait and are keeping a "countdown calendar" on our fridge to remind them everyday how many days we need until our trip.
As much as we would have liked to have flown to Orlando- we will be driving. Yes, you would think that flying would be a better choice with gas prices hitting the ultimate high this summer, but the cost of flying there would have been more expensive. So Charlie, his Dad, and brothers will be taking turns on our way to Orlando. We will be staying at a wonderful resort - the Sunterra Grand Beach Resort. Click here if you would like to see some wonderful pictures of the resort. Check back with us to see how our Disney Adventure went.

Martinez Family Reunion

On April 14th we gathered at El Ranchito to celebrate a long awaited family reunion. From far & near, they were all there!

Charlie's family had not had a reunion since the passing of his paternal grandmother. Although it was a one day event it turned out to be a weekend they would never forget. I have been very fortunate to meet most of his family throughout our ten year marriage, but I have to admit that I was overwhelmed by the number of Martinez's in the family. They seemed to never end!

Just as there is a begining and an end-the reunion too had to end. It was sad to see everyone leave & return to their hometown. One thing was agreed -that they would do it again in five or ten years. If you'd like to see some pictures, check out the scrapbook above.

New Family Blog

Hello, family and friends. Welcome to our family blog! I am very excited about keeping everyone posted about our everyday happenings.

With so many options out in the world wide web about posting your daily thoughts and interactions with people, I decided to finally create our own in this site. So hopefully you will enjoy what you read and see in our family blog. I will also be adding photos on our photo hosting page.