Ryan and Debi

Author: server_deity

  • Toren playing in the water at Busch Gardens

    Here’s a short clip of Toren playing in one of the splash pools at Busch Gardens: We’ve made pretty good use of our season passes, visiting the park almost once a week.  Even so, we have yet to explore the whole park.  We did, however, find out that one of the log rides allows kids…

  • “To Infinity and Beyond”

    I have a new batch of short videos to post.  In this first one Toren is diving on his bed while he tries to say “To Infinity and Beyond” from Toy Story: Toren diving on and off things has become a regular activity here.

  • Mark: apocryphal stories

    This is the last post I have for now of stories with or about Mark.  More will likely come back to me over time.  These stories are stories I did not personally observe but were recounted to me in some detail, either by Mark or others. Mark and some of his friends put a sheep…

  • Mark: staying at the Liston’s

    Mark and I worked in the cherry orchard (mentioned previously) owned and run by my Uncle Al when we were young.  Harvesting cherries is pretty demanding.  Sweet cherries have to be picked by hand because they need the stem to stay fresh.  And they need to be harvested early in the morning to maintain their…

  • Mark: late night canasta

    One thing my family loves to do when we get together is play Canasta.  We have our own version with our own rules. We used to play Canasta with our friends when we were teenagers as well.  We often had Mitch Johnson and one or two other friends over for late night games of Canasta…

  • Mark: on the soccer field

    We were close enough in age that Mark and I did get to play on the same soccer teams, though not all the time (Mark played other sports too; I was a soccer-only guy).  I played goalkeeper from about under-12 through high school.  Mark was a blazing fast forward.  Sadly, I don’t have many photos of…

  • Mark: water skiing

    I mentioned in an earlier story that Mark was very athletic.  I’ll write more about that as well.  However, his athleticism wasn’t always highly coordinated.  He could run like a gazelle, but that didn’t necessarily translate into amazing coordination.  And, at times, he relied too heavily on his speed and strength rather than on finesse.…

  • Mark: Easter on The Rock

    My Grandfather, Earl Budge Cragun, had an orchard and owned a lot of property in Pleasant View, Utah.  The orchard was passed down to a son-in-law and has since been demolished for development.  But when the orchard was in the family and I was growing up, we had a yearly Easter egg hunt right next…

  • Mark: my scarred finger

    My Dad has long been an entrepreneur and small business owner.  As such, he typically hired his kids to work for him.  That included Mark and I.  He also used our very large garage as his shop, on and off. Mark and I were helping my Dad in the garage one day when this happened.…

  • Mark: punched in the face

    Probably because we were so close in age and so competitive (Craguns are all competitive), Mark and I didn’t always get along.  In fact, I’d dare say that the bulk of our childhood was spent in a rather high tension state with the slightest provocation leading to open conflict between the two of us.  This…