Time Zips By

I can't believe that it is really fall already.  We have already done two weeks of school, and we started late.  On a normal year, we would be three weeks into school.  Despite that summer isn't quite over on my blog because I have things we did that I still need to write about! I am going to try and get those up here soon.  In the mean time, this is why I haven't had the time.

 It started with going to Bear Lake the week before I had to go back to work.  Because I wasn't used to working, I came home exhausted and didn't want to do anything.  Most of the camping supplies had gotten put away, but not everything.  I had no desire to clean.  The little energy I did have after completing the necessities went to taking care of fruit.  Part of why I don't like being a teacher is that school starts right when all of the produce comes on.  I am exhausted from working and come home to piles of rotting fruit.  We actually got quite a bit of fruit off of our peach tree.  This was our first real harvest.  Last year was our first fruit and we got a grand total of three peaches.  This year we had at least half a bushel. Pretty good for a little tree.  At the end of that first week of work (which was mostly meetings, we didn't have students yet,)  we left to go to Rendezvous.  I wasn't as ready to go as I wanted to be and then it took us three hours to do the hour and a half drive. It was almost 9:00 by the time we got there.   I will do a whole post on Rendezvous with all the exciting details.  We left Sunday afternoon.  Part of the problem with going to Rendezvous is that Thomas' Uncle Bob always come then.  I think this was the first year I have gotten Thomas to go with me since we were married.  (Why was it easier to get him to come when we were dating?) Part of why we came home Sunday instead of Monday was so that he could go visit Bob.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to go or not.  Thomas' mom had been working and was tired, so she wasn't going to stay very long.  We opted to ride with her.  Somehow when we are there we always get sucked into staying longer than we mean to.  As much as I enjoy pinocle, I didn't want to play it until midnight.  OK, it was only about 10:00, but I was trying to get into our new school routine.  Thomas really didn't get home until after midnight.  Monday was Labor Day.  I was going to can my tomatoes, but I decided that they were green enough, and there were enough close to ripe still outside, but not quite ready, that I could wait until the weekend.  The majority of the peaches did have to be done that day.  Isabelle wanted a pie and a fancy candle lit dinner.  We told here we would do it the next day.  We did get everything ready though.  My sister Jennae wanted to do something, and we were supposed to go to Thomas's grandma's for a BBQ.  I really didn't want to go since Tuesday was the first day of school.  I was glad when it got canceled/postponed until Sunday.  We ended up buying fried chicken, making a quick salad and taking it down to Barnes Park.  It was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed visiting.  My parents stopped in on thier way home; they were still pulling the trailer and everything.  My brother also came with his daughter.  Tristan loved the ducks.  We had some rolls that he kept wanting to go feed them.   In the evening we just relaxed and tried to prepare mentally for school to start.

Isabelle was so excited for school to start.  She had been asking about it all summer.  The first day, they didn't have class, but they did have a parent meeting.  I of course couldn't go because I was doing my own first day of school.  I made arrangements to meet her teacher the Friday before.  She seemed really nice, and I think that Isabelle will like her.  Thomas took her to the meeting and was in charge of both the kids that day.  That evening as promised, we had a "fancy dinner." Mostly it was like an other dinner, except we dressed up the table and we had peach pie for desert.


Wednesday was her first day. Thomas dropped her off.  The two grandma's slit baby-sitting. When we asked her about it, she said she like school, but she didn't learn anything.  I kind of think she thought she would learn to read that first day.



When I got home from school, we headed up to Snowbasin for my cousin's wedding.  It was at the Needles lodge at the top of mountain.  You had to ride the gondola up.  We had to go just for the experience.  It was pretty amazing.  It makes me want to see it in winter, but I don't think I am a good enough skier to handle Snowbasin. 

View of the Valley

The bathrooms were supper nice.  The counters were marble,

and the toilets were gold plaited

In the Gondola

 
Thursday was supposed to be book club, and I was supposed to be in charge.  We ended up postponing it a week because most people had to go to back to school night.  I was relieved because I didn't know how I was going to get a dessert made and the house clean in time.   Friday I got the tomatoes pureed.  That made things easier on Saturday.  Thomas was supposed to help me make salsa, but he ended up having to work because another employee quit. The think about canning, is that it isn't nearly as hard as you think it is going to be.  It is however time consuming.  I had to cut up the peppers, let the stuff cook, boil the water for the canner, turn everything off and run to the store to buy lids, wait for everything to get back up to temperature, cook, then clean it all up.  It was about 5:00 by the time I was finished.  Of course a lot of that time was waiting.  I do love when the canning is finished.  The bottles look so pretty sitting there.  It gives me a thrill to hear each one pop.  We still need to do applesauce, which may or may not be all I do this year.

Sunday we went up to Huntsville to grandma Toombs.  It was fun, but again we got home later than I would have liked.  Partly because of everything we had going on we were pretty unsuccessful at getting or bedtime routine established.  The second week of school should have gone better, but it didn't really.  By Monday, Tristan had gotten a cold.  It made him kind of crabby.  I am not sure if it is related or not, but he also wouldn't go to bed.  At least he wouldn't go to sleep.  I would take him to bed, tuck him in, and kiss him good-night.  He would smile at me and lay there snuggling his blanket like he was going to go to bed.  Almost as soon as the door was shut however, I could hear him get up and start playing.  It was really cute listening to him talk to himself, but he did it until after ten, three nights in a row.  Thursday was the book club that had gotten postponed from the previous week.  Since it was our fist meeting of the year, we had to discuss our summer book and pick new ones.  The September meeting always takes longer than the others.   (Again I am planning on doing a separate post.  I haven't written about books in a while, and there are a couple I've been meaning to.) Thomas took the kids up to his mom's, and it was almost ten by the time they got home.   On top of all that I could feel myself getting Tristan's cold.  It wasn't bad, and I thought it would be mild.  Halfway through school on Friday however, it hit hard.  I was blowing my nose constantly, sneezing, and generally being miserable.   We were supposed to go clothes shopping, but we spent the evening laying low.  I haven't done much today either.  I am waiting for Thomas to get home from work, and then I will attempt the shopping.   I would really like it if things could be not so crazy for a while.  It is no wonder I can't believe it has been two weeks already. 


A note about pictures:  Apparenly some of the ones I was going to post here are not downloaded yet.  Our Tuesday night dinner and the first day of school are still on the camera along with Rendezvous.  There are also some posts that don't have pictures yet that did get downloaded and hopefully will be added soon  like Lagoon, bowling, and more bear lake. 

Hawaii

It has taken awhile, but I am finally getting some Hawaii pictures posted.  Sometime near the beginning of October, Thomas' sister got engaged.  We were very excited for her.  She had said since she was small that she was going to get married in Hawaii, and she stuck to that. 

We got in to Hawaii at about 11:00 and it took a while to get to the hotel and get settled, so that first day didn't really count.  All we saw was the Alamo rental station and the hotel.

Day 1 was the wedding.  We had planned on going to session at the temple before the wedding, but due to me being sick on the flight the day before and Thomas feeling a little bit nauseous that morning, we didn't leave quite early enough.  We still left fairly early, but we took our time and didn't rush.  One of my favorite things about Hawaii was coming out of the tunnel that separates the South and North sides of the island.  It was amazing to be back in the sunlight with a view of the ocean and excessive amounts of green everywhere.  Since we were early, we stopped at one of the small beaches that line the road.  It was a small cove with no one else there.  When we got to the temple it was still really early, so we drove a ways up the North Shore. We felt overdressed for the beach there.

The Wedding was beautiful.  Everyone was amazed that we all came so far to support the happy couple.  The sealer shared several little known stories about the temple and how it came to be built. 

After the wedding we went to Papa Ole's Kitchen.  We took the food to the beach, where we did some additional photos. 

On the way back to Honolulu we realized that we had lost my dad's GPS that we borrowed.  We had been really careful with it, but there was some confusion on the way into the temple and we couldn't remember if we had taken it off the dash.  We either forgot and it was stolen, or it was dropped somewhere.  I was sick about it a good portion of the trip.  We spent a couple of hours the next day retracing our steps trying to find it.  Unfortunately it never showed up.  The good news was, the day we got back was Black Friday.  I got an identical one for about $40.00 less than my Dad had paid. 

After returning to the hotel that first night we decided to go for a walk.  We were about two blocks from the Waikiki beach.  We strolled down the beach for about 6 blocks and then came back through the shops.  It was a nice walk, but when we got back we realized we didn't have a key to our room.  The lady at the front desk was very helpful. 

Day 2:  We spent the morning at Pearl Harbor.  It was very interesting.  There was so much to see there and we only had a couple of hours.  We did go over to the Arizona memorial.  It was sad, but also... I am not sure how to describe it.  You see all those names of men who died before they even knew what was happening.  You see the oil still bubbling up after nearly 70 years.  I would definitely like to have a change to go back and learn more. 

After Pearl Harbor we headed back to Leia to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We were a little unsure at first how it was supposed to work, and what we were supposed to do.  There are seven different islands represented at each one they do a presentation at a specific time.  You have to follow the schedule, which we didn't realize at first.  My favorite part was the Canoe show.  They do traditional dances from each island on a canoe.  We also splurged on some really good ice cream.  In the evening we went to the Luau for dinner. I didn't like most of the food.  I did however enjoy the purple poi rolls.  After dinner was the big show.  Fire dancing is always fun.

Day 3: Thomas got up and went snorkeling.  I did not go.  I was worried about being cold and misserable. I really don't like being cold.  This was actually my birthday.  My brother and sister in-law invited me down to thier room for some birthday cake they had bought.  It was very nice of them.  After that I headed out to do some shopping.  I got some ornaments for the christmas tree.  I also got a couple of surongs and some makadameina nuts.  Once Thomas returned we checked out and headed to the Dole Pinaple plantation. Thomas loves pineapple, so this was a must see on his list, or rather it was a must taste. We ate lunch in cafe, which was fun.  I had a terriatky burger.  It was pretty good. I wasn't that impressed with the main part of the plantation. I don't know that the train ride was really worth it.  The botanical garden though was gorgeous.  It was fun to see so many exotic plants growing natuarlly.  They also have a giant hedge maze there that I wanted to do, but we were short on time. 

Besides being my birthday it was also Thanksgiving.  I was a little sad about missing the big day at home.  It is one of my favorite holidays.  I really like turkey.  Everybody met up dinner at a place called Chuck's Cellar.  After a small emotional incident while waiting for everyone to show up, Thomas and I headed down to the beach.  I felt bad that we hadn't really gotten a chance to just hang out on the beach.  I played in the surf while Thomas took pictures of the sunset.  After the sun set, we headed back to the restaurant.  My pants were wet, and it was a little cold, but I felt better.  I enjoyed the dinner, although it was the first time I had ever had fish for Thanksgiving.  Following dinner we did a bit more shopping then headed back to the rental car place and the airport. 

Despite a few momments it was a nice trip.  Definately too short.  It just means that I need to go back again.  I think everyone needs a little bit of tropic in the middle of the winter.

Family Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas 2011

I was hoping to get this out early this year, but here it is two days before Christmas and I am still finishing up.  I hope that everyone has had a good year and great holiday season.  This year has been a lot of the same stuff with a few surprises thrown in.  As far as our jobs everything is mostly the same.  I am still teaching at Mueller Park Jr. High with 8^th and 9^th grade English.   This is the first year that I have not had a new subject; although the first little bit of 9^th grade felt new since I missed the first seven weeks of the year.  I did apply at the new junior high they built here in Kaysville, but my friend got the job.  Last year our entire English department was expecting.  I had mine in August before school started, the other two had theirs after the year ended, and neither came back.  The fourth teacher was the one who got the job at the new school. That left me as the sole returning English teaching. I had several other friends that quit or moved to the new school, so there have been a lot of changes. It has been a bit of an adjustment getting know and work with new people.  Allen is still managing the subway in Ogden.  Other than the constant influx of new employees not much has changed on that front. 

           

Annika is now four years old.  She is really enjoying being a “big girl.”  She is also generally a fantastic older sister; although sometimes brother “bothers” her.  They are both still at the high school day care.  Annika loves it there.  She is always excited to go to school.  I think that socially it has been a great thing for her.  She has learned a lot about being friends and interacting with others.  She loves to sing.  Her favorite song right now is “I’m getting nothin’ for Christmas.” We are getting a little tired of hearing it.  She is also obsessed with princesses.  She was a very pretty princess for Halloween. 

           

Aidan is almost 17  months .  He is a happy baby.  He is always full of smiles and mischief. At school he is one of the favorites. All the high school girls liked to hold him. He went 14 months without getting teeth and then got six all at once. That  did make him a little cranky, but he seems to be doing better now.  One of his favorite activities is to open and close things, especially cupboards.  He also loves his blankets (there are five of them.) He is always carrying one or more of them around.  He doesn’t always have to be holding it, but it must be on floor in close proximity.  He also loves to be outside.  I have never seen a child before who got so excited about shoes and socks.

           

Our first big surprise of the year was Allen’s opportunity to go to Africa with his uncle.  He was gone for two and a half week during July.  The rest of us kept occupied with camping trips and family reunions, but we missed him a lot.  He spent most of the time in Tanzania and Kenya.  At the end of the trip they flew down to see Victoria Falls as well.  He was his uncle’s photographer.  He “had to” get a new camera before he went and then rented a fancy high zoom lens (you don’t want to get too close to those lions after all.)  He took about 16,000 photographs.  You can see some of his favorites at www.flickr.com/photos/alyntopia/. 

I also have a flickr page, www.flickr.com/photos/wravenlockw/, my pictures are generally not as impressive as Allen’s.   The other thing I got into this year was blogging.  There were two blogs I started reading, which inspired me to start my own blog.  I have really enjoyed writing it;  although  I have not publicized it very much. You can read my posts about some of the other things we have done this year at: adventures-gretchen.blogspot.com. 

The other thing that has kept us busy this year is finishing our basement.  Allen started it in the summer, but he just didn’t have time to really work on it.  We ended up hiring help.  They have completed all the work but the painting, which Allen and I did.   It has taken longer than I expected, even with professionals. Right now Aidan is sharing a room with the computers.  It makes it hard because the best time to work on things is when he is sleeping and you can’t because the computer is in the room with him.  I am hoping that once the computers are downstairs, I will be able to do more with my blog, scrapbooking, and dealing with our family pictures.  I also am very excited about my new tub we installed in the basement.  I can’t use it though because it doesn’t have a surround.  All we have left to finish is the tub surround and floor in the bathroom.  That,  however, is on hold, because something else came up.

Allen’s sister told us in October that she was engaged.  That normally wouldn’t have been a big impact on our basement, but she picked the Laie Hawaii temple.  We had six weeks from when she got engaged until the wedding.  To complicate things the trip would be over Thanksgiving and my birthday.   It ended up being pretty good, although there were a few problems.  Aidan ended up being sick the day before we left, and then I was sick on the plane there.  It is never a good sign when you are nauseous before you get on the plane. The first day there was the wedding.  It was very nice.  The temple workers were amazed that we all came so far for the wedding.   We also got to spend a little bit of time at the beach.  The second day we went to Pearl Harbor and the Polynesian Cultural Center.   The third day there was snorkeling, shopping, the Dole Pineapple Plantation, some more beach, and fish for Thanksgiving dinner.  The waiter also sang me happy birthday. I got a piece of coconut cake.  It was very tasty.  We flew home that night at midnight.   It was fun, but short.  Mostly it helped us know what we want to do next time we go. 

We welcomed December with a huge windstorm.  We did have some damage.  One of our windows was broken by a flying shingle, the roof was not as well covered as it had been, and the plum tree in front of our house was gone.  We were saddened by the loss of the plum tree.  There were originally two, but we lost one in an April snow storm.  It was half dead and kind of ugly, so we didn’t mind too much.  The other was bigger and had a nicer shape.  Our house now looks naked without them out front.  I almost stayed home that day because I was so traumatized just driving up to the high school.  I got hit by a large tree limb and almost by a garbage can.  I was assured that school was on, so I braved the winds rushing through Centerville.  It was terrifying to drive down the road feeling your car sway in the wind and see semi after semi tipped on its side.  In Bountiful it was much calmer.  By the time I got to school the power was already out.  At the end of the first hour we were informed that we weren’t getting power back and we started sending students home.  Emergency evacuations are a huge mess.  I spent the morning as a runner going to get students out of their classes when their parents came.  By the time it calmed down at 11:00, I had over 6,000 steps for the day.  At that point I found out the daycare was closed and left to go pick the kids up.  Unfortunately I had left my lights on and my car was dead.  I had to have another teacher jump my car.  It was one of the most exciting days I’ve had in a while. 

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Christmas Season.

Love the Widdison Family

Halloween

I don't know why it takes so long to get things done.  I was going to post this a long time ago, but we have just been too busy. Now the details are all a little bit hazy.  October went by so fast.  I don't know where the month went.

On the 22nd my Mom had a party for the grandkids.They got to pick out a pumpkin and paint it.  Isabelle loved it; although, her painting skills are still mostly in the blobs of color phase.  She is starting to make actual pictures with her crayons though.  A big step forward in the life of a young artist.  We also played some games and got lots of candy.  I mentioned before that I actually sewed Isabelle's costume, so there was a fair amount of time spent doing that the last bit of the month.  I ran out of time to get things finished up, and my mom ended up hemming it for me.  I thought that it turned out very nice.  Isabelle wore it to school on the 28th for trick-or-treating in the office and counseling center.  In the afternoon, the kids who don't take naps also got to go to the seminary building for more candy.

Saturday we headed up to Thomas' grandma's house for his family party.  It is usually just pumpkin carving and food.  I had picked Thomas out a really nice large pumpkin from my mom's patch.  I didn't know it, but they had a bunch of heirloom pumpkins planted back there too.  His pumpkin was either one of those, or it got crossed with a gourd.  It had a woody layer before the regular squash layer. It took him a long time to get anything done.  He ended up bringing it home and cutting the patter in with his drummel and then cutting it with the regular pumpkin tools. He made a lion in honor of Africa.  It turned out really nice.

Monday I had to go to work, but the kids didn't have daycare because it was the end of term teacher work day.  They hung out at my sister's house.  I got home about 3 or 4 and made dinner. By about 5:30 it started getting dark and a few kids were out and about.  Isabelle was a princess. We borrowed a couple of poofy skirts from her grandma to act as slips and fluff the skirt of her dress out a little bit.  I didn't have time to make a second costume, so Tristan had the choice of a tiger or a cow.  The tiger was a 6 month costume.  We got it on him, but it was a little bit tight.  The cow was a little bit big.  When I made it three years ago for his sister I made the tail so that it was just barely not dragging on the ground.  His tail was dragging quite a bit.  We had a hard time getting him to keep the hood on, and he managed to pull off one of the ears.  They went out with their dad, while I stayed home to hand out candy.  They came back with a pretty good load.The princess needed a potty break, and the cow was getting cranky.  I went out with the princess to traverse the top half of the neighborhood.  She was so excited about running from door to door and collecting more candy.  She ended up with way more candy than she needed.  We didn't do too much restricting, and it was gone within a week.  She keeps asking when it will be Halloween again.  Not for a while I tell her.


Apparently only half of the camera download worked.  I will add more pictures soon.  Right now little boy needs to go to bed, so I must sign off the computer.  

Where Has the Summer Gone?

I thought that once school got out I would blog more.  I can't believe it has been over a month since my last post.  Not that I don't have several partially written blogs floating around in my head, but that doesn't help anyone else read them.  I am appalled that we are half way through July.  I had so many plans for things to do this summer, and I really haven't accomplished that much.  Not that I haven't been fairly busy.

The first week after school got out both kids had fevers around 103.  They seemed fine otherwise.  There went that week. 

The next week was my family reunion, which I was in charge of. It was fairly simple event.  Friday the 17th those of us who didn't have to work played games, which ended up being very few because of unexpected work complications.  For dinner that night we had home made Chinese.   My mom made a beef and broccoli stir-fry. I made eggrolls, and my sister made orange chicken.  She had a recipe for the orange chicken, but decided to go the easy way and just put the orange sauce on pre-breaded chicken.  It was really good, and supper simple.  I think she got the bottle of orange sauce at Costco. We were supposed to sleep in tents near the creek that runs behind both my house and my sister's house, but we didn't get the tents up and the children were cranky.  I think it would have worked a little better if they were a little bit older.
Friday morning everyone came back over and we made waffles and pancakes.  Everyone seems to prefer one or the other, so we made both.  After that we went to the park and played kickball.  It was really fun.  My nephew really likes to watch his older brother play soccer, and he wanted to chase the ball like you would a soccer ball rather than running the bases.  The girls decided it was more to play tea party on the bleachers with the water bottles.  Four-year-olds are so funny.  Next we went home to pack lunches for our hike.  There are actually quite a few hikes in the county, and I have been on very few of them.  That was actually one of my plans this summer: Get a baby backpack and check out the hikes.  It hasn't happened.  We went on the wilderness trail, which is part of the network of Bonnivile Shoreline trails.  We didn't go real far because we had small children.  We didn't have the baby though, which was nice.  My mom couldn't go on the hike and it happened to be nap time, so that worked out well. 
After the hike we went to my mom's to play water games.  I had hoped to go to my cousin's pool, but it wasn't available.  We made do with a slip-n-slip and a kiddle pool. I think there were also some water balloons.  For dinner we had Pulled Pork Salad kind of like they do at Cafe Rio.  I found the recipe here.  We made the lime dressing and the lime rice.  They were both really good.  I didn't bother with the beans.  We just warmed them up straight out of the can.  It was quite a bit of work, but really good.  It would probably work better if the meat was marinated ahead of time.  I didn't start mine until that morning and it didn't get quite enough crock pot time.  I would say it was a very successful event.  I just wish I had thought to bring my camera.  I think that my mom and sister might have some.  I will have to check with them. 

Again, I am not sure what we did the next two weeks.  Laundry, dishes, more laundry.  Nothing fun and exciting.  The one day I do remember is the 24th of June.  Thomas' cousin got married that day.  Grandma had the kids and we got to spend the day together.  The wedding was in the Salt Lake Temple.  That was followed by the luncheon at This is the Place State Park. I was unaware that the pioneers had air conditioning.  The building we were in was frigid, especially the bathroom.  The reception was down in Riverton, so we didn't go home.  There may have been some miscommunication about that .  I think that Grandma thought we were coming home.  Instead we went to REI and looking at hiking packs.  They were sold out of the cheaper models (You know, the ones that cost just over a hundred instead of just under two hundred) I really wanted to try some out.  That is the downside of shopping online.  Next we stopped at Ikea.  we had a lot of fun. We had gotten Thomas a night stand a while ago, but I didn't think I wanted one.  Turns out I really did want one.  We also found a bed we liked, the one that matches the nightstands, but it didn't fit in the car.  There is a good chance we will get it, but we haven't got it yet.  We were a little early for the reception, but they were running way behind, so we pitched in and helped get things ready.  We weren't going to stay very long, but there were a lot of relatives we hadn't talked to in a long time, so by the time we finally left we had been there most of the reception. 
We also went to the wedding reception of my best friend from high school.  It was really fun to see her. We have not seen each other in a while, even though we live about four miles apart.  I meant to have a house warming party for all my friends when we bought our house, but it was so busy it never happened.  We have been here now for over three years.  I would still like to have a get together, but time is always the issue.

The next event was the 4th of July. Sunday we went to Thomas' grandma's.  I took a chicken strawberry salad with poppy seed dressing. I thought it was pretty good.  It was supposed to be kind of like the one they have at Pepperbelly's.  It was similar, but not exactly the same.  It was fun visiting with those who came.  We didn't do fireworks like we usually do, but they did do sparklers, which the kids had fun with.  Grandma also had glow in the dark bracelets.  Monday I was planning on going to the parade.  I realized however that it was right during nap time.  I ended up sending Isabelle with her grandparents.  My sister is in the marching band.  Actually, she is in the color guard.  She made the weapons line.  She has really enjoyed throwing her rifle around. Personally I think that the flags are more fun.  Plus the riffles hurt more when you whack yourself with it.  I heard the parade was better than last year's, which was good but went on way too long. Ww had a barbe-que at my parents, and then went back up to Grandma W's for the fireworks.  We can walk from her house down to the show the city puts on.  We were a little worried that the baby wouln't like the fireworks, but he was too busy climbing all over everyone lying on the blanket to nice the lights in the sky.  Even the loud booms didn't seem to faze him.

The rest of the week I spent up at the high school taking a class to learn about the new common core for language arts.  It isn't a lot different from what we have done in the past.  The biggest different is that we are supposed to push the students for deeper understanding and more analysis.  A lot of things moved down a grade or two from where it was being taught in the past.  There was at least a grade difference before where they seniors were finishing and where they were supposed to be as a freshman in college.  It will be interesting to see how this goes.

Last week my husband left for Africa and I went camping.  It is late however, and I have lots of pictures of camping.  Although some of them I have to get from my sister since my camera died at the end of the first day.  I will post all about that tomorrow.  I am going to try and do better about posting.