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

Playing in the Dirt

Sometimes I drive my husband crazy.  He likes to think about things and plan them out.  I just decide something needs to be done and go at it.  The front flower bed, full of Irises, has been bugging me for a while. It hadn't been divided in several years, it mounded up instead of being level with the rest of the yard, and it had almost as much grass in it as flowers. 

 One Saturday (which was close to when I started writing this, but is now further in the past) I decided it was the day to fix the flower bed.  I got up, put on some work clothes, made sure the kids had shoes (a fairly new experience for Tristan) and started digging.  Actually that isn't true.  I first watched a video on you-tube about dividing irises.  Basically, you dig them up, break them apart, and replant them.  It sounded pretty easy.  The first problem I encountered was that my dirt was rock hard.  I watered it a little and the digging went better.  I dug until my wheel-barrow was full. 
 

 

 I them proceeded to the breaking apart stage.  Once an iris rhizome has produced a flower it won't bloom again.  Instead it grows a new rhizome.  You end up with a network of dead rhizomes tangled with good ones.  Most of them break apart pretty easily.  Some of them were too tangled up to deal with very easily.  I ended up with a flat of good rhizomes. I went back to digging and filled my wheel barrow again.  At this point I had enough cleaned and trimmed rhizomes to replant my bed, and a wheel-barrow full of ones I was too tired to deal with, and my back hurt.  I still had about a quarter of the bed to dig, but I was just too dang tired. I went in the house and moved on to other projects.  After a while I headed back out and cleaned and trimmed some more.  I got a set flat of rhizomes.  I put the two flats in the garage, and moved the wheel barrow over to the side of the house, where it is in the shade most of the day. 

 It was over a week later before I got back to the project.  The other floor beds in the front had brick boarders that I had put in.  This bed had only about four bricks before I ran out.  I also was having a hard time because of the bed not being level.  I think that it was a Monday, I left work early and stopped at Lowe's.  I got the bricks I need to fix the bed, as well as the part to fix the kitchen sink that had broken on Sunday while my parents were over for dinner.  I got home, made sure the kids had shoes (a fairly new experience for Tristan) and went out to finish the bed.  That last clump of irises was particularly stubborn, but I finally got it out.  I sifted through the dirt a little bit, and removed a whole bunch to level it off..  I dug a trench and placed the bricks.  Finally the bed was ready.  All I had left to do was replant the irises. 





 I replanted about a third of what I took out.  I still had a wheel-barrow full I was not interested in dealing with (if anybody wants some let me know.)  I took those out the back and placed the clumps in the dirt near the garden.  I will deal with them later.  I think that my bed looks very neat.  I am glad it is no longer the mess it was, and I got it done before it started raining for several days straight. 











Some of you may have been wondering what my husband was doing while I tackled this little project.  On the Saturday  that we worked on it, he was doing other yard work like trimming shrubs, and cleaning up other flower beds.  On the Monday, when he got home from work, I asked him to plant some bulbs I had bought.  Isabelle was very excited to help with those.  Daddy dug the holes and she put the bulbs in.  In between holes she danced through the yard.  As you can see from the pictures, both children love to help!

Africa

One of big events in our lives this summer was Thomas going to Africa.  He was gone for almost three weeks during July.  He went on Safari with his Aunt and Uncle.  He was his uncle's photographer, or at least that was the excuse.  We were of course very sad to have him go. Really though, could we tell him he shouldn't go to AFRICA just because we would miss him? He had a great time and took approximately 16,000 pictures. Did I mention that he could only take 33 lbs. of luggage and his camera bag weighed 16lbs. He took a special lens he rented which let him get amazing close ups without having to become lunch.  Since he returned, we have enjoyed learning new things about animals we have only seen in zoos, and hearing about the amazing sights.  He spent most of his time in Kenya and Tanzania although they visited a couple other countries as well.  In total they traveled about 1,800 miles.  He saw the Serengeti, Kilimanjaro, Lake Victoria, and Victoria Falls.  As much fun as it was, he was glad to come home to his family who loved and missed him. 

Grandma made Isabelle and I pillow cases with African animal prints so that we could think of daddy while he was gone.  Isabelle loved hers and had to take it with her when we weren't going to be home.  We said good-bye on Saturday and that Monday we went camping for a week.  We had  a few at home which was hard, and they didn't got very well.  Some of us might have been a little bit cranky.  However we got to go to My Grandma's house for our Family reunion the last few days of the week (Which is one of those things I haven't had time to post about yet.)   The next week we were busy trying to clean the house and finish up projects we had planned on doing while Thomas was away.  Only some of it got done before we headed to the Airport that Wednesday to pick him up.   It went by much faster than I thought it would, and as much as I wanted him home, I kind of dreaded it because that meant that summer would get closer to it's end. August would almost be here. 


Before he left, everyone helped Daddy finalize his packing, and then we stopped at Wendy's for lunch before heading for the airport.

To see some awesome pictures of African Animals and other stuff check out Thomas' flicker page.

My Family

I have been meaning to do this since I started my blog, but hadn't gotten the chance.  I want to introduce my family.  I am still deciding how public I want this blog to be and how much I am going to share.  I personally like to share.  Sometimes I am told that I share a little too much.  I would like to publish a book someday and be a famous author, and then I am sure people will know more about me than I would like them too. 
My husband is a fairly private person.  He is reserved in what he shares, even with family.  He is good at keeping secrets, which I find very irritating at times.  One of his hobbies is photography.  He has some amazing pictures.  I personally like the pictures of family.  He is more interested in nature.  I accuse him of not taking pictures of people, but he says it is about 50/50.  You can check out his pictures on his Flicker Page.  His online name is Thomas, so that is the name I will use for him on this blog. 
I have two children.  My daughter is almost four.  Some adjectives to describe her would be sweet, silly, adorable, and loving, as well as, irritating, obstinate, and opinionated. She can go from cute to hysterical in seconds and back again.  We love her a lot, but some times she really does drive us crazy. Her current obsession is anything related to the Disney princesses.
My son is seven months old.  He is one of the sweetest babies I have ever met.  My cousin recently told me at a family get together that she had heard the term happy baby, but she didn't know they exist. He really is a happy baby.  Just like all babies though he does get cranky when he is tired or hungry, and he is hungry all the time!  It has been fun to see him grow and change.  He definitely is starting to get a personality all his own, which is so different from his sister. I am not sure if this might end up being a bad thing, but around the house he gets called brother more than his actual name. I am still deciding if I will use their names, pseudonyms, or just keep referring to them as my daughter and son.  I will probably go with alternate names...but what?

Here is a picture of the four of us that we did for our Christmas cards, which I never got sent out.