"Let's get down to the Nitty Gritty"

Whidden blog~ written by the mother
about the children
the dad
and a lot of ramblings about life here in Utah.

A few things we love
Traveling
Camping
Fishing and Eating Nachos

6.25.2010

Friday Fishin'





























6.24.2010

Small Obsession


Our little family (by Utah standards that is) has had a small obsession with Toy Story. I remember seeing the first Toy Story right after I graduated from high school and loved it.

Our kids have fallen in love with it too.

We love our movie theater over in SoJo (South Jordan) called The District. We made sure we went and saw the very first one at 10:20 in the morning.
We bought our tickets a few days before to make sure we got the right seats.

6.20.2010

Happy Dad Day!


A shout out to a great dad!! Ben.

Some of you don't know him very well because of his personality~quiet, reserved, un-bubbly...

The great things you may not know because that are not outwardly apparent.

He will do anything for you. (except if it has do with spending money)

He is very smart.

He loves his kids (too much sometimes, let's them do things sometimes Mommy won't let them do)

He works really hard at home and at work. (the only organized parts of my house are a direct result of Ben)
He still doens't think he can burn.

He is flexible to let me do what I want, a trip to San Diego, the nights that I work, the mornings I come in. A night at Chili's with my girls, Girls Camp and all the help I will need.

He is very cool about stuff like that with advance notice.

Ben there is a lot to thank you for, but know we love you and appreciate you much!!

6.16.2010

San Diego Weddin'




I was able to travel to San Diego for a wedding on the 15th. My long time friend got married in the San Diego Temple.

It was amazing! the Temple is beautiful, the only problem is the Temple was under construction because of some rain fall. So there was scaffolding everywhere.

The sealer was amazing and as always says amazing things.

I was able to go by my self so on Monday we went to lunch, shopping for jewelery, mani and pedi's, out to dinner and a fun night of practicing hair do's and makeup.

Tuesday morning a nice work out with no interruptions. A beautiful ceremony, and a amazing place to take pics!!

Also so nice to fly all by my self (sung like the song) flights were good there, on the way back another story, cancelled, oversold flights, running from the Delta terminal to the United terminal, my stars were aligned though, made it on the two flights I luckily came across.

However on the way home inflight there was a medical emergency that forced a diversion. I am telling you SkyWest flight attendants ROCK, they rocked it!!

I was glad to be there to help them, they had no medical personnel on board, and this cute man was in trouble.

Other side notes, camp is coming up quickly and I find my self taking big deep breaths of the piling responsibilities.

We decided on our Camp theme C.R.O.C.S

Courageous, Righteous, Obedient, Christlike, Sisters.

We are trying to buy CROC shoes, and come up with some uplifting experiences.

Can't wait.

6.06.2010

Camping trip #1







Does a 24 hour camping trip "count" as a camping trip.












For some of you Canadians maybe not:)
The back of our Suburban (or zurban as Bauer says or suvurvan like Cooper) was packed I mean seriously for 24 hours, I suppose if we would have went any longer I would have only had to bring a bigger cooler and a little bit more food.



We went up to Scofield Res. up Spanish Fork canyon almost to Price Ut.



One of Ben's favorites, the nice thing was is was pretty slow only a few other people in the campground besides us.



Some of the high-lights or low-lights.



We brought our tent but not the poles.



Ben caught 6 fish.



Alivia had her first summer romance:) kind of



The weather during the day was awesome.



I froze at night (thank goodness it was only one night)



Bauer threw up in the middle of the night (again thank goodness)



We ate smore's



We got a new tent
Ben organized the camping stuff
I didn't have to sweep for 2 days.
I have a lot laundry to do, throw up laundry is the Worst!!
We cooked over a fire.
The kids had fun for how ever long we went.
Okay this is a story for the record books.
There was this kid Zach, I didn't really notice that the kids had found a new friend, he was up fishing with his Dad and Grandparents.
He was from Payson, he was nine going on 19.
He found a little girlfriend in Alivia although Alivia thought he was "nice".
This picture is the best although I was not prepared to take it and didn't switch over to auto mode in time. He went out and picked some flower and asked Alivia to come here, it was then I noticed what he was doing and yanked my camera out of my bag and tried to get it.
This picture is post flower giving, I think she might have been a little embarrassed.
One of the many other funny things about this was, when he was going over to his camp for the night, He yells to Alivia "bye Alivia, I love you".
She looked at me shocked and then said "he could have just said that he liked me"He also gave her a big hug before him and his dad left, she again turned and looked at me while he was hugging her and put her hands in the air, like what should I do.
He was a nice kid, he asked for her phone number let's hope though he doesn't remember it.








We also found out while we were there that Bauer has inherited something from his Aunt Leah, "sundowners" that kid was so funny after the sun went down, these were only a few shots of the normally calm, happy Bauer.
He was so funny and cute.
Ps- one funny thing Cooper said this morning, we went out for a little hike to see if we could find Ben out on the canoe, and there was a trail off to the side and Bauer came running back, "mom I found Dad's foot tracks....come on let's go find him."
So to humor Bauer we followed him down and up some hills, and Cooper then says, "I didn't know you were a scientist Bauer."





























6.03.2010

Do..do.do.do(sounding like you are in a kings palace)

It is finally official people...
the 21 month wait is over.
Ben is the OFFICIAL STL at the American Fork Target!
Some of the things we have heard over the span of 21 months.
"you could go to a store in Twin Falls"
"you could go to a store in Boise"
"you could go to a store in Montrose"
House appraised for a move to Montrose
Montrose out
Temporary at American Fork
Back to Jordan Landing
Went to Fort Union
Back to Jordan Landing
FINALLY promoted to Store Manager in Training
(which meant a pay raise:)
Now called a "floater" floating around from store to store trying to make himself useful.
NICE JOB BEN!!!
Congrats, we love you, we think you are the best, we are so happy that you got "your" store.
The American Fork team members are really lucky.
FYI- I won't be painting a congratulatory Target sign on our driveway.
but know we are so excited for you!!

5.29.2010

Schools Out, time to partay!!


Schools out for summer!!
(said singing like the group that sings it, don't remember right now.)

This is Liv's dance recital, sorry about the filming talent, I got a little nervous that she didn't come out on stage.

She loved it and thought we should go out for ice cream after and we did.








I wanted to put this on the blog before I forgot.





This is Sarah, Liv's friend and I was driving them to dance the other day and they were talking about where they wanted to live when they grew up. Alivia said she wanted to live in Orlando, because it never snows and only rains sometimes. Sarah said she wanted to live in Arizona because it never snowed and only rained sometimes and then Sarah added that she would live there if her husband wanted to live there too, but wouldn't live there if he didn't want to.





Then Alivia said I would tell my husband that we are living there and then live there.





I told Ben that story and he said the apple didn't fall far from the tree. (yikes)





Cooper graduated from Kindergarten, and was so happy that his whole family could be there especially Ben!!