And March "marches" on

It is amazing how busy we can be with just one child living at home.  I know I said this in February but I am still amazed how quickly this year is flying by.  2013 looks like it will be a very interesting year for us.  All we can do is hold on and hang on for the ride.

At the Roots Tech conference that I attended this past week (a family history conference in Salt Lake--more about that later), a presenter talked about the "WOWs" of our lives and we need to experience, remember, record, and share these things, big and small.  She commented that in her family her grandmother was famous for banana chocolate chip cookies and it had grown to be quite a big deal within the extended family.  However after her death, they realized that they had no pictures of her making those cookies at all.  Nothing could be done about that, but she and her sisters all gathered to Arizona one weekend to make Grandma's banana chocolate cookies with her recipe in their grandmother's kitchen.  They made a YouTube video as they made the cookies and shared her kitchen with their extended family which could last for generations. I loved that. 

One great advantage of our technology is that it is so much easier to take pictures and to share the details of our lives for people now and in the future.  Blogs are certainly one way but the list is really endless.  In the past, cameras were harder to use and printing pictures was expensive.  It was more something that you did for vacations or special events.  How great it is to pull out your phone and take a picture of a beautiful flower or amazing clouds.......

This was one day last week when we were having beautiful sunshine
and then snow would fall and then the sun would come out again.
Utah weather is crazy, although I think where ever I have lived
people always talk about the weather being crazy there.
Weather is just changeable......adds a little spice to life.
This is taken from our Church's parking lot to the west.

That technology is so great for those little moments in life and I wish that I had been able to do that through our whole lives.  How great to have that type of record of life. (Of course, I knew I should have kept a journal where I could have written those things.  However having the pictures with the words seems so much easier.)  The past three days were the Roots Tech Conference in Salt Lake.  I was able to attend a part of Thursday and all of Friday.  It was overwhelming and amazing at the same time.  There is so much that can be done in family history both in the searching for our ancestors and in recording our own lives and those of other family members.  I wanted to rush home and start scanning pictures, writing histories, and studying more about the times and places of my forefathers.  I text my sister Valerie during the conference and told her that we never needed to buy a book again.  The Library of Congress has so many things to read and see that it would take more than a lifetime to read it all.  And we can get it all on our computer, smart phones and ipads.  We are so blessed to live in this time of history.  And while at the conference, I also learned about that other type of cloud--"The Cloud" of the Internet where we can share and work on things together. Hopefully soon the "Giberson" family will be building a piece of the cloud to share and exchange ideas about our forefathers.

This conference was "overlaid" with the death and then the funeral of Gary's uncle Vaun.  He was a kind hard working person who never gained much in the way of earthly possessions or status.  He had to help his family as a young teenager as his father was killed just weeks before Gary's mom was born.  He was 10 or so at the time.  He and his wife were always involved in family history and in his later years went to the temple in Ogden almost every day to do temple work, especially after his wife died 10 years ago.  He had recorded his own life history and one of his brother-in-laws shared some of the simple but poweful experiences from his life.  He was a simple man yet his life was full of strength and courage and faith.  In life, he has trouble speaking and it was often hard to understand him, but in written word there was no difficulty.  We all are excited that we will be able to read and learn more about Uncle Vaun and his life but also about his father, who my mother-in-law never knew.  So go dust off your journals, grab your cameras, and start experience, remembering, recording and sharing the pieces of your life.


The last post dealt with Jena's play and as I mentioned this month has been very busy.  First Jena was able to finally go skiing again after a break of a month due to play practice.  This time she met her teacher Terrie and her husband at Power Mountain ski resort which is located further north in Ogden Canyon from Snowbasin.  Instead of just going up the life and down the mountain, at Powder Mountain they went on an almost 2 hour ski "trip".  They started at this yurt...

Then skied down the mountain side and then continue to ski on some trails throughout the resort.  They took two different ski lifts up different mountain sides and ended up skiing about 5 miles during that time, some down hill and down cross country.

Terrie and Jena in front of the map of the resort
after they finished skiing.

They had hoped to take pictures along the way but the resort was very foggy so we just took these pictures at the end.


Jim, Jena, and Terrie inside the yurt

From the Powder Mountain parking lot
It was a foggy day there.

As we drove away that day, Jena said, "I love skiing."  And I love watching her ski.  One more ski day on Tuesday for the season.  I will miss our quiet times in the snow of the mountains. 

The weekend after "Suessical". Jena's friend Kaitlyn was in a play at her high school.  She was a dance in Aladdin.  At their high school, they do a play with the special needs classroom students plus the drama club students.  It is a fun production and is a fund raiser for their classroom.

Jena also headed back to work after missing a week or so during play practices as well.  She was thrilled to be back.  It is such a great experience for her.  It helps her so much to learn the routine of working and all that goes along with it.  She likes to keep busy so she is a good example to the other employees who work there.  The skills came in handy for the Special Olympics fundraiser that we did on March 16th.  We had to sale root beer floats at a Harmon's grocery store.  Jena did great and was a hard worker.

Here is the group during our shift from 1-3.  It was a fun time.

Jena preferred making the floats rather than trying to get business.

Jena poured the pop for the first hour and
then held a sign for the last hour.
 

Here is some of the workers
Kaitlyn, Jena, Edward, and Jeremiah

Having their own root beer floats when their shift was done!
Jena and Kaitlyn

This post is quite long enough.  Time to end it and start the next one.  You at least can see what Jena has been up to this month.  She has a couple of big things this week--a Regional Choir Festival in Salt Lake and then flying to Texas for six days to attend her cousin, Katie's "talk" prior to her mission to Portugal.  Exciting times ahead.