Traveling Tuesday

Tuesday we headed out of Buda and towards Dallas and Plano.  It was a bit overcast and we had some rain but it was a nice trip.  Jena and I sang silly songs we couldn't remember the words too (that is why we travel with Gary as he remembers the words to these songs).  It reminded me of the many trips we made between Dallas and Austin with a full load of kids and I missed them (Jessica, Ben and Tosha) singing with us.  I am not sure we ever got Scott to sing "I Know a Old Woman who Swallowed a Fly".  It was fun.

Tuesday we visited our friend Robynn Thiot and shared the time with Penny, her almost 2 year old grand daughter.  Jena got to play toys with her and it was a good experience for her.  She has not had a lot of interaction with little kids although Jena was quite interested in the babies we saw.  Penny knew just what to do with Jena.  She learned her name and then started telling Jena what to do,.  It was fun to watch.  We helped them both spend the time until Penny's mom Tatia gave birth to a new little brother, Max.  It was an exciting day.

We also drove around Plano and visited some old spots.  I texted some of them to the kids back in Utah.  The fun of cameras and cell phones---

Our house on Singletree

Wells Elementary where everyone went except for Jena for at least a couple of years

Our Church--Plano 4th ward

Jena is usually smiling when she is in a pool

But then BYU lost their basketball game in the NIT so it didn't end quite as fun although Jena and I did go swimming after the game.

Lone Star Monday

Because this was also Jena's spring break but her cousins had school, I decided that I wanted to make sure to do a few things just for Jena. So Monday after a slow moving morning we headed off to Austin to see the capital and to visit a Texas history museum.  Jena loves history and we had a fun time learning about Texas.  After all, once you live in Texas you are always a little bit Texan.

In front of the museum

They had lots of displays and pictures and historical artifacts.
We liked it.  Jena especially liked the displays about Indians.

My purchase from the Texas store--a Texas apron.
That is the little red car we drove around Texas in.

Jena's shot of the capital of Texas.

We met Lora for lunch with Todd and Lea.  She couldn't make our family dinner
so made a trip for lunch instead.  It was fun to see her.

Did I mention it was flat with LOTS of sky!

Todd and Lea's new home--on one level and 5 acres

A tree on Todd's lot

Jena with Sierra and Gweniever

Scottie, Jena, Ashley with Aribella, and Angela
(my brother Scott's family)

Jena with Rachel, Niles and little Luca

My brother's Todd and Scott with their newest grandchildren
Luca and Aribella



 We talked and had hamburgers...no game playing but it was still so nice to be together with this part of the family.  Jena told me that night that she LOVES seeing her cousins on vacation. Another late night for everyone.

Easter Sunday

This turned out to be a very sweet Easter....it was fun to be there with Rick and his family and my brother Todd, his wife Lea, and their three youngest children, Ryan, Kaylee and Tillie. We attend Rick's ward and Katie gave a great talk about the Atonement--perfect for Easter and for a missionary.  That is the message that she will take to Portugal--that He is risen and that through Him and because of Him we can all live with God again.

Then after Church a woman approached me who is from the panhandle of Texas.  She knew my parents well as did her parents.  They lived in our Lubbock Texas stake.  She is 4 years older than I was and so I didn't know her.  After I left for BYU her family moved back to Amarillo and her mother, age 92, still lives in nearby Pampa.  Kim said that she always has to report any Giberson sightings to her mom who always say, "Once you live in west Texas you are family."  It is always fun to talk to people who knew my mom (and my dad of course.)  But on Easter I think of Mom a lot and it was nice to speak about her with Kim.

After that conversation, I rounded the corner in the Church and heard another young woman call my name.  As I turned toward her she reached out and gave me a big hug.  It was one of the young woman who had lived in our home many years ago when we served as foster parents for LDS Family Services.  That was another Easter miracle.  She looked so amazing. She is married in the temple and has five children.  She was teaching Primary which is why I had not seen her earlier in the Church block.  My brother Rick has been her home teacher for many years but they had never realized the connection.  Of course, she would not likely have remembered or even heard my maiden name to even make that connection.  She promptly went and found Rick and chewed him out for not telling her that I was his sister.

After Church we had Rogo, a Giberson traditional meal of ground beef, rice, a variety of vegetables and Fritos.  The kids then had an Easter egg hunt and then the Rick and Linda Giberson Traditional Egg Roll. 

Tana and Jena after Church

Tillie waiting for the Easter Egg Hunt

Back:  Tana, Katie, Duncan, Ryan and Kaylee
Jena, Thad with Tillie in front

Jena counting her eggs

One last Easter basket before leaving on a mission

The eggs for the Egg Roll

Head to head:  You roll eggs at each other until they hit and then
the egg that is cracked is out.  Single elimination.

Here is the brackets for the egg roll.  Katie did a great job as an announcer for the event.
We were laughing more at her than the egg rolling.
Jena came in second place as Aunt Lea's egg was the only one with no cracks.

A bunch of Giberson cousins trying to get organized for a picture.
We did get some group shots on Linda's camera but this was the only partial group one
on my camera.  This is on their front porch.

After the Egg Roll and more talking, we headed out to follow Todd and Lea down to Austin.  There was lots of road construction and it took us about 5 1/2 hours instead of 4 to get to their home in south Austin.  Late night for the kids who had school in the morning but Jena and I enjoyed sleeping in.

I had Jena take this picture out the window of the car while we were driving.  I wanted to get a shot of the water tower but no luck.  I loved being back in the land of the BIG SKY.  Don't get me wrong.  I love the mountains in Utah.  Sunrises and sunsets, the changing of the seasons, the overall beauty of them is awesome.  But I also love sky.  In most of Texas it feels like a 360 degree bowl of sky has been put over your head.  Everywhere we looked this trip there were blue skies and white fluffy skies (except when it rained.) I love that feeling.

So we ended Sunday at my brother, Todd's home in Buda, Texas.





To Highland High School and then off to Texas.......

Jena participated in the High School Training Choirs Festival at Highland High School at the end of March.  Of the five students in her functional skills class which take choir Jena and one other are the only ones who have performed in the choir performances each quarter.  Jena wanted to go to the festival and the teacher had no concerns about taking her.  I was a bit nervous with some many kids and so many schools there, but I wasn't able to go so I let her go.  She loved it (I think riding in the bus back and forth was her highlight).  The teacher emailed me the next day and said that Jena had done great and was exactly where she should be at all times (which is more than she could say about other choir members.)  Now Jena wants to go with the choir to Disneyland.......???

Two days later Jena and I headed down to Salt Lake to catch a plane to Dallas Texas.  It was so great that my niece's farewell was held on March 31st on Easter.  It was spring break so Jena and I were able to go down and spend a week visiting family and friends plus visiting some great places.  We wished that Gary could have come but we are trying to save vacation at this point.

Our trip went like this:

Friday, Mar. 29:  We arrived in Dallas and headed to my brother, Rick's home to spend a couple of days.  We arrive late so mostly headed to bed. 

Saturday:  We had a great day.  We headed with Rick and Linda and their four kids--Katie, Tana, Duncan and Thad to the Dallas Museum of  Art and then a downtown park plaza built over a freeway.  The weather was great and I loved sharing it with them.




Katie posing by the Van Gogh car in the parking garage
She is an art history major so this is the perfect car for her. 
Too bad she is going on a mission to Portugal and doesn't need a car.

Jena took this picture inside of the art museum looking outside
their large window.

We attended the Chagal exhibit.  He was a Russian painter who eventually came to the United States.  He did a large variety of types of art, including designing costumes for ballets.  They had some of the dresses that he designed and actually paint on for the ballet.  It was all very impressive.

Then we headed to the nearby park which has a name that I can't remember.  It was in the middle of downtown Dallas and was so fun.  It was meant to be a gathering like place and had a huge variety of activities.  On a Saturday it was packed with people enjoying the weather and the fun.  It has a center of grass for ball throwing and picnics and around the outside and throughout the 3 blocks or so of park there were lots of activities to see and do.  To complete the feeling, there were food trucks on the outside where you could buy lunch or just a treat.

Heading down the walkway.  At night those balls light up.

Thad near one of the many water features in the park

Jena trying to catch some water without getting too wet

A modern tree house (Duncan and Thad)



Tana standing by one of the treat carts

 


Dallas skyline



Jena's pizza sandwich
She loved it.

The dog park.  There were dogs everywhere in the park,
but this was a special spot where they could be free.
This dog was the leader of the group this day.
We all watched him play in the water and then
he started running and all the other dogs there started following him
where ever he went.  They have small hills to run up and down and the dogs would
go with him.  When he would stop by his master, they would all stop and wait for him to move again.
It was so fun to watch.

They had three ping pong tables and you could check out the balls and paddles to play.
They also had a small putting green, a crochet area, plus a cart where you could check out other "yard" type games.

To avoid posting a hundred pictures, I just wanted to mention that they also had a place where you could check out books and newspapers to read for the day and then return.  They also had board games you could use and little game tables along the edge of part of the park.  As you could tell, I loved this park and am trying to figure out where we could put one in Syracuse.  For us, it could be a fun gathering place of neighbors.  I will add it to my growing list of things that would be fun to do.

This is a picture of the freeway under the park.

They have a tram so here is Tana and Jena as we got off the tram.

 The following are from a sculpture museum and garden.  These pictures are from the garden, of course.

 

The pose for the day

 

We ended the day with a Korean dish which Linda made which was excellent. And we played games--a Giberson pastime when we are together.  During all of that Katie was busy preparing her talk for Sunday and her computer crashed!  With the help of the Apple store she got it working and got her talk prepared and had time for ice cream with some friends.  It was a productive day all around.