Sunday-Day Three

We attended Church with Todd's family and also went out to Driftwood Texas (yes, there really is a place called that) and joined their ward for their "Break the Fast" meal.  Every other Fast Sunday they gather for a pot luck dinner.  This time they had Texas brisket which was a nice addition for our Texas weekend.  It happened that the hosts had lived for 25 years in Hillsboro, Oregon and knew my Aunt Lois and Uncle Grant and many of their children and grandchildren.  It was so fun to talk to them about some of their memories of them.

We headed back to Todd's for afternoon naps, football, and games.

Giberson cousins playing games with Grandpa Giberson and Nana.  Jena had a big smile all weekend.  She loves her cousins.  Today we also got to see Lora and David the final two kids of my brother Todd's who we hadn't seen yet.  Rick and Linda had to head back to Grapevine for school and work the next day so they missed this game playing session.

Thus ended our Sunday.

Monday we headed over and picked up Todd who had taken the day off and headed to my brother Scott's house for the "serious" game playing.  I spent the day talking with my sister Valerie while they played their 4 hour game which my niece Sierra won (beginner's luck, she said).  In the evening more of us gather and we enjoyed  a great dinner of tacos.  Scott even cooked some corn tortillas just like our mom used to do when we had tacos as kids.  I didn't even know about flour tortillas until I was an adult.  Another sweet reminder of our mom.  I guess that is natural when you are hanging out with some of your brothers and sisters.

It was so sad to hug everyone good bye as we knew we won't see them for awhile.  I was so glad though that we had come and that they had come for this sweet time together.  I am so grateful to Gary who understands how important these times are for me with my family.  I miss them so much in between our visits.

As we were getting ready for bed on Sunday night, Jena said, "I am a Giberson, too."  That's right, Jena, part of you is a Giberson too.  I loved that she felt that this weekend.  Thanks to Scott and Sandy and Todd and Lea for being our great hosts.

We headed back home and back to school and work on Tuesday.  Life had piled up but it was all worth it.

The Game

that started this whole planning session was finally arriving.  We left Jena at my brother's Todd's home with lots of cousins and Todd rode with us and my dad off to Longhorn stadium.  My brother had said that he thought we would be safe wearing our BYU gear so we did.

Longhorn Stadium is huge.  It seats about 100,000 people and it was mostly full by the time that the game started.  I do have some pictures to share

Dad, Linda, and Rick

Pictures from the upper level view area

Looking down on the crowd

University of Texas

Starting to fill in the stadium

Scotty and his girlfriend, Mikki
some of the Longhorn fans in our group

I think every person who wasn't wearing BYU colors was wearing Longhorn shirts--white, black, orange or grey but all with some type of Longhorn logo or University of Texas.  It was very impressive.

Clouds to the east of our seats

 

BYU fans on the big screen

The opening show before the game

 

They did the flag backwards and were quickly trying to switch it

while the band was still playing.

I was voting for BYU but it was a great opening for

a great night of football.

And I am a fan of the Texas flag.

 

 

 

Our row:  Linda, Rick, Dad, Me, Gary, Todd, Sandy, Scotty, and Sandy
Scott is taking the picture.

It was a great day for a football game and we WON.  Nice memories--the game but most of all
the company was great.



Saturday--Games in the Park

It sounds great when you are planning it--taking a walk along the boardwalk in Austin...until you actually do it in the heat and humidity and that was around 10 in the morning.  We ended up taking a much shorter walk but it was fun to see the Colorado River which is called Lady Bird Lake at this section.

For some reason, I can't find the pictures from today.  I apparently downloaded them in the wrong place but can't find them. Words aren't as good as pictures but trust me we had a nice day.

We walked along the river and enjoyed all of the different boats, kayaks, and standing boards on the river.  Riding a kayak is on my bucket list but we didn't take time today for that.  We want time with our family.  Nile and Rachel and their little son, Luca, joined us on this walk.  Rachel is about 3 weeks from her due date with their second son and she is already dilated to a 4.  It was also her birthday so I thought she was amazing to spend some of this hot day outside with us.

After the walk, we headed to Zilter Park (I think that was it's name).  We played ladder ball and had some people playing a bit of softball in the heat.  There we were joined by Zech, one of my nephews.  I haven't seen him in a long time and it was so awesome to spend some time with him and catch up a bit about his life.  We had a picnic and headed off to another park where we caught up with Rick and Linda and their three younger kids.  They had just arrived from Grapevine. Scott had found a park that advertised a giant Chess game.  It turned out to be a small city park with a white gazebo in the middle with a chessboard under it.  The pieces were about 18" high.  I was imagining people size pieces like Harry Potter, but it was fun to watch.  (This is where pictures are much better than the words.)

We didn't stay long as it was hot and we wanted to go rest up and get ready for the second BIG game of the weekend.

Friday Night Lights

I think that was the name of the movie which was made about high school football in Texas.  It is big business here and we were thrilled to be able to watch our nephew play a game for his high school.  I was so worried as we planned this trip that they would have a bye or Scotty would be hurt or something else, but it worked and he had his own personal cheering section: Grandpa Giberson, the three of us, his family, Todd, Lea, Jordan (and her boy friend, Daniel), Sierra and Gweniever, Ryan, Kayley, and Tillie Giberson, and Valerie and Lance.  It was an away game but still in Austin so it worked.

When we arrived at the football stadium we were told to remain in our cars because they were on a lightening delay.  We all hopped out of our cars and headed to a shelter area near the high school and played games until they were ready to let people into the stadium.

Warm ups

Both teams had these blow-up tunnels to come out of
at the beginning of the game and also after half time.

My nephew-Scotty leads the team in prayer
before the game.

Here come the McNeil Mavericks

After the lightening storm passed the skies were beautiful.
That is the home team over there.

None of my pictures during the games worked out.  It was too dark and too fast.  Here is my cute nephew, Scotty.  He plays defense and had a great game.  He blocked some passes, caused a fumble, recovered a fumble, and had several tackles.  In the Saturday e-newspaper his picture was featured recovering a fumble.


Came to say hi to his cheering section after the game!

And they won!!!!  A good start for the football weekend.

Back to our Austin Trip-Day One

As we planned we had a slow morning with a late breakfast:

Have you ever seen a Utah waffle or Washington or
Oregon or any other state!
 

Only in Texas!

 

We went swimming where my dad and Karla met up with us.  They were staying at a nearby hotel.  Karla headed back to their hotel for a nap and we headed off to meet some of our family at the newly opened "Thinkery", a children's museum with lots of fun things to do.

 

 

The Thinkery

The walkway from the parking lot
Look at those puffy clouds

Look what was waiting out front-
pigs!  It was a sweet reminder of my mom
who loved pigs. She would have loved
to be with us during a weekend of Gibersons.

 The first activity after you pass the museum store was a photo corner.  You have your picture taken and then it is put up on the photo wall where everyone could see it.

 There is Jena's cute face.

 Look what else was on the photo wall---some BYU fans must be in the building somewhere.  It wasn't us who did this in Longhorn country.

 But it gave us the idea so we started making "Y" wherever we could:

With Yarn on the steel wall



 With paint on the glass painting wall:

No white or blue paint was left so we had to use yellow.

 Jena built a little airplane and is getting ready to shoot it into the targets.

Airplane area

 When we entered the Light area, we found another "Y" in the extra large lite bright area.

Even Lance (shown) and Gary (not shown) got into playing with the exhibits.  Here they are making a trail for balls to roll down.

We had to go get Lance and Gary to see all of the fun things in the Light area.  Here is Jena hula hooping in front of lots of different colors of lights which glowed behind her.

 Lance felt bad that all of the Longhorn fans must have been at work and couldn't defend themselves against the onslaught of BYU fans.  He added a little Longhorn underneath the Y in the Lite Bright area.

 The water room---YOU WILL GET WET and we did!

Valerie at the water pipe organ

Scott with his daughter, Ashley and her daughter, Ari

Gweniever , my niece Sierra's daughter

 Fun story about Sierra, Gary hasn't seen her since 2006 when we had a reunion in Washington, DC. He wasn't with us when she joined us with her daughter at the museum so didn't realize she was connected with us.  He just thought she was there at the museum.  Until she sat down right in between my dad and Gary on a bench.  He felt a bit awkward but he could tell she felt totally comfortable.  He figured it out when she told her daughter that they were waiting for Aunt Judy.

Ari

 It was in the water room that we caught up with the other BYU fans.

Valerie and Jena

Ashley and Ari

Best smiles of the day as she peeked out from the top.

Funny bathroom door
The women's door had lips.

As we were leaving I saw this flying pig--
another sweet reminder of my mom.

 I had told my brother that I wanted some true Texas BBQ with coleslaw and this is where we went.  Perfect---the food was finger licking great and you felt like you were really in Texas.  I would highly recommend it if you are ever in Austin.

 

Now for the first BIG football game!

 







More UDSF Day at Lagoon pictures

I thought I had taken a few more pictures from Lagoon and I found them on my camera, not on my phone where I had just a few.  I know we have all seen Lagoon and pictures of flowers but I liked these.

I have to throw a picture of me every once in a while.

Gary, Jessica, and Elessia are just in the front
of this car...a little too fast for the camera woman

Aren't they cute!

Flowers at Lagoon

Another ride with Gary, Jessica, and Elessia

Jena took these two pictures while on the Skyride--
love the colors

I don't think Jessica and Elessia knew Jena had
them on camera!

I have a lot more pictures but you get the idea--perfect weather, fun company, beautiful flowers,
and great rides.  Once a year is enough for me but it was a good day.