Giberiginal Press announcement of Dad's 80th Birthday

80th Birthday Announcement for

Richard Creighton Giberson

 

(I decided that I should include the text of our invitation.  This is a bit out of order but I didn't think of it before.  Meet my Dad.)

 

 

Richard Creighton Giberson of Midvale, UT, celebrates his 80^th birthday on June 18, 2013.  He was born in Long Beach, California to Harry Hollis and Viola Grace Morgan Ollie.  Shortly after his birth his mother passed away and he was adopted by James Earl Giberson and Gladys Ramona Ackley Giberson.

He and his mom lived many places while he was growing up, spending the most time in the west coast notably the San Francisco bay area and San Diego.  He graduated from La Jolla High School and attended BYU where he graduated in chemistry in 1955.  It was there that two significant events occurred.  He joined the LDS Church which became the overall guide of his life.  He also met and married Eileen Jane Owen.  They were married on September 14, 1954 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.  They had eight children. After Eileen’s death in 1995, he married Karla Buckmiller.

Richard spent his working life in scientific research first at the Hanford plant in Richland, Washington and then at Mason-Hanger outside of Amarillo, Texas  where he retired in 1995.  He received a masters degree in chemistry from the University of Idaho.

 

He is active in the LDS Church serving in a variety of leadership and teaching callings.  He and Karla served a mission to Sendai Japan, fulfilling a dream of his to be a full time missionary.

Richard loves games and his children have many memories of him teaching and playing games with them. He has written for game playing magazines and also created some of his own games.  Richard enjoyed writing and the theatre.  Over his adult life he wrote and performed within the Church and in the community.  He also loves trains, traveling, computers and reading. Most of all he loves his family—his eight children and their spouses:  Judy (Gary) Hall, Todd (Lea) Giberson, Michael (Andrea) Giberson, Robin Giberson, Valerie (Lance) Ipson, Lynette Giberson, Rick (Linda) Giberson, and Scott (Sandy) Giberson, his 33 grandchildren, and 9 greatchildren.  In addition, he has three step children and their spouses: Kim (Layne) Rasmussen, David (Dawn) Dodson, and Dana (Joe) Bolin and their 11 grandchildren who call him grandpa, too.

 

His family will gather to celebrate his birthday on Saturday, June 15 at 3:00 p.m. at the home of his eldest daughter in Syracuse, UT.  Those who are expected to attend include several of his children and grandchildren.  The celebration will extend over a number of days and will include game playing, sightseeing, and family history.

 

 

My niece Lisa came up with the cute template with balloons etc.  We want to make sure it looked like a birthday announcement and not an obituary.

 

 

 

995.  He received a masters degree in chemistry from the University of Idaho.



Party on.....Monday and Tuesday

Monday morning we had to say good bye to Todd, Lea, and their youngest three kids--Ryan, Kaylee, and Tillie.  This made Audrey very sad and she told us that it was not a good day for them to leave because it made her sad.  Lisa pointed out that she would be sad on Tuesday as well, but Audrey really was sad to see her cousins leave.  It reminded me when our kids were all much younger and share those same feelings when we had to go home after family reunions on either side of our families.  I hope they can get together for our next reunion in 2015 and renew their friendships again.  I was sad, too, Audrey, I don't get to see my brother Todd very often either and I missed him when he left (as well as Lea and the kids, of course.  We just need more time!)   (We took a picture of their family but it is one Gary's phone because mine was dead at the time. Will insert later)

We mostly talked and watched the kids play.  My brother Mike who is a professor at Texas Tech headed into Salt Lake to visit with another professor friend who lives in Salt Lake.  He had some extra time so he walked around downtown and discovered the "Jack Mormon Coffee Shop".  He thought that was a catchy name and tried out the coffee and reports that it was amazing.  On face book he took a picture of the shop and posted about it.  He is still comparing new coffee shops to this one he found in Salt Lake.  It makes me smile to think that was one of his highlights in his trip to Salt Lake.  We took my sister Lynette and Lisa with Owen, Audrey and Alison to the bowling alley and had some fun. 

That evening we ate dinner together and played more games.  We did get this picture of my brother, Rick with Dad before they left.  Rick headed back on Tuesday morning.

Dad and Rick

Over the weekend all of our kids were there but at different times.  Scott and Chantel came early on Saturday but then had work, Jessica with Elessia came up after work and joined us at the park on Saturday evening.  Tosha and a friend, Tyler, joined us for games late on Saturday and then again on Sunday evening, Ben was there Sunday and Monday nights for dinner and some games, and then Scott and Chantel joined us for dinner on Dad's birthday on Tuesday in Midvale.  Of course Jena got to be there all of the time and loved it.  Crazy schedules but I was so glad that they all had some time to spend with my dad and the rest of their Giberson extended family!

Tuesday Jena, Lynette and I headed down to Salt Lake with Mike and his daughter, Lisa, and her three little kids to the Hogle Zoo.  We had a great afternoon despite the heat (which actually wasn't bad compared to other places--more about that in a later post.)  The zoo has a Lego display that was quite amazing.  I wondered if I should have encouraged Scott even more in his Lego building.  I didn't realize it could have been a career for him.  Legos have come a long way.

Lego snakes---two of Scott's childhood loves combined

A Lego polar bear



This peacock is so beautiful and even with its coloring
it can blend better than you think into the bushes and shadows.

We have thousands of pictures of the animals
in this zoo so I am not posting all the animals
we saw, but I thought these birds were cute.

Meet Jena Gorilla

Owen loves the giraffes and here they were able to
get close and watch them eat.

On the way out--Jena, Owen, Grandpa Mike and Audrey

After the zoo we stopped for some "upper class" shaved ice on 9th Ave in Salt Lake which were yummy and then headed down the street to the Liberty Park.

Audrey in the sand box

The final event of the celebration was dinner at Beto di Beppo, an Italian Restaurant in Midvale close to where my dad and Karla live.  It is a "funny" and "fun" place to eat and the food is great.  This is the only picture I took and it was when dinner was just about done.  We had 18 people at this meal.  Mike and his family got to spend the night with Dad and Karla in Midvale before heading back to AZ (where Lisa lives). 

Robin and Lynette spent one more night with me and we fit in a trip to Desert Book and the Distribution Center on Tuesday night before heading back to Syracuse.  They left on Wednesday about noon and were able to stop in and see Dad for another time.  They then drove almost straight through to Amarillo with just one stop in Cortez, Colorado for a few hours of sleep.

Then Valerie and I met up at Dad's that evening and spent some time talking about family history together.  Valerie, Lance and Kylie left Thursday by way of Manti and the Pageant there.  I think Mike was actually the last one to return home as he spend some additional time after the road trip to Utah in Mesa with Lisa and her family and Paul and his family.  It is quite fun to watch my siblings as grandparents. We got to see some of their adventures with Mike on Face book.  I think Mike went back to Lubbock the following Tuesday.

And "thus ended the sage of the 80th Party Celebration for Richard Creighton Giberson".  We are so glad to have you for a dad and for all of the great things that you have shown us and taught us and shared with us.  We are lucky that you like trains and games, books and theatre, vacations and baseballs games!  Most of all we are glad for your commitment to our mom, to our family, and to the Church---for these are the things which really matter the most.  Happy Birthday, Dad.  Let's do it again when you are 90.  Love you all!

Father's Day 2013

I guess it turned out to be very handy for us and Dad that his 80th birthday (on Tuesday June 18) and Father's Day were so close together.  That enabled those here who wanted to go to Church with Dad on this Sunday to be here for both.  An extra bonus was that my Dad was teaching High Priest lesson that day.  My brothers, Rick and Todd and my brother-in-law Lance were able to go to his lesson (Gary had responsibilities at our ward and couldn't join us until time for their sacrament meeting so he missed High Priest ).  I didn't make an exact count during the Sacrament meeting but I think there were about 27 people there with Dad.  It was very nice.

After Church we had dinner at Dad and Karla's and then all headed different directions to go to Temple Square, visit other family, visit with Dad and Karla, or in our case, take a Sunday nap.  Then we gathered again at our house for dinner and some time to play games together.  Dad, Karla, and Rick stayed put in Midvale and missed out on some of the fun times although I hear they enjoyed their (quiet) time together as well.

(Uncle) Justin and Evanie

Jena swinging with her Aunt Valerie
 (I guess swinging is a Giberson thing.  Our mom love to swing, too.)
That is Kylie whose hair is flying as she is jumping on the trampoline.

Of course we all know that only one person should jump on the
tramp at the same time.  But it is SO much fun to jump with
your cousins.  This is Audrey, Tillie (in the air) and Owen.

Ben, Justin and Uncle Todd enjoying a game of pool.

Jena (posing)
She loved having her aunts, uncles, and cousins here
even though she had to give up her bed for a few nights.

The sibling picture--unfortunately we took this on Sunday night
without Rick because Todd had to leave in the morning.
From left to right:  me (Judy), Robin, Mike, Lynette, Valerie, and Todd
They are all great people you would love to meet.

We tried to get a group shot and this is who we gathered in:
Same siblings, Owen and Audrey with their grandpa, Mike; Kylie, Valerie's daughter;
Ryan, Tillie, and Kaylee, Todd's youngest three children. 
The dog is ours--Mowgli.  He decided to be in the picture, too.

Valerie's family who came:  Valerie and Lance Ipson
Kylie, Megan, Jarom, Starla and Evanie, Justin and Tosha

Usually after a Giberson reunion there is one game that we played for the first time and everyone fell in love with .  Former favorites have been "Apples to Apples", "Wits and Wagers", and "Telestrations".  This birthday celebration it was "Reverse Charades", although I did love the chance to play "Ticket to Ride" some of my extended family.  In "Reverse Charades", all of the team acts out simple words or phrases and one of the team tries to guess as many words as possible in a minute.  The team can work together but they can not talk.  It was great fun.

Guess what this is!!!

After we played for about an hour, the younger kids were finally getting into the whole idea and they were so clever and dramatic that the rest of us just set back and let them act away.  Todd served as the reader for the younger kids and helped explained words they didn't know.  In the phrase above, he actually got into the act as well.  Did you guess---it is "The Brady Bunch".  We laughed for about an hour straight as we went through almost the whole deck guessing the words these guys acted out.  The kids are grandchildren--Kylie and Kaylee, Tillie, and Great-grandchild Audrey.

I highly recommend this game for groups and families.  Have fun!

The 80th Birthday Party--

Dad Giberson with his tree cake--
we thought about having a cupcake for each family member
but we decided that we didn't need all of those extra cupcakes around just to eat.
The cupcakes were yummy.
Those of you who follow this blog will recognize the tree theme
from Jessica's owl cake.  It just seemed like a great idea to have
a tree since Dad and Mom were the truck of this Giberson tree.

 When Gibersons get together there is going to be game playing and conversation with food thrown in just because people need to eat.  On Saturday we played some games in the afternoon and built our rockets......

Our loading dock

These are Tillie Giberson (the youngest Giberson) and Audrey Neerings (the oldest Giberson great-grandchild).
They hit it right off and I heard Audrey say to Tillie, "I am sure that I have known you before. I love to play with you."
They had a great time although it was the first time they had ever met.

 and then headed to a nearby Stoker Park to have our official dinner--

Audrey, Tillie, Kaylee, Aunt Lea
Owen is sitting with his back to the camera

Some Ipsons in the foreground
 

After dinner (and some before) we engaged in the outdoor games which Gibersons love.  There was a brief game of "Batter-up" with our whiffle ball and bat.  Jena enjoyed that game and her Aunt Dawn pitched to her long after the other cousins had moved on to other games.

There was the rocket launching.  We did this first at our 2009 reunion in Texas and decided it was time to try it again.  The young kids loved shooting the rockets off--

Owen with Gary waiting to push the button

 And the "old" kids loved trying to catch them out in the field.  It was a beautiful day--perfect for rocket launching!

My brother Rick going after a rocket--
He missed it.  It is harder than it looks
to try to catch it.

Uncles and Grandchildren

Dad and my sister, Valerie

I had picked Stoker Park because of the great trees and grassy fields, but also because it had a sand volleyball pit.  We have played volleyball at many of our reunions over the years.

Some of the cousins just wanted to talk and catch up as it had been years since they have been together.  Here is Megan Ipson, Tosha Ipson , Starla Ipson with Evanie, Lisa Neerings with Alison, Jessica, and Elessia.



Kaylee Giberson, Owen and Audrey Neerings, Tillie Giberson
They had a great time figuring out things to do with volleyballs
OFF the volley court.
 

We stayed until dark and then some...and then packed it all up and headed back home.  Most of us traveled in cars and vans, but David and Dawn traveled back to their home in Bountiful on this--

David is Karla's son.
Their three daughters were just coming home
from Youth Conference and missed the day's activities.

Rick headed down and stayed with Dad and Karla, Ipsons went back to my brother-in-law's family also in the Salt Lake area and everyone else headed to our house.  We tried to get to bed earlier as one thing my dad was looking forward to was us joining him at Church on Sunday--Father's Day.  9:00 a.m. in Midvale!.  I think by midnight we were mostly in bed.