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.

On the road again....

but actually we flew this time.  On Thursday, Sept. 4, Gary, Jena and I headed off to Austin, Texas, for the BIG game--Del Valle Cardinals against the McNeil Mavericks! Oh, you might have thought I was talking about the other game of the weekend--BYU vs. Texas.  Yeah, we went to that one as well.  We had a fun football weekend.

I remember hearing on the radio a few years ago that BYU was going to do a pair of games against the University of Texas (maybe never again) and I thought how fun it would be to go and watch my nephew Scotty playing on Friday night and then going to the BYU game.  I started mentioning it among my family and of course my two brothers who live in the Austin area thought it was an awesome idea.  Then earlier in this year, my dad expressed some interest in going and then the party was on........Gibersons gathered from Grapevine, Austin and Buda (Rick, Scott, and Todd and their families), my dad and Karla (Salt Lake) , and my sister, Valerie and Lance (Mesa, AZ), and us.  Not a full representation and we missed Mike and Andrea and Robin and Lynette, but there were certainly enough Gibersons to have some fun time and play some games in between the two football games.

We arrived late into Austin and gathered our luggage from an almost deserted baggage claim, but there were several huge guitar art.  I tried to get a picture for Jena who loves guitars but the lighting wasn't too good. They were fun to look at.

Perfect art for a guitar lover like Jena
We think Austen would like it, too.

It was almost 1:30 a.m. before we made it to our hotel and bed.  That was okay.  We had made plans to have a very slow morning on Friday including swimming in the hotel pool.  We were on vacation and we were planning to make the most of it.