Windy Wednesday...

Not that Wednesday was really any more windy than our other days in Texas, but the "W"s worked for the title.  I often excused myself for not spending a lot of time doing my hair because I grew up in places like Richland and Amarillo which were very windy cities.  You lose your motivation to do your hair in those types of situations.  This day was like that.

Jena and I headed to downtown Dallas again to visit the Ross Perot Science Museum.  I had wanted to take Jena to the science museum where I had taken our other kids many times but I couldn't remember the name and couldn't find it during my internet searches.  Later my friends indicated that they think the other one is still there at Fair Park  We enjoyed our visit to this very new museum with the 30 busload of kids who were there on school field trips.

The front entrance

Dinosaurs-no natural science museum
would be complete without them

Frogs outside the entrance.
 

In each different section of the museum, they had
a place where they introduced different types of scientists
who worked in that field.  In the area about the human body, I was surprised
to see this screen---This is Dr. Karol who did Tosha's surgery
when she was five at Scottish Rite Hospital.
She did an awesome job on it which allowed Tosha to dance and
do most things with her hip.

This section brought to life many of the things
Jena is learning in her high school biology class.

They had a lab area where you got to be a
"scientist" and do an experiment.

Jena prepared a slide of her check cells by scraping her cheek and then
putting it on a slide and staining it.  This is one of her cells.

We saw a 3-D movie about meercats which was very interesting.  The whole visit just reminded me how amazing our world is and how much I don't know about it. 

After that, we headed to McKinney, TX, to visit with our friends the Keelers.  We had great food as Maria is a great cook and had a fun visit.

We had a little bit of an adventure on the way back to my brother's house in Grapevine.  Traveling back on "635" (because I didn't want to pay the toll the other way), we were traveling in the dark, in the middle of major construction where the lanes were changing around and there were cement barricades everywhere, it started to pour down rain like it can in Texas.  Fortunately it only lasted about 15 minutes but that is terrifying driving for me.  I was ready to pull over and take a nap.  Typical situation in Dallas driving so I guess it was all part of the Texas experience.

We spent the night at my brother Rick's and had a quiet morning helping my sister-in-law Linda to box up and clean up Katie's room so that Thad could move in.  We then packed up ourselves and got the 2:30 plane back to Salt Lake.  It was a great trip and I was so glad that I was able to take Jena with me.  I am sorry that we didn't get to see everyone we knew, but it still was awesome!

Jena told me at one point that she loves vacations with cousins.  On the way home she told me that she wanted to go to Disneyland for our next vacation and then after a short pause she added, "but with Dad."  Yea, I like vacations with Dad , too.  No telling where our next trip will take us.

We flew in to Salt Lake and Gary and his mom picked us up and off we went to dinner and a play at the Hale Theatre.  We saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which was great.  During our performance the car actually did go "bang".  Right at intermission when the car was flying and then started going down into the stage as a curtain was descending, there was a loud band and then a scream or two.  A minute or two later, stage hands ran under the curtain and shortly the actors on the car came out through the curtain.  We didn't see the car again so we assume it had a bit of technical difficulites.  At least no one was hurt. It was still very fun.




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.