March Madness

Well, my printing is acting crazy and won't allow me to do the printing and copies I need for a school project and Gary is busy so he can't fix it for me, so instead of doing homework (even reading which wouldn't require a printer), or cleaning house or any of the other things I could do, I decided to try to catch up my blog.  Good thing---I hadn't realized that I was a whole month behind.  With April looming with the end of my semester and TWO trips out of town, I better start catching up before I get even more behind.

Let's see---March madness is a good title--both because we love basketball around here and enjoy the NCAA (and this year the NIT since BYU didn't make it into the "Big dance" but is doing great in the NIT--on to the Final Four in that tournament.) and because life has been busy and fun.

For the recap:

Liam came for an evening.  He seemed to love having new toys to play with.  His favorite was this old toy that was first Tosha's--"an oldie but goodie!"

Jena had her last day of skiing with Terrie for the year on March 7th.  They have a great time together.  They went down Becker which is a big run for Jena.  They told me when they got done that they sang songs from old musicals when they took rest breaks.  Jena was singing songs most of the way home--Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, etc.  I don't know the words as well as she and Terrie do.

Jena took this picture on the way down from Snowbasin.  Even in the thawing early spring, it is beautiful.

Jena made us dinner that week.  Tator tot casserole which I don't think I have made since all five kids lived at home.  (My cooking has really declined as kids have moved out of the house and it wasn't really that great before then.)  Jena is interested in cooking, fortunately, so when she brought this recipe home from school we decided to let her be in charge.  We loved it and hope to have her cook it for us again.

Saturday morning was another fun grandmother day as I got to hang out with Scarlett.  She was still sleeping when Scott and Chantel needed to leave so I went over to their house and did homework until she woke up.  She was very happy to see me which made it fun for me.  We did the morning stuff and then headed to THE RUSH where Jena was bowling in a tournament.  We picked up Grandma Hall on the way and spent about 30 minutes there.

Scarlett was very excited to see her Grandpa and her Aunt Jena at the bowling alley.  Jena was happy too and made three strikes in a roll while we were watching.  She ended up getting a 140 in that game and it was enough to put her in first place in her group.

Then we headed home without Grandpa and Jena since they helped work the afternoon tournament. That was okay with Scarlett because waiting at home was her Uncle Ben.  He walked by and she told him "Sit" so he did and they had a little conversation together.  I love Ben's smile in this picture.

And the big news is that she is now calling me "Gra-ma".  Fun times being a grandparent!

And that got us through the first half of the month---well, those things and school, internship, Jena's mission days and all of her activities, Gary and Scout Advancement stuff, Ben, warm weather and snow......................

Another week down.............

(Historical recording--nothing profound--just life)  It was one of those weeks where every day had somewhere to go and things to get done and it all worked out--well, if you don't count the lack of many actual dinners (thank heavens for pot pies and other convenience foods).  A couple of times I didn't even see Gary from morning until night as we were busy doing our own thing.

Sunday after Church we headed up to visit Gary's sister, Vonette and her family.  Vonette is recovering from getting her tonsils out--definitely harder for adults than children.  We played our new game "Fruit Basket" which they liked.  As we drove up Ogden canyon there was a beautiful full moon just coming over the mountains.  I tried to capture it with my phone as we were driving but only got this:

Really--the moon was huge and gorgeous.  Just imagine a time you have seen a large, beautiful moon in the east sky!  That is what it looked like that night.

Monday I had a meeting at Jena's school in preparation for Jena's upcoming IEP.  It didn't go well, but we will see what the future brings.  Then I spent the next hour doing a phone conference about Ben.  He had spent the past few weeks in day treatment at the CRU as they changed his medication again.  He was discharged that evening.  The I picked up Jena and we headed up for skiing.

Although it was hazy and overcast on the west side of the mountains where we all live, there were blue skies and sunshine.  I spent the 2 hours she skied, studying and enjoying the weather and scenery.  I love having a reason to head to the mountains each week in the winter. Almost as good as going to the beach in the winter.

Tuesday, I spent at my internship and school while Gary ran Jena to Zone conference in South Ogden.  It turned out that they divided their mission on Tuesday and Jena is now part of the Farmington UT Young Church Service Mission with a new mission leader.  Then he took her to Institute that evening.

Wednesday and Thursday I spent at the NOJOs Conference.  Even after two days of classes, I don't actually know that the letters stand for.  However the conference was focused on prevention and treatment of sex abuse victims and juvenile offenders.  Some of it was very interesting and even a bit entertaining and some was just very hard and sad.  The world can be a very hard and difficult places for many people.

Gary was taxi man again, running Jena to the DI and Ben to an appointment and then later he was off for dinner and bowling with Allan.  I rushed back from Salt Lake to run Jena to Wonderwood for her reading and math class.

And Wednesday I was asked if I could do a presentation for an upcoming Relief Society Meeting. The theme is "Rejuvenate--mind, body and soul".  I am doing the "Mind" class.  Any one who has any ideas, please send them my way!

Thursday Jena was off to school and then work.  I had the conference and then back to DCFS to help with a supervised visit then finally to the grocery store for some long needed groceries before heading home.  I was able to get some homework done before we all headed to bed.

Thursday we had a new arrival to the Giberson family--Jarom and Starla Ipson had a new baby girl named "Dottie" for her two great-grandma's Dorothy and Donna.  Here she is with big sister, Evanie. Jarom is my sister Valerie's oldest son.

Friday--I did a little bit of housework and school before Gary and I headed to drop stuff off in Bountiful for UDSF and then to get Jena for Snowbasin Adaptive Ski Race Day.  Again the weather was perfect.  Gary and I had the timing and finish line duties.

Number 5 is ready to go!

On the way up on the ski lift with Suzy

The view down the hill from the finishing line.
Since we don't ski, we don't see this view very often.

Jena coming down the "bushes" course.

Jena got a second place medal in the rollers and a first place medal for the bushes course.  This picture was the cutest.

A mom made these balloon skiers for all of the skiers.  Isn't that so cute and sweet!  One of the most involved balloon figures I have ever seen.

On the way home we had to drop off Jena's skis to be "tuned". And on our way home, we got to go under the train tracks with a train crossing.  Gary and I are geeks about trains.  We love to watch them.

I am not a big fan of the snow, but it does make
for a pretty backdrop in photos.

Friday night we watched BYU Men's Volleyball (they are VERY good and currently ranked 2nd in the nation.)  They have not lost a set in 34 days.

Saturday is now housecleaning day for me while Jena and Gary head to the bowling alley for Special Olympic bowling.  The afternoon was spent doing homework, preparing for Cub committee meeting today, and running errands........

including taking Jena swimming with her friend, Kaitlyn.  They had fun as usual when they are together.

Rushed home to watch the BYU Men's basketball game (loss to Gonzaga :(  ) and right after it the Men's Volleyball game (won in three straight again ;)---they now haven't lost even a set in 35 days!) Amazing run!  That was four hours of TV sports but I am glad to have married a BYU fan as well (even though he likes to tease me about being a fan.)  We had popcorn and counting it as our date night.

And that is a wrap!  The week of February 21-27th is "in the books".  Hope your week was awesome, too.

Tracy Aviary and Wonderwood

The weather has been amazing this week and it continued through Saturday as we headed on a field trip to the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City with Wonderwood.  They have been studying birds so this was a chance to learn and see birds in person.

Here is our group.  It included about half the students at Wonderwood, parents and organizers and some peers.

Emily looking through a hole with her binoculars

They practiced their binocular skills on Wednesday so
Jena is using them here to look more closely at some owls.

Pelicans-
I wrote my first ever paper on pelicans.  It was in third grade and
I remember I chose them because it was the only animal I could draw at the time. 

Barney the Owl
His egg was saved by some miners who found it in a mine shaft.
Unfortunately the person who kept it didn't know about birds and Barney imprinted to a human rather than a bird.
He can fly and hunt but he sees himself as a human and doesn't relate to other birds
so he lives at the Aviary.

All the birds at the aviary are unable to live in the wild due to past injury or illness which has left them weaker or they come from situations where they weren't able to learn the right skills to live in the wild.

Jena and Maddie

Jena was nervous to go into the feeding cage with the birds.  But after a few minutes she relaxed and decided to hold a cup of blueberries for the birds to ear.  She did a great job and held very still and let the bird eat all of the blueberries.

While we were in the cage, one landed on my head.  Everyone loved that.  I got this self picture.  I heard some crunching but it wasn't until later than I discovered some seed shells in my hair. (Needless to say, I decided to take a shower before Gary and I headed to the temple last night.)

Emily and Jena

Our group had a tour guide who taught them (and me)  fun things about birds.  They got to touch feathers, bones, claws of different birds and even a skull of a turkey vulture.

 It has been a long time since I have been to the Aviary and they have really expanded and upgraded the exhibits.  I believe all of the birds are native to this area.  I loved these little black and white birds with very long red legs.  Isn't nature amazing--what is the point of long red legs except to bring beauty and diversity to our lives!

Can't wait to go again soon.

February Friday Fun

Friday we got to play with Scarlett for a few hours during the time that Scott's work and Chantel's overlapped.  Scarlett was happy to be here and showed off several little talents while she was here.

We played playdough:

Ben played for a while.  Not sure why they are all serious in this picture.

She then entertained us with doing three standing somersaults--two of them were perfect.  I assumed that she had been practicing at home because she did them without hesitation, but Chantel was surprised to hear about this new skill.  Silly girl.  Of course she won't share with Chantel later (although last night Chantel posted a little video of her doing a somersault on Facebook so she is still practicing.)

Then we headed outside.  The weather was gorgeous for a February Friday and we stayed out side for about 45 minutes.  I think I pushed Scarlett swinging for about 15 minutes straight before she wanted to walk around and jump on the trampoline.

Boots aren't the best for jumping but Jena managed it anyway.

Jena wanted Scarlett to sit on top of the rock in the front of our house but she wasn't quite ready to sit there without someone holding on.  She liked it.  We walked around the neighborhood while she stepped into every little snow pile she could find.

A few minutes after we got back in the house, Gary (Grandpa) asked if she wanted to go for a walk to deliver a computer down the street.  She was so excited to get in the stroller and head outside again.

In the middle of all of this fun, we were constantly amazed at Scarlett's developing speech.  She was trying to copy almost everything we said to her.  For the first time ever, she said "Ben" when he walked into the room.  She has been saying "NeNe" for Jena for awhile but she has been the only one Scarlett seemed to address.  That was changed to NeNee--and once "Jennee".  She is working on that "J" sound.

Today she also called me "Mama" when she wanted my attention.  Again it was the first time she has used a name to get my attention.  We were trying to coach her to say "grandma" when she called me mama without any luck.

We were outside visiting with some neighbors when Chantel arrived.  We walked into the house and started gathering her stuff. All of a sudden Scarlett got very excited and I thought she said "Gra--pa". She said it slowly and carefully.  I tuned around and there was Gary.  We all went nuts and Scarlett said it a few more times "Gra-pa".  She was clearly showing off for us all.  I think Gary is still basking in the glow of being the first grandparent addressed!  I guess our attempts to practice "grandma" worked out for Gary.

I love being a grandparent!  Already counting the days until I see Liam again--12 days--Niki--69 days--Scarlett-not sure but maybe Friday again.  And one of the things on my bucket list is to see all three of them together in the same room at the same time---hopefully sometime in 2017!!!