Giberson Family Reunion 2018--the Gathering

As you probably remember from posts in 2012 and 2015, the Giberson side of our family has a reunion every 3 years (a tradition started by my dad who said that it was one year for Gibersons, one year for the spouses' family, and one year for your family to take your own vacation.)  Three years is a long time between visits, but it does make it all the sweeter to see each other again.  I have eight siblings who live mostly in Texas and others in Arizona.  My dad and his wife live in Salt Lake and then our family..Utah and Washington.

It has been since 2000 when we had our last Utah vacation and that was at Zion's National Park.  This time, we went for Salt Lake-City Center--with our main location being the KOA campground on North Temple and 1400 West.  I was feeling bad that we were staying inside Salt Lake when there are so many amazing campgrounds in the state.  However, it worked out perfectly and family members were able to enjoy several of the amazing things that Utah has to offer during their drives up and back.

We had 64 Gibersons in attendance for all or some of the reunion.  In addition we were joined by my cousin, Dan Gibson and his wife Raelene, and Karla's son David, his wife Dawn, and their daughters, Sierra, Danielle, and Jenna and grandson, Michael for different parts of the reunion. That makes a grand total of 72 people. For historical purposes, that means (if my math was correct) 33 family members not in attendance (including one spouse--we missed you Andi, grandchildren including one on a mission, and great-grandchildren.)  We had 16 people who attended their first Giberson Reunion which I believe is the largest group of "new" attendees.  It included grandchildren's spouses and great-grandchildren. And the final note is that there will be four grandchildren added this year--Jordan/Sarah with their #2, Jessica/Elessia with #3 and #4, and Tosha/Austen with #3.

My brother, Todd and his family came the farthest as they live in Buda, Texas, south of Austen, Texas.  That is a 1311 mile journey one-way if you come straight, about 24 hours of travel.  (Todd, Lea, and their younger children did not come straight here.  They headed to Oklahoma City, Mt. Rushmore, and Yellowstone on their way to Utah.)  Others added fun stops on their trips as well, stopping at National Parks, LDS temples, and other places of interest.  Many added visits to other family members, too, either on their way here or back home again.  A special shout out to my brother, Scott, and nephew Scotty who stopped in Amarillo to drive my other two sisters, Robin and Lynette up to the reunion.  We appreciated that so much, since they are not driving long distances any more.

So, Thursday, June 28, we started gathering in Salt Lake at the KOA.

A street inside the KOA-
it was a very clean campground that
suited our needs well

Sons in Law in their old Giberson Reunion t-shirts:

Gary in the 2015; Lance in 2012 shirt

Valerie's cabin:

We all gathered at her cabin which had a great deck which was perfect for conversation and game playing.  It was so great to see everyone and there were lots of hugs and introductions to the newest family members.  We have added a lot of great-grandchildren in the past few years.

New game of the evening:  Stipulations!  Look it up.  It is a very fun (and funny) game.

That night we were smart and headed to bed by about 11:00.  Many people had driven in from a variety of locations--personally, I drove directly there from work, but had been up late the night before packing and cleaning for the trip.

We had two big days planned and we needed our rest.