Prequel to Family--Part Two (Weekend Two-November 2018)

This is called "Prequel to Family- Part Two" because it is what happened the day before the day that is the actual  follow-up to a post that I made almost a year ago called "Family." If you wanted to reread it before reading this post, here is the link.  It can also be found on the blog in December of 2017--"Family".  Of course, this link will not work in the printed copy of the blog, but look in 2017 blog book and it will be there.  (Is that all confusing enough?)

http://hifromsyracuse.blogspot.com/2017/12/family.html

I wrote that blog shortly after we connected with family members through DNA testing done on Ancestry.com.  We found the identity of my father's biological father and found two half-brothers who were still alive with their families--Ed who lives in Parker, Co, and Mike, who lives in Omaha, Nebraska.

And now--for the rest of the story---

We continued to email back and forth with Mike and Ed, Dad and I probably more than the rest of the family.  By December, we had decided that we did want to meet each other in person.  Ed, who is around 80 years old, doesn't travel much any more, invited us to gather in Parker, Colorado.  A tentative date was set for the end of March.  However that got postponed due to my dad's facial surgery right before Christmas last year and his lengthy recovery process.  Dad finally felt ready to travel again and a new date was settled upon---November 10, 2018.

So Friday morning, November 9, I found myself on another airplane flying east to Denver.

(A funny side note:  the sister in our ward responsible for setting up ministering interviews had texted me at the beginning of October on a Saturday to see if I could come the next day.  I was in Florida so had to say no.  The next time she reached out, I was in Seattle and had to say no again.  Guess what, on this Friday evening, she texted me again and I had to tell her I was in Denver.....she doesn't know me well so I am sure she thought I am some jet-setting person.  I offered that I would be in town the following Sunday and got on the schedule for today---Otherwise I was afraid she might not reach out again until the end of December when I am back in Seattle.)

Back to last weekend--while I had been busy during the week getting some stuff ready for the weekend, I hadn't stopped to think or even get excited about the time I was going to have with my sister, Valerie, and my brother, Rick.  In fact, all week I had been thinking about wanting to talk to my sister on the phone, but couldn't fit it in.  Sitting on the plane flying to Denver, I thought how great this was that I was going to have a day with Valerie and Rick.  I wished that all of my siblings could have been there as well, but it was exciting to have that day with them.

We all arrived around 1:00 pm (although Rick was actually suppose to arrive an hour earlier.  His plane had been delayed in leaving Dallas.)  We got our rental car and headed to Parker which is a town about 30 minutes south of the airport.  We had thought about a variety of plans for the day, but decided that we just want time to be together, plays games, and have conversation.  And it was a perfect day.

After settling into our hotel rooms at the Hampton Inn, Rick suggested that we head to the historical downtown and find a local restaurant to eat at.  We loved that idea and headed down a short drive to the restored downtown area of Parker.  We found out later that Parker only became a formal town in the 1980's (I think that is right.).

It was a bit brisk as we walked around as we had left our heavy coats at the hotel.  There were lots of brick buildings, cute light poles, and a city park getting decorated for Christmas.  (My siblings got a laugh when I commented that they sure have their decorations up late.  Rick pointed out it is November.  True--those holidays are catching up on me.)

Walking down the streets of Parker-Rick and Valerie

Someone had put a scarf on this statue on the sidewalk.

There is even a street called Mainstreet.  Every town should have one.

In our wanderings that afternoon, we turned down a street because we saw a diner sign a block or so down....and came across this cheerful house:

It was then we realized that this was the office of our Uncle Ed and the diner down the street was the diner we were meeting at tomorrow for lunch.  We quickly turning around and headed another direction.  Our plans to meet were set for tomorrow and we didn't want to accidentally "stumble" on a family member before they were ready. But it was an exciting accident.  My favorite color is yellow and this place will always hold a special place in my heart.  More about that later.

We chose this restaurant for our late lunch--it was a historical landmark.  It was cute inside, but the food was only average.  It didn't matter.  It was great to sit with Rick and Valerie and just talk--no kids, no responsibilities, no time table, just be together......

and as often happens when Gibersons are together, we returned to the hotel and moved into more conversation and GAME PLAYING!

There were no tables in the hotel rooms which could be used as tables for playing games.  However, they advertised family games in the lobby and encouraged people to check out games they had and play games in their "family area." (We had our own games, of course, because we are Gibersons.) They served popcorn and warm chocolate chip cookies all evening and had ice water and hot chocolate available as well.  I thought it might feel awkward to play games "in public," but the hotel was very quiet and we played games in-between talking.

I sent this photo below in a text to Gary who guessed that we were playing "Five Crowns."  We also played "Goat Herds??" or something like that.

It was just a sweet time to be together.  I hope that we have a chance to do it again with more of our siblings.  Together we talked a bit about what the next day would bring.  Most of all, we just hoped that it would go smooth and that my dad would feel okay about it.  I think we didn't know what else to expect or anticipate.  What is the expected result of meeting family members connected by DNA?  What could happen?  We didn't know but were excited for the day ahead.

And we did have another accidental sighting of relatives.  Our Uncle Mike and his wife, Jean, and daughter, Freya, had told us that they were staying at the same hotel as we were.  It had led to some conversation about maybe "running into each other at breakfast."  My dad had weighed in that if we happened to see each other, it would only make sense to introduce ourselves.  From my angle on Friday night, I saw who I guessed to be Freya and Jean checking into the hotel.  I had never "talked"  (meaning emailed) with them directly so I decided not to go speak to them.  They had just completed a 9 hour drive from Nebraska and I didn't know if they were the kind of people who wanted to be fresh when they were meeting relatives for the first time.  But it was good to know that they were in town and safe.  I could wait until the next day to meet in person.

Now all we needed was for my dad and Karla to make it to Denver.  They were driving from Salt Lake and had arrived in Grand Junction, Colorado, where they were going to spend the night.  They would leave there in the morning and we were all to meet at the yellow house/office at 12:30 pm on November 10, 2018.

One other side note:  When searching for some photos to bring this weekend, I found a book in a tote of Giberson stuff.  It was called, "Fleeing the Wolf:  Story of one of the three little pigs."  I had assumed that it was one of my mother's books as she collected pigs and also books about the three little pigs.  I had never read this book or actually had no memory of even seeing it before.  I started reading it on the airplane and discovered it was set in western Oregon around many of the locations which were familiar to me and then I started realizing that there were other familiar aspects of the story.  The names had been changed but this was a story about people I knew--my cousins and aunt and uncle.  Then I checked the copyright and it was written in 2014, long after my mother's death.  Very weird!  Turned out that the book was written by the wife of one of my cousins and it was actually a book of my sister's which she shared with me at one time.  So here I was in Colorado meeting relatives while unexpectedly reading a book about some of my Oregon cousins.  The wife had used other names for everyone in the book including for herself as the author so it took me a few chapters to figure it all out.

The big day was tomorrow!