Our Logo

Here is our family's logo:

We loved it.  Afterall we do own a pinewood derby track, raingutters for the regatta, and the framed large posters of the Scout oath and law, plus additional leftovers of years working in Scouting.  However, scouting also can refer to adventure which we love as well.

The Giberson Races begins....

While construction continued at Valerie's house, we headed over to a nearby Church which we were using for our Opening Dinner and Pinewood Derby Race.

The set-up

Our logo for the reunion

The BBQ dinner is served...we had 40 people this year from Utah, Texas, and AZ

The Pinewood Derby Cars...We ended up with 29 cars,

 The three oldest Great grandchildren (Jay, Owen, and Audrey) are preparing to "reveal" the Reunion T-shirt.  Designed by my nephew, Niles, it included the Giberson Race logo on the front...

 And on the back, logos for each of the sponsering companies (which in our case were made up companies for each of the 8 siblings and my dad).  We were "Hall's Scouting Emporium".

The great grand children had orange shirts but the rest of us had grey shirts with orange writing which you will see in pictures from Saturday.

My dad spoke for a moment sharing his thoughts mostly on marriage to the young marrieds and then future marrieds in the family.

And then the races began  (again complete coverage of the race can only be found on the extended family blog---aren't you glad?)

Elmo car actually took top honors of the four-lap race!!
Way to go, Kristen!

Mine is the green car at the top--Gib-mobile after a green station wagon we had as kids
Ben's was the brown "Bedrock"
Gary's was the red truck in this heat.

And after the track was cleaned up and we had birthday cake for my dad who had celebrated his birthday a few days earlier...

A basketball competion began..........usually happens when you have a gym, a ball, and Gibersons.

End of the evening events.  Sweet dreams as it is a early wake-up call for those running the Giberson's verision of the Ipson Family and Friends 5K in the morning.  Check in 6:15 a.m.!

THE REUNION

Three years ago near the end of our previous reunion which was held in Amarillo, Texas, it was votede that this year's reunion would be held in Arizona--the orignial idea being that we would meet up in the mountains in the eastern part of the state.  With the arrival of three new greatgrandchildren late last year who all lived in Mesa, a practicial decision was made to move to Mesa so that they could sleep in their own beds at night.  That was the only advantage as tempetures were over 100 for the entire time we were there.  I took over 300 pictures so will not bore you will all of them (on this site--family members can check our extended family site for more).  Thanks to my sister, Valerie and her husband and family for hosting us.

Originally we were planning to drive our truck down in order to get down the pinewood derby track.  Jena was the only one of our kids slated to come with us.  Upon getting the RV, Scott and Chantel decided to come with us and so we pulled a trailer with their motorcycle so they could come and go as they wanted..........

My niece had commented that she might want to come but was undecided because we weren't staying quite as long as she wanted.  A week before, it was determined that my dad's wife Karla would stay home in Salt Lake due to her father's progressive illness so my dad needed a ride down.  Having the RV allowed us to accomodate all of them so we were glad that we had it.

Looks enjoyable and fun, right??????

We arrived Thursday night after an bit of a disaster.  At Flagstaff when we got gas, Gary noticed that the trailer wheel was not straight.  With the help of Scott's smart phone we found a repair shop who determined that a bearing was lost and needed to be replaced.  They couldn't get parts by the next day.  So we left the trailer there, put Scott on his motocycle, and headed the final 3 hours of the trip.  Now this was at 4:00 in June in AZ, not the best time to be riding a motorcycle on the freeway.  Gary and Scott were keeping each other entertained as Scott was scoot a head and then park under the underpasses until the slower RV caught up.  He was hot but entertained.  Then he stopped to get gas and about 30 minutes later down the road, he realized he didn't have his wallet.  Fun and games stopped as he headed back 30 miles to the gas station and then traveled along the freeway slowly looking for his wallet.  No luck.  We had gone on ahead, not thinking through that now he had no money or water for his hot journey.  We got to my sister's and he got there about 1 hour later, very hot and tired but safe.  And then it turned out that riding a motorcycle even short distance was not that fun in the heat.  Oh, well, that is probably one of the memories that will stick in family lore for a long time.  (He did report that his Sunday morning ride back to Flagstaff was cool and has some beautiful sites.)

Pre-reunion:  Great-Grandchildren Adventure---all about them at the ....

Six of the seven great-grandchildren with Grandpa (and helpers)

The stickers room--a white room covered in stickers
Very brght and unexpected

Grandpa with some of the younger grandchildren,

Jena meeting one of the new cousins, Morgan
Jena is never really been around babies before.
She liked it but it was all new.

We ate lunch together and then headed back to my sister's.

It turned out that it had developed into a major Pinewood Derby completion Pit with people working inside and out to finish the final details.  I commented to my sister that we hadn't planned that the actual building would be a bonding time, but it worked great.

Chantel--watch the knife

Scott with the serious equipment

My dad is not a builder so this afternoon
we gave him his own train engine to race.

The indoor contruction zone

And the Reunion didn't even start until Friday at 5:00.

THE RV......

As a prelude to our Giberson reunion trip, let me introduce you to the newest member of the crew, our RV.  (This picture was actually taken when we picked my niece Megan in Provo on our way to Mesa, AZ.)

Now I grew up in a "tenting" family and I loved it.  I loved sleeping in a tent and breathing in the cool air at night while snugged in my sleeping bag (oviliously not my Texas camping memories).  I liked being in the outdoor, sitting around the fire, and all those other things which go with camping.  I admit that the older I got the bigger the depth of air matresses we would get but I did enjoy the chances we had to be outdoors and enjoy nature.

All that time, I don't remember ever thinking that I want to own an RV.  Gary's parents had one for a number of years and we benefited from some of its conveniences when our children were younger on extended family camping trips, but I loved sleeping in our tent at night.

So it was odd when I started thinking about some ways an RV might work for Gary and I and our current situation---maybe Ben would go on short trips with us, perhaps his sister and her husband might as well, it would be nice to have when we are the grandparents, etc......I shared these thoughts with Gary and he also saw some possibitilities and benefits.  We started looking and narrowing down the features we felt we wanted and needed but had no luck really feeling right about one.  Scott had encouraged me to look on ksl.com but I didn't have any luck and it was quite overwhemling to have 300+ pages of RV ads to look at.  Later Scott commented that it was good to check everyday to see what had been added.  I woke up the next day and decided to check and on the first page, there it was.  We went and saw it and bought it the next day.  Both Gary and I have commented that we just knew it was meant for us.  (Hopefully it was meant for us in all the good ways and not that it is going to be a "lemon" in our lives.)

It has seven seat beats, sleeping for six, and is 28' long.  It is a 2004 with 18,000 (although that was before our trip to Mesa).  Don't expecting any naming ceremony....Gary and I have never named a vehicle yet about 34 years so I don't expect that will change.  It will just be the "RV".