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.





To Highland High School and then off to Texas.......

Jena participated in the High School Training Choirs Festival at Highland High School at the end of March.  Of the five students in her functional skills class which take choir Jena and one other are the only ones who have performed in the choir performances each quarter.  Jena wanted to go to the festival and the teacher had no concerns about taking her.  I was a bit nervous with some many kids and so many schools there, but I wasn't able to go so I let her go.  She loved it (I think riding in the bus back and forth was her highlight).  The teacher emailed me the next day and said that Jena had done great and was exactly where she should be at all times (which is more than she could say about other choir members.)  Now Jena wants to go with the choir to Disneyland.......???

Two days later Jena and I headed down to Salt Lake to catch a plane to Dallas Texas.  It was so great that my niece's farewell was held on March 31st on Easter.  It was spring break so Jena and I were able to go down and spend a week visiting family and friends plus visiting some great places.  We wished that Gary could have come but we are trying to save vacation at this point.

Our trip went like this:

Friday, Mar. 29:  We arrived in Dallas and headed to my brother, Rick's home to spend a couple of days.  We arrive late so mostly headed to bed. 

Saturday:  We had a great day.  We headed with Rick and Linda and their four kids--Katie, Tana, Duncan and Thad to the Dallas Museum of  Art and then a downtown park plaza built over a freeway.  The weather was great and I loved sharing it with them.




Katie posing by the Van Gogh car in the parking garage
She is an art history major so this is the perfect car for her. 
Too bad she is going on a mission to Portugal and doesn't need a car.

Jena took this picture inside of the art museum looking outside
their large window.

We attended the Chagal exhibit.  He was a Russian painter who eventually came to the United States.  He did a large variety of types of art, including designing costumes for ballets.  They had some of the dresses that he designed and actually paint on for the ballet.  It was all very impressive.

Then we headed to the nearby park which has a name that I can't remember.  It was in the middle of downtown Dallas and was so fun.  It was meant to be a gathering like place and had a huge variety of activities.  On a Saturday it was packed with people enjoying the weather and the fun.  It has a center of grass for ball throwing and picnics and around the outside and throughout the 3 blocks or so of park there were lots of activities to see and do.  To complete the feeling, there were food trucks on the outside where you could buy lunch or just a treat.

Heading down the walkway.  At night those balls light up.

Thad near one of the many water features in the park

Jena trying to catch some water without getting too wet

A modern tree house (Duncan and Thad)



Tana standing by one of the treat carts

 


Dallas skyline



Jena's pizza sandwich
She loved it.

The dog park.  There were dogs everywhere in the park,
but this was a special spot where they could be free.
This dog was the leader of the group this day.
We all watched him play in the water and then
he started running and all the other dogs there started following him
where ever he went.  They have small hills to run up and down and the dogs would
go with him.  When he would stop by his master, they would all stop and wait for him to move again.
It was so fun to watch.

They had three ping pong tables and you could check out the balls and paddles to play.
They also had a small putting green, a crochet area, plus a cart where you could check out other "yard" type games.

To avoid posting a hundred pictures, I just wanted to mention that they also had a place where you could check out books and newspapers to read for the day and then return.  They also had board games you could use and little game tables along the edge of part of the park.  As you could tell, I loved this park and am trying to figure out where we could put one in Syracuse.  For us, it could be a fun gathering place of neighbors.  I will add it to my growing list of things that would be fun to do.

This is a picture of the freeway under the park.

They have a tram so here is Tana and Jena as we got off the tram.

 The following are from a sculpture museum and garden.  These pictures are from the garden, of course.

 

The pose for the day

 

We ended the day with a Korean dish which Linda made which was excellent. And we played games--a Giberson pastime when we are together.  During all of that Katie was busy preparing her talk for Sunday and her computer crashed!  With the help of the Apple store she got it working and got her talk prepared and had time for ice cream with some friends.  It was a productive day all around.

 

 

 

One last ski day for Jena

and the last "ski resort" day for me.  I read a book and Jena had fun skiing  It turned out to be a warm day and she just wore a sweatshirt instead of a coat.

Jena with Terrie, her awesome instructor

Time to play catch-up up!!!

This will be mostly old news as I try to cover the past month of life.  As I write my blog to both keep in touch with my family and friends and  for family history.  I will again add several posts in a row to get everything in.  It has been a busy time.

For news about the kids:
1.  Jessica has beautiful flowers popping up around the yard of her home.  She has posted some beautiful pictures of them (I am a sucker for a picture of a flower as readers of this blog can affirm.) The bad news is that her car has developed some mechanical issues which they are trying to save up money to fix, so she has taken up bus riding---not quite as convenient in Utah as in Hong Kong.
2.  Scott and Chantel got home last weekend from a weekend tip to Las Vegas and St. George.  We played with their cats and they had fun in the sun.  Scott has completed the first 300 hour internship and is starting on his second 700 hour internship that will lead to his state license in long term care.  His plan is to apply for graduate schools for the 2014 school year.  The other great news is that Chantel was able to get a job at Ogden Regional Hospital as a exercise therapist.  Now she can earn hours towards her state license as well.  She is really liking it although there is more paperwork that she would like.
3.  Ben has spent most of the past month at the CRU which is an inpatient unit nearby.  His medication was changed again and he is doing much better and was released on Friday back to his apartment. So far he feels more comfortable every day so that is happy news.
4.  Tosha was able to return to work finally.  Her knee is doing okay most days although she sometimes has problems with it swelling.
5.  Jena is looking forward to being a junior.  It is that time of the school year.  There is some talk about the choir going to a festival in Disneyland so she definitely wants to take choir.  She spent spring break with me in Texas but I will write about that in other posts.

Gary is awesome and taking a well -deserved nap at the moment.  Last Sunday he was sustained as our ward clerk and he still is serving as  a Webelo leader and the Stake Emergency Prep. person.  Those will change soon but until then he is keeping busy and out of trouble.  On top of that, he has been the main "man" at home as I have had a crazy life since before the Emergency Prep. Fair in March.  The following post will detail that.  Behind the scenes he has taken care of lots of stuff for me.

And to keep life interesting HP announced that they were closing his division by November of this year.  That would mean a layoff for us after 26 years.  It is a worry of course, but life just keeps going on.  We have been so blessed over the years to avoid layoffs that we were not too surprised although had hoped to make it another 9 years of so.  Then a couple of weeks later, there was more information saying that perhaps they were not going to do that after all.  Who knows!  Gary has loved his job and working from home these past 18 years or so, but we will just see what is ahead.

And now to catching up posts.