Father's Day 2013

I guess it turned out to be very handy for us and Dad that his 80th birthday (on Tuesday June 18) and Father's Day were so close together.  That enabled those here who wanted to go to Church with Dad on this Sunday to be here for both.  An extra bonus was that my Dad was teaching High Priest lesson that day.  My brothers, Rick and Todd and my brother-in-law Lance were able to go to his lesson (Gary had responsibilities at our ward and couldn't join us until time for their sacrament meeting so he missed High Priest ).  I didn't make an exact count during the Sacrament meeting but I think there were about 27 people there with Dad.  It was very nice.

After Church we had dinner at Dad and Karla's and then all headed different directions to go to Temple Square, visit other family, visit with Dad and Karla, or in our case, take a Sunday nap.  Then we gathered again at our house for dinner and some time to play games together.  Dad, Karla, and Rick stayed put in Midvale and missed out on some of the fun times although I hear they enjoyed their (quiet) time together as well.

(Uncle) Justin and Evanie

Jena swinging with her Aunt Valerie
 (I guess swinging is a Giberson thing.  Our mom love to swing, too.)
That is Kylie whose hair is flying as she is jumping on the trampoline.

Of course we all know that only one person should jump on the
tramp at the same time.  But it is SO much fun to jump with
your cousins.  This is Audrey, Tillie (in the air) and Owen.

Ben, Justin and Uncle Todd enjoying a game of pool.

Jena (posing)
She loved having her aunts, uncles, and cousins here
even though she had to give up her bed for a few nights.

The sibling picture--unfortunately we took this on Sunday night
without Rick because Todd had to leave in the morning.
From left to right:  me (Judy), Robin, Mike, Lynette, Valerie, and Todd
They are all great people you would love to meet.

We tried to get a group shot and this is who we gathered in:
Same siblings, Owen and Audrey with their grandpa, Mike; Kylie, Valerie's daughter;
Ryan, Tillie, and Kaylee, Todd's youngest three children. 
The dog is ours--Mowgli.  He decided to be in the picture, too.

Valerie's family who came:  Valerie and Lance Ipson
Kylie, Megan, Jarom, Starla and Evanie, Justin and Tosha

Usually after a Giberson reunion there is one game that we played for the first time and everyone fell in love with .  Former favorites have been "Apples to Apples", "Wits and Wagers", and "Telestrations".  This birthday celebration it was "Reverse Charades", although I did love the chance to play "Ticket to Ride" some of my extended family.  In "Reverse Charades", all of the team acts out simple words or phrases and one of the team tries to guess as many words as possible in a minute.  The team can work together but they can not talk.  It was great fun.

Guess what this is!!!

After we played for about an hour, the younger kids were finally getting into the whole idea and they were so clever and dramatic that the rest of us just set back and let them act away.  Todd served as the reader for the younger kids and helped explained words they didn't know.  In the phrase above, he actually got into the act as well.  Did you guess---it is "The Brady Bunch".  We laughed for about an hour straight as we went through almost the whole deck guessing the words these guys acted out.  The kids are grandchildren--Kylie and Kaylee, Tillie, and Great-grandchild Audrey.

I highly recommend this game for groups and families.  Have fun!

The 80th Birthday Party--

Dad Giberson with his tree cake--
we thought about having a cupcake for each family member
but we decided that we didn't need all of those extra cupcakes around just to eat.
The cupcakes were yummy.
Those of you who follow this blog will recognize the tree theme
from Jessica's owl cake.  It just seemed like a great idea to have
a tree since Dad and Mom were the truck of this Giberson tree.

 When Gibersons get together there is going to be game playing and conversation with food thrown in just because people need to eat.  On Saturday we played some games in the afternoon and built our rockets......

Our loading dock

These are Tillie Giberson (the youngest Giberson) and Audrey Neerings (the oldest Giberson great-grandchild).
They hit it right off and I heard Audrey say to Tillie, "I am sure that I have known you before. I love to play with you."
They had a great time although it was the first time they had ever met.

 and then headed to a nearby Stoker Park to have our official dinner--

Audrey, Tillie, Kaylee, Aunt Lea
Owen is sitting with his back to the camera

Some Ipsons in the foreground
 

After dinner (and some before) we engaged in the outdoor games which Gibersons love.  There was a brief game of "Batter-up" with our whiffle ball and bat.  Jena enjoyed that game and her Aunt Dawn pitched to her long after the other cousins had moved on to other games.

There was the rocket launching.  We did this first at our 2009 reunion in Texas and decided it was time to try it again.  The young kids loved shooting the rockets off--

Owen with Gary waiting to push the button

 And the "old" kids loved trying to catch them out in the field.  It was a beautiful day--perfect for rocket launching!

My brother Rick going after a rocket--
He missed it.  It is harder than it looks
to try to catch it.

Uncles and Grandchildren

Dad and my sister, Valerie

I had picked Stoker Park because of the great trees and grassy fields, but also because it had a sand volleyball pit.  We have played volleyball at many of our reunions over the years.

Some of the cousins just wanted to talk and catch up as it had been years since they have been together.  Here is Megan Ipson, Tosha Ipson , Starla Ipson with Evanie, Lisa Neerings with Alison, Jessica, and Elessia.



Kaylee Giberson, Owen and Audrey Neerings, Tillie Giberson
They had a great time figuring out things to do with volleyballs
OFF the volley court.
 

We stayed until dark and then some...and then packed it all up and headed back home.  Most of us traveled in cars and vans, but David and Dawn traveled back to their home in Bountiful on this--

David is Karla's son.
Their three daughters were just coming home
from Youth Conference and missed the day's activities.

Rick headed down and stayed with Dad and Karla, Ipsons went back to my brother-in-law's family also in the Salt Lake area and everyone else headed to our house.  We tried to get to bed earlier as one thing my dad was looking forward to was us joining him at Church on Sunday--Father's Day.  9:00 a.m. in Midvale!.  I think by midnight we were mostly in bed.


The eve of the 80th Birthday Celebration

On the evening of June 14th, my sisters Robin and Lynette got in from Amarillo Texas and my brother Rick flew in from Dallas as we started to gather for my Dad's 80th birthday. Valerie and Lance arrived in Salt Lake on Friday night as well.  They and their children including some of their married children stayed at Ipson side of their family.  Todd, Lea and their three youngest children arrived on Saturday morning after a very long drive from Austin Texas complete with a flat tire and a long wait for a repair.  Mike flew from Lubbock to Phoenix so that he could drive up with his oldest daughter Lisa and her three kids.  Lisa is the oldest grandchild and she really want to visit Dad in Salt Lake but her husband was unable to get off work.  This solution worked great and the kids loved their road trip with Grandpa.  By 2:00 on Saturday we were all gathered, waiting for Dad and Karla to arrive so the party could begin.

Our original plan was for it to be a big secret from my dad.  At first the reason was that I really didn't know how many of my siblings were going to be able to make the trip up to Utah.  We had just had our regular reunion in Mesa last year so it was another even longer trip to Utah for his birthday.  However many of my siblings were making plans to come and also I realized that some of the excitement of things like this is the anticipation of the event as well as some of the planning.  I wanted to make sure that we did some things that Dad would like to do if he was planning it.

So a week before I tried to mail him the following announcement...it didn't make it there for some reason so I ended up buying a balloon and delivering a copy of it to Dad in person.

I haven't learned how to do things like rotate etc with my new computer.
Will fix later.

He was excited and also was able to help me make some final plans.

It turned out great, but too much to put it all on one post so it will be put over the following few posts.  All of my siblings were there except for my youngest brother Scott and his family.  My brother Mike was there but his wife and youngest son stayed home in Lubbock (Andi was recovering from surgery).  We missed all who couldn't make it but I am so grateful for those who were here and helped Dad welcome in his 80th year.

And we are off......

July 10 the first Monday after Jena finished school I ran her up Emigration Canyon east of Salt Lake City for her week long summer camp at Camp K.  This is her third year there and she loves it.  With camping, boating, fishing, basketball, crafts, etc.....you can see why she likes it.

Here are a couple of pictures from there.



Jena tried out the top bunk with some encouragement from
me as they were running short of bottom bunks.  She didn't like it
and fortunately there were enough bottom bunks.

With her counselor, Monster
For some reason all staff have nicknames
instead of using their own names.

Jena and her friend, Kaitlyn

Ready to go home.
 

Jena got home and we got her laundry started just in time for her aunts and uncles to start arriving....to be con't!