Birthday Celebrations 15 September 2009

I'm really catching up on my blog, my events during the year. I was given this "cool" camera by Vance for my birthday. I had a Nikon Coolpix camera but that one was 5 years old and only 4 megapixels. Plus the photos that were zoomed at times weren't that clear. We certainly put this camera to good use.

The new camera is a Nikon Coolpix S630 with a 7x zoom and a 12 megapixel photo taking capability.

We took the camera along with us to celebrate my birthday at the Market Street Grill restaurant. I joined the birthday club at that restaurant and I get a birthday meal free of charge when another one of that price or more is purchased at that restaurant. We didn't really have too much time as we volunteer at the Bennion Family History Center (FHC - Branch Genealogical Library of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City - there are lots of FHCs throughout the world) from 6-9 p.m., photos of which will be shown in a next blog item as I also took the camera to the FHC that evening. The restaurant didn't open until 5 p.m. but we were on the way to the FHC at 5.50 p.m. just in time for us to be 1 minute late to open the FHC.

Here is the invitation to enjoy my free meal.















This is a photo of the restaurant

Here you see a photo of the view that we had from the table we were sitting. We looked out on the patio. Unfortunately the patio isn't being used any more. We had one of my birthday meals outside enjoying a much nicer view, but the restaurant was too new at that time that they didn't realize that later on the wind would bring sand along with it, the area being newly developed, and that isn't nice when you are eating a meal. The other photo is of us really enjoying our meal.

Volunteer Barbeque - Saturday 8 August 2009

I am working as a volunteer to help take phone calls and answer e-mails for the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. I started my volunteer work in June 2009. I will be busy on Monday and Wednesday mornings with that service for one year. I have been asked to do some other things besides answering phone calls and e-mails and am enjoying that service.

Our manager was unpectedly in Salt Lake City, she works from her home in the state of Nebraska, and one of the volunteers arranged to hold a barbeque in the backyard of her neighbors. Here is a photo of us enjoying the friendship and companionship of those who are doing similar work as I. We were able to bring our spouses, so Vance is sitting next to me.

It was a lovely way to meet the other show who do similar work as I. We work from our own home with a phone with headset and a computer. The phone calls are sent to our home phone via an internet program where we just log-in to and then put in the phone number that we want our calls to come through to.

We create cases on the phone calls that we answer so that there are statistical reports that can be obtained from that internet program where we also sign onto at the beginning of our service.

Happy Birthday Kaylie - Sunday 26 July 2009

Kaylie tried to blow out the candle lit on her 1st Birthday cake. It was good that we had her birthday there because we could all participate in her birthday celebration.

Kaylie wasn't quite successful in blowing out her candle so her bigger sister Renae had to help her.

We went to church in Parowan, Utah. We enjoyed the service that day, being in the town where Peggy, Chris and Jaime their ancestors attended Sunday worship services.

We only stayed there until Monday 27 July when we headed home because had to attend a function on Tuesday morning. We had at least a 5 1/2 hour drive to get back home.

Another hike on Saturday 25 July 2009S

Everyone who attended the Reunion loves hikes. The one on 25 July was no exception. The National Parks in southern Utah are beautiful and this day was enjoyed by all. The 2 little girls were carried by different adults all throughout the day. They loved the hike as much as the others.

Peggy, Melissa, Bryan, McKay, Chris holding Kaylie, David holding Renae, Nathan, Gary, Jaime and Bryson in front of Bryan and McKay.

I've tried to color code the individual families.

I wasn't feeling too well that day, so I stayed in the cabin/house after going to the Insta Care in Cedar City. Because the hike took all day and well into the evening, because of the distance of the place where they were going to hike, everyone was too tired to do anything about dinner so Vance treated us to a lovelymeal at Applebee's restaurant in Cedar City, Utah. It helps at that time to have a 10% Senior Discount card for Applebee's. We love to go to that restaurant.

Pioneer Day, Friday 24 July 2009

On Friday 24 July, Utah celebrates "Pioneer Day" as a holiday. It was on 24 July 1847 that the first group of Mormon Pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley to settle there. Vance's children have pioneer heritage on both of their parents sides of the family. It was one of their mother's ancestors who was asked to settle take a group of people from Salt Lake City in 1851 to settle the Parowan, Utah area. That was why we attended the Youth Rodeo in Parowan, Utah.

Here is a photo of some of us sitting on the bleachers to watch some of the events. Chris also has a blog site and you will be able to see more of the reunion activities that were available. The blog site is http://davidgibsonfamily.blogspot.com/ Enjoy seeing more of the Reunion there.



















Chris's youngest son, Bryson, decided that he would enter the Mutton Busting competition. Breaking in a horst is called "Bronc Busting", this is the sheep version of that.

That evening we had a barbeque and here are some photos that event.

























The hot dog that Renae is eating is nearly bigger than she is.



Of couse grandma or great grandma had to take some more photos of that event.

Late, when it got really good and dark,the young folk went to Cedar City to let off and watch some good fireworks. Vance and I stayed home and went to bed early, like good grandparents.

Parker Reunion 23-29 July 2009

Peggy and Christine and arranged for the Parker Reunion, all of Vance's children and their families were invited to attend. Some of the family couldn't make it but those who did had lots and lots of fun. Chris arranged for a huge cabin/house to be rented 15 miles outside Cedar City, to house us all.

I have always wanted to go to the Utah Shakespearean Festival but have never had an opportunity or made an opportunity to go to it. David and Christine were able to get us tickets as part of our family reunion and we went to "The Secret Garden". This was on Thursday 23 July. It was wonderful. It was a musical play. Not all of the Shakespearean plays are the actual Shakespear plays.

2 Ducks visiting our front yard June 2009

We had a couple of ducks visit us in June 2009. They are on our front law, under the tree. You can see our mailbox right behind them and the neighbor's mailbox to the right of that. We have an irrigation canal behind our house so ducks are able, if they wan to, make their nests between our fence and the canal.

May 2009 Tulips in our garden

Some of the beautiful tulips that we had in our front garden this year in May.

Bryan and Melissa's New Home

This house is where Bryan and Melissa now live with their 2 little girls. They moved into it in early May 2009. It is in Mesa, Arizona.

29 April 2009

5 Generations

Back Row: Peggy with her husband Gary, grandparents of the little girls, Ray Spykerman, great grandfather, and proud parents Bryan and Melissa.

Front Row: Vance with Renae on lap and Nell with Kaylie on lap.

Easter 2009

Here is Renae looking for easter eggs in her grandparents' home. Her great grandpa, Vance, is looking on and helping her find them. Even though they are in plain sight, they are not in plain sight for a little one. I have circled the eggs in red.

Renae found her easter basket.

And her great grandparents found theirs as well with a little help from the others.

23 March 2009 Snow for our Australian Visitors

The snow just doesn't seem to want to leave us. We had a few warmer days and then it got colder again. Maybe the snow wanted our Australian Visitors, Allison and Collene to enjoy some snow as this was the first time that they had seen snow in their lives. Allison lives in Tasmania, Australia and Collene was born in Queensland, Australia and had lived in Tasmania for 3 years and is now living in Victoria, Australia. When we were visiting Australia last year we were staying with Collene and her husband Darryl in Tasmania, now it was Collene's turn for a reciprocal visit.

Here you see my favorite tree, our pear tree. You know that I love this tree because I see it out of our dining area in the kitchen when we have the blinds of the French doors open.

As you can see, we had quite a bit of snow that day.

That same day, Allison, Collene and I went shopping and stopped for lunch at a McDonald's.

On the left is Allison and on the right is Collene.

Our Trip to St. George, Utah and Red and Bryce Canyons, Utah

We left home on Monday 9 March 2009 around 10.15 a.m. to go to St. George, Utah, for several days. The distance was about 300 miles (480 km). We were going to stay at the World Mark by Wyndham. We had a nice 1 bedroom unit with a king-size bed for our use. It was on the 2nd floor but there was an elevator and they had those hotel trolleys for luggage that we could use. This made taking our luggage upstairs quite easy.
On Tuesday we went out for breakfast to Denny's and then bought a few things at Smith’s Supermarket. The GPS found Smith’s for us but it couldn’t find an Albertson’s supermarket, which must have been too new. The GPS also couldn't find World Mark so we had to phone there to get directions as to how to get there.

Later on we saw an Albertson’s and I went to it when I had to buy a few things there that Vance needed.

Worldmark by Wyndham is a travel share, a friend of ours allowed us to use the facilities since they had bought credits, it used to be called time share. We were invited to a presentation to see if we were interested in buying into it.

We enjoyed our stay at Worldmark and it is nice to have so much room, we had a dining area with a standing full kitchen with a fridge that has an ice maker, and a stove. There was a nice square table with 4 chairs. The bed was nice and comfortable and the bathroom was very nice as well. We were only on the second floor with an elevator further along the outside balcony walkway or a set of stairs very near out door. We chose to do the stairs a few times when the car wasn’t nearby and to just go over to the office for the sales presentation and the pick up our one free movie that they give you.

On Wednesday Vance was up to our planned outing to Bryce Canyon. I had planned for us to go either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on how Vance was. He wasn’t up to it on Tuesday but was on Wednesday. We had breakfast at JB's restaurant this time .

We drove through 2 of these tunnels which were made in the red rock. It was surely a lovely drive.

We had a lovely time in Bryce Canyon and saw some deer as well. It snowed in Salt Lake City as we were leaving on Monday. and it had apparently snowed in Bryce Canyon as well that evening, so we saw the lovely snow on the red mountains.

We also saw some wild deer. I managed to capture a photo of one with a little one.

Just think of what the weather and the elements did to the mountains to give us such a lovely view to see.

We have proof that we were here by having someone taken a photo of the 2 of us

We stopped at the Visitors' Center on our way out of the Canyon and we watched a nice movie on the Bryce Canyon National Park.

Birthdays Dinner at Jacob & Kathy's 1 Feb 2009

My brother Jacob and his wife Kathy invited us Vance and I to come over to their house

for a Birthdays Dinner. There are a few birthdays in the

family towards the end of January and some in February.

Sophie, Michael's French poodle lives there and was at the party

Toni and Cami were snap happy with their cameras. Here they are looking at some of the photos they took. Later on Michael also took some photos with his dad's camera. He took the photos that are shown here as I didn't take my camera with me.

After the dinner had settled then it became time for dessert. Here is Kathy making ice cream cones for her grandchildren. We see Cameron, one of them, eating his ice cream cone. We also see Dan holding the knife after cutting the chocolate cake made by Toni.. Chocolate came with chocolate pudding and chocolate chips in. The cake was till warm when we ate it with ice cream. Yum. Yum.

After the dinner and the dessert we were doing what the Dutch call "natafelen"; sitting at the table chatting away and having a good time doing so.