Sister Retreat and Halloween, 2019

I don't think the Gabrielsen sisters plus our adored sister-in-law, Cindy, 
have ever had a retreat together. 
Cindy, who, okay, I'll just say it, we consider a sister, has always worked in education 
and hasn't ever been able to come to our retreats in the past. 
She and our brother, John, recently returned from a Self-Reliance Mission to the Philippines, 
and she was all in for this one. 
Roger and John cooked up a plan for the husbands (minus Joan's husband, Tom, 
who was winterizing their cabin in Island Park that weekend) 
to golf in St. George and stay at our home during our retreat at Patty's in Elkridge.
 So John and Hal drove to St. George and met up with Roger and Ken, who also lives in St. George, 
and they golfed a couple of days and enjoyed some Mexican food. 
Before the guys left on Thursday night, 
Patty (John barbecued the steaks) cooked up a delicious barbecued steak dinner.

Our meal included freezer corn that Hal put up, Patty's famous cheese ball and a delicious orange coconut cake

We planned out what we wanted to do while all together, and at the top of our list 
was to go through a temple together to do endowments for some of our ancestors.

Patty serves in the Payson Temple, which was closed for cleaning, so we went to the Provo Temple.

What a beautiful spirit of unity and love we felt in the Celestial Room together!

Per tradition, we enjoyed some yummy Thai curry afterwards.

And, of course, we did some Sister Shopping!

Note Cindy's nail polish out-sparkles the turkey!

Next day, we shopped in Salt Lake. 
Joan, Kay and Patty love Stein Mart and it's kind of a tradition to shop there, 
so we had to get a pic!

After a tasty Mediterranean lunch at Spitz, we headed to South Jordan to visit Aunt Gary, 

our dad's brother, Ron's, wife, and her daughter, Randee, 

in the assisted living center where they live together.

We had called Aunt Grace, dad's brother, Alvin's wife, in Ogden to see if we could visit her, also, on Saturday, 

but she unfortunately, had plans. 

We each chatted with her on the phone and had a delightful visit. She is 90 and is a doll!

Aunt Gary was waiting for us at the entrance and was very happy to see us! 

We all went up to their apartment and she had laid out many photos from our past. 

She has always willingly served as our family historian, and she had scanned all of everyone's photos 

she has collected through the years and offered us the hard copies.

 We spent an hour and a half chatting and reminiscing together.

Aunt Grace, Aunt Gary and Dad's sister, Aunt Nedra, who we visited at our Sister Retreat three years ago, 

are the only remaining Gabrielsens of that generation.

Here are just some of the pics of our mom and dad and us together that Gary shared. 
She also had many of our individual family photo Christmas cards through the years 
and others.

Young mom

Mom when we lived in Fort Lee, Virginia.

This is a pic I'd never seen before of my towheaded dad

I love this pic of my handsome dad and pretty mom.

Aunt Gary's editorializing label was stuck on it.

I was pregnant with Roger's and my first in this shot. (Whoa, swollen face and sky hair!) 

I think my sisters' faces look so pretty!

Thanks, Patty, for hosting such a fun reunion/retreat/ Happy Time!
I stayed with Patty and Hal Sunday night 
and everyone else headed home after church and a delicious ham dinner, in a snow storm, I might add. 
Roger drove up Monday afternoon, we took Patty and Hal to dinner and stayed over and had a fun visit. 
Tuesday we drove to Alpine and stopped off to see Mindy and Jeff's newly-remodeled home, 
which is almost finished. It is gorgeous! She has done such a great job practically gutting it 
and starting from scratch while their family lived in the basement! More about that later.
We continued on to Ogden, Lois took us to her favorite place and Jess did my hair, 
arriving off an airplane from Georgia.
 She is so good to me! 
We stayed overnight with Lois and watched the World Series, 
then left for home the next morning.
As always, we crammed a lot into our trip Up North!

Thursday was Halloween!
About four years ago, a wonderful couple in Sunbrook, Holly and Bob Laird, hosted a Halloween party 
and on the invitation it said, "Costumes are recommended but not required."
 We thought almost no one would wear one, and boy, were we surprised! 
Since then, I think all of us old seniors look forward to seeing what each other comes up with!
I don't even remember my costumes as I grew up other than old sheet ghosts and then, one year, 
a Beatnik, put together with stuff around the house. 
As a mom, I scrambled to come up with costume ideas for my kids,
 usually also put together with things we already had. 
As an adult, I had never had a costume. 
Since this fun party began, I have been a Sky and Cloudhead with Roger, the Pilot, 
dressed all in green with Roger's sign around his neck, "With Envy," 
and this year, "Hatter Gone Mad" with Roger's Explorer/Indiana Jones.

Here are just a few of the fun costumes and the festivities.

Bob Laird loves to make cakes and this "bloody" chocolate cake was a masterpiece!

Everyone brings an appetizer/snack to share and there were many delicious goodies!

The hostess, Holly, is on my right and Marion Vaughn, on my left, grew up in Preston, Idaho, 

and was best friends with Kay Anderson, my Balladier friend! Small world!

With lots going on, this fall has been memorable!