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!

Hello, Autumn!

Probably the most exciting thing to happen this fall 

is our meeting with our new class of our Pathway Connect students, beginning on September 19. 

Roger and I have been training in June and July to be missionaries in this inspired program of the Church 

to prepare students to go on to receive their college Bachelor degrees. 

They combine secular learning and spiritual learning online in a three-semester, one year program 

that springboards them (with a B or better average) to enroll at BYU Idaho and Salt Lake Community College 

(with more colleges and universities to soon come onboard) 

at less than one-third the tuition cost. 

They can do this at home, while working, possibly full-time, and raising children. 

Where Pathway Connect missionaries come in is to facilitate a once-a-week Gathering, 

where the students meet together (in St. George at the Institute Building) and share ideas 

and discuss that week's lesson they have been studying individually online. 

They take turns being the Student Leader each week, and our role is to encourage them and be their cheerleaders.

We study the lesson each week and can make comments here and there, but this is THEIR program.

Our kids come from very diverse backgrounds, each making big sacrifices to improve themselves,

most being the first in their family to seek a higher education.

After interviewing them individually, then making personal contact each week, we love each of them!

As per every one since President Nelson became Prophet, 

General Conference announced more changes 

to help us to draw nearer to our Heavenly Father.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland set the stage in the Saturday session 

(note pic on tv screen) 

for what was an inspired and inspiring conference. 

On Sunday, Roger, I and two other couples were invited over to a delicious dinner 

at Viki and Steve Whitmer's home, 

then we watched the afternoon session together. 

Lynn Snow was a fellow USU missionary in Chile fifty-four years ago. 
Recently he made contact with Roger to meet for dinner 
when he and his wife came from their home in Roosevelt 
to visit St. George (the couple in the far left and right below are the Snows). 
The Snows also invited another couple they knew.

What cemented Roger's and Lynn's friendship so long ago was they were hired in 1969, 
when we were a young couple with our first little baby, Rick, 
to be wranglers of the pack horses for the Sierra Hiking Club for a week-long trip through the High Uintas.

We met for Mexican food at Don Pedros.

They had fun reminiscing about the hard work 
but grand adventure they had together!

Here is Lynn behind the pack horse.


This is one of my favorite all-time pics of Roger
showing off his catch in front of a beautiful High Uinta lake.


Roger is posing in his mom and dad's front yard the day he returned, beard and all.


Baby Ricky and I stayed with Roger's parents while he was gone.


The Snows gave us tickets that they couldn't use to go to see Vocal Point the next night. 
They are a male singing group who came in fifth in a national competition broadcast on tv called "Sing Off."
They were great!

This guy was a great entertainer and Roger particularly liked him because he was from Chile, attending BYU.

Stacy and the twins stayed overnight with us 
as they headed from Mesa to up north for the kids' fall break. 
Maddy and Londyn went with friends to California and Tom stayed home and worked.
Then they stayed with us after the break on the way back home.
We absolutely love to catch up with darling Stacy!
We love them to visit any time!

 I fixed favorites of all of us - wedge salad and grilled salmon.

Max and Luke loved our reclining red chairs, 
but probably not as much as we do!

Rick, Jodie, Abby and Blake came for their kids' fall break the following week Wednesday night 
through Saturday afternoon. 
We so look forward to their coming and I tried to cook up some of their favorite food. 
Stacy had brought us some tomatoes from Grit's garden when she came through, 
so I made bruschetta topping with them.
I also made tomatillo salsa, John Rich's chili, cornbread muffins, honey butter, a teriyaki chicken, 
spinach and mandarin orange pasta salad, paninis, grilled salmon, cole slaw 
and gingerbread with lemon sauce and ice cream.

Rick took us to two Tuacahn productions, Little Mermaid and Sound of Music. 
Blake loved both of them, as did all of us!

We took a couple of pics of lunch before they left to go back home to SLC.
It is a joy to be around each member of this super duper family!

Well, Autumn, 2019, you are off to a good start!

Mesa>Boise>Mesa>St. George

Event Stack-up

It was kind of quick turn-around-time, but back to Mesa we headed to be with the twins and Londyn and Maddy 

while Stacy and Tom celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary on a Viking River Cruise in Europe.

We had some gift card money on Lettuce Entertain You, 

so we ate lunch in Vegas at Joe's Stone Crab on the way.

Syd and Charlie were still at Stacy's for a couple of days before they flew back home to Maryland, 

so we all got to have some more play time with him. 

He doesn't walk, but runs everywhere and sees everything in every corner and gets into it. 

His favorite - the dirt in the indoor plants!

What a cute little great-grandson he is!

The night before they left we went out for pizza at Mod. I'm not much of a pizza fun, 

but this stuff that each individual can create is yum!

 The bonus of going to Mesa is our two kid's families live five minutes away from each other. 

Ben earned and received his BSA Eagle from his scoutmaster dad, Ryan. That's four generations - 

his Great-Grandpa Gabe would be so proud!

 

After the ceremony, we went over to Ryan and Emily's to watch the BYU-Tennessee football game. 

We didn't think they had a chance, but they beat them in double overtime!

Sunday morning, we attended Ryan and Emily's ward to see Ryan ordained as their new Bishop. 

We are so proud of him - he follows in the footsteps of a really beloved bishop 

and he feels very humble with this huge calling. 

His life is already so busy, but he is so sincere in his desire to serve.

Sunday night we went back over to Stratford's to celebrate Sarah's and Becca's birthdays.

The Youngs are a sports family! 

Right now, Luke and Max are playing baseball, 

out in well over 100 degree heat and loving it!

I really loved baseball as a kid - Dad didn't get a son until they had John, so I, being the oldest, 

got taken under his wing and filled with all kinds of baseball info. 

Luke and Max are both walking trivia and stats experts on several sports 

(Great-grandpa Gabe would have loved that!), 

and we had fun talking about all of the old baseball greats.

Londyn, a senior, and Maddy, a sophomore, both cheer on the Varsity Squad for Mountain View.

Londyn is a flyer and Maddy bases and they are both so fun to watch!

I told the four kids that they could each choose their favorite food for me to make for their dinners. 

Luke and Max both chose ribs, but sloppy Joes came in second and it is Roger's favorite. 

So Londyn chose shrimp and asparagus lemon linguini 

and Maddy chose summer tomato bruschetta and chicken salad.

It's fun to cook for these cute kids!

Because it was 106 degrees and over while we were there, I did my daily walks at Home Depot.

After a few days, I think the clerks wondered why is that woman in the pink, black and white-striped shirt 

walking up and down every aisle with an empty cart. 

After a couple of days, I put something in it so I wouldn't be constantly asked, 

"Can I help you find something?"

The following Saturday, we flew to Boise to attend my brother, John, and wife, Cindy's report 

of their Church Self-reliance mission to the Philippines. 

We stayed with Missy, Jedd and family, which was a big bonus! 

We love to be with this cute family!

The Smith girls, Ellie, Claire and Missy

 My cousin, Martha (left), came, who I hadn't seen in years.

And I have missed cute Cindy! 

She adds the zest and much heart to our family.

We hadn't seen John and Cindy for over two years, 

and oh how I love this brother of mine!

Kay and Ken also came, but had already left when we took this pic to drive to Shonna's in Logan. 

My sister, Joan, husband, Tom, and we took a quick pick with John and Cindy.

Patty and Hal were on a cruise with their kids.

Back at the Smith's in Boise, this little sprite sat perched on this chair 

throughout the entire, "Despicable Me, 3."

We flew back to Mesa Monday night, had lunch with Stacy and Tom Tuesday and heard about their fabulous trip, then drove to St. George, arriving about 11 pm. 

It was Event Stack-up at its finest!

Wednesday we interviewed some more of our Pathway Connect students,

and Thursday night we taught the first Gathering!

So far, we are loving being Pathway Connect Service Missionaries!

Providing an inexpensive world-wide way for upper education,

 combining secular and spiritual knowledge, priceless!