Westonhome

Monday, December 08, 2014

Missionary experiences

After 9 years of having sister missionaries in our ward we finally got some Elders and Carson immediately loved hanging out with them.

Elder Malay and Elder Mussleman were our first favourites. They would always come over Sunday after church and we would have breakfast for lunch - homemade pancakes, orange juice, and sausages.

All the kids enjoyed having the missionaries over. When Kailey's friends see these pictures on her phone they think she is so lucky to get to hang out with such cute, older guys. She always tells her friends "whooaaa these guys are not for the taking, they are missionaries for our church and they will not be dating anybody while on their missions!"

It is always sad to say goodbye to a set of missionaries when they leave the ward but Carson keeps in contact with them after they leave. The second set of Elders, Elder Mon and Elder Hill, were exceptional missionaries. They found a family to teach and baptize in our ward.

Carson had the amazing experience of baptizing the father of this family while the Elders baptized the kids. It was pretty darn cool for him to get to enter the waters of baptism, having been commissioned by Jesus Christ, to baptize Richard before Carson is even a full time missionary.

Carson looks forward to the day he gets to be a full time missionary for the church and share the gospel with people in another piece of the world.

Volleyball Season Come and Gone

Yep that's right! We have another Griffin in the house! Kailey made the decision NOT to go to Western High School with a bunch of her basketball friends and instead decided to school her brother, I mean go to school with her brother! They have had a lot of fun going to school together as it has been 4 years since they were in the same school together. Carson doesn't even mind the fact that all his grade 12 friends think Kailey is pretty darn cool and Kailey fits right in with all of them. She does have her own group of friends in grade 10 as well. Her grade 10 friends think that she is so lucky to have a brother in grade 12 because she gets to hang out with all those guys as well.

After 6 gruelling tryouts she managed to secure herself a starting power position on the Jr. Girls Ernest Manning High School volleyball team. During tryouts her foot began to really bother her and the doctor was suspecting a stress fracture so Kailey was sent for a bone scan of her foot.

Last year Kailey played setter but this year they needed some good power hitters so that is where she ended up playing.

The day we found out her foot was not fractured, and that is was OK for her to play on it (even though she already played a couple of league games on it), Kailey dislocated her hitting shoulder and was out for the rest of the season. Her volleyball season was cut short this year.

Good thing we still had the senior boys to watch. Carson was the captain of the team this year.

This is them warming up with their special "stop bullying pink shirts"

Volleyball is a game of momentum and keeping the momentum on your side of the court. Carson is really good at getting his team going and keeping them talking on the court. He would always start off the match by saying "Let's have some fun!"

"Connor, are you ready to have some fun?" Connor can't help but smile at Carson!

Big block by Liam and Carson.

Of course there is always time to pose of the camera.

Coach Larsen always depends on Carson to keep the team excited and Carson is fun to watch as he celebrates all the good rallies they win. I love catching him in the moment of pure excitement and love for the competition! I don't know anybody who is more competitive than Carson.

This is one of my favourite pictures of the season. It was our last home game and Carson had said to Mr. Larsen "I'm not leaving this gym tonight until I get a big kill!" A setter playing a 5-1 system rarely gets to pound the ball because they are always the one setting the second ball to the hitters. Last point of the game and Carson gets a party ball to finish the match with his "big kill!" He turned to Mr. Larsen and this was his expression! (notice the players in the back laughing!). As he walked towards the bench he says to the coach, "You have coached me for three years straight and should know by now that when I put my mind to something and say I am going to do something . . . I WILL do it!" The coach was smiling from ear to ear!

The boys had a really good team this year. They lost in the semi finals to Scarlett who had a team full of club players and then they played Western for third place. The top three teams got to Provincials and Provincials were in Lloyd Minister this year. None of the boys wanted to go all the way up there and so they didn't play very hard to win third place. Carson was just fine with that because we all know what happens after volleyball season is over . . . . . BASKETBALL SEASON!!!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Summer Time - Our Favorite

We spent as much time as we could at the cabin this summer and as usual found a few new things to do.

The boys transformed the front deck of the cabin into a basketball court and spent many hours having basketball tournaments with all the kids. Even Sadie played and she managed to win some games. They all had a blast playing basketball at the cabin.

Another thing the boys enjoyed doing was playing Poker. Uncle Jeff taught them how to play poker and they really got into it. It would crack me up when I hear the little boys announce, "Poker in 10 minutes . . . be there!" We would wake up and they would be playing poker outside waiting for everybody else to get up.

Boys will be boys! They were out hunting squirrels one afternoon.

One of my favourite things this year was watching the moon come up. We happened to have two full moons this year while we were at the cabin. It is amazing how quickly it rises over the mountain and how much it lights the lake up.

This was the last summer that Carson will get to spend a significant amount of time at the cabin. After he graduates next year it will be time to work full time and earn money for college and a mission. He tried to soak in everything at the cabin this year.

All of the Gibb grandchildren enjoyed a day together at the cabin.

There are 2 more on the way! What a group of crazy kids!

Jordan learned to ski on one ski this summer.

Even though we find a few new things to do every year we still love the old things the best. We can't ever leave out cliff jumping. By the end of the summer those cliffs were high!!

Jordan's 10th Birthday

Most summers Jordan's birthday rolls around when we are at the cabin. This year was no exception except that it was the best birthday at the cabin ever because he had his best buddy Grant with him for the week as well as his best cousin Cody! Of course we can't forget his favourite brother either.

We had a glow stick and sparkler dance party on the dock.

Later on when we were back in Calgary Jordan and his friend William (who are only 1 week apart in age) had a joint birthday party with Grant and Adam and they went mini golfing and had donuts for a birthday cake. What a fun group of boys.

July 4th in Utah!

We had decided to make a trip to Utah for July 4th to go the Stadium of Fire. Carrie Underwood was performing and the girls love her music. Just before it was time to leave Grandpa bought a 40 foot motorhome and so we travelled in style to Utah. It was so fun to have the space in the motorhome to travel in with a bathroom on hand and a fridge stocked with food and pop. The kids thought it was soooooo great!!

On the afternoon of July 4 we went for a picnic up the canyon with Sonya's family.

It was a beautiful hot day and the river felt really good to cool us off.

We played all kinds of fun games and even Kailey was able to participate despite her broken wrist.

It was horrible to be in the heat with a cast on her arm.

Of course little Lucy was everybody's favourite!

My boys!

It was so fun to watch them play football together.

They would draw up plays and execute all kinds of running plays and complex handoffs.

And then the celebration when they scored! A little hip bumping in the air!

That evening we went to the BYU stadium to see the Stadium of Fire. Carrie Underwood was amazing and it was the first concert the kids had been to. The fireworks were amazing too!