Here are a few pictures from our recent trip to Utah. It was great to catch up with  many of you while there. Sorry that the post is short! 

Enjoying the little schoolhouse in the museum

Playing football with long lost buddies.

Visiting with Great Grandma, who we adore

Pumpkins that we carved with family

Loving the chilly canyon air

Off to the rescue at the Treehouse Museum

Proper technique at the rodeo!

The bull's a little more difficult - hang on!

Learnin' the ropes of farmin'

Playing a fisherman, a starfish and a dragon king in an impromptu play.  Stars!

Playground fun with Matthew

Sweet sisters



Ye haw!

I have a weakness for the word free.

I've been contemplating this word lately: FREE. I got an email for a contest from Cottonbabies (where I got this little green diaper for cheap because there was something imperfect about it).

The email said I could get some cute little Bumgenius 4.0s for free (I've wanted to try them, but I bought the allotment of diapers that we need). All I needed to do was spread the word about it in a creative way, aka, a blog post. I also entered by writing something lame on facebook.

But it got me to thinking about the word itself. Especially because I was thinking about entering the contest yesterday, September 11th. We took our oldest two kids to an Orchestral concert last night that had a pictorial tribute about 9/11 and lots of beautiful and patriotic music (and it was free--though we did make a donation)! But I was observing how it was emphasized that we live in the land of the free.

Some of twins' friends sang in a choir featuring the song "Simple Gifts" which I came to love as a girl from Aaron Copeland's music. Here are the lyrics: 'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free, 'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gain'd, To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd, To turn, turn will be our delight, 'Til by turning, turning we come round right.

This song is a religious Shaker tune that is referring to "the gift" of their faith. Freedom is obviously a gift also, so I thought that it was a beautiful tribute expressing American patriotism.

In contemplating all of this, I thought about how often the word free is mentioned in the scriptures. Here are a few: Romans 8:2 "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

John 8:31-36 "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for eve; but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

2 Nephi:27 "Wherefore men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself."

Helaman 14:30 "And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free."

God had a hand in the direction of how this country was established, paving the way for religious freedom and human rights which many other countries have now also incorporated into their governments. God also gave his Son as the perfect example of how to live, and gave us the freedom to choose whether we would follow. While I know I make mistakes in my ability to choose, and I'm learning that even things touted as free have their cost, (though it isn't always monetary), I am so grateful that I have the chance to experience what the word free means.

Miss Sweetie got her three month pics...

She is a busy, social, little gal, usually wiggling, growling, grunting or cooing. She smiles at anyone in her radar, and will laugh in delight if you talk to her or play with her. Sleep is becoming less desirable (I don't know what she thinks she will miss), but if you cuddle her, she may eventually sleep in your arms for awhile. :) Eating is still the main mode, of course, and she does it frequently, though sometimes distractedly, stopping to chat with mom or see who is around.

She rolls over from tummy to back, though she'll often wiggle around on her tummy, lifting her head and inching her way off the blanket. She will sit up for several seconds if she's positioned just right, and will pull her head up to do a few crunches when she's laying down. She loves to push off of things so that she's standing.

She is quite petite, though long. At two months, she weighed around ten pounds; I'm guessing she now weighs twelve. People often say she now looks most like her bro. Andrew. She is happy to wear her cloth diapers, and will often growl a little when she's too wet, or grunt to let me know she'd prefer not to fill up her pants with that gooey stuff, so we'll go to the potty chair where she waits to push it out until she's in the right position! She is quite the character!

I'm still not allowed to eat most dairy products (though yogurt seems to be okay!) because she has bloody stools when I do, but we've worked out some compromises (like part of a pizza ordered without cheese :?, or I have a different treat when the rest of the family has ice cream, etc.). I really don't mind soymilk and such, and I wasn't the ultimate milk drinker before anyway, so it's liveable for now. She's definitely worth it, just like all the little sacrifices we make for our kids!

The kids wanted to do a video. . .

. . . so we made one. It is short and sweet, but is better than many Hollywood productions. Warning that is PG rated for butchery and assorted silliness. I also tacked on a photo collage of recent photos if you're interested.

Also, we've never done this before, so there is a good chance that it won't work and will be a false alarm. We hope not. :)
For those of you recieving this via emai, sorry for clogging your inboxes. You can probably best view it from the blog, gibbyfam.blogspot.com.

Love y'all!

Costa Rica Report

Well since my beautiful wife already announced I'd be giving a travel report, here goes. :)

Although 80% of the time was work in the warehouse of our factory, I did spend a little time out experiencing the country. On Saturday, I did a one day trip into the jungle to see what it was like.




First we drove through the "cloud forest," a high altitude rain forest usually eveloped by clouds.


The jungle there was about 60 or so feet high, with very very dense trees, vines, and everything you'd expect in a jungle, except that it was fairly cool, about 65%. I wasn't so much raining as misting.

At one point we passed a small river bed with two parallel rivers running through it. One was bright white and foamy, the other was a little larger and deep mud colored. Apparently, they share the same channel for about 10 miles before they finally join. It made for quite the picture, although I didn't have my camera ready. :(

Finally we stopped and climbed into a boat, which we took down the river for an hour and a half. Along the river banks there were all sorts of cool fauna, including lots of howler monkeys, an iguana in a tree, some cool birds, and a goat. I don't know this, but I think the crocodile was a crock, meaning a planted fake.
When we got to the jungle hut, we rested and ate lunch (gallo pinto, chicken, and sweet potatoes), then rode some horses into the jungle.

After 20 minutes, we got to a huge tree by a meadow. We climbed the ladder 60 feet high and started cruising through the jungle canopy on zip lines. We did this for an hour or so before we'd had enough. It reminded me of the Star Wars world of Endor with the trees up in the canopy of the jungle.

About 45 feet up.

Here's a poison dart frog. I didn't pick him up!If you're still reading, I apologize for the long post! I'll also throw in a few pictures from my Sunday walk home from church to show you some of the local architecture.