Grand Canyon Day 1

Today David and Nathan start at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for the 1st day of their 4 day backpacking trip rim to rim. They will come out the South Rim on Tuesday. They have been planning this for two years and are finally doing it. They had to apply for their backcountry pass months ago in order to make the trek. David has been working out for two months so that he is in really good shape for the trip. He even took his hiking boots to the gym for the last couple of weeks so he could simulate the conditions of the hike. I doubt I'll hear from him until they come out, so watch next week for pictures.

At the same time, Alice is on a sheep farm somewhere in the outback of Australia, last I heard. She is traveling with David's sister, Joyce, and Joyce's fiancee, Bruce. You never know where in the world our family will pop up next.

Happy Halloween

We started preparing for Halloween last week by having Sinister Ravioli with Pepperoni, Eye of Newt Salad, and Bones for dinner.

Parker as Ceasar for the ward trunk-or-treat.

McKay was in charge of the mummy wrapping station.

Bryson's friend from school-Carson, Bryson, and his friend from church-Duncan. Bryson dressed up as Murtag from the Eragon book series. His main objective this Halloween was to be a character where he could spray his hair black.

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Want to hear a funny little "whoops"? Bryson has started playing with Carson recently, but I don't know much about his family. I know I see Carson's Dad picking him up every time I pick Bryson up from school. So I wondered what kind of job he had that he could pick up his kids everyday at 3. Anyway, Carson's mom left a message on Tuesday night asking if Bryson could come to their church Halloween party on Wednesday. Our trunk-or-treat was on Wednesday, so I called to decline, but found out that their's was earlier in the day and Bryson could go to both. Of course, I then invited Carson to trunk-or-treat at our church. His Dad seemed to hesitate, so I said, just drop him off with Bryson if he can go to give him some time to think about it. He did bring him over and they seemed to have a great time at both churches' events. When I dropped off Carson afterward, I told his Dad I was sorry he brought home so much candy and mentioned that we had about 100 kids at our event. When we got home, Bryson told me about the event at Carson's church. There were games like ours, but not as many people and not very many kids. At the end Bryson said that Carson's Dad gave a talk and told them how we are like pumpkins and the gooey, gross insides are like sins and we can clean them out by repenting. Then we are like a jack-o-lantern and the light of Christ can dwell in us for all to see. Nice analogy. Bryson mentioned that Carson's Dad seemed like he was in charge. It then dawned on me that Carson's Dad is probably the Pastor of one of our local churches. That's fine, except I invited his son to our church activity, then told him how many more people we had come to ours! Whoops!


I know this is a little blurry. He didn't have all his accessories on for the picture. Murtag is an archer and fighter.

Spooky Graveyard Pudding for dessert at McKay's Halloween Party.

McKay's Halloween party on Halloween night. Everett, Lucas, Adam, and McKay in the picture; also Chris, Andrew, and Neal came. I warned them that I had inventoried all the eggs, shaving cream, and toilet paper, so I would know if they decided to sneak out and pull some Halloween tricks.

Happy Halloween!

Oooo, Ahhh...Fall!

We've been soaking in all the fall colors.

David loves the trees that have green on the inside, orange as you make your way out the branches and red on the tips of the branches. This one was a great example.

This was a picture of the Helderberg Escarpment from a view area right as the leaves were starting to change.


Tuesday night we got snow in the higher elevations (like 50 ft above our house). David got these amazing pictures from in front of our neighbor's house.

Happy Autumn!

One last Birthday Party for the birthday season.

Dad's Birthday dinner at Dorothy's

New running shoes! From Ben, Dorothy, and family

Dorothy's husband John and his daughter Krissy.

Yep, that's Dorothy caught in the act! Eating whip cream right out of the can.

Bryson loves to visit the dogs at Dorothy's

Dorothy and John just had a new porch put on their house with the new retaining wall and garden.

John let David take his motorcycle for a spin.

(That's Ben by our van)

Going...going...gone

A Moment of Silence, Please.

Happy Birthday, David!

Yep, we made him cook his own dinner. Why is it that guys are always eager to cook when there is a chance of a combusible incident?

Haaaappy Biiiiirthdaaaaay, tooooo yoooooooou!

School Board Presidents need to watch what they say

For those that don't know, David was elected to our local School Board 3 years ago. Right at the beginning of his tenure, a State audit discovered the former Superintendent had been misusing school funds. Throw in a teacher having inappropriate relations with a student and it was quite an exciting first year. At the beginning of his second year, he was elected School Board President. Since then it hasn't been quite as rough, although they are currently operating with an interim Superintendent and an interim Elementary School Principal while they try to fill those positions.

Anyway, I just ran across an interesting article from back in February that was reporting on the School Board's discussion about whether they should shorten the School Board member's tenure from 5 years to 3 or 4. Unfortunately the reporter accurately captured David's comment.

Gibson, the board president, who had been a proponent of three years, said, "If people think it takes three or four years to be competent, I have to wonder what kind of fools elected me to be president in my second year."
(The Altamont Enterprise, February 21, 2008)

I think David offended the School Board and the entire Voorheesville voting public with that one. David's comment after seeing what was printed in the paper was, "I really have to watch what I say". YA THINK!?!

For the record, David did accomplish his objective to reduce the tenure down to 4 years.

Trouble at the Toy Fair

Apparently while David was innocently walking the toy show, some Teletubbies snuck up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder, and attacked him with a hug from 3 sides. Later they were spotted bragging about their hugging spree to anyone who would listen.

Don't worry, David was rescued from this Teletubbie humiliation, by his good pal Buzz.

Donations can be made to the "David Gibson Mental Health Fund" at your local Key Bank (if Key bank still exists in the morning) to help his family off set the costs of treatment for post traumatic tubbie syndrome.

Fun with Grandpa and Grandma

My Dad and Nell spent a week with us and have recently headed back to Utah. Their visit started out with McKay's Birthday Party for his friends. Check out the cake.

Yes, that's McKay's face on a Space Chimp body. He's been experimenting with Photo shop.

McKay's friends Lukas, Adam, Michael, Chris, and Bryson. We watched General Conference on Saturday and Sunday including going over to the church for the Sunday morning session and a potluck lunch. Although we have satellite specifically so we can watch conference at home, we wanted them to experience at least part of Conference in the true "mission field" way.

Sunday evening we had an intense game of phase 10.

While the kids were at school during the week, Nell and I spent time in New Family Search, Ancestral File, and PAF doing some family history detective work with great success. Dad spent time reading a book I got for him called "Mormon Scientist" about Henry Eyring. I didn't have any idea when I gave him the book, but he said he knew of Henry Eyring when Dad was getting his bachelor's degree at the University of Utah. He knew him by sight and reputation. Henry Eyring was head of the Graduate Department at the time Dad was there. Dad said he held a race every year. As he read the book he came across pictures of one of the races. It's always hard to pick books for people that they'll like, but I nailed it this time, accidentally.
Monday we went to Liberty Ridge Farm to go though the corn maze.

Which way do we go?

The boys like Liberty Ridge because they like the rat wheels. McKay's not going to let Bryson win!

All the boys had to challenge mom. In this picture it's Parker's turn while McKay gets video footage. Tuesday we went for a drive to see the fall colors while the kids were at school.

Dad and Nell at the Thatcher Park overlook. When the boys got home from school we went apple picking at Indian Ladder Farms.

The visit ended with Dad giving blessings to each of the boys and his favorite daughter, me! What a great end to a great week.

Shanghai Toy Fair

David's been spending this week at the Shanghai Toy Fair in China. They are pushing their HDXRF (high-definition x-ray fluorescence) Lead in Toys Analyzer. They had quite a bit of interest. You can see part of the instrument in the left side of the booth; the head of the instrument is orange.



Anyone who is familiar with XOS is aware that one of their strengths is their patented technologies. Along with great technologies comes people who will challenge the patents so they can use the technology. For this reason XOS has 2 full time patent (intellectual property, IP) attorneys along with outside law firms to help with litigation. As a joke they sent back a picture to Jeff Klembczyk, their chief in-house patent attorney, of what life could be like for him if he doesn't win a case he's working on.

Lonely IP booth. I think it's funny!