Reunion with the Gabrielsen Siblings

 Traditionally, the Gabrielsen siblings gather sometime close to Memorial Day for a sibling reunion.  Dear Patty makes sure this happens each year. It always involves a trip to Cache Valley cemeteries to honor our ancestors- especially our parents.  This year, the reunion was held May 24th-27th.

Tom, Joan, Roger, Pam, John, Hal, Patty, Ken, Kay

We started our reunion at noon, meeting at Cafe' Sabor in Logan.  After yummy Mexican food, we all headed to Logan cemetery.

Patty and Hal's trunk was full of beautiful flowers.  Their son, Evan and his wife, Kelly own a wholesale flower supply in Provo.  They very generously donate flowers for our homage every year.  They are such good, generous people.

Our Grandma and Grandpa Peterson are buried near my parents.

Dear Shonna wanted to see all of her aunts and uncles, so met us at the cemetery.  She was the photographer above, so we could all be in the picture.

We also visited dear Grandma Beena's grave.  Beena was my grandpa Gabrielsen's second wife.  My grandma died when I was just two-years-old.  He remarried Beena when I was a little girl. So Beena was the only Grandma I knew.  She was such a dear lady.  She lived a long time after Grandpa died.  We made an effort to visit her often in Logan after Grandpa died, first in her home, then in an assisted living center.  As you can see by the dates above, she had her foot in three centuries.

My Grandpa and Grandma Gabrielsen

Patty knows lots of stories about our ancestors and told them as we honored them.

Tradition took us next to the USU creamery for ice cream.  Tom entertained us with stories while we ate.  Tom is a master storyteller.

Tradition took us next to Bluebird chocolates.  We have been going there since we were children.  We would always get Merry Widows.

Everyone bought some chocolates, and I think everyone got at least one Merry Widow.

Next, we went out to the Wellsville, Utah cemetery to visit the Parks graves.  Our grandma Libby was raised by the Parks.  Libby's mother died shortly after Libby was born from childbed fever.  Libby's dad gave her to the Parks to raise (Sarah Park was Libby's mom's cousin and they had not been able to have children.)  My grandma Libby loved her "parents."  She spoke so fondly of "Mama Park."  

Because of the delay caused by Ken's knee, we had not been able to visit the Prince's on our way up to Logan, so we stopped there on our way to Patty's.  We had such a fun visit with them.  They fed us a delicious pasta dinner.

Gabbi made yummy cookies.

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home.

These cookies were pretty labor-intensive. They were delicous! We were proud of our Gabbi girl.

Michelle and Gabbi showed us a couple of their Irish dances.  They have been taking Irish dance together on Saturday mornings.

How we love this precious girl.

We then headed down the state to Patty and Hal's to stay until Thursday morning.  I didn't take many pictures, but we had a nice time together.

Deer lounging in Patty and Hal's backyard.

Pam tasting the steak marinade

 The guys golfed each day, and we sisters visited and worked on a book we are making about our parents.  Joan and I divided up the typing/transcribing.  We are both busy working on that now.  I am doing all of my mom's histories, tributes, etc, and Joan is doing all of my dad's.

Joan, Pam, Kay, and Patty

After the guy's golf game on Tuesday, Roger grilled delicious steaks.  The cooks shown above: Salad, Baked potatoes, Grilled steaks, garlic bread.

Happy 70th birthday to my brother John

I made a cake for him  while we were at Shonna's.

On Wednesday night, we went out to a local Indian food restaurant.  A picture was taken, but I didn't get a copy.  

We ended the reunion Thursday morning with breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  It was a delicious breakfast.  
We then all went our separate ways for our homes.
Thank you so much Patty and Hal for hosting us and thanks to all for a nice reunion.