The 2024 Gibson family portrait featuring Tanner, Taji, Shane, and Sawyer.
Shane Gibson
My family has lived in many places. Each is special on the journey of our marriage and the lives of our two boys. We’ve bought. We’ve sold. Lived in a big city. Lived in a cabin in the woods where “the wind blew through the walls,” as my son told a young visiting teacher to his class. There was concern about our living conditions from the teacher. We rented. And bought again.
An element of nature always seemed to navigate our home choice. Or you might say my love of nature persuaded our living arrangements. My dad instilled the love of nature in me. He took me hunting and fishing. We walked the farm fields. We vacationed in the Rocky Mountains. We went to the beach. We played outside.
A love of nature is something I shared with my wife when we were dating—she was going to have to take her own fish off the hook at the other end of an 18-foot canoe. A love of nature is something I share with my boys. We’ve been fishing. We’ve been hunting. We’ve been to the Rocky Mountains. We’ve been to the beach. Nature is part of our core.
Our home on five acres in Monroe County is a place we love. We have created a home that is beautiful to us. We have created a home that at times feels like we are on vacation. In fact, people travel many miles to sit on the porch of a neighboring rental cabin to enjoy the beauty of the woods that we enjoy daily.
We wanted a place our boys could call home: a place to spend the rest of their childhood; a place where they could host friends; a place they could come back to visit; a place that one day we may have grandchildren visit.
We found our Sense of Place.
The Gibsons in Chicago. Tanner, making the face, Sawyer, Shane, and Taji.
Taji, Shane, Tanner, and Sawyer Gibson.