Fair Time!!

Fresh Lemonade

Kyler enjoying his dinner... Chocolate covered strawberry kabobs.....Yummmm
Josh and the girls riding the ferris wheel, minus mom. I get sick!
Feeding the animals at the petting zoo...

Riding the ponies....

Some people ruin all of the fun!

I cannot believe that someone would do this! (Well, I can but it's ridiculous!)

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html

Youth Cultural Celebration

So, I realized that I hadn't written much about working on the Youth Cultural Celebration and since this is my journal I decided I should put some things here so that I don't forget about it. When the announcement that a temple was being built in Twin Falls Pres. Hinkley announced that we would be having a cultural celebration put on by the youth of the church in conjunction with the temple open house and dedication. Many of those youth leaders would have a part in preparing the youth for the event whether it be singing or dancing, sewing costumes, or preparing the set. Our stake was responsible for learning the western swing, square dance, and a line dance. So we started working in March for the event, almost 6 months before it was to happen. There were times when I thought that we would never be ready for a performance of that magnitude. There were also times when I had to make myself go to practices when I was so tired of going. I think that a lot of youth had some of the same feelings as I did. We stuck it out together and man am I glad that I did. It tuned out to be an amazing experience and such a great performance. I will never ever forget watching some of these youth that began with two left feet learn how to dance. There faces were beaming as they shared their joy with our prophet, Pres. Monson. I will always have that moment with me when Pres. Monson entered the arena. It was such a special moment for all of us in attendance.

All of the youth dancers waiting to start the performance.

The Grand Finale.

Part of our stake.

The girls helping the boys look nice.

(I didn't get many pictures...I was running around way too much!!)

Where has the summer gone??

I have been a slacker with this blog the past few weeks. I have been taking some classes in Boise, finishing up dance routines for the dance team and then practicing with them, working on the youth temple celebration, and doing some canning, and getting the girls ready to start school. I feel like I have been going crazy!! All of these things are good things that keep us out of trouble, it just feels like we have no spare time!! For the most part, we are ready to start school and get a normal schedule going. We like routine at our house! Hopefully soon things will slow down and we will get back to normal here.......

Winners!

Okay, the winners of the contest are ..........................

Julie & Karisa!!!

I couldn't pick just one so I drew 2!!

(Julie, I will deliver yours and Karisa email me your address again and I will get your in the mail! I am so excited for you to see your prize!!)

200th Post!!

This is my 200th post!! I guess I should do something different.....So, I will do a little giveaway! We all like to win things every once in awhile, right?? To enter all you have to do is leave a comment here and next Saturday the 16th I will draw a name and send you a little surprise in the mail... Can't wait to hear from you!

Kyler Loves the Twilight series as much as mom.......

Wildfires...

We loaded up the family this afternoon to raft a stretch of the Snake River near Hagerman. We noticed some smoke as we put the raft in the water, but it looked like a small fire up on the butte. As we proceeded down the river we realized that it was a much larger fire. We could see it burning and planes and helicopters began buzzing overhead. As we got nearer to the spot where a new house was located on the river a helicopter hovered over the river to get water in it's bucket. For a stretch of the river we had to proceed slowly as not to get in the way of the helicopters. It was a crazy experience for sure!

Kels, after being thrown in the river...

Kamrin Relaxing...
Big..Bigger...

Biggest...

Helicopters filling up with water:

Barnes Family Olympics

This year we had family Olympics to tie in with the Bejing Olympics. Ours were much different however......we had sack races, water balloon volleyball, egg throws, a crab walk race,and a tug-o-war. There were adult and kid events. We all participated. We even made a family flag and had opening and closing ceremonies. We definitely do some weird things at our reunions, but we never forget them...... and we all have stronger relationships with each other afterwards.

Our Family Flag


Wheelbarrow Race
Tug-O-War
They really do like each other.....
Waiting for our awards.

Potato Sack Races
Kyler watching the craziness....

Kelsie getting her medal.

Barnes Family Water Day

We spent a day in Island Park on the water. We rented a couple of jet skis with tubes and spent the day in the water. The kids always love this part of the reunion the best.

Kelsie playing with dirt.

Kamrin warming up.

Kyler lounging in the sun.

Josh on the jet ski.

Kelsie & Lexi stuck in the tube.

Barnes Family Reubion

We spent a few days at the Big Red Barn in Ashton for Josh's Family Reunion this week. It is always a challenge finding a place that is large enough for all of his family. This place was perfect for our large family and close enough to water and other fun things to do. Josh's parents have always made sure that we spend time each year together. No one questions if they should go or not. They just know that they need to make arrangements to be there. We always have a good time together...

I love to see the temple.....

Our ward took all of our young women......yes, all 22 of them to Salt Lake to do baptisms at the Salt Lake temple this past weekend. We stayed in a hotel, toured temple square and the confrence center, and saw the Joseph Smith movie at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We had a lot of fun together, we have a great group of girls!!!

The Organ in the tabernacle.

The Christus at the Visitors Center.

The temple from the top of the Joseph Smith Building.

All of us that went.

Finally......It's Here!

Breaking Dawn was released at 12:01 am on Saturday! I was so excited!!! I had forgotten that we had an overnight temple trip in Salt Lake on Friday-Saturday. So...me and a few girls from our ward went and camped out at the Barnes & Noble at the Gateway Mall. I was a lot of fun for me to get to spend time with these girls and surprisingly we had a book at about 12:30 am without a reserved copy (The line went super fast) !

(These are the numbered wristbands from Barnes & Noble)

We all went back to the hotel and spent some time reading. I really liked the book, it was a lot different than I had expected it to turn out! Super Good though!