Our Wonderful Non-wintery Pre-Christmas Caribbean Cruise

Please enjoy these pictures from our cruise. We left our valley with no snow and came home to tons of it!!!! We were so warm while we were gone!

Merry Christmas One and All!!!

Here are some Christmas morning photos. We got up at 5am and had a great time looking in our stockings and opening presents. Stockings are always the best part of Christmas for we Barneys and that is what we look at first. It was so fun having Blake and Lindsey and Caleb and Spencer with us this year.

It was a snowy, blizzarding day and Russell had to take Blake and family to Ririe to Lindsey's parents and Colby had to head to Jackson to Jim's house for the Christmas missionary phone call. Russell drove to Swan Valley and had to turn back due to a road closure so they came back home and traveled to Ririe by way of Rexburg. Although Colby got to Jackson she had to spend the night because the pass closed while she was there. I haven't talked to Colby since she talked to Jim or I would give a Jim update to you all. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas, we sure did!

Christmas Morning at the Barneys

Here are a few photos from Christmas morning. It was so great having Blake and Lindsey here with their little Caleb and Spencer. We got up around 5 am and had lots of fun looking in stockings and unwrapping gifts. Santa was pretty good to all of us. We had a fun morning and our breakfast was Karla's yummy baked oatmeal. It was a blizzarding day here and Blake and Lindsey and Colby has traveling to do so that was a bit scary. Russe

A Bunch of Christmas Smilers

Hello and Merry Christmas, here we are on Christmas Eve, aren't we just adorable? Just wait for the Christmas Day photos!

Thanksgiving in Kuna

Here we are stuffing ourselves with a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. I just can't believe it is already more than a week since we were in Kuna for Thanksgiving. This month is flying by already. We will be gone on our vacation in 6 days so we are getting excited for that. Mostly we are excited to pick up Blake and Lindsey in Salt Lake next Friday night. Isn't Christmas the best time of the year?

Merry Christmas from Russell, DeEtte, Brittany, Colby and our dancing dog, Sophie

Okay, so this is my new favorite thing, these Jibjabs, sorry. Anyway,please remember to pause our blog music so you can enjoy we five really skinny dancing elves!

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Only in Teton Valley will you find a cow in your backyard!

We went out our front door on Saturday and guess what we found? A herd of cows coming fast into our yard. Colby herded them out of our yard into an empty field by our house, so far so good. Well, we went out into our backyard a little while later and there was one cow in our yard and another on its way into our yard. It was so funny, I was just a little worried though that we would end up with all that herd of cows in our back yard so Colby chased them out. I just wish I would have had my camera then because its not very often you find a cow in your backyard!

Happy Birthday Russell

Russell celebrated his 52nd birthday this month. We had cake and ice cream at a Rook party we attended on the Saturday before his birthday. The cake was Grandma Munson's really yummy lemon cake, Russell's favorite. On Monday, we met Brittany in Rexburg and went to dinner on his birthday. It was fun to be together and we had a nice little visit with Brittany that night. Happy birthday Honey!!!

Wedding update, or no date...

I almost can't believe I am posting this but Brittany and Gabe have decided not to get married. It is kind of crazy when I think of all the letters and packages she sent him on his mission and how anxious she was for him to get home. They are just not happy together like you should be when you are engaged so I am proud of her for recognizing she needed to do something different. Just wanted everyone to know.

Sort of after the fact but this is a real tearjerker!

If you know our family you know Colby has been dating Jim since February 2007. They are pretty close and spent lots of the last couple of months together. I asked him one day if he thought they should quit being together so much before he leaves so it wouldn't hard for them and he said no, they were going cold turkey. It was more like a bawling, really sad, cold turkey! He went into the MTC on October 15th and these photos are from October 14th. He left our house to get set apart for his mission and his family left for Provo after that. There were two really sad kids here when that all happened! It was even really sad for me. The good new is that he loves the MTC and is loving learning the Spanish language. Jusy thought you might like to know.....

Winter is on it's way...

For good or bad we have had our first big snow storm and it is way to early!!!!! We are not ready for the snow yet so hopefully it is just here for a day or two and is now on its way somewhere else. PLEASE!!!!!!

We take a roadtrip to Provo, Utah for a really fun BYU football game.

Because it was Jim's birthday and he loves BYU football and we were given 6 tickets to a BYU football game and also because he leaves for his mission in three days from today,we headed down to Provo on Saturday, October 11th, for the BYU, New Mexico football game. (whew, that was a long sentence) It turned out to be quite an adventure because we forgot the tickets at our house in Victor so had to drive home from Idaho Falls and get them and that was just the beginning of the excitement. It was fun though because as you can see from the pictures we all had BYU Quest t-shirts to wear and I think we looked really cute in them. It was fun being back at the football stadium as Russell and I haven't had many opportunities to return there since we graduated 30 years ago,(could it possibly be that long?) We told Colby and Brittany how we used to take Eric to the football games and bundle his all up and tuck him under the bleachers in his car seat, now that was a long time ago, (he turned 29 a couple of weeks ago). Colby and Jim said we could come to the games with them when they are at school at the Y in 2 1/2 years from now. Jim loves BYU football so much he says they are going to have their wedding reception at the Levelle Edward Stadium, guess we had better start saving our money, HA. Jim's dad was able to go with us so it was a fun chance for them to spend some time together before he leaves for his mission.

LOTOJA, need I say more...

For the past many months Russell and Meredith have been training for a 206 mile bike ride that starts in Logan, UT and ends in Jackson Hole, Wy. (hence:LOTOJA) Due to injuries and dehydration they did not cover the whole 206 miles but they sure did a heck of a job trying. I am so proud to those two, they felt bad they did not finish the whole race but all I can say is you sure did a lot better than the rest of the world, (except the other 998 riders that entered). You have nothing to be ashamed of guys and next year you'll know a whole lot more of what to expect. My job was the car driver that met them from pit stop to pit stop, and boy was I good!!!!! Anyway good job Russell and Meredith, love you. MOM

August ends and turns into September.......

We were able to celebrate the close of summer this year with a visit from my dear sisters Kim and RaeJean and their really great spouses, Mike and Don. We had a fun time together and were able to visit some of the beautiful places around the Jackson Hole, WY area. Sometimes its just good to sit and chat with your sisters and it did me a world of good. Thanks for coming over girlies!

Meet Horse Wrangler, Colby Barney

Colby has taken a job for the month of August as a horse wrangler at the AOK Corral in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She jumped right in and started working from 7am to 7pm with an hour drive back and forth each way. She works 6 days a week, having only Sundays off. She leaves the house at 6am and gets home in the late hours of the evening. (Jimmey my love's house is on the way home so she usually makes a pit stop there on the way home.) I guess she is a real cowgirl for a month. These pictures were taken on Saturday, August 9th, 2008. Easton, Saria, and I drove over and visited her that day. The kids were thrilled to get to take a little horsey ride!

Happy Birthday to Me!

So I had my birthday in June and turned 50. Is that crazy or what? Anyway I wanted to show you what Russell paid for and Colby and Jim made me for my birthday. They built 10 of these tables for a motel in Jackson and made really good money doing it, but they were kind enough to build them for me for my birthday for cost only. They turned out really nice. Jim designed them and he and Colby spent many a night building the tables for their costumer. Thanks and good job guys!

Jim gets the call....

We drove over to Jackson last week to lunch to be there when Jim announced his mission call. He and Colby already had read the letter and knew where he was going so they just had some fun having everyone guess where they thought he would be. He was pretty excited! He is going to the Texas, McAllen mission, spanish speaking. He reports to the MTC on October 15, 2008.

A Month in Revew

Okay, July has been the out of town, company coming, house cleaning, driving all over tarnation months. (it was a fun though) Now I am happy to say I am in the staying at home, cleaning house, taking care of everything to get ready to go back to school month. July was so fun, it was fun get to see so many dear family members. We had the Munson family reunion which was so great. I just love all those dear aunts and uncles of mine!!!! and cousins. It was so fun to see them for a few days. Brittany and Colby were able to go the reunion with me and they had a blast. It was a great time for each of us.

We also had the Barney family reunion here at our house and had a good time having Russell's family here for a few days. We were able to go see the Bar J Wranglers, a absolute favorite and just let me tell you, Brittany and Colby and Jim were laughing their heads off. Those wranglers are pretty entertaining. We went to Yellowstone also and then had a bbq here for those that were here already and a few more that drove over for dinner. It was fun having them here seeing everyone growing up.

Last week I was at education week at BYUI and an alumni ambassador training meeting in Rexburg. In case you don't know I love that place and had a great time while there. It was a good time because I got to learn about all the construction that is going on and all the changes that have and will be happening at that great school. Colby has decided to attend there in January so that is exciting.

Jimmey my love, (well actually Colby's love) got his mission call last week. He will be serving in the Texas McAllen mission, spanish speaking. He reports to the MCT on October 15th. That is pretty exciting for him!

We were able to see Royce and AubRee on Saturday in Idaho Falls. They were there attending a wedding for one of AubRee's cousins. They will be moving to California this weekend and are excited and nervous about that. Back to school they go after working in Washigton state all summer. Good luck to them!

So that pretty much raps up what has been going on here for the last few weeks. Now...I will add a few photos to compliment this fine blog.

Royce, AubRee & Grace come to visit....

We have had a fun week having Roycie, AubRee and the cutest baby ever, Grace, here. We did a lot of fun stuff but will not think it is so fun when we put them on the airplane July 4th at 7:00 am. Here are a few pics of their really cute little family.

Something Fun to Try

click on this to find out about yourself. What a surprise there are not any other DeEtte Barneys in the US. There are 21 Russell Barneys.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?