Grandkids come to play, and play and play......

Every summer for the past 6 summers our four oldest grandkids have come to visit for a week.  We try to do every fun thing possible while they are with us. (mostly because we live in a tiny apartment and the addition of four extremely fun, active kids is to much for the little place), there are lots of cool things to explore in our area.   Well this summer has to be ultimate in fun things to do.  Our city has a neat pass you can buy that lets you get into 13 attractions for a reduced price and...I found a Groupon that had this pass on sale so it was even cheaper so I bought us each one and we had a great time.  Now, just so you know, that week is over and Russell and I are on a vacation from that vacation.  It was such a busy week that we needed a rest.  HA!

Monday morning, this was the first official event we attended, breakfast at our church 24th of July celebration, followed by the Days of 47 parade in downtown Salt Lake City.  Then we got in our swimsuits and swam all afternoon.  Something that you just have to do every day with these four little fish/parade watchers.Tuesday we went bowling and I am happy to say I actually broke 100 in both of our games.  We also helped Brittany and Patrick move into their new apartment.  We got some of Brits stuff out of our storage unit to take there and Patrick was moving from one place to another so we helped them move that stuff.  One great find there was tons of snails, they were excellent entertainment for the kids!!!!!  This picture is of a snail race up the stairs at their apartment.

Wednesday, the first Groupon place we went was to the Lion House Pantry where we got a free lunch.  It is located in downtown Salt Lake and is near temple square.  This is walking distance from our apartment so we go there every chance we can. Temple square is a beautiful spot with lots of  memories for Russell and I.  It is were we were married 32 1/2 years ago. These girls especially like going there because there are usually brides and grooms coming out of the temple after getting sealed to each other as well as getting wedding photos, so they like to see all the beautiful brides in their lovely wedding dresses.

Our next stop that day was the Discovery Center at the Gateway Mall.  This is the second visit we have had there and the kids love it.  They spent lots of time in the little grocery store,  Saria was a checker, Myah was a shopper and checker, Easton was a shopper and Ali  stocked the shelves which meant that after each child bought their groceries, she had to put the stuff back on the shelves.  Also, lots of little boys just like to dump all the groceries on the floor so she spent a good amount of time picking up after them.  Another fun thing at the Discovery Center is a mini new-casting center.  You can sit in front of movie camera and read the news, or stand in front of a green screen and do the weather.  The girls love that!!!!   After the Discovery Center we stopped in at the Family History Center at the Joseph Smith Memorial Center and looked up some genealogy for the kids.  It was cool to look at the census records , and other records for their great great great great great great, ( just kidding) grandparents. 

Thursday  found us at the Clarke Planetarium, also at the Gateway Mall.  We were able to explore all the neat things that place has, read about  space, walk on the moon and Mars, and do science experiments.  We watched a 3D IMAX movie about baby elephants and baby orangutans that was very informative and super cute.  Then we watched a  presentation in the dome about space and the planets.  (I think, because I pretty much slept through that!)

After lunch we went to the This Is The Place Heritage Center , up Emigration Canyon and spent the afternoon.  It is a place that teaches about the beginnings of Salt Lake City and life in a earlier time.  There were  lots of hands on stuff to do here in different old houses and cabins and the kids loved it here.  We rode this train around  to see it all then went to all the different places to check them out.  The favorite thing this afternoon was the gold panning, although Easton was quite put out that the gold wasn't real, just iron pyrite or fools gold.  They each did get some though so that was fun.

Friday morning we went to Hoagle Zoo and did a lot of walking around.  It was a fun place to go.  We saw lots of animals but the favorites were tigers, elephants, giraffes and the animated dinosaurs that were on display there for the summer. This big metal elephant the kids are sitting on would squirt water out it's trunk so that was good for getting cooled off at! (Also there was a couple of the dinosaurs that would squirt you!)

Friday afternoon found us at Thanksgiving Point at the Museum of Ancient History.  It is truly an amazing place.  It is full of dinosaur bones, tiny and HUGE.  Some of the displays were out of this world.  Those dinosaurs were gigantic.  The kids are sitting in front of a huge shark that was alive in the dinosaur age.  It was very large, very real looking and very scary!!! It looked like it could just eat you up.  The kids liked this  place a lot.!

       The Fabulous Four
We sure had a great time with the kids.  It was even better because Russell had the whole week off so he could spend it with us. Thanks Ali, Saria, Myah and Easton for spending part of your summer with us.  
        WE LOVED IT  !!!!!!!!    See ya next year.                                                                    

Cosmic Bowling

Saturday night at the bowling alley.  It was cosmic bowling so we wore all the white we could find so we would glow in the dark.  It was pretty fun because the bowling alley was all lit up in neon and even the bowling balls were glowing. 

It was fun spending the day in with Eric and Chandra and Ali and Myah.  We were able to take Jim and Colby along with us so they got to join in the fun.

Here we are all in the dark with the neon lights going........

and here we are with the flash on our camera, it took away all the fun glowing in the dark stuff but is a much better picture of us where you can actually see us. 

New little arrivals........

Our new little grandchildren are here.  We are sure thankful they came safe and sound.  Please meet:

                      Ethan Russell Barney
                Son of Blake and Lindsey Barney

                               

                      Sadie Annebelle Smyth
              Daughter of Meredith and Wes Smyth

What fun to have these sweet little additions to our family.  We haven't been able to go see little Ethan yet but are looking forward to that. We have been able to visit Sadie and she is a little doll.  They are both lucky to come to families that are excited for them to be here. Good luck to you mommies as you get used to having a new addition in the family.  We love you all!

Count Your Many Blessings......

We had a super busy, fun summer this year and got to see all our family.  It started with a visit from Blake and Lindsey and their sweet little kids.  It is a big job for them to come all the way to Utah and Idaho from Ohio and we sure were glad they came.  We love them each so much.  The happy smiles on their faces are one of the things we remember about them all year, when they are far away from us.

 We got to spend part of a week in Sun Valley and were able to have the Idaho grand-kids stay with us.  We did lots of fun stuff with them, went to the movies, played at the park, went swimming, had a bbq, and had sleepovers in our hotel. It was good to be able to spend time with Eric, Chandra and Meredith.  Sure love each of them, they make our lives full and complete.

Then we were able to drive to California to visit Royce and AubRee and Grace.  We went to the beach and had a great day. It was nice and sunny and warm.  We were just happy to get to spend time with them there.  The whole weekend was wonderful.  We sure love our California kids, wish we got to spend more time with them. Actually the drive was not as bad as I thought it would be so maybe we will drive over again soon....

After California it was our week to have the Idaho grand-kids come and spend some time with us.  We spent time at our house in Idaho  and then time in Salt Lake.  We went horse back riding with Colby at the AOK Corral in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, went to the drive-in to the movie, and played in the hot tub and played with Brittany. They were so good there to help clean our house as we were trying to get it ready to be sold. We visited the Utah state house and did a fun  matching game there, went to dinner and spent time walking around temple square and learning about the history of the pioneers.

We count all this family among our greatest blessings!!! We are so thankful for each one of them.  

One more blessing that has come about in the last few days is that our home in Idaho is sold. The sale is not yet complete but the offer has been signed and things are in the works.  We know Heavenly Father has been looking out for us because there are hundreds of homes for sale there and we were able to get our sold in less than two weeks.  How thankful we are that we are being looked after and know it is due to a loving Father who answer prayers. It is pretty much a miracle for us and we are very grateful.  WOW! 

Our Weekend Adventures with the Grandkids

Scrapbook design made with Smilebox

The last two weekends we have been able to visit Eric and Meredith and the grandkids.  We had tons of fun and have been glad for the invitations to come and visit.

Pumpkin Carving at Grandpa Greats!

I was in the Boise area for the state soccer tournament so got to spend some time at my parent's home. One night Saria and Easton came over and we carved these scary pumpkins. It was a lot of fun. Easton was pretty much disgusted by the guts of the pumpkin and was wanting to wipe his hands off every few minutes. They each did their own and thought it was a treat!

Ohio State Barneys, Revisited

We had the opportunity to spend several days in Ohio visiting Blake and Lindsey and their super cute, super nice, super duper little boys, Caleb and Spencer. It was such fun to wake up to the little boys ready to climb in bed with us and snuggle.

We did lots of fun stuff like go to a 3D movie, (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs)

We fed the ducks, ate blue ice cream, and ate at one of our favorite Ohio restaurants, Schmidts, a German place, and went to a Cincinnati Reds, St. Louise, Cardinals baseball game.




It was nice spending time with Blake and Lindsey, thanks for a fun weekend!!!!

Miley and the Girls

Finally, the Secret is Out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My granddaughters love Miley Cyrus, not just kind of love her but totally love her so many weeks ago I bought tickets to the Miley Cyrus concert for my three oldest granddaughters and myself. Since then I have been sending anonymous postcards to them with little bits of information about the coming event, for a long time they had no idea where the postcards were coming from and finally figured that out last week. Well, the concert is tomorrow, and this is a video of my blondie granddaughters getting the final postcard in the mail today telling them who the concert is. They were pretty excited. Their parents are bringing them to SLC tomorrow for the fun. Enjoy!!!

Grandkids Week

 

Splish Splash I was taking a bath.......

We had Eric and Meredith and families over for Mother's Day. It was fun having them all here. While they were here I walked into my bathroom to check on the girls that were taking a bath and this is what I found. I think the water was about up to their chest and the rest was bubbles, bubbles, bubbles. Poor Myah can hardly see over the top of all those crazy bubbles. They were having a blast though and those bubbles just seemed to disappear after a while.

SPRING BREAK 2009

Here are some photos from our trip to Ohio. We had a great time and did lots of fun things while there. Our favorite was our visit to the Kirtland temple. If you ever get a chance to visit there you need to go. It was awesome. We had a great time with Blake, Lindsey, Caleb and Spencer. It was so fun!!!!!

Our Family Talent Show

We had quite an entertaining talent show over the holiday put together by Ali and Saria so I thought I might put a few of the outstanding entries on the blog. Please know that Easton eventually stands right side up. (He is popping bubble wrap.) Here you are, da ta da da.... the first ever Barney family talent show.

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!