Snipets of September

September is flying by in a blur! Unfortunately, the only things I remember are the events that I took pictures of. Oh, and Mindy and Ryan are going to give us another grandchild in April! WhaHoo! Oh, and Brooklynn moved her room upstairs!

Here is Sam sporting a bow!

Oaklee turned FIVE years old! Her wish to have a 'fish' party came true when many of her friends and family members came for swimming, pizza, prizes and pinata'!

This is Brooklynn's birthday dinner at Pita Jungle.

Allison and Brooklynn's birthdays are just days apart so we celebrated them both with cakes from Cold Stone! DIVINE!

For her birthday, I took Oaklee shopping to Toys R Us. She was throwing toys in the cart right and left, but in the end she chose these pj's, slippers, a movie and a big "My Kitty" stuffed animal. Then she chose to go to Chick Fillet for her birthday dinner with Grandpa, Brooklynn and me.

Brooklynn, her friend Analise, John and I went to a Suns game where we got to sit in the All-You-Can-Eat section. B had FOUR hot dogs!



Darling Sam and sweet baby Andi, our two youngest Barry babies.

Brooklynn's 14th birthday "surprise" party. She knew all about it! It was still fun though.

September has been super and I'm thankful! Oh, and I got to go to CA to help my best friend, Connie tend her grandchildren for three days. We went to the Newport Beach Temple, had a movie marathon and laughed much!

What is Brooklynn all about?

#1. Being a leader-in charge!

#2. FAMILY (Barry family reuion May 2009, Heber, AZ)

#3. Making her Dora movies. (July 2009 at ASU West)

#4. Watching, quoting, being Sponge Bob

#5. Friends (Ashley, Lauren, Christie, Hayley and B at girl's camp eating ring pops!)

#6. Devin and Allison...they often have her over to their house for movie making and just to hang out. They took her to San Diego this summer, Brian and Scottee took her to Disneyland in the Spring! She is one lucky duck!

#7. A sweet girl when she chooses to be! (This is Brooklynn at 4 months old.) These are just a small portion of what Brooklynn is all about. There is so much to this wonderful girl!

HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY BROOKLYNN. YOU ARE THE BEAT IN MY HEART!

LOVE, MOM

Blessings, Happiness, Gratitude

This is Cassander, our 13th grandchild, born July 30, to Greg and Alli. Isn't she beautiful!

John and I took Brooklynn on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera and had the happiest time!
Our first port was Cabo St. Lucas where we went in a glass-bottom boat and saw colorful fish and amazing beaches. We snorkled at Pelican beach. I'm sorry you all missed the embarring scenes here...me trying to climb back into the small tour boat and all of us hiding behind a towel while we changed into our swimming suits on the beach! (We didn't know if we were going to get to snorkel so we had just brought our suits along.) Our ship (in the background) was incredible!

Our second port was Matzalan. This is the meat market! It stunk to high heaven! All the meat is in the open air, in 85% humidity and high 80 temperatures. I would definitely have to be vegetarian if I lived there!

We ate in the dining room each evening with another two women that we were assigned to eat with. We enjoyed getting to know them. Brooklynn was so brave. She tried snails (and liked them!) duck, brussel sprouts...

Our third and final port was Puerta Viarta (Sp?). Brooklynn had her heart set on doing an extreme adventure so we all got in the back of an open, old army truck and went to the mountains where we rappeled, climbed ladders and crossed steep, skinny bridges, and zipped 9 times from tree top to tree top. I felt sorry for our guides who had to babysit me so I didn't kill myself! But John and I were thrilled that we got through the entire course. (Remember the humidity! It played a huge part in me almost passing out! Fun times!)

There was an ice skating rink aboard so Brooklynn skated twice and climbed the rock wall twice, which was huge! We worked out at the gym, went swimming in the salt water pools, watched fabulous entertainment and feel very blessed for the experience of it all!

It' good to be back!!! Since my last post we've had some fun adventures. This is the 4th of July parade in Provo, UT where we had four family reunions in a week, went to Lagoon, celebrated my sister's birthday, and just had a blast with famil and friends!

LAGOON My sister Nancy, Brooklynn, me and John

Girl's camp! Our ward had 18 girls. I went up for one day and loved every minute (except when B burped in testimony meeting.)

Camp GoGo at Peter Piper Pizza

Adorable Sam!

Camp GoGo

Our first camp GoGo was a lot of fun! I think that each camp will get better and better, provided I keep learning and rest up first! Sleep was the only thing lacking with our group of six. I hope they all got LONG naps yesterday! When driving home from Peter Piper Pizza, Oaklee, Ella and Elle said that their best friends were their "moms and dads and sisters and brother" (in Ella's and Oaklee's case) It was so sweet to hear them say 'I love my family. They are my best friends." I learned that since I don't live at Elle's house then I'm not her family! (I know she loves me anyway!)

Oaklee and I were talking and this is how it went:
Oaklee, "How many babies did you have?"
Me, "Seven".
O, "Wow, that's a lot! How many did you get to keep?"
Me, "All of them."
O, "What were their names?"
Me, "Greg, Brian, Adam... At that time Oaklee excitedly said, "Hey my dad's name is Brian!"
Me, "He was one of my babies!" It was so much fun to see the "I get it" look on her face!

I LOVE each one of my grandchildren and am so thankful to my children for giving me so much joy through them.

Here is a run-down of most of our activities: Made "I love you" key chains and bracelets and drew pictures and framed them for their parents. Played SpongeBob Bingo complete with prizes, had a talent show with Charlee in charge (No surprise there! :)) Oaklee danced, John played the accordion, Ella and Nina played the Fisher Price piano, and Charlee played the big piano. (Elle was too busy playing Barbies!) We went to Peter Piper Pizza and they all got tickets from the games. (Not nearly enough tickets in their eyes!) Had popcorn and movies, dress-up and toy time, swimming, poppers, bubbles, balloons...Whew!

Nap time for me! (I'll post pictures when I get a card reader!)

No pictures-no blogs

I can't find my USB connection cable so I can't get pictures off of my camera. :(

Devin is 25!

Allison gave Devin a surprise party for his 25th birthday. She had everyone write a note saying what  they like about him. “He’s nice, he wrestles with me, he makes good food, he is the life of the party, he is a good father and husband, has a good attitude about work, he makes everything fun,” was just a few of the comments that were made. Every one of those comments are true. Devin is a real joy!    Cheesy? That’s okay!

Allison and Brooklynn made everyone a ‘Devin on a stick’ with a party hat so that when Devin came in we all yelled “surprise!” with Devin’s face surprising himself!

Charlee made this big Happy Birthday poster and a crown for each member of the family, complete with jewels!

Rich stole the show with his speedo!

New Program

I am posting from my new program called Windows Live Writer that Rich just setup for me.  It is really easy to use.

More on Barry Family Reunion

For the LIVE action of our family reunion go to Devin and Allison's blog. Allison really puts together a great show. Also watch Devin and Allison's family movie. HOOT! Brooklynn also posted our video (John, B and I) on her blog. John doing hip hop is worth a look-n-see!

Barry Family Reunion

Rich, Treslee, Nina and Elle
Greg, Bastian and Alli

Ella, Adam, Anya and John
Our Barry Boys Devin and Sam, Adam, Rich, Brian and Greg
Brooklynn on the zip-line
Water balloon bounce
Volleyball Olympian


We had four glorious and fun days at the Barry Family Reunion in Heber, AZ.
Each family had been challenged to make a video to show at FHE. It was such a riot to see what everyone had come up with. That will definitely have to be a tradition. (Thanks Allison!) We all created tie-dyed shirts with our Barry Family Reunion name ironed on. (Thanks Alli!) We played 'paintball wars' with giant marshmallows dunked in flour. We had a 'talent show'! (We aren't the Jim Barry family!) We had a sing-a-long with Alli playing Beatle songs on the guitar. We played water balloons. There were many games of badmitton and volleyball, walks, zip line rides, archery... We got up close to a little dead mouse and humingbird and a real LIVE tarantula! He even let us pet him!
We found a closet full of dress-ups and made a music video. Who knew how much the guys would get into it!


Brian and Scottee
Mindy and Ryan
Just as Devin was preparing our lunch (fajitas) out on the camp fire, it started pouring rain and then turned to hail!!! The fajitas were delicious anyway, especially because of Devin's sacrifice!
Our Big Crazy Barry Family-so loved and so dear.

AWAY we go!!!

Jaxson
Oaklee
Charlee
Greg and Bastian
I got five of these little scooters to give to our grand kids for birthdays and such. The problem is that they were delivered while John and I were in CA. so by the time we got home, Brooklynn and Greg had already assembled them and broke them in! I can see why! They are a blast to ride! All you have to do is turn the steering wheel to make them go and they can take up to a 200 pound person on them so I can even ride them!!! If you want to have a good time, come and take a scoot on this ride! Here's Devin, Greg and Bastian!