School starts again

The summer break was over in a blink of an eye and the kids are back in school, one week down circa 40 to go. Savanna is in 8th grade, Fiora in 6th, and Weston in 5th.

Isn't Savanna a cute teenager?  She likes to dress in style!  Savanna has been encouraged by Jared and I to walk to school this year, as it is only half a mile to the Jr. High from our house, which she is disgruntled about.  We are mean parents. She has opted to pay for a ride to school one dollar each ride so she doesn't have to feel self conscious walking to school while all her other peers get a ride, so she doesn't smell funny or have frizzy hair, and besides, she reminds me, she gets plenty of exercise at P.E. every other day.  I guess earning the money to get a ride is also good for her, but I further encouraged her to try to walk home twice this week by not picking her up, she was none too happy with me. I understand, the Lord "encourages" me do things that are hard because its good for me, and I'm not always happy about it.  Other than the walking/taxi fee issue, and locker issues (she couldn't open her locker and the janitor never fixed it so I had to go to the school and advocate her case, finally they moved her to another locker), she had a successful first week of school.

Weston and Fiora happily walk two blocks to the bus stop for school, rain or shine, they are troopers. They have had a successful first week as well, and so far the hefty homework load has been kept up on by Fiora, and the 8 hours of gymnastics class has worked out for Wes. We'll see how that all goes.
My sister Kynsie left for her mission this week, that is good for the mission field but sad for us. We will miss her.  We had brunch at Kneaders the day she went to the MTC.  We are praying for you Kynsie!

More reunion pictures, photography by Holly

Barrett Family Reunion!

 What an amazing reunion we had! I am still in awe about how well everything went. The facility and setting in Heber were just beautiful, they exceeded my expectations and everyone seemed so happy about it, I'm so grateful the Lord directed me to find this place. 6 bedrooms with bathrooms in each, two common areas, large dining area and 2 large tables, fully loaded kitchen, and a beautiful 3 acre pond just out back. We all loved the place, and since we used the entire Barrett family fund budget to rent the place, we all pitched in and contributed food.  Everyone did such a great job with their food assignments and worked together to keep it cleaned up and "on schedule" even my dad was amazed at how we all got a long and how smooth everything went. We had one wasp sting and a split lip, but otherwise everyone stayed safe.

Heather, Karli Sue, Krystal, Heidi

 

Holly, Kynsie, Krystal, Karli Sue, Rachel

 We started out iwht a nice dinner of Dad's burritos, and played badminton and had a family meeting to establish some house rules (i.e. no walking on the roof kids), and to go over the agenda. There was a beautiful sunset that evening and a storm I wish I could have gotten pictures of, if my family shares some of there's I'll post more. We had a riff trax movie and family prayer, and got all teh beds ready for teh grandkids sleeping in common areas.  All the Barretts siblings and spouses had a bed to sleep it, perfect number of beds. The next morning we had a nice omelet muffin breakfast and a family history devotional. I gave everyone a collage of 4 generations of ancestors.

Then we had free time until dinner. Games, canoeing, and a ping pong tournament that Kayden and Weston organized and did a great job at, my dad was the champion ping pong player!  Some went out to lunch, but Jared and I grilled polish dogs and sauer kraut at the place.  We had another nice dinner of mexican lasagna and salad and took family pictures, which Holly has so I'll have to post those another time as well. But here is one of us I snapped on my phone.

 

Heidi and Gabe and I went running at 6:00 am so we got to see the sunrise and a lot of farm country. It was so beautiful and I had no pain from my cyst the day before which was such a miracle to me. I think we all wanted to stay longer, but the last morning we had a nice breakfast of hasbrowns pancakes and bacon scrambled eggs, a wonderful devotional on testimony by my mom, and had to rush and clean up and check out by 11:00.  It was a slice of heaven and I'm so grateful for my family and that we could all be together there!

Savanna, Lucy, Fiora canoeing

Gave, Kayden, Mehki, Weston

Mom and me canoeing

Nielson's canoeing

Dad winning the ping pong tournament

Savanna made a cake for Karli's baby to be, Katy Sue

Karli Sue and Grant

Sophie and Mekhi on the playhouse

Aeven on vacation

Mom and dad playing badminton

On the way home my nausea and exhaustion came back. It truly was a miracle that my sickness was suspended so I could enjoy the reunion with my family. Gabe also had a sickness hit him before the reunion and it went away while we were in Heber and then came back when he got home. It was a great break from life and I feel so blessed to have been an instrument in making it possible.