"A Nice, Normal Family"

We have this plaque by our back door that says "Remember, 

as far as everyone knows, we're a nice, normal family".

Clearly, this picture needs to be framed and placed right next to it!

 This is from last weekend at our cancer retreat to

Camp Rainbow Gold's Family camp.

Everyone dressed up for the big dance--

and I know, I know, Byron and I went a bit overboard.

But it's been soooo long since we cut loose.

 Our dearest friend, Jason Hosick who runs the camps

 (we call him the Pied Piper)

took these photos.

Remember, all my pictures are at the bottom 

of Lake Perkins!

 What a treat to get these sent to me tonight.

And especially this one-- it is my guy's birthday

(and Father's Day).

Sure love him.

Game On!

Big weekend for the Barker's... especially for Byron.

We escaped to the cabin up at Lake Cascade to 

celebrate his birthday.

 My brother and his family joined us-- we had fun exploring,

going to the hot springs and watching Byron open his presents.

Greer got him a bunch of mustache tattoos--

 Lucky for all of us, it washed off rather easily.

 As you know, this weekend was also Father's Day-- 

so Byron was quite spoiled in the "cake" department.

 It also happened to be the weekend of the Payette River Games.

Super, super cool!!

Athletes came in to this tiny town from all over the world

to compete in stand up paddle boarding.

Our favorite was the guy who had lost both of 

his arms in an electrical accident-- and he was

still one of the top contenders.

 If that wasn't cool enough to watch, Greer and Holland

were invited to try their luck at log rolling.

Ask Greer how it was-- she skunked Holland

and was so, so excited to finally beat her older

sister in something.

 We got home this afternoon-- and this was about how we all felt.

Kean slept in the car and continued to sleep on the couch

until I woke him up.

You know it's a successful weekend when you

get home rested, relaxed and yet ready for bed!

Jam Packed

You know Thursday is gonna be a good day

'cause it is horse therapy day.

Kean got to ride Romeo again and have the

lovely and talented 7 year-old Loryn as our lead.

She even got up early and did her hair all cute for Kean today!

 And the day just got better for Keanut.

Two motorcycle rides two nights in a row.

Tonight, Motorcycle Bill-- Jeff's boss drove over

to get his fix and give a fix.

We also headed over to my parents house for a few hours.  

My Aunt and Uncle are visiting after spending a year in the Ukraine.

My uncle was the mission president for our church over there and

with all the craziness and unrest-- they had to evacuate all their missionaries

and then about 3 weeks later, they had to get out.

Good thing-- the violence really escalated two days after they left.

Also, my mom's older brother and his wife just returned a week ago

from serving in Hong Kong.

Talk about interesting stories all around tonight.

I didn't want to leave.

 But we needed to get home to Mister Handsome Sr.

It is his birthday today-- but not much of one.

He was stuck all evening at a work training seminar

that concluded with a test.

Yuck!

We promise to party this weekend.

Happy birthday honey.

A Bit Traumatized



We finally had a hearing test for Kean.

It has been well over a year (since before Kean got sick)

that we last had a test.

And today was a doozie.

It took two doctors-- two and two hours!

They ran several tests-- from blowing air in his ears to check the pressure

and movement of his ear drums to hooking up sensors and putting them in his ears.

They then stuck him in a soundproof booth

and while we held down his hands (to keep him from pulling out the sensors),

one of the doctors outside the booth played sounds on different frequencies.

When he heard one, he was supposed to turn his head to the left-

to a TV screen to see a little cartoon character light up and dance.

He did okay... when he wasn't screaming and crying because we

were holding his hands down.



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 He cried pretty much non- stop, poor guy.

And he still needs to wear a hearing aid in his right ear-- but since his

slacker mom hasn't made him wear one since he got sick, he's outgrown his old one

and they had to take molds for a new one.

Needless to say, the boy was spent by the time we got through everything.

He didn't even make it home.

 After a good, long nap for Keanut, we all went over to

Ron and Elly Moomey's house for a belated birthday party for Byron.

We had a meal straight out of a magazine-- picture perfect and yummy too.

 Elly even made Byron's fav-- German chocolate cake.

 The best part was the card they gave him that said something about wondering

why old men wear black socks with their sandals...

It said he is one year closer to finding out!

Looks like he's already there.

50 Is Nifty



Holy Cow!  Byron has hit the half century mark.

I'd like to believe we are both in denial-- but hard to do that when Ron and Elly

Moomey put this on the street in front of our home first thing.

Our cousin just called to ask if Byron has been sufficiently humiliated

and I'd have to say yes.

Mark and Calene Borup came over bearing many, many gifts-- from

a big bag of Depends, to arthritis pills, laxatives to Fixodent.         

 Just look at them... looking all innocent.

My dad and the Bodily's also came over to give Mister Barker a hard time.

 We especially loved how the Bodily's wrapped their present

in the Obituary section of the paper.

Gotta remember that little trick.

 The Klinglers (Byron's cousins in Arizona-- but more like siblings)

sent him all kinds of goodies... including this Dr. Seuss book and a package of

rubber ducks -just like Kean gets each time he has blood draws at the hospital-

but these ones are on walkers and have grey hair and spectacles.

Instead of traditional cake, we opted for a tropical approach-- well maybe.

A blackberry and sour cream pie and fish tacos for dinner.

 The girls and I tried to create a little island feel... because

the big present is - we are planning to go to Fiji in the fall.

The Klinglers (Byron's cousins and our adopted parents) are serving as the president

of the Fiji Mission for our church.

One of my cousins, Spencer, has offered us free plane tickets

so we are CRAZY not to go.
We just have to work it around girls being back in school and
Kean's treatment.

By the way, during therapy today, Kean opened up a small photo album

and looked at a picture of us and said Dadda, Momma

and then Poppa when he saw his Grandpa.

This was a HUGE moment.

All of that was unprompted.

I say, what a great birthday present.

Oh Father!

I have never been much of a cartoon fan.

But Byron and I both have this memory from when we were kids of the cartoon with Sylvester, the cat.

He had this son (Sylvester Junior-- I had to Google it), who would constantly sigh "Oh Father"... each time Sylvester would get into trouble or try something dorky.

Alas, not insinuating that Byron gets into trouble often or seeks after dorkiness- but we laughingly use that phrase around our house quite often.

This year, Father's Day came just two days before Byron's birthday.

 We had a great morning, with homemade Raspberry French Toast (the girls picked berries that morning) and lots of homemade gifts.

For Byron's birthday, we got a bit fancier... inviting the Bodily's and Moomey's over to celebrate.

 After opening some pretty cool presents, the girls led him on a treasure hunt to his final gift.

He had to hold onto a ribbon and follow it as it wound through the house....

 All the way up to GiGi's room where he found a little cafe' table and chairs for the balcony.

 Since the crew had expanded so much energy on their Indiana Jones-ish treasure hunt,

they were rewarded with cake and ice cream.

And yes, those are more fresh berries.  It's that time of year.



The Big Forty Something or Other...

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog posting of part 2 of the family vacation

to bring you highlights of Byron's birthday which just so happened to fall on

Father's Day.

Double Whammy.

Double the fun.

 As always, my favorite gifts are the ones from the heart.

Greer made him this super cool tie card and a fancy luggage tag.

She even filled it out with his name, address and phone number.

Now whether anyone finding his luggage will be able to read her writing

is another story...

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Happy Campers

After last year's total loss, we finally got to go camping as a family! We had quite the motley crew, too. My parents, my brother, Doug's family, my cousin Jaylen and his family and my cousin, Brandon and his son. It was wonderful-- fabulous weather and a beautiful spot. Of course, Kean was so easy and so happy. My brother Doug is a master cook-- especially in the great outdoors. Byron makes a pretty darn cute junior chef.

My cousins, Jaylen and Brandon kept the kids entertained doing "Roller coaster" rides. That's Holland flying through the air.

The blur in this picture is Greer.

And here's flying squirrel-- Reese.

We had tons of four wheelers and motorcycles-- and each of us took lots of lonnnngggg, looonngg rides.

Next to our campsite, the girls sniffed out a pond with plenty of mud and freezing water. That didn't stop them, of course.

Here's my favorite picture of the trip-- Reesey's back side. She was not as hearty as the other children-- and only slightly ventured into the glacier-like water.

Okay, to be fair and balanced, here's her cute front side.

Byron took Kean on his very first (hopefully the first of many) rides on the "Cheeto"-- Holland named our four wheeler that many years ago-- don't ask me why.

I'm sure he loved it-- up until he fell asleep.

We also celebrated Byron's 47th birthday!!! Yikes, can you believe he's so old? Or that he married a woman, um, at least half his age? Cradle robber! He may be old-- but he's still a major hunk in my book.

I missed the candle shot-- but we had homemade cinnamon rolls to celebrate.

Hope everyone had a great Father's Day.