went down to the Whaler today... they’re doing a lot of construction on that place! (it needs it too... getting kinda ghetto.)



dinner at Kimo’s... (we took lots of pictures with the last one being absolutely the best Barnes family picture ever taken)

kids only dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. mmmm!

first things first...



so, a few months back, my favorite airline for flying to Maui went out of business. because of this, i was forced to find a new one and ended up on United out of LAX. this was a mistake.

first, they have a 45 minute before boarding check-in policy and i missed it by two minutes because i had been waiting in their ridiculously long lines for 40 minutes. not only would they not let me on, but they were incredibly rude to me about it.

second, when i talked to the United rep on the phone a few days ago, he told me that i needed to be “as close to 50 lbs. as possible” with my luggage. apparently my bag was 56 lbs. and so they charged me $100 and basically told me i was stupid. when i told them what the man on the phone had said, the lady called me a liar. awesome.

anyway, after dealing with all of that, i finally got to get on the next plane and deal with their equally rude flight attendants.

i hate United. i will NEVER be using them again. (you shouldn’t either.)



at least i had a really cute and funny two year old sitting next to me on the flight. he was either talking to me or sleeping the whole time and he never cried once. the perfect child. (of course, he did crap himself while he slept and mom didn’t want to wake him up so i got to deal with that smell for an hour or so, but it was already a pretty crappy flight so what was a little more?)



oh, by the way... gas in Hawaii... mucho expensivo.

we had an autistic four year old at church today who could read and write better than most second graders! it was pretty impressive. and then he used the magnets to spell the word “gay” and went around yelling it. we’re not sure why. eventually, i convinced him to spell something else and he changed “gay” into “guys.” i don’t think he put the two words together in his mind.



after church, we had a goodbye lunch for one of our interns, Brianna. sad to say goodbye... good to eat at Haus of Pizza!



finally, it was off to Lori Root’s house for a get-together with our old (and soon to be returning to Orange County) friend, Debbie Guinn. her grand daughter, Ruby was there and she is ADORABLE!

today, i got up and went to see the new X-Files movie... “The X-Files: I Want to Believe.” i wanted to believe it would be awesome. i now hate Chris Carter for destroying what he so perfectly started years ago. (in other words, the movie SUCKED!)

i spent a lot of time in the car and on the phone today. of course, i use my bluetooth headset all the time now thanks to the new California State Hands-Free law!



and i stopped by to see the kids.

today, we had more meetings with Janet and Sharron (they’re here to meet with us for two weeks) and then i had to take Stacy to the airport to send her off to Romania. (strangely, we forgot to take pictures of this.... but i took a picture of the terminal on the way out because i thought of it as i was leaving!)

we had our first all-in meeting with Janet and Sharron from David C. Cook. it was awesome. (and the picture at the bottom is directly quoted from a conversation the occurred.)

today was Leilani’s second birthday. well, actually it wasn’t quite yet, but we went to Chuck E. Cheese’s to celebrate her upcoming birthday since Stacy will be in Romania.



also, i stopped by Fashion Island today and was shocked to see the the line for the iPhone was still going strong!!! (the people in line were, i’m sure, thrilled that i was taking pictures of them waiting for the very thing i was taking pictures of them with!)



oh yeah... and i weighed in today.

Stacy and i went to see The Dark Knight today.

it was still awesome.

since we missed the big opening on Thursday night, Tyler, Alex, Ang and i went to see The Dark Knight this morning at 11:00. (Stacy thought sleeping was more important.)

it was amazing.

today was the last day of The Quest VBS. it was awesome!

for those of you who don’t know, VBS (Vacation Bible School) is what churches traditionally do for kids for one week during the summer. pretty much every church in America does it, and we’re no exception. (next year we might be, but that’s another story.) but this year, we decided that VBS needed a little bit of an overhaul.

typically, a VBS will have a variety of stations for kids to go to all within the theme of the week. so, the theme might be something tropical and cliche like “Living in the Son” (did you catch the ever-so-clever play on words there? Christians can be so ridiculously lame sometimes.) and each station (Bible story, crafts, worship, rec, memory verse, etc...) will have something to do with the theme. and... that’s pretty much it. not too exciting.

we decided to take it further. yeah... we have a theme (“The Quest” in case you haven’t been paying attention. it’s sorta a hybrid of “Lost,” “Indiana Jones,” and “The Goonies.”). but the theme isn’t what ties everything together (though it does play out in every area too.) we start each day with a skit (written by Stacy and acted to perfection by myself and my fellow actors). the skit sorta sets up a question or idea for the day in very broad strokes. next, at the Treasure Trove of Truth (Bible Story Station), my character gives the kids a little behind the scenes look at the quest that the skit characters are on. (i do my whole part for that station on video and we tell the kids that i’m video podcasting each night on the island. they love it.) during this time, i reveal the “ancient truth” for that day. (this is like our “bottom line” on the weekends. it’s the one thing we want to make sure they walk away knowing, understanding and remembering.) as soon as they learn the ancient truth, they get a chance to respond to it in a unique way. (some days it might be through worship or prayer or sharing stories... they actually get to decide how they want to respond.) after that, they head to small groups where Erika put together and awesome small group booklet that gives them some things to discuss about applying the ancient truth to their lives. the “Artifact Creation Station” (crafts) lets them create something (usually straight out of the skit) that they can take home to remind them of the ancient truth. the “Station of Mystery” gives them a chance to discover a Bible verse that reinforces the ancient truth. (this station is new and was completely different every day. it was awesome!) admittedly, the games station was pretty much just fun games that didn’t tie in too much. but that’s okay... fun is important too.

anyway, today was awesome because we got to see the kids really responding to what they’d discovered this week. they knew all the ancient truths and some of them even shared stories of how they were applying them to their lives already.



then, to celebrate the past year in the lives of our families, we ended the week with our annual Family Celebrate Experience. we had TK Burger, dancing, etc... and it was awesome. but holy crap... i did a lot of walking today. (i try to get 10,000 steps on a normal day. check out my pedometer for today!)

here’s a group of kids crossing the street to go to the Artifact Creation Station (aka- crafts). now, what you don’t see here, is that right after i took this picture, the kids noticed me and started to get excited. all of us from the morning skits became instant celebrities with these kids. (it was really funny actually.) my character’s name is Jack, so everywhere i go i hear “Jack! sign my shirt!” or “Jack! did you really crash the plane?” or “Jack, let me wear your hat!” it’s been a lot of fun!



then, tonight we went and had dinner with the kids.

this is a picture from the “Station of Mystery.” i’d tell you what it is... but that would seem to ruin the point.

today was day one of The Quest VBS at ROCKHARBOR church! (and Erin brought the kids down to see the opening session.)

tonight we finished setting up the Centre for VBS after the last service. we used these little chairs from the Preschool Playhouse to mark off the different areas. i like sitting in them.



afterwards, we were exhausted and we had to be back in just a few short hours. so what did we do? we went to Denny’s™! in hindsight, not the best choice, but it was still fun (even though the service was awful and so was the bacon).

i finally got my iPhone 3G today!!! also, Stacy’s mom was in town, so they brought the kids up to my parent’s to go swimming.

i went to get my iPhone 3G today (of course i did!). the line was almost as long as last year, but this year they’re making you activate in-store and they’re having some real problems. they let the first people in at 8.00 am and by 8.45, those people hadn’t left the store and nobody else had been let it.



so, then i went to the AT&T store and they were already sold out.



tonight was the Team RO “funny-raiser” (a fundraiser featuring an improv comedy group). it was fun!

so, part of the VBS fun is that our characters from the skit are also in some video segments for another station. tonight, we shot those at my place and had a little photo shoot by the pool.

today, i got a new haircut. but not just another haircut... my stylist (Laurel) wanted to have some fun, so i let her. she called it a complete hair makeover. anyway, it’s totally different for me but i love it!



and then i went over to ROCKHARBOR to check out the set Kit is building for VBS. check out the size of that temple!

today was our first rehearsal for VBS. this is gonna be fun!

normally, on the 4th of July, we have our annual Barnez Family Extravaganza at either my uncle’s house or my parent’s. however, this year, everyone was out of town so we had to improvise.

somehow, that meant spaghetti at my parent’s. anyway, afterward we went back to my place to watch the fireworks from my balcony.

today, i picked up the new “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.” it’s fun, but i wish they had a U2 version!



later, we headed out to Disneyland!

i was on the phone a lot today... so i took a picture or two of that.

our receptionist, Liz, is out of town and so i volunteered to fill one of her shifts this morning.

she has the hardest job at the church... for sure.