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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Family Fun

Our annual family camping weekend consisted of 25 adults, 2 children, 3 babies, 11 tents, 1 trailer, hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, kabobs, beef, pop, water, booze, booze, oh, and did I mention, BOOZE? People came from Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida, and North Carolina.

Just sitting around shooting the breeze. The arrow is pointing to our son, Jason.



Two of my cute nieces, Carrie and Becky.



Camping is all about roughing it. Here is my nephew, Eric, changing one of his babies on a camping chair.



Isn’t she just adorable?



This is my daughter, Jessica, brushing my granddaughter, Lily’s teeth, with no water, OUTSIDE!



One night Ron and Karen brought out two sets of "skis". Each ski had 4 handles attached to ropes. So picture a person putting a foot on each ski. Now picture FOUR people standing on the SAME set of skis, and holding the ropes. This is what it looks like.



The object of this "game" is to have everyone lift their feet at the same time and move forward. Sound easy? Uh, it's not. The leader calls out "Right", "Left". Ideally when the word is called out, you would lift the correct side with the handle, bend your leg, and thrust forward to move the ski forward. I laughed so hard that I couldn't catch my breath. At one point my sister-in-law, Dorie, who is standing behind me in the picture above, fell off the skis, and the ground wasn't level. That's all I saw was her butt and legs up in the air. It was hysterical. Then she had to scramble up and get back on the skis as we were racing the other team. Although if you look in the background of the photo below, you can see that they weren't doing too well either, as someone is lying on the ground! Click to enlarge the photos to see the true silliness of this!









Nothing like a good campfire to sit and gaze at, or roast marshmallows for smores.



Usually smores consist of graham crackers, Hershey's chocolate squares, and roasted marshmallows. Karen introduced me to Keebler fudge stripe cookies



Just use those and marshmallows and call it a day! They also went back to the old fashioned way with graham crackers, marshmallows, and instead of the squares of chocolate, used Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. They are the connoisseurs of Smores!

I played around with the fire photo above in Paintshop Pro to get this.



Another night we all made ice cream in ziploc bags. It was a lot of fun! Here's the recipe:

What you'll need:

a.. 1 tablespoon sugar
b.. 1/2 cup milk or half & half
c.. 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
d.. 6 tablespoons rock salt
e.. 1 pint-size plastic food storage bag (e.g., Ziploc)
f.. 1 gallon-size plastic food storage bag
g.. Ice cubes

How to make it:

1.. Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
2.. Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
3.. Place the small bag inside the large one, and seal it again carefully.
4.. Shake until the mixture is ice cream, which takes about 5 minutes.
5.. Wipe off the top of the small bag, then open it carefully. Enjoy!

Tips:

A 1/2 cup milk will make about 1 scoop of ice cream, so double the recipe if you want more.

Here's the group making the ice cream.









If that wasn't enough ice cream, there was an ice cream CAKE for my son-in-law, Dave's, birthday.



We all sang Happy Birthday to Dave. Here he is talking and cutting the cake at the same time. He's so multi-talented!



You may have noticed that we're all wearing the same shirts. No, we don't have the same taste in clothes! It was time to order a new T-shirt; it's been about 10 years since our last shirts came out, and some of us, ahem, have grown out of them, and there are always new members joining the family. Like these cutie pies.





Here we are in all our t-shirt glory!



And finally, if this isn't the epitome of a good time, I don't know what is!



(The penis water bottle was given to me as a gift [thanks, Lenore!]. I bequeathed it to my single niece. It looks like a good time was had by all!)

21 comments:

Teresa said...

fun, fun, fun! looks like a wonderful time was had by all.

who won the race? your team or the other?

Anonymous said...

Ysure know how to have fun;)

Steven Anthony
http://manndish.blogspot.com/

ps.Man dish is back....revamped and better than ever ;)

Brian Miller said...

wow. looks like you had a lot o fun...love going camping with a large group like that...happy birthday to dave...and i hav made ice cream like that before...

Missy said...

I don't think you mentioned any booze!
Glad you had a wonderful time!
Love the photos!

Gail said...

Can you make the reunion last longer...this is too much fun to leave behind.

Kathy's Klothesline said...

I am shamelessly stealing your recipes!!! I will put them in the KanDo Kookbook ....... but I will give you credit. Might not be able to spell that with a 'k', since it changes the word ..... no, it fits. Love that your family took the time out to get together and have so much fun!

Wendy said...

Excellent!
Glad everyone had a great time.
=-)

Lynda said...

Your skiing game looked really funny and fun! I have seen that ice cream recipe before but never made it. Does one person plan all the activities and menu or do you divide up the duties and delegate?

Bossy Betty said...

What fun! These pictures are wonderful!

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Nancy said...

This looked like soooo much fun!! What a great family you have! Loved the babies...

Remind me to send you a recipe for baking cakes in hollowed out oranges that you wrap in foil and throw on coals. It's yummy!

Ed said...

Sweet. I love camping with the fam.

Valerie said...

Sounds like a fab time in great company ... and I loved the shots of the babies.

Ruth said...

You guys are FUN. What an amazing family reunion. I'm afraid my sister would fall off the skis and break a leg (not me though). Cool way to make ice cream! I especially love the diaper changing on the camp chair, what a precious baby.

Wonderfulness.

Barb said...

The ski thing looks hilarious! And I definitely have to try that ice cream thing. :)

Unknown said...

Looks like you guys had a great time! I love this type of get-together!

Rae said...

Great post. It looks like wonderful fun. I miss family reunions. Our family has dwindled and scattered all over. It has been years since I have seen most of them. This really makes me want to catch up with them.

Mike said...

You really know how to live! But if I ever come to your party, I am not doing those ski things! lmao!

Carletta said...

Just looking at your pictures I was smiling.
Looks like you had a great time and makes me wish for a get together. We have a family wedding coming up next month so we'll see.

SquirrelQueen said...

Wow! You folks know how to party and have a good time.

I don't remember but was there any Booze involved??????????

becky said...

Looks like you guys know how to have fun!
Love the mandala you created in Paintshop, by the way.