2009 August 14-16 Grandma Weekend and Kaylee Birthday

Aftyn came to IF on Thursday, August 13 to have a visit with Grandma - we sleep in the waterbed together and stayed up late (I think I feel asleep around 9:30 pm, but Aftyn kept waking me up) On Friday, we got up late and then met Tracy and Alyssa at about 11:00 am for Shopko shopping and lunch and Craigo's (misspelled). On Saturday, Tyler, Tracy, Abby and Alyssa met us at the farmer's market and then we went to the Museum to see Titantic. It was an incredible display - very emotional. We all received boarding passes and at the end they have a wall that tells you if you were saved or lost. Aftyn liked the "manmade iceberg that we could touch and see how cold the water really was. About 12 seconds and your hand was frozen. Abby especially liked it and wanted to keep touching it. Here are a few pictures that we took inside the discovery room for kids - they would not allow pictures in the exhibit area.

Aftyn posing as a real live raccoon hat and deer skin woman. She is ready for the great frontier.

Alyssa posing for the camera in her raccoon skin hat and pioneer dress.
Tyler and Tracy, Abby, Alyssa and Aftyn holding their boarding passes from the Titantic display.

Abby headed for inside the cave!

Aftyn, Abby and Alyssa (3A's squad) riding a bucking horse!

Hunter at Travis and Ryann's house when we took Aftyn home on Sunday. He is getting so big and has such a cute personally. You can tell that he has older sisters that play with him constantly. Grandma Jill holding Kaylee with arm still in the split. (Hard case will be put on for her Birthday - What a great birthday gift!!! She will always remember what day she got her cast on - I hear that the final cast is going to be a purple one) Kaylee after opening her birthday present - Ladybug game. I hope she has fun playing it! She will have to teach us how to play when we come down next time.Troy and Laura at Grandma Ruby's house after camping. I am not sure why this picture was not with the other camping photos. Oh, well it is really a nice photo of the 3 of them.

Favorite Camping recipes

Here is the recipe for the famous Stupid Cookies (Frito cookies)
1 cup Karo Syrup
1 Cup Sugar
Bring to a full boil

Add
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 regular package of Frito's
Mix all together gently, put tablespoon size onto wax paper (spray wax paper or foil with Pam oil spray. Hint: When camping the top of plastic bins work great as a cookie sheet.
Here is Aftyn's "Pass around Fudge"
1/2 cup cocoa
1 box powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla
3 oz cream cheese

Add all ingredients into ziplock bag and seal. Pass bag around and let everybody help mix it up (squeeze it) for 15 minutes. Fudge can be served out of bag or spread on pan and cut. It is really good the next day after it set up.

Jill's favorite camp fire cobbler Recipe
1 can crushed pineapple
1 can pie filling (apple, cherry, etc - we used apple)
1 box yellow cake mix
one stick butter/margarine
Small dutch oven

Pour crushed pineapple and juice into dutch oven, then add pie filling. Next empty cake mix evenly on top, but do not mix ingredients. Cut butter into small pats and distribute over top of cake mix. Put lid on dutch oven and bake in camp fire with coals on top and bottom for about 45 minutes.

ENJOY

2009 Family Campout

Our 2009 Loftus Family Campout was wonderful. We left on Sunday, July 26 and returned on Thursday, July 30th which just happened to be Ryann's birthday. We had lots of good fun and food. We mostly used the dutch ovens to cook with. We made cobblers, chicken and rice with broccoli (good job Tanner and Chelsey), lasagna, pocket stew, scones, eggs in a bag, pancakes, hotdogs, mini-pizzas, smores, fudge in a bag (thanks Aftyn for making a great chocolate treat with all of the grand kids) - wow we eat really good!! Dennis and Jill travelled with Blake, Alyssa, Grant and Tenille in their new truck - it was great, we had lots of room - Blake learned to count to 20 - Hooray! Tracy, Tyler, Laura, Troy, Abby and Bo (the dog) all rode together, Tanner and Chelsey drove Grandma's Chevy Colorado truck up with extra supplies, Travis and Ryann came up from Pocatello with Aftyn, Kaylee and Hunter. We all arrived safely. We set up our food tent first and then unloaded all of the supplies. Then everyone decided where to pitch their tents and unrolled their sleeping bags.
Here is Troy and Travis chopping down a tree to help put up the big blue tarp so we could have some shade and protection. Here is our campsite once the blue tarp was up - quite a masterpiece!

Here is Abby and Alyssa at the campground playing.

Chelsey, Tanner, Troy and Travis playing pinochle late at night by moonlight and lots of help from the flashlights and laterns.

Ryann on her birthday enjoying her new rocking chair and lots of colorful ballons that the kids helped blow up. Melissa Barrett, Ryann Loftus enjoying pocket stew, while sitting in the camp chairs, Tenille and Tracy in the background.

Grant on the beach at Alturus Lake with Blake.
Troy and Laura being "mushy"!

Tracy and Abby at the Beach.

Kaylee, Tanner and Alyssa at the beach.Kaylee, Aftyn and Blake on a GIANT rock on the hike to Fall Creek Waterfall, near Mackey.

Dennis, Tracy and Abby in front of the falls.Tenille, Hunter, Ryann and Travis cooking hotdogs.

The kids playing cards - entertaining themselves.

Tanner and Chelsey being "mushy"! Can't go camping without some of this type of entertainment.

Troy and Laura taking it easy and relaxing!

Alyssa and Kaylee enjoying the water at Alturus Lake on the float tube.

Stanley Lake - "Flying Fish" - Fish and game were stocking the lake with 8 - 12 inch fish - over 10,000 of them
Abby holding on for dear life with Grandpa Dennis.
Tyler B with his tongue out of coarse, sitting next to Abby.

Grandpa Dennis crawling on the log at fall creek.

Kaylee's face says it all - just plain happy to be here!

It doesn't get any prettier than this!