Fall Family Campout 2010

Our fall camp out had an Hawaiian theme this year. We started out Friday night with a Spam throw down. Spam being very big in Hawaii. We had escalloped potatoes and spam, several spam pizzas, spam enchiladas, hominy and spam, sweet potatoes and spam, pasta salad with spam, bacon wrapped spam with mustard sauce,
and spam won tons with duck sauce. Actually most of it was good. But then I like spam. Dan said if you couldn't taste the spam it was a winner. But actually Connie won the prize for the best dish by an unbiased group of voters (her family) She won a can of spam. Saturday we had our Hula lesson as you can see. I guess it was pretty funny.

This is a 4 generation picture of some of the Hula girls. Grandma Angie, Mama Kirby, Little Marley and Great Grandma Connie

We had a limbo contest, Connor John won that. We had our volcano lesson, as you can see the bright lava flowing down the side of the volcano.

Jeanine opened the coconuts for us with a drill, and we all tasted coconut milk. I could drink it if I were dying of thirst. One of the coconuts turned out to be a rotten coconut. Ugh!

We had a luau for supper Saturday night. We roasted a pig (aka pork roasts) in a pit. Dan had that honor. The other guys disappeared. He started about 1:30 and put some coals in the pit and covered it with some dirt and then put the meat in and covered it with more dirt and built a fire on top. He was just starting to dig it up here about 5:30.

This is what it looked like. kind of raw. New lesson learned must take a lot longer or have a much hotter fire. I think he was afraid it would burn if he got the fire too hot. He ended up finishing it on the grill. It was good once it got cooked.

We had music both nights and lots of laughs. The weather was good. Cool at night but nice in the day time. We are hoping for one more nice week end so we can do our hayride. Left Sunday afternoon about 2:00.

Fall Festival 2010

Fall Festival couldn't have been any better weather wise if we had ordered it ourselves. Nice warm days and cool clear nights. Connie and Dennis went on Tuesday and Dan and Jeanine brought their campers down on Wednesday evening. Connie had supper for all of us. Dan and Jeanine entertained us for a while with music then they both drove back as they had to work the rest of the week. Mary and Donnie came about noon on Thursday. After a quick lunch we went to Cantril to the Dutchman's store. Didn't buy much but both Connie and I got big beautiful mums for $3.50 each. Came back and played some games. Friday morning we went garage saleing in Keosauqua and while were were there Doris Jean called and said she was coming to spend the afternoon with us. We cooked a hot dog for lunch and then played games again.

Connie and I worked on our volcano for the Hawaiian week end coming up. Here it is drying in the sun. Looks better now that it is painted.

I think this is Bow I can't keep the two of them straight but I think she is the quiet one. We had awesome music both nights although different groups played each night. Friday night and Sunday morning Keota, a group from the Macon Mo area played with us and Saturday night Gary and Millie Vannoy and Ed Long (from Possum Trot) came and played

Donnie was star struck with Ed Long.

As always we had good food and way too much of it. We all kept remembering last year when it was so cold we couldn't get two feet from the fire without freezing.Everyone had winter coats and gloves. This year was much nicer. We almost got kicked out of the park. We were suppose to quit playing music at 10:30 but all our neighbors were standing around listening so they just kept playing. About 11:45 the park ranger came and shut us down. He came back Saturday night to make sure we knew that quiet time started at 10:30. Dan told him we would quit at 10:29. But actually we quit before that as the Vannoys and the Longs were driving back. Left about 1:00 Sunday afternoon and noone really wanted to go yet. Hope next year is as good.

Mr. & Mrs. Corey Hickenbottom

Charissa and Corey were married on October 9th 2010. Here they are cutting the cake. They had a small ceremony for just family and then had a reception. It was a beautiful day. They looked so happy together. The tables were decorated with vintage linens and at each place were handkerchiefs as favors.

Here they are with Gary and Amie.

Mr and Mrs. Hickenbottom are honeymooning in the Northeast for a couple of weeks.

Punkin Patch

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we all met at Sass Family Farms near Riverside. This is part of their petting zoo. Some miniature goats. They also had a potbellied pig, a Shetland pony, some rabbits and geese and ducks and chickens. The goats were the only ones who actually allowed petting . So maybe they should just call it a little zoo?

We went on the hayride and the kids really enjoyed it. Kyann kept pointing at things. They had big round hay bales decorated as a spider and a pig. They had lots of cut outs of different things. A grave yard. On their pond they had the loch ness monster and a couple of fishermen who had stay out too long (they were skeletons)

They also had a few moving monsters. The "thing" in the middle of the picture was alive!

Kyann's favorite thing had to be the corn bin. It was like a big sand pile of corn kernels.

Katlin liked this too. She was almost buried alive!

Before Cindy's got there. Katlin and checked out the haunted barn and decided it was too scary for Kyann. It was a fun time. We bought a punkin for each of the girls and then went to Texas Roadhouse for supper.

Bloomfield Bluegrass Festival 2010

Had a good time at the Bloomfield Bluegrass festival. Dan drove back and forth to work Tuesday through Thursday when he picked up Katlin and then stayed for the week end. I went down Wednesday afternoon. Jeanine stayed all week and Lloyd also drove back and forth. Mary and Donnie came Wednesday afternoon and Connie and Dennis camped at Fisher Lake and drove over each day. We went Garage saleing Thursday and Friday. Got some good buys especially on high chairs. GO CONNIE! We had to empty out my trunk on Thursday so we could keep going. We had some rain and some wind (although our camper slept through it) Thanks guys for catching and rescuing the easy up.


This is Katlin at the kids show on Saturday morning. She really nailed her pieces. Instead of trying to download a few seconds here, I decided to put it on youtube so you can hear one whole piece. If you go to Youtube music and then type in Gypsy Waltz. You have to scroll down and look for a picture like this. The video is really bad but the audio is really good. Take a listen. She did wonderfully!!


Cindy, Shane and Kyann came Saturday to hear Katlin and celebrate Dan's birthday. I didn't get any good pictures of her. Here she is playing with a tractor I got her at a garage sale. Love the boots!

We all ate as a group for supper. We must have had the longest table in the world. You could barely see the other end. Food was really good. We make out menus then divide them up so everyone makes just one thing ( but a lot of it). It's really easy for everyone. Think we had 25 for supper this night.

Here is Katlin and her friend Taylor. They were pretty much joined at the hip all week end. They played together along with Casey(can't think of his last name) as Rusty Strangs. Did a really good job. Katlin also did a guest appearance with Taylor's family band The Bluegrass Blondie's.

Charisa & Corey's Shower

Connie and I gave a wedding shower for Charisa and Corey. Here they are with one of the games. They actually got all the answers right!!

We went with a Tea Party theme. decorated with tea pots and tea cups. Used lavender and spring green for colors. Looked really nice. Note the Corey and Charisa look alike. Cute!

This was the last game. We blind folded Charrisa and had all the men at the shower give her a peck on the cheek and see if she could recognize Corey. There were 10 guys and she picked him out with no trouble. She said he had put cologne on right before they left and she recognized it. Smart girl.

Here they are in front of the food table. They were so cute. Lots of yummy goodies. Mary said it was nice to step down. I guess Connie and I can do it if we put our minds to it.

They got lots of nice things. These were from Larry and Mary Ann. Hand made by Uncle John.

Aledo Bluegrass Festival

Went to Aledo, Il. to the Barnes Family Bluegrass Festival. Friday was so windy. Just about blew the camper off the road. (Not really but it did feel like it). For some unknown reason we got the shelter for our camper. It did help break the wind. Ummm. That doesn't sound quite right. Mary, Donnie and I went to the show and just about froze. Yes I was COLD! The wind was blowing 30 miles an hour from the north. Katlin went for some blankets and my hooded sweatshirt and that helped, but we were still cold.

Here Dan, Katlin and Lloyd are getting in some practice time.

We saw several really good bands but I think this was our favorite. The name is Blue Moon Rising and they were very good. The bass player was one of the instructor at the bass workshop. I liked them cause thy didn't make anyone feel stupid.

While they were playing here came the bus. That just about says it all. Dailey and Vincent were totally awesome!!. They really put on a wonderful show. Dan, Katlin and I had seen them last year in Minnesota while we were on vacation. But they put on a much better show this year.

Here they are. Funny the band before them (Blue Moon Rising) were wearing flannel shirts and jeans and everyone here has a suit and tie.
That is the difference when you make the big time.

Yes they really were that close. Katlin thought they looked like Secret Service men with the suits and sunglasses. Even though the sun was shining it was still cold and windy. We went better prepared for the evening show and took blankets. Got home about 5:30 Sunday nite. Good week end. Dailey and Vincent will be in Keokuk and we already have seven tickets spoken for. If you get a chance see them.