2008 Kremin Campout

Driving home last night I figured I was just about the luckiest gal on the planet. My family is so cool! They are the funnest, greatest people to be around! We just finished our annual camping/reunion with my parents, siblings, and their families. Our family is getting so huge! I think we're in the sixties or something like that in numbers. And we just keep getting bigger with at least 1-2 babies born nearly every year. Not everyone could make it, which is expected but still disappointing, however we still managed a good time.

Our location couldn't have been better. We were at Iron Springs,

about 40 minutes outside of Vernal.

The weather was perfect and best of all: NO BUGS! (I am a Mosquito Magnet. I must have good blood.) For the 2nd year in a row we rented a trailer, which makes camping with children so much easier! The older two were delighted as our rental came with BUNK BEDS this year. And you know what? No one fell out of them, which was a pleasant surprise!

breakfast in the camper & havin' fun in bunk beds

This year marks a big birthday for my mom, so we surprised her by scrapbooking all of her pictures (and believe me...she's got quite the collection!). My niece's husband, Matt, also made an awesome video of picture of her with some fun music. We hooked Matt's laptop up to a generator with an extension cord and we all gathered 'round to watch it.

Here are some pictures of the fun event. You'll notice a lot of them are from Saturday afternoon when our family did something new this year, but something which I have a feeling will become a yearly tradition: IRON CHEF. It was a blast, even though my team lost, THE DEEN DREAM TEAM (each team was named after a different Food Network Chef). We had 6 teams. Two for each course of the meal: Main, Side, and Dessert. Even though there were winners, there definitely weren't any losers. All the food provided a fabulous lunch. And you can't beat the presentations! Just to give you an idea, one presentation included a brief tribute to the troops and acknowledgement of the flag, including "The Pledge of Allegiance".

For our potato side, we did "Thrice-the-Spice Roasted Potato Wedges". Basically, baked potato wedges with 3 different kinds of seasonings. Watch out for the Jamaican Jerk seasoning. Spicy! But cooled down quickly with the yummy dips. 3 different sour cream dips: Homestyle Ranch, BBQ Blue Cheese, and Cilantro Lime. Tasty! The men in the family (a.k.a. the "Bloato Brothers") were the judges and it was such a riot watching them taste each dish, write down the score, and then "cleanse" their palate to get ready for the next dish. Brett gave our side dish a thumbs-up, of course!

The "Bloato Brothers" Judges even made

little comments like, "Oh, that seasoning is divine"

or "The consistency is so creamy". Very funny! Enjoy the pix...there's lots!

Above: Here's the DEEN DREAM TEAM putting on

our "fighting faces" during the "opening ceremonies".

The orange poster was our "sign" to help with our presentation.

'Don't know if you can read it, but if you can,

you've gotta read it with a Paula Deen accent.

I love Bill's face here (on the right in the straw hat). I think he'd just eaten

a Jamaican-spiced potato wedge. HOT! See him "sucking" in air?!

Fawn & Wyatt show off the asian-inspired Potato Salad Wonton.

Sounds different, but was SUPER good! And it won!

The winning team (Team FLAY) and their prize-winning creation.

I think their prize was an already-opened bag of balloons.

Halle & Wyatt were anything but "bumps on a log"

Nearly every person tried hula-hooping.

I don't think anyone under fifteen was able to do it!