Where to I start?

Wow, I have lots to catch up on.  Our Christmas Family Reunion seems ages ago.  When I wrote my last post a few kids were down with the stomach flu.  Every day it claimed a new victim and by the end of the week it hit me.  I really felt like we lost an entire week of the holidays and so it put us a bit behind.  The upside was we were not sick for Christmas.  (Except for Ryan, it hit him Christmas Night…but at least most of the events are over at that point.)

So, I am just getting a minute to sit down and look through our pictures from the last few weeks.  Being January 1st, I should be writing about our resolutions and new beginnings.  However,  I am not quite at that point.  I still feel like it should be Christmas.  I don't want to see any decorations around town come down.  There is snow outside, Spring is far away and there will be plenty of winter with no holidays to come.  With Christmas coming so fast after Thanksgiving this year, I feel like these two weeks AFTER Christmas are the only time I have to actually RELAX and enjoy my tree and decorations.  So, things are staying up around here.

So where do I start?  Why not start with some good old pics from our reunion at ijump!  We had so much fun!  Anyone that is not a member of the family will probably not find them as interesting, but they bring back some great memories!

Grandma (mom) with Jill showing us some skills from back in the day.  

Uncle Ron

Uncle Kent and his grandchildren.  "Come on, PULL, we have GOT to get Grandpa out of here!"

Ryan

I love this picture of Robin's oldest and Michael trying to escape Jill's oldest chasing them.  

I told these guys I was taking a picture of the "boring moms" because they didn't jump.  I guess they get a pass for looking cute.  

Kacey (My cousin Sam's wife) -Cousin Emily-Sister Heidi-Sister Jennifer

The fun moms.  Just kidding, Courtney would NOT want to be included with the Moms!  You can really tell I jumped cause I am looking so yucky.  Next to me is my cousin Jill's oldest daughter Courtney, then my cousin Robin, and last Jill.  

Some sort of serious conversation between the Uncles.  (Uncle Ron and my Dad)

Adam…Emily's Son

Uncle Kent (my Mom's brother), his wife Aunt Debbie, and Aunt Jodie who is married to my Mom's other brother.  

Sophie having a blast jumping with her second cousin. 

Melissa and one of their twins.  Max, is that you?  

Rebecca holding one of Sam's twins.  Cora?  Ivy?  I keep forgetting which one is which. 

Here is David on a mission.  See those boys ahead of him running, or scampering away I should say.  They would run and take a cheap shot at Uncle David and then bolt away, secretly wanting to get beat up.  Why do boys like to get beat up?  I don't know.  I had to assure several little girls that they LIKE this game.  They are doing this for FUN.  This is actually the most exciting thing for boys to do.  

The boys would all gang up, pegging David and later Ryan with balls, and the Dad's would fight them all off.  

I love Joshua's face in this picture.  Ashlyn, up front, quickly decided this was NOT her cup of tea.  She came over to us and declared, "Can't we just stop this and get some of the true holiday spirit!"  She could not fathom that anything positive was going to come out of this wrestling fest. 

Look how intense James is getting!

Here is Ryan in on the action. 

Nic is trying to show me his giant wedgie to win some sympathy.  Poor children!

I know Ryan and David came home with several wounds and were pretty sore!  These boys are getting bigger and the Uncles are getting older!  I think everyone also was sore from our giant Dodge Ball games.   I was the MC, and I think the kids and adults all had a lot of fun.  Who knew we had such serious talent in the Dodge Ball department in the Milligan Family!?  I definitely didn't get the talent.  That's why I stayed on the mic!  

Here is the whole Milligan Clan at ijump.  I wonder if Grandma and Grandpa had come to such a party back in the day if they would have jumped!  

After ijump we all headed over to our Church Building for lunch and games.  One great thing about jumping for two hours first was I think it made the kids a LITTLE more tired, and not so prone to RUN the church like the usually do.  Joshua and his cousin Abigail were the MC's at the Church.  

Let the Bingo Begin!

The Now Newly Weds!  (Still engaged here…)

Chloe and Sadie (Garza's flew in from Arizona for the Party this year…yippee!)

Abigail and Joshua doing a great job calling out those numbers! 

For now, that's a little glimpse into the weekend.  I didn't get any pictures from the hayride the night before because we missed it.  And all the swimming pictures are on my phone.  I am so grateful for family and glad we can all meet up once in a while.  We missed a bunch of the family, but overall it was a great turn out considering it was the FIRST Milligan Christmas Party in Idaho.  Thanks for making the trip everyone!  Thanks Grandma for putting it all together and making the food.  It was just great.