For Labor Day we got to attend the annual Holliday Family Reunion in Little Egypt (Preston, ID)...FINALLY! I missed this reunion so much while we lived in Oregon. It has always been one of the highlights of my year, and this year did not disappoint. If you enlarge the photo to read the story of why its called Egypt, you'll read about David Jensen; he is my Great-great-great-grandfather (I think I got all the greats in there) and the first permanent settler of Preston, ID.
We were going to drive up on Saturday, but do to some more vomit we decided against it. We didn't want to be stuck in a tent with illness coming at us from all angles. We drove up Sunday and went to Sacrament meeting in Preston, then headed over to spend some time with family. Sunday evening is always spent by the fireside where we're entertained by one another, each big family gets a bag of props writes and performs a skit, here's a picture of Ethan and Jonas preparing for ours.
Grandpa "Hoss" (my dad) and Jonas at the fireside.
The oldest three grandkids in my parent's family were engrossed in a Batman computer game, what with fresh air and sunshine surrounding them, go figure!
Porter, Ethan, and Dalton
The younger kids had a great time running and playing to their hearts' content.
Nola and Brinlee (my cousin Katie's daughter)
My aunts Jan and Janna (you think that's confusing? There's a Janene too)
Here they are holding their grandkids.
I have the world's very best sisters-in-law- or perhaps a better term to call them, sisters-in-love. What good sports to let me take pictures of them while camping. I have missed them so much, its good to be home!
A HOG! My dad's dream come true, too bad its my cousin's...
Perhaps, the longest running tradition with our reunion is Monday BINGO! Dennis was a good sport and helped my kids, who were THRILLED to play and to win cool prizes on top of it!
A couple of my brothers (Richy and Sean) are trying to become professional game designers. They have one game, Mingling, that will hopefully be in stores next year sometime. I'll let you know when you can all buy it! This is the next one they are pushing to get in stores, Shapes. Its pretty exciting to see their dreams starting to come true!
My "Crazy Aunt Velora" my grandpa's youngest sister. She rocks!
My grandpa's oldest sister, Lauraine. The quilt behind her was made by my dad's cousin and it has a bunch of family history pictures on it. Last year, at the reunion, she had everyone sign little strips of fabric. We weren't there, so our names are not included on the family quilt. :( It was made for our family auction (to fund the family farm where the reunion is held). Lauraine was the winner of the auction at a whopping $1,006.53 (I think, I may have the figure off by a few cents...) What a treasure!
The youngest of the kids in my grandpa's family, Tom with my cute Dad (the patriarch of his family since his dad passed away in 1994). I didn't get a picture of one of my great-uncles ElDean, he was there and I don't know how I missed him, but for history's sake here are the rest of them.
Poor Jonas was so sick, we changed his diaper 8 times on Monday! He was so sad and once we ran out of diapers we had to go home.
And illustrating how we all felt at the end of the weekend, is Eden (Richy and Kari's 3rd child). Funny how we always need a vacation from our vacation. :)
