Christensen Thanksgiving in the mud!

Since we have such a large extended family, we decided to do Thanksgiving a little earlier with Teage’s family this year. We settled on the weekend of November 12th as that is Jesse’s birthday. He would have been 35 and we wanted to do something together with Teage’s brothers and sisters. There was a special 5K scheduled for that day in North Bend. It’s an annual run and it’s called the Pineapple Dash. Essentially you get dressed up in Hawaiian gear and run over and through obstacles as a team. You get really muddy and at the end there’s a slip n’ slide that you do. Tawna flew into town with Brook and Susie. A few days before the event Teage threw out his back so Tawna, Brett, Sunni and Brook ended up running the race. Here are a few pictures of the event, of which they finished 23rd over-all for a mixed team for times. Not bad for a bunch of Polynesians!

After the run, everyone came back to our place to get cleaned up and ready for dinner. And guess what? I cooked my very first turkey! In fact, I cooked two of them. I now feel like a real live grown-up! We had the works for dinner....turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, etc. It ended up being a fantastic meal!

Over-all, it was a fun weekend to spend with Teage’s family and to get to know Susie so much better. We hadn’t seen Brook and Susie for almost two years and seeing them and getting to chat with Susie was awesome. Brook has someone really special and we’re so glad to have her as part of our family. And....the kiddos had a blast with all of their cousins!

Although we were all together this weekend, it did seem a little incomplete without Jesse physically being there. We did sing happy birthday to him and talked a little about him. It’s still hard to believe that it’s been 6 years since he passed away. But knowing that he is watching over all of us brings a sense of happiness, joy and peace. We look forward to continuing this tradition of family, mud and memories for years to come!