Reunion 08-08-08

Atop the mountains of Salt Lake City, the descendents of Karen and Norvel Christenson convened for yet another activity-and-glutton-filled reunion. B.J. and Chrystel were our hosts this year for the Christenson Reunion. The theme of the reunion appropriately dubbed--Christenson Olympiad.

B.J. and Chrystel found us five 2-family condos at Solitude Resort. The condos were awesome! I'd never been to Solitude before, and I was taken aback by the beauty. B.J. assigned each condo a region of the world represented by the rings of the Olympic games. Our roommates for the reunion consisted of the Aagard family--Mary, Hans, and Minnie variety. Our team made up the countries that encapsulate modern Asia (as opposed to Gengis-Khan Asia). I think Minnie took gold in the child-who-went-down-the-water-slide-the-most-amount-of-times-head-first event. Lissie took gold in the picking-the-most-amount-of-wildflowers-one-child-fist-can-hold-while-walking-with-Grandma event. Lilia could have easily taken gold in most-competitive-of-our-team. On the nature hike, she ran to keep up with the leaders. And Nohea would have taken gold for the Imelda-Marcus-shoe-try-on-and-lose competition. That girl and shoes ...

So here is the good part: pictures! I wish I would have taken more ...

The bug, the toad, and the bear sitting on a log.

Grandma and Lissy picking flowers during the race. Grandma is never one to NOT stop and smell the flowers.


Uncle Hans teaching Minnie and Lissy how to catch a frisbee.

Mackenzie helping Nohea walk along the Silver Lake path.

All the Christenson grandkids ... 19 and counting. Click on this picture to increase the size and take a look at Carlie. She's to the right of Melissa. She's the one in front who is about 18 months, but she looks like a 3 year old. She has blonde, straggly hair. She looks like a hobbit. When Nohea and she were younger, they were on the very fat side. Doug and I used to joke that they could be roomies at BYU, but they'd have to be on a bottom floor so as not to disturb any downstairs neighbors. Ouch! Cruel!

The girl cousins playing with Minnie's Polly Pockets. As it stands, there are five boy cousins and 14 girl cousins. Polly Pocket was not without friends to help her get dressed.

The younger siblings flocked by nieces and nephews. From left: Lissy, Carlie, Hetty holding Nohea, Jeff, Lilia, Luke atop Wayne, Hannah, Grace, and Mackenzie.

Haven't you ever wanted to read a real blog post about how hard marriage can be, and how spouses don't always see eye-to-eye? Well, read some place else: me and my man are soulmates squared (but then divide it by 2, subtract 8, add it to the power of 5 and you get a division that is nearly impossible to calculate to the factor of x)! Truthfully, I had a bit of an overreaction to Kulani's "hate"-itude concerning reunions, and we ended up leaving early. I am sorry for my childishness. I wish I could have been there for the family photograph. But that's why we only have these things every two years. Like the family T-shirt said: "Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family." Thanks to B.J. and Chrystel (and Grandma) for another awesome reunion. Next up: Mary in 2010.