Ragnar - Northwest Passage

This weekend was the weekend that Sydney has been dreading.  The reason why she made me start running with her.  That's right.  Me....running.  She signed up last fall to do the Ragnar: Northwest Passage relay race with Rachel and Cory and a bunch of their friends and Cory's family.  I was excused because I couldn't get off work but had Saturday off, so Fiz and I jumped in the car and headed up the support the crazy running people.  

I got there Saturday morning, after Sydney had already finished all 3 of her legs.  She looked great!  My little running wife.   

This was just after Cory had finished his last and Rachel had started.  The team name was "Nice Running Sharts" as will become very evident if you continue reading this post.  

Everyone was still in good spirits, but quite tired by this point.  

Rach is running away!

Look at those sharts cheering her on.

The race started in Blaine, WA and ended in Langley on Whidbey Island.  This was a beach at one of the parks where there was an exchange.  So beautiful out there.   

Rachel's last leg is over and she's so sad.  

The sharts.  

Here they come!

What a beautiful team.  

Yes...yes they did.  It was clearly one of the best team names.  Everyone laughed.  

Adrian was working it.  

Apparently you sign this thing!

I was the non-running guy with the dog and camera.  Good job Sydney!  I brought her all the essentials for the post-race recovery.  2 bags of donuts, some rootbeer, and milk.  

These faces crack me up.  

The line for the ferry back home.  We probably waited 2 hours.  Also, there was an altercation about "butting" in the line.  Apparently these Whidbey island folk are very passionate/aggressive.  

The stink van.  

There was a definitely "spicy" odor coming from the van.  

I wish I could have been a part of the madness.  I think the total was like 196 miles and the relay ran non-stop for like 36 hours.  Crazy beans.  

Da fortha jewel eye.

My first weekend after starting REAL Anesthesia, and I get a 3 day weekend for the 4th of July.  Yes...I think I'm going to enjoy the next 3 years a lot!  We decided to head down to Salem, OR and visit Rachel/Cory and the little munchkins.  So glad that we did.  It was a blast!

Rach and Cory have some friends who have this amazing yard with a camping/firepit area.  We took full advantage.

Cory and I went golfing while these kiddos picked us some blueberries!  Cory's little brother Chase was visiting too.  

What a ham.

Tessa always has a smile for the camera.  

Unless she's focusing.

We had lots of fun smashing the dead branches off the trees.  

We couldn't quite get a clear shot of Emory, since she was always on the move.  

KUBB!!!!

And apparently these are all the photos we took.  Lot of fun.  So glad to be just 4 hours away!  Thanks again for letting us come visit.  

The Christiansens Come to Seattle!

Well, it's been a very long time since we've blogged.  Probably because we've been home to visit so many times this past year, it hasn't felt like we've needed to.  But Sydney got a new camera for her birthday, and by-golly we're going to do something with all these pictures.

We went to Alki Beach.  Truthfully, it wasn't our favorite, although it was beautiful and such.  

This place was lots more fun.  Marine View Park.  We found some drift wood to make into a ship! 

Pizza place by our apartment.  Humble Pie.  It's built out of a shipping container.  That's pretty cool.  

This was once we had everything moved in.  We set up the couch first.  Fiz is ready to play.  

On our way out the door for some Seattle summer fun!  Oh yeah.  

No explanation needed.  

Mom and Kate split the giant feast thing they dump on the table.  Yums!

The Wall O Gum.  Aaron Winder pointed out the dude on the left.  What the?  He's just walking around with that on his face.  

These people.  

Are special.  

But I enjoy their company.  

We ate at some pretty great places.  After a few days, my mom headed down to Salem to see Rachel/Cory and babies.  My dad flew back to Utah for work.  Katelyn stayed to hang out with us.  We had a good time. 

A wall of hot sauce.  

Beware.

One night we bought all the "fresh ingredients" (Said in Jack Black Nacho Libre voice) from Pike's Market and headed home to make delicious omelettes.  Boy were they stinking delicious.  

A little bit of cheese!

And mushrooms!

We went for walks in the parks.  

Fiz got a lot of stickers!

This was a scary bush.  

All-in-all, this was a lot of fun.  We're so excited to be in Seattle and loving the summer weather so far.  Thanks so much to my parents and Katelyn for coming and helping us move.  We needed it!  We can't wait to have more visitors.  Hooray!