A Kraus Family Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving together was just a few months after we were married. We went to Colorado to spend just a few short days with the Kraus family. After two years (switching off with my Nielson family), we went back! That first Thanksgiving together back in 2014 was before we started a blog, so I'll post just a few picture highlights from back then :)

Hiked to the top of Castle Rock in Castle Rock, CO

The farthest our Honda Civic has ever gone on one tank of gas...

16 mile bike ride as soon as we arrived, typical Kraus fam ;)

Took some early Christmas photos in downtown Castle Rock :)

And fast forward to now, we went back to Denver for Thanksgiving with the Krauses again in 2016! This time, I convinced Dustan to skip a couple days of school, so we left the Friday before Thanksgiving and were there for over a week until the following Sunday! It was wonderful.

We arrived just barely 15 minutes after Bryson and Taylor, who are now living in El Paso, Texas while Bryson is in medical school. Sadly, this means we got the small guest bedroom. Only half the family was there the first couple days while Jen, Bryan, and Erin were in Arizona for a cross country race.

Our first day there on Saturday, we did the typical Kraus activities. We went mountain biking, went to Levi's piano recital, played games, and watched a movie. The mountain biking trails still had some snow on them, so it was a very muddy ride--only minimal injuries though!

Awful picture for everyone, haha

Sunday was spent going to 1:00 pm church (the worst), eating, playing games, and watching movies. At around midnight, we left to go to the airport to pick up the rest of the family. It was time to party!

Monday was our first day with the whole family--unfortunately, the kids still had school. We pulled out the youngest, Levi, around lunchtime and did some more mountain biking. (It was supposed to snow on Tuesday, so we wanted to go before the trails were ruined wet again.) We did a 5 mile loop from the house, and I was able to make it to the last 10 yards of the trail before crashing! After a short break for lunch, we drove to a nearby bmx style biking course with jumps and banked turns and rode around there until the high school kids got home and joined us for some indian ball.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent doing some shopping in downtown Castle Rock, and the usual games and movies that the Kraus family loves so much. It had snowed Monday night so the usual mountain biking, outdoor sports, etc. were out for Tuesday. The snow made for perfect hot tubbing on Tuesday night though!

But on Wednesday enough snow had melted, so we again went to a park to play some games, such as football and ultimate frisbee. Afterward, we visited the Red Rocks Amphitheater, which is an outdoor concert area within the Red Rocks Park. It was pretty neat. Bryson and Taylor serenaded us on their guitar and fiddle.

Thanksgiving Day arrived! We spent the morning cooking up all the best dishes: turkey, candied pecan sweet potatoes, raspberry pretzel jello, mashed potatoes, carrot timble, and of course MORE PIE. Everyone in the family weighed themselves before the meal and again afterward to see how much weight they had gained. We sat down for an absolutely delicious meal around 3 pm (the Krauses like to eat early) before weighing ourselves again. Dustan gained 4 pounds and I gained 2.8 pounds, haha. We spent the rest of the day fat and happy, watching movies, playing games, and eating pie.

Most of Friday was spent at the Epic Sky Trek Challenge in Castle Rock. If the workers are to be believed, this is the largest ropes course in the world! It has over 110 different challenges and obstacles. Aside from losing feeling in my hands and scraping off the skin on a few fingers, it was a blast! There were different levels of courses, rated similar to biking or skiing, with green, blue, and black courses. Everyone tried a few each. That evening we played more games and watched the 5k episode of The Office in preparation for Saturday morning.

Saturday was our last full day :( That morning, we participated in the Stake 5k Turkey Trot. Honestly, I don't think anyone in the family was looking forward to it (except maybe Bryant and Erin, since they just finished their cross country season), but we all participated! Dustan and I had been doing no training for this whatsoever, and we definitely aren't runners. A 5k was much farther than anything we had just run in a while (since we've been married). Dustan had the goal to never walk and my goal was to actually finish the race without walking a majority of it, haha. Dustan did great, completing the race in 24:51 minutes, which is an 8 minute mile pace. Thankfully, Jen and Paul ran with me and kept me going, or I don't know if I would have finished! I completed my first 5k in 34:29 minutes, which is about an 11:06 minute mile pace. We both met our goals!

Just before sunset on Saturday, we got all dressed up and took some family pictures. It was absolutely freezing, especially once the sun went down. But they turned out great! Only a few tears were shed, which is apparently a new record for the Krauses during family pictures ;) The rest of the day was spend vegging out, watching movies, and playing games.

On Sunday, we went to church, ate some lunch, packed the car, and we were off! We were really so blessed to have been able to spend a whole week in Denver with family. They were so good to Dustan and I--feeding us, housing us, taking us on adventures, and serving us. We are very thankful for them, and to have them living so close that we can travel there for a short week!