Shelly Jean (Shriner) Christiansen

Shelly Jean (Shriner) Christiansen left us far too soon October 29, 2024. Shelly was born on March 13th, 1965, in Rawlins, Wyoming to Larry and Jean Shriner. Shelly and her younger sister, Jan, grew up spending much of their childhood camping and skiing in the Rocky Mountains as well as summers at the lake. Shelly took piano lessons and was involved in 4-H for 10 years which included sewing club and showing the family dog, Taco. She was very successful, earning top honors at both the county and state fairs. In middle school Shelly discovered her abilities as an artist and her competitiveness in volleyball, basketball and track. Art and sports continued throughout High School resulting in a volleyball scholarship at Casper College where she studied Computer Science. Eventually Shelly’s desire to focus on her career led her to DeVry Institute of Technology in Phoenix Arizona where she met her life-long partner, Pat Christiansen and earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.

Shelly and Pat moved to Hudson, Wisconsin where they both took on technology jobs in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1996, their first child was born, Alec, which was when Shelly discovered her true passion - being a mom. Kylee was born in 1998 and Erin in 2000. As soon as she finished her Y2K computer programming, she left her IT career and became a full-time mother, daughter and sister. Shelly’s mother Jean had moved to Hudson and her sister Jan was about 40 minutes away in the Twin Cities.

Shelly excelled at motherhood, volunteering at school events, hosting family dinners with Pat’s large family and introducing her kids to the outdoors in the Boundary Waters. As her kids got older, she became their taxi and number one cheerleader. She was seen on the sidelines at many soccer, football, basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball events. Eventually she took matters into her own hands and became the girls’ volleyball coach, the school’s Athletic Director and a board member of the local club volleyball team – Croix Attack. All three of her kids shared her passion for volleyball playing for Croix Attack club teams. Shelly’s cheerleading extended to her sister’s children, Janson and Janey as she didn’t hesitate to travel and make surprise appearances at their sporting events 700 miles away!

Shelly loved seeing her children’s gifts come alive in adulthood. She spent many evenings at clubs listening to Alec’s band play her favorite songs. She loved listening to Alec play the guitar. Shelly’s sewing skills helped fuel Kylee’s interest in fashion design as Kylee graduated from SCAD with a fashion degree. Erin also inherited Shelly’s artistic abilities and has become an insightful photographer and artist in Seattle – there is not a room in their house without family art of some kind.

Shelly is preceded in death by her father, Larry Shriner and her mother, Jean (Piche) Shriner.