Year in Review

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Like usual, the beginning on 2016 started out very quiet. We spent Valentine’s Day and Easter with Kim’s family.

In May, Kim completed her first solo triathlon. It was a women’s only race and she had a blast. She can’t wait to do more in 2017.

Spring is also graduation time and at the end of May and the beginning of June we attended the graduations for Allista Ward in Pahrump, NV and Ethan Harris in Mankato, MN (Eric’s niece and nephew). While in Nevada, we travelled to the Grand Canyon with Eric’s parents.

Eric’s brother, Phil, and niece, Katelynn, visited in June. Eric and Phil ran the 40^th Annual Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, MN. This was Eric’s first full marathon. Kim ran the half marathon. Eric’s sister, DJ, came along to cheer us on. Kim was very surprised at her first mile when she saw her brother, Mike, and his girlfriend, Linda, with a sign for her. They left Arcadia, WI at 2:30am to get to Duluth by 6:30am for the start of Kim’s race. Kim was so shocked and happy they came to cheer us on.

Juliette, Eric’s niece, came up to see us in August and we ran the Minnesota Half Marathon. It was her first half marathon and she killed us, finishing way before us. 

Also in August, Kim’s brother and mom hosted a family reunion for her mom’s side. It was nice to catch up with family.

Our big trip for the year was to New Mexico and Arizona. We drove over 1,700 miles and visited 11 national parks/monuments. We saw cliff dwellings, white sands, caves, petroglyphs and much, much more. We met a new friend, a bull snake, on one of our hikes on our 13th anniversary. We also rafted down the Rio Grande River, watched an Albuquerque Isotopes and an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball games and helped Juliette move some stuff from storage to her dorm room. We also had lunch with Eric’s niece, Samantha, and her fiancé CJ.

September was a big month for Kim’s family. The family spent Labor Day weekend at Kim’s niece, Danielle and her husband, Bradley’s house in New Ulm, MN. Followed by a weekend in Milwaukee to see Kim’s nephew, Dylan’s new house. We met his girlfriend, Melissa and her two cats and also ran the Brewers 10K race which started and ended at Miller Park. And the following weekend Kim and her mom went to Austin, TX to see Kim’s sister, Nancy and her husband, Greg and their dog, Frankie.

The last weekend in September, Kim’s friend, Mary Linda came up to Minnesota for a visit. We went to Grand Forks, ND to run the Wild Hog Half Marathon.

We ran quite a few races in October. Like previous years, we ran the 5K and 10K at the Mankato marathon. DJ ran the 10K with us. Phil visited again and ran the marathon along with Eric’s brother, Byron and his wife, Paula. It was Byron’s birthday. The night before we had a pizza party and cake to celebrate. Kim’s family was also there. It was a fun weekend.

We flew back to Vegas in November to run the Rock ‘N’ Roll Las Vegas half marathon. We meet Phil there, he ran the marathon. Our race was great. It was at night and it ran up and down The Strip. It was a lot of fun and our finisher’s medal glows in the dark.

We spent Thanksgiving this year with Kim’s family. We switch Christmas and Thanksgiving this year. We are spending Christmas in Omaha with Eric’s family.

Our last race of the year was in Tucson. Again, we met Phil. He ran the full marathon. We are ran the half marathon. It was hard to leave the sunny 70 degree weather in Arizona for the snow and single digits in Minnesota on our return flight.

We hope you had a great 2016 and that your 2017 will be even better.

Love Eric, Kim and Swirl