I celebrate ”45” by going to Krispy Kreme for donuts. Yum! 

We took Michael and Tori’s dogs for a walk. Sky is the German Shepherd and Ralph is the shitpoo.

We went to Olive Garden for dinner and had birthday cake later. It was a good day.

Merry Christmas!

 

We were driving around looking at Christmas Lights with Mike and Linda tonight. We drove past Valleyfair where they have the Christmas in Color show. The line wasn't long and I had a coupon code (yay Valleyfair season holder benefit) so we only paid $32 to drive through. It was a good show but they have a bunch of lights out. And with the recent snow, the path was very snow packed. It was still fun.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We had a great year! It is nice things are getting back to normal.  All of Kim’s family got together in January to celebrate January (and near January) birthdays. Half of her family has a January birthday!

In February we traveled to Phoenix for Juliette and Daniel’s wedding (Eric’s niece). It was a beautiful outdoor wedding with the saguaros as the back drop.  While in Phoenix, we met up with Kim’s friend Mary Linda.

We met Eric’s brother Phil in Kansas City to run the Garmin Land of Oz Half Marathon in April. Even though we almost went to Oz (it was VERY windy) and our training was terrible, we finished the race.  No witches were harmed in the running of the race, including Kim.  We were able to meet up with Eric’s sister Bonnie and Hiram for dinner too.

In May we went out to Denver to run the Colfax 10 Mile race that we originally signed up for in 2020. We got to see Eric’s brother Matt and his family. Later that month we went to Rapid City for Eric’s niece, Alexa’s graduation.

June was a busy month. We all flew out to Las Vegas for a 9-day road trip. We started out in Pahrump visiting Eric’s sister Tracie and her family. We made a day trip to Death Valley in California so the kids could experience 116 degrees. It’s a dry heat, very dry. After that we went to Zion and Bryce National Parks in Utah, two of Kim’s favorites and the Grand Canyon. We spent a couple days in Vegas where we met up with Kim’s cousin, Jerry.  A few days later Anna and DJ left for Brazil for a month to see Adrian and family.

In July, Kim and Eric went to Milwaukee to run the Sarcoma Race in memory of Dylan. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see Melissa as she had covid.  Both Kim and Eric’s families and the Stayer’s came over for another birthday party for all the July birthdays. 75% of the people in this house have a July birthday!

Eric’s sister Carrie and most of her kids came up for a week in August. We had fun at the pool and grilling out. For our 19th anniversary we spent a week in Los Angeles. The Twins had back-to-back series at Dodger’s Stadium and Angel’s Stadium. We got to see two games and Eric completed his goal of visiting every MLB stadium. We went to a couple beaches, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Studio. Kim found a 5K race at Dodger’s Stadium where we got to walk around the warning track. We also had a great time with Kim’s cousin, Steve and his family.

Caio started at the University of Minnesota in September. Also in September, we watched Abbie’s husband Bryce fight in an MMA fight. The next day we went to New Ulm, MN for Hermanfest with Danielle and family and Nancy. Later in the month, Eric’s nephew Michael and his girlfriend Tori came up to visit. We went to the St. Paul Brewery and a Twins game and they went to the Vikings game.

We ran the TC 10 Mile in early October. It is a very hilly and hard course and every time Kim runs it, she says never again…this was her third time.  We also went to the Corn Maze three times October. Once by ourselves, once with Caio, Anna and the Stayers and once with all of Kim’s family including Melissa. We had a blast each time.

Our last race of 2022 was a half marathon in Rehoboth Beach, DE. It was our 28th state. Phil joined us again for this race. We did some touristy things like seeing wild horses at Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland.

Anna is looking forward to graduating from Shakopee High School in June 2023. We went on a couple college tours in November and she has narrowed her choices down to a couple.

Reba and Finn are doing great. They are the most loveable cats and are very entertaining to watch.

Hope you have a wonderful Holiday season and a great 2023.

Love,
Eric, Kim, Caio, Anna, Reba & Finn

Eric and I went down to Wisconsin to set up Betty Jane's new computer on Saturday. We enjoyed broasted chicken and JoJo potatoes from East End Bar for lunch. After that we met Danielle, Bradley, Blake, Carter and Melissa at Tony's house for the La Crosse Rotary Lights. I think this is the first time I have walked these lights. I've always driven though. It was so much fun...it also was very cold. We had some s'mores (with frozen marshmallows). After the lights we went to Rocky Rococo's pizza for dinner. It was  such a fun night.    

 

This past weekend we went to Rehoboth Beach Delaware to run a Half Marathon. I was about to cross of state #28. Only 22 to go!  Phil joined us for the weekend. 

We flew into Philadelphia on Thursday night. It was a very clear and pretty night to fly in to Philly. It was about a 2 hour drive to Rehoboth Beach, DE from the airport.  

The next day we picked up our bibs and walked around the board walk of Rehoboth Beach.

Next we headed to Assateague Island National Seashore, just across the border in Maryland. They have wild horses which are very cool. 

The sunset on the drive back to Rehoboth Beach was amazing. 

We were up bright and early for the race. It started by the board walk and we ran around some nice house in town before we ran a mile on the board walk next to the ocean. It made for some great views.

The race was very flat and kind of nice. The weather started out perfect at 57 degrees but after a couple miles it started to rain and at times it was raining hard. My feet were a mess at the end because they were soaked. 

There were a couple out and back sections which I usually don't like but it wasn't so bad. Part of the race ran on a trail in the park which was a bit muddy since it wasn't paved but it also had tree cover which helped with the heavy rain. At the 9.5 mile turnaround they had a bunch of state flags up, I assume for the states represented at the race. It wasn't a huge race, maybe 2500 total for the half and full.  

Even though I'm still battling knee problems, it went pretty good for me. Eric stayed with me until around mile 10. I still ran a little leading up to mile 10 but walked the last 5K. My feet were toast and my quads were angry. The only thing that has improved this year for me is my walking speed. In the past, my walking pace was around 17-18 minute miles. It was slow. Now, even after going 10 miles, I was able to maintain a 16 minute per mile pace. My total time was 3:23:32, almost 20 minutes faster than April's race in Kansas City. :)

Overall, I'm happy with the race. I wish I could get back down to 3 hours but I need to do a lot more training and a lot more running. Here is to 2023!