DJ, Eric and I flew to Las Vegas this weekend for our niece Heather's wedding in Elko, NV.  Eric sister, Tracie picked us up and we drove the 7 hour drive north. We took a detour to view the cool Valley of Fire State Park.  

The wedding was outside in a park. One of the few places in the area that has trees. It was very small and nice. We had a good time.

A selection of random pictures from this past week. 

Twins vs Tigers. We won on a Matt Wallner Grand Slam!  Exciting evening.

Annoying family playing my pocket trumpet.

A random bumble bee on a flower outside of work

Reba trying to "help" me work

She sucks at it.

Finn fell asleep cradling my iPad. Silly kitty.

Eric and I ran the Gopher to Badger 10K on Saturday. We got up super early to drive all the way to Hudson. We lucked up and parked right behind my friend Meghan. We chatted on the bus ride to the start line and then with little fanfare, the race started. 

The race wasn't bad. I was dealing with an upset stomach most of the race which I chalk up to eating McDonald's the night before. The first 4 miles were very consistent even if I was feeling gross. Mile 5 wasn't great. This mile has the big uphill on to my favorite I-94 bridge...just kidding...I hate that bridge. HAHA!  Once I got on the bridge I walked with a purpose (as Eric calls it).  And even though the walk up was slow, I managed to still have a 15:41 mile.  Not bad considering I really didn't run any of it. I would try running and get to the next light post and my stomach said not today. So I walked a bit and tried running again and again my stomach said no. I finally realized the rest of the race will be a walk. So I really walked with a purpose and had a 15:29 mile. 100% walking!  My walking pace has really picked up.

After the race we drove to my brother's house for the weekend. It was Ashley for the Arts so the town was hopping. After a shower and a time to relax we all went for a ride. We stopped for ice cream at the JoJo drive-in in Independence and then drove a bunch of backroads from our past (our old school bus route). All the ups and downs and sharp turns. It was so much fun!  We ended up at the Amish Store for some breads and so Alec could play with a cat. 

We went to my Aunt Betty Jane's for dinner. We ordered food from East End...broasted chicken and JoJos...yum! We played a few games of Rummikub with her and visited. I think she was happy we did that.  We finished the night off watching the Great Outdoors movie. 

Sunday morning we went to the Sts. Peter and Paul Fall Festival. My old stomping grounds!  We spent $20 to win a cake at the sucker pull. We paid $10 for Roll-Out-the- Barrel game where we won tongs, soap, decorative pillows and a Halloween decoration. We gave that to Kennedy since she didn't win anything. We ate the great chicken dinner. We then picked up Betty Jane for Bingo. 3 hours of Bingo and I won one game. I covered all the "Ns" and got $59!  Yay!

We took Betty home and then went back up for the polka music. The band Malek's Fisherman. They were my dad's favorite band so it was bittersweet. We hung around until 6 and then headed back home. Reba modeled off our medal from our 10K race.

 We had a busy weekend. We started out by spending the night in Stillwater before our St. Croix Bridge Crossing 5K race. Race morning they bussed us out into the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin and we had to run across the St. Croix Bridge back to Minnesota. (Hence the name).  Overall the race went well. It was my fastest 5K since before Covid. Wining!

We had to rush home after the race to get ready for our big birthday party for the July (and early August) birthdays.

Danielle's family camped in our back yard so we completed the experience by having a campfire. We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. 

Sunday most of us went to Valleyfair. It was Carter's first time We had a blast. It was a prefect day for the waterpark.