Saturday, June 29, 2019

nine miler

My mileage is jumping all over the place for my marathon training and today was my first longer run of nine miles. My middle of the week longer run will eventually get up to 10 miles, but this first nine miler felt like forever!

I started at 7am and finished in about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I think my steps were a little short because when I tracked my route it says I only did 8.2 miles, but I'm satisfied with the results.

The weather is nice and hot here in River Falls. Anders just called in to work an hour early at Dairy Queen. I'm guessing it will be a busy day for him with people rolling in for Blizzards and other sweet treats.

last grad party of the year

On Friday, I think we went to our last grad party of the year. Our neighbor, Charlotte graduated and she had a very nice party in her back yard. Anders ended up staying for a while and we all had a great time.

Earlier in the day, I had driven to Grantsburg to pick up Katie from camp. I brought Osten along for the ride and ended up leaving him with Aunt Ibby because he wanted to stay with his cousins for the weekend. It's been foreign not having him here...he is a firecracker, that's for certain. 

Thursday, June 27, 2019

clothing obsessions

While on our trip, my friend Sharyl and I noticed a girl in the airport with a pair of pants that we thought were exceptionally cute. I approached her an found she bought them at Walmart.

Sharyl and I decided to purchase matching pants online and hope to go out to lunch sometime in the near future while wearing our new purchases.

farewell academy building

On the day we arrived home from Anna Maria, the construction company was busy at deconstructing the 1927 portion of the River Falls Academy building.

Here's a few snaps of what I saw:


and here is some photos of what the academy looked like, what the proposed new building will look like and an invitation for a time capsule opening.




happy 26th anniversary you cutie pies!

On June 25, 1993, the Blomgren family gained a wonderful new family member in Kim Kubes. Your joy and commitment to one another is evident in all you say and do. Happy anniversary.

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

farewell Anna Maria hello home!

We got in our van which was packed to the gills and drove Michelle to her rental car. She was driving to Orlando to spend the rest of her week with her daughter who is playing club volleyball.

We arrived at Fort Myers in plenty of time, departed about 25 minutes late, but arrived right on time in Minneapolis. Aunt Julie picked us up at the airport and then I drove everyone home/dropped them off at their doorsteps.

Julie T. and I went to lunch at Subway and then said farewell. What a great time that will be cherished for years to come.


day 5 sunrise day!

We woke up very early on day 5 to see the sunrise.


Then we all went back to bed. It was our last full day, so Michelle, Julie and I decided to try and get a pedicure. We took the golf cart down island and the other women headed right to the beach.

We struck out on getting pedicures, but we did get some gifts for Anders and some after sun care spray for our group. We met up with the other group and went for a great walk/saw some surfers.

Spent several hours in the surf and sun and then packed up so we could get cleaned up and head to dinner at the Rod and Reel. We went right away to get our name on the list and then went to the condo to get showers and ready for the night.





We all had fantastic seafood. I had fresh grouper with an almond and coconut crust...WOW! Back to the condo to pack and prepare for our 6:45 departure.


day 4 on the beach

We opted to have a nice breakfast at the Rod and Reel Pier and we weren't disappointed. We witnessed a dolphin swimming all around the pier and captured some photos. Michelle and I shared our meals--island french toast and a seafood omelet. Great decision.

After breakfast, Julie and I went for a paddle on a paddle board near the Rod and Reel while the others went to the beach. It was a nice paddle. Julie went back to meet a work friend who came to visit her and I joined the others on the beach. We spent lots of time under the umbrella to keep our skin intact.


For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Harry's and then went out to a really fun Irish Pub and then onto a great 90s band called Fake News. We got back to our place at about 12:30am and set our alarms to get up very early to see the sunrise.








day 3 summer solstice

To start day 3, Julie and I biked to a bank so she could authorize her husband, Matt to take their girls to Canada fishing over the weekend. It was a toasty hot bike ride and then we met the other ladies at a restaurant called the Ugly Grouper. Our server, Ian was very friendly and gave us a lot of ideas for the rest of our time on the island.



Julie and I biked back to the condo and the other ladies went out shopping. Julie and I stopped at a coffee shop on our way back to cool down with an iced coffee and then got back to the condo/showered got ready for part 2 of the day.


When everyone else returned hung out by the pool--ate another little meal by our pool and then went down to the beach to watch the sunset on summer solstice.









day 2

After getting to sleep in, we walked down to the beach with our cart, a cooler, towels, beach blankets, chairs and sunscreen. Our friends, Sharyl and Gretchen went in search of beach umbrellas at the stores.

Sarah, Michelle and I walked for about an hour on the beach and accomplished our daily walk . Then we played in the strong surf for a while and lounged on the beach. I unfortunately didn't reapply sunscreen so got a LOT of color on my legs, mainly upper parts that don't usually see the sun because they are covered by shorts.

Gretchen and Sharyl joined us and then we had some respite from the rays under the umbrellas. Thank you so much ladies!

Somewhere around 2pm, Julie decided she needed a nap and I decided to seek shelter from the sun so we went back to our little bungalow--Julie rested and I just sat and cooled down/read a book. Then we jumped on a couple of bikes from our condo and rode around town to get our bearings/have a nice iced coffee. We ended up at the Sand Bar restaurant and I bought a pair of really cute striped wide leg pants.

Our crew returned to the condo and they showered and got ready for dinner. We tried to go to the Rod and Reel just down the street, but the wait was about an hour and a half. We loaded up the golf cart and drove to the Sand Bar again. We got our names on a list, I bought another little romper for myself, we had some drinks and played on the beach/took photos.












We had a nice dinner (not as great of food as last time) and then went back to the condo to laugh/visit and prepare for bed.

It was a pretty awesome day if you ask me.

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

donuts and coffee to start the day

Early on June 19, Julie arrived at our home. Brad drove she and I to Sharyl's house and then to Angie's house to start our adventure to the Minneapolis airport to depart at 6:25 am on a Sun Country fight to Fort Myers Florida. We met Michelle, Gretchen and Sarah at the airport. We were treated to donuts and coffee because Sun Country was having some issues with their online check in system.



What a sweet way to start our adventure.

We landed in Fort Myers without Gretchen's luggage. It was an adventure getting her luggage back (delivered on Friday morning) and we got to go shopping for her to make it through two days (toothbrushes, sunscreen, lotion, swimsuit, a couple of shirts and shorts).

We ate lunch at Chipotle and shopped at Target. We bought food for several days as we had a kitchenette in our condo. I also bought a new book and a sunhat, face sunscreen and some spa masks for us all.

To our condo where we settled into our space and almost immediately donned our swimsuits and hung out by our pool. We ate crackers, cheese, apples and had some mixed drinks. After our little dinner, we headed to the beach (about a quarter mile away) and watched the sunset/played in the surf).





break day 3

Woke up on my home farm and headed over to Brandt Ridge to get the last of Moms stuff packed and brought to Kyle and Kim’s garage. We got he...