Once again we have a month's worth of journaling to do in one post. We need to work on updating this blog more often, but for now you'll just have to read this post for the entire month!
June 6th-8th: During the first weekend in June it was the time for the annual Winona Dakota Gathering, which my mom helps to coordinate and we've been attending for the past few years. We got to stay in our own apartment which is owned by Winona State University. We had a good time eating the different types of food, shopping at the vendors, visiting with people, meeting new people, participating in the sunrise ceremony with Dakota and non-Dakota people, and avoiding the downpours and severe weather. Next year we might not spend the entire weekend there, since there is only so much you can do, but it was fun nevertheless.
June 14th-15th: This weekend was the first weekend that we can remember where we didn't spend time with each other. Annah decided to go up to the cities to spend time with her grandma who recently had hip replacement surgery and this was her first weekend home. Annah went up to the cities on Thursday and stayed until Sunday (father's day). Annah tried to keep herself busy for the four days (Mall of America with her cousins, hanging out with Noah and helping her grandparents), but it was hard to be away from Jordan and she missed him in the evenings. Meanwhile, I was cleaning my house and helping my family. Finally, we were reunited after a week of separation...I was so excited to see Annah that I met her outside of my house when her car pulled up. That really surprised her (a great welcome home surprise!)
June 16th: After a week of being apart, we decided to meet for lunch at our favorite pizza place, Nick 'N Willy's. A little on the pricey side but really good, quality pizza! After we ordered our pizzas, Annah found a table while I walked over to AAA to get some travel brochures about Oregon. Annah and I are going to Oregon to visit our friend Valerie and to see my grandma who lives in Coos Bay. We are going the second week of August so we thought we'd better get planning now!! The rest of my lunch time was spent eating the delicious pizza and talking about our wonderful travel plans!
June 17th-19th: I had training three days out of the week in the St. Paul at the Department of Human Services for my job at Global Home Health Care. We stayed at the Best Western-Kelly Inn near the state capital. Annah came up to visit me the second night we were there. She met us in the hotel lobby and I showed her my room. We freshened up and decided to go on a walk around the neighborhood. We walked near the capital, saw the building where I had the training then we walked past the old Science Museum location. It was exciting to see that because it brought back memories from when we were younger, the main musical staircase and Iggy the iguana outside! After our walk, we drove to the Mall of America. We walked all around the mall, poking our heads in different shops and finally headed up to the third floor for a delicious meal at Bubba Gumps in celebration of our 9 month anniversary! I had their shrimp dish and Annah had tilapia (both of which were very tasty). With our meals we each ordered a drink...and Bubba Gumps is famous for their light cups and beer glasses. With souvenirs in hand, we walked out no longer hungry!
June 21-22: On Friday night we hung out in Austin and had dinner and just relaxed. During this weekend we went to Pepin and helped work on the trailer and tried to go out on the river to go fishing, but the battery (and the backup battery) were both dead so we were only able to fish from the boat in the marina, so we weren't able to really catch anything. It was a good weekend though.
June 24th: When I arrived to work on my birthday, I was stunned to see a completely decorated office with balloons, lots of happy birthday signs, candy on my desk and hanging from the ceiling, confetti, and Googly Eyes on my plants (see my plant blog for more info on that. It was a great surprise for me and I love Annah so much for doing it! My boss and coworkers gave me a cake and had a little celebration for me which was nice too. For dinner I went with Annah and my family to Outback Steakhouse and we all had a great time! For my birthday present Annah gave me a Nintendo Wii along with 5 games and a bunch of accessories! We now have a wonderful time playing games against each other (even though we both get mad when we lose)!
June 28th-29th: Friday night, we drove down to Austin for the evening after work. On Saturday, it was a day we were all anxiously waiting for and hoping for no rain...a trip to Valley Fair with Annah, Jayna (Annah's sister) and Kevin (Jayna's friend). My mom had pre-purchased the tickets a head of time so that made everything easier...on the drive to Valley Fair after picking Jayna and Kevin up, Annah took some Dramamine (which is a life saver) one hour before the rides. Once we got to the park, the first ride was Wild Thing. We didn't have to wait too long and I kept reminding Annah to keep her eyes open and it's going to be ok. She was really nervous even though she had been on it before. After the ride, Annah said that it wasn't as bad as she had remembered it being. There were tears in her eyes after the big, steep drop!
The next ride was the Power Tower, which we were both scared of but it was fun! Our favorite ride was the Extreme Swings which went up and down and made it seem like you were going to fall out! The two of us went away from the big rides to play Mini Golf. It was a lot of fun to spend time with each other and play a little round of golf! I barely beat her!
After we had dropped Jayna and Kevin off, it was about 8:00. We decided to drive down to Pepin, WI where we would stay at my family's trailer then go fishing the next day. It was a long drive and we switched drivers half-way through because Annah couldn't keep her eyes open she was so tired! We made it to Pepin around 10:30. We were both exhausted from a fun day of going on rides and walking around!! Surprisingly, Annah didn't feel sick after going on those rides--yay for Dramamine!
The next day, we went fishing. My dad and I both caught one fish each but they were not very large so we couldn't keep them. Annah got skunked this time around...better luck next time!! We also decided to burn some of the cedar and other branches that needed to be burned around the trailer. Annah and I are both pyros so we had fun with the fire!
July 3rd: Right after I got to work on Thursday the 3rd, my parents called me to tell me that they found a hermit crab walking around on the stairs going into the basement! I was surprised and told Annah and we thought it was our smallest crab "Becky" whom I had taken out the previous night to play with for a few minutes while we were watching Super Nanny. However, as the day progressed and I examined the cage where the escaped hermit crab had been placed, I realized that this was not "Becky" but was instead "Bob" whom Annah and I had thought was eaten by my larger (giant) crabs during the one night we put all of the hermit crabs in one cage. We had thought he was dead because he was nowhere to be found in any shell and we had set some "extra" shells outside on a chair since they weren't being using. Turns out Bob was inside one of these "empty" shells and he must have rolled himself off of the chair. He then roamed around my rec-room for about three to four weeks without any real source of food or water so we hope he will survive! So far he is still alive and happy to be back in his home!
July 4th Weekend: The weekend started around 7:30am with a stop at Dunn Bros for coffee and we were off! Every year Annah's mothers side of the family gets together at a cousin's house in Duluth, MN. Even though the grandparents were not going, we still decided to go up there. It took about 3 1/2 to 4 hours to get up there and we got to visit with Annah's relatives for a while. The weather up there was in the mid 70's, dry, and sunny so it was spectacular!
After eating lunch, we decided to go with several of Annah's cousins to look for a beach where we could make a sand castle. We stumbled upon a nice beach where were able to break into two teams and had a contest for which team could make the best one. I helped a little bit, but not as much as I could have. It was lots of fun! We even walked around in the frigid Lake Superior water and had a blast! After leaving the beach we went and got ice cream and sat down along the beach around downtown Duluth.
We returned to house and said our goodbyes and then we were off to Tettegouche State Park
where Annah had reserved a romantic and secluded spot. We had a nice campfire, cooked some hot dogs, relaxed, and enjoyed spending time with each other out in the wilderness! We didn't end up going to any fireworks since we figured it would be too far of a drive to go to the nearest town to see them, so we just celebrated our 4th without any fireworks which was splendid!
On Saturday we then had to pack up and leave for Pepin, Wisconsin. Our drive took about 5 hours was rather uneventful and somewhat boring on the Wisconsin highway, but it was fun!
We arrived in Pepin a little after five in the evening and then went fishing with my dad on our pontoon. It was rather window in the Wisconsin side and it was somewhat difficult to traverse, but we were able to get a couple of hours of fishing in and Annah caught a nice Striped Bass and me and my dad caught nothing!
We finished off the night with a wonderfully romantic dinner at The Pickle Factory where we were able to enjoy each other, the sunset, and a nice relaxing folksy band as we ate dinner! It was incredible! After returning to the trailer we were able to see a few fireworks out of the front door window so we got to see our 4th of July fireworks after all, albeit a day late!
On Sunday, Annah decided to drive back to Rochester to spend some time with her family while I stayed in Pepin to help his dad do some stuff later in the day. Annah also got to have a birthday party for her cats and play the Nintendo Wii with her family. I got to unpack a bunch of kitchen stuff and wash dishes for a couple of hours. I missed Annah though so we reunited for dinner later that evening!
Overall, Annah and I have been having a wonderful time and we're looking forward to the future!
The Nordic Fest was not nearly as crowded as it has been in years past when I attended it, possibly due to the fact that it was the last day of the event, but it was only moderately busy when we were there. We got to try a few different kinds of Scandinavian food and purchase some lefse, krumkake, and rosettes. It was fun, although we weren't all that hungry, and we didn't have time to check out the Norwegian Museum there, but we will do that the next time we are down there.
