Major Summer Update

Hello everyone!

I think it's an understatement to say that a lot has happened since my last blog post. The biggest change is that I have now officially moved back to Minnesota! It's been a rollercoaster of emotions and a whirlwind of activities since the move, and I am going to do my best to fill you in on all of the crazy adventures that have taken place in my "not so plain Jane" life.

Climbing my Second 14er - Bierstadt (Thursday, July 23)

Katie & I on the peak of Mt. Bierstadt

During my last week in Colorado, my friend Katie and I hiked Mount Bierstadt! I can't say that I was planning on climbing two 14ers in one week, but I'm so glad that I did! Despite being delayed by road construction on the way to the trailhead and getting a bit turned around on the way up the mountain, we managed to successfully complete the hike! The views throughout this hike were so beautiful; there was a small lake down by the trailhead, little flowers were scattered alongside the trail, and everything was lush and green. To reach the peak of Bierstadt, you have to climb up a mountain of boulders, which was actually really fun! I embraced my inner mountain goat and climbed climbed climbed! Up at the top it was very windy and quite chilly, but the views made it completely worth it. While taking photos, we befriended a group of guys who were doing the climb as one of their bachelor party activities. They brought beer to the top and were kind enough to share some with me! I think I tried three different kinds, and it basically just confirmed my distaste for beer. Haha. We thanked the guys for hanging out and sharing their beer, and we began our descent. The descent went quickly and smoothly, and we made it back to the car by early/mid afternoon. Katie and I made many wonderful memories together during this hike, and it was a great day overall. :)

Margo, myself, and Katie, goofing around! 

"See Ya Later" Party (Saturday, July 25)
A few days later, Katie was kind enough to host a little going away party for me! It was a really fun night of socializing, eating, hanging out, swimming, and playing games. As hard as it was to say goodbye, it made me realize how fortunate I am that God chose to bless my life with so many amazing people. ♥

Celebration at Church (Sunday, July 26)

Yummy cupcakes at church

Sunday school was different this week, as the ladies in my Sunday school class put together a little celebration party! We were celebrating a visit from Donnie after she was away for several months due to surgery and complications, the accomplishments of a fellow classmate, Carol, and also my time spent with them while I was in Colorado. We nibbled on cupcakes and other snacks while engaging in fun, lighthearted conversation. At the end of the hour, they gave me a card and a beautiful necklace made by a local artist that captured the flatirons. These ladies made a great impact on my life over the past couple years, and I miss them all dearly!

Drive to Minnesota (Tuesday, July 28 - Wednesday, July 29)

Quest Bar + Coffee = a happier Jane

After a full day of putting my Tetris skills to good use while strategically packing my car on Monday, I woke up at 4:00am on Tuesday morning and got ready to hit the road. I was in my car and leaving the culdesac by 5:15am. It was an extremely bittersweet moment, and driving away from Colorado was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I kept looking back over my shoulder at the mountains until I reached the point where they were no longer visible. I then found myself hanging on to my flatirons necklace, which brought me a small amount of comfort knowing that I'd always have a little piece of the mountains with me. *End emotional portion of this paragraph*. After I pulled myself together, I cracked open my coffee flavored Monster energy drink and cranked my tunes. The scenery for the first few hours of the drive consisted of semi trucks, cows, and hay bales. After a slight detour to get Starbucks (this may be the only time in my life that I regret going out of my way to get Starbucks...I'm still unsure on where I stand regarding the decision I made...), I hit the halfway mark of my drive, and this is when I also happened to hit a major wall. This was the only point in my trip where I felt like I was completely losing my sanity, that no amount of coffee in the world could make me feel better, and that checking into a hotel right then and there seemed like an excellent idea. As I continued to sip chug my coffee, I began to think in a more logical manner. The coffee was obviously making me feel better, I no longer felt the extreme desire to check into a hotel room, and I only felt like I was losing a moderate amount of my sanity. I realized that my contacts were the root of my problem (they were making my eyes/head hurt like heck), so when I stopped a couple hours later, I took my contacts out, put my hair up, splashed my face with water, stocked up on caffeinated beverages and chocolate, and hit the road, again. I felt a million times better, and I was almost giddy with relief (*note: when you're driving nearly 1,000 miles in one day, you truly appreciate the tiniest things that life has to offer).

Finally in Minnesota

When I reached Des Moine, Iowa, I was greeted by a giant thunderstorm and rush hour traffic. That hour of driving wasn't very pleasant, but once I got past that, the rest of the drive was pretty clear sailing. I pulled into my cousin's place near the Twin Cities at 9:15pm, exactly 15 hours after I left Colorado earlier that morning. I almost cried with relief as I put the car in park and turned off the engine. I chatted with Beth and Brian for a little while before heading to bed for some much needed sleep. The next day we ate breakfast, relaxed outside, and got lunch at Panera bread. After lunch, I made the 2 hour drive back home to Carlton. I was greeted by my dad who helped me unload all of my belongings into our garage, and then the great unpacking adventure began.

Twins vs. Mariners Game (Thursday, July 30)

Twins game!

The next day, my dad and I headed back down to the cities to pick up my brother from the airport. From there, we all went to a Twin's game (Twins vs. Mariners)! For the past few years, my brother and I have gotten my dad Twin's tickets for Father's Day, and this year we splurged on some pretty decent seats on the third base line. The game was long, but it was action packed and exciting to watch! Oh, and we won! Woo hoo! It was the perfect way to spend a summer evening in Minnesota. :)

5SOS Concert (Friday, July 31)
After a late night due to the Twin's game, I awoke on Friday and prepared to head down to the cities (again) to attend the 5 Seconds of Summer concert with my best friend Anna! Before we left for the cities, we got lunch and ice cream at Gordy's Hi-Hat in Cloquet. It was delicious (as always) and the perfect way to start our day together! We arrived at the concert venue around

Anna and I at the 5SOS concert

4:30pm, but the concert didn't start until 7:00pm. We killed time by standing in line at the merch table, walking around, and just hanging out. The doors finally opened around 6:30pm, and we joined the massive line of fangirls who were also waiting to get in. We managed to stick together, and we found our seats before going to grab some food. The opening band, Hey Violet, came on stage at 7:00pm and played for about an hour, and 5 Seconds of Summer came on stage around 8:45pm. They played a couple of Anna's favorite songs first (although she likes mostly all of their songs), and they didn't play my two favorite songs (the only two I really knew) until the very end. Being 23, I don't consider myself to be very old, but I definitely felt old compared to the massive crowd of screaming teenage fangirls! Haha. Overall, the whole concert was a really fun experience, and I'm glad I got to share that experience with my best friend. :)

Grandma's 91st Birthday Party (Saturday, August 1)

The birthday girl and I!

Grammy is up to bat!

After yet another late (yet fun) night, I woke up on Saturday and prepared for the first event of my grandma's 91st birthday celebration - our annual family triathlon! My brother is the brains behind this operation, and he works hard to put us on teams of equal strength based off stats from the previous years. This year we had four teams, and each team has three members - one swimmer, one biker, and one runner. Now, for all of you who are thinking my family is completely crazy (you may be right, we are a little crazy), the race distance is no where near the distance of an actual triathlon. The swimming portion is about .25 miles (through weeds, yuck), the bike portion is 3.6 miles (not too bad), and the run is 1.55 miles (of hills, yuck). Unfortunately, my team came in last because we got a slow start during the swimming portion, but we all still had a great time! I was the runner for my team, and I got my second best time overall, so that's something I guess. After the triathlon, I headed back home to help my mom clean up the house and get things ready before people arrived for an early birthday dinner. People started arriving around 2:00pm and continued to trickle in until around 4:30pm, which is around the time we ate dinner. I think there were around 50+ people total, a lot of which were kids. There was lots of delicious food for dinner, and for dessert, we had the famous cocoa-nut layer cake, which is an amazing 3 tiered cake composed of two chocolate layers and one walnut layer with whipped cream between each layer and chocolate frosting coating the entire cake. It is sooooo delicious! We had three cocoa-nut layer cakes, mini cupcakes, bars, and ice cream cones for the kids. After dinner, birthday cake, and singing happy birthday to my amazing grammy, we played our usual birthday softball game! My grandma is the softball Queen and always kicks our butts every year! It was a really fun game, and a great way to end such a special celebration. Once the mosquitos started to eat us alive, we called it a night and everyone went their separate ways. A lot of family who came in from out of town stuck around throughout the rest of the week, and it was great to get to spend some extra time with them!

Sunset at Lake Nebagamon

Lake Nebagamon (Tuesday, August 4)
Skipping ahead to Tuesday, a group of us spent the afternoon/evening at my aunt and uncles cabin in Lake Nebagamon,Wisconsin, which is only about an 1.25 hour drive from our house. It's such a nice little place to escape to and just relax and enjoy some quality lake time. We relaxed by the lake and went swimming, paddle boarding, and jet skiing! After a fun afternoon on the lake, we went out to dinner at a local restaurant down the road before heading back home. Overall, it was a fun day of some much needed time at the lake!

Kayaking/Canoeing the Brule River (Wednesday, August 5)

The whole crew!

The following day, a group of 24 of us went kayaking and canoeing down the Brule River in Wisconsin, which is very close to my aunt and uncles cabin. It's about a 12 mile trip down the river and takes about 3-4 hours, depending on how fast you can paddle. I think around 7 of us were in kayaks (myself included) and the rest of the group members were in canoes. Kayaking down the Brule was such a serene and peaceful activity. It's so refreshing to immerse yourself in the wilderness and listen to all the sounds that nature has to offer. About halfway through the trip, we arrived at the summer White House, which is where President Calvin Coolidge spent a good majority of his summers while he was President of the United States. It was so cool to see these houses in person, and it made me wish I could go back in time to see the houses when they were actually being used. At this point in our trip our entire group was fairly close together, but a short while later, my brother Christian, cousin Amelia, and I got ahead of everyone else.  The peacefulness I mentioned before was temporarily interrupted when we hit a fairly lively set of downhill rapids.

Just me, kayaking the Brule

My brother Christian went first and navigated his way through the rapids with no problem at all; in fact, he made it look relatively easy. I should know by now that if my brother makes something look easy, it means that I'm probably going to struggle, but I was on a kayak high, so off I went! I was doing great until about halfway through when I hit a rock hidden beneath the dark water. That's when everything went downhill. Upon hitting the rock, my kayak nearly tipped over before becoming stuck, sideways, on a rock. I knew my cousin Amelia was close behind me, and as I looked to my left, I saw her careening down the river right towards me. Between frightened shrieks and hysterical laughter, I frantically try to free myself, but my kayak would not budge. Amelia slammed into my kayak, freeing it from the rocks. The only downside to this situation is that she hit the back end of my kayak, which sent me reeling backwards down the rapids at a pace much faster than I was comfortable with. At this point we're both screaming and laughing so hard we're crying, while I'm trying to look over my shoulder in an attempt to navigate myself backwards down the last stretch of rapids. We finally hit still water, and through continued laughter, breathe a sigh of relief. This incident was by far the highlight of my kayaking trip, and the rest of our adventure seemed quite tame after that!

Preparing for Sweden...
Well, it is now Thursday, August 13th, and I am just starting to get things together for my trip to Sweden on Monday! I am still unpacking everything I brought back from Colorado, and I am hoping to finish that over the next few days, but some of it may have to wait until I return from Sweden! I still can't wrap my head around the fact that I'm leaving in just 5 days!! Once my suitcases are checked and I'm boarding the plane, then I think it will feel very real! I am going to do my best to blog while I'm in Sweden so I can keep a detailed account of all my adventures and keep you all up to date as well!

Trip to Colorado...
Once I return from Sweden, there is a possibility that I will be making a trip back to Colorado to visit! The details of this trip are still up in the air, but I will be sure to keep everyone posted.

I hope each and every one of you are happy, safe, and well! xo

♥ Jane