Presley Makes High Performance Hockey Team - Travels to Duluth

This spring, Presley tried out for the CCM High Performance Program, a program to train and evaluate Minnesota's best hockey players. There are 4 phases of the program. Phase 1 - Players tryout in their districts to earn 1 of 30 spots on a development team. Phase 2 - Players are narrowed down to 20 to participate in a Spring Festival. This year's Phase 3 festival was in Duluth and brings together the top players from across the state. We were very proud of Presley who worked hard at each phase. It was also a fun weekend, which brought together many players that Presley has gotten to know over the last 3-4 years. We also had some time to explore Duluth in beautiful weekend (much different than the previous weekend).

Presley with pal, Bridget, at the Heritage Sports Center


Lunch in Canal Park, near the Aerial Lift Bridge


Touring the Glensheen Mansion


Enjoying a beautiful day along Lake Superior

Historic Spring Snow

The winter of 17-28 has been a bear. It has been unusually cold. We got our world rocked with a historic snow the weekend of Mom's birthday. Eden Prairie got a record 20 inches of snow, breaking the record for biggest snow in April and coldest April. We are all so ready for spring. Roxxy goes the flow the best, embracing the snow as her new playground. But she also showed some stir crazy signs when she tore up her bed (for a 3rd time)....

Spring Break 2018 - Catching Up with Lots of Friends/Family

We were fortunate to be able to blend our vacation time with some nice visits with friends and family -- some planned and some unexpected nice surprises. Our first surprise came from Ron's colleague and friend Kevin Cooper, who saw our sunset facebook post from our first night in Florida. He was on vacation with his family on nearby Anna Maria Island. After our time in St. Pete's beach, we spent a half day with the Cooper family playing on the beautiful beaches of Anna Maria.



After time with the Coopers, we headed to Tampa to see our friends' son, Casey Mittlestadt, play in one of his first NHL games with the Buffalo Sabres. We were lucky to be in town when they were playing the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was a pretty special evening. We started the night with a traditional pregame at Hattricks with his dad Tom. We then went to the game where we got to see Casey score his very first NHL goal!!! Pretty darn cool! We then had a nice surprise by running into one of Mom's business school classmates Hal Perdew (and his wife Stephanie) who were also at the game. And we ended the night by getting to say hi and congratulations to Casey!



Our last 24 hours in Florida were also spent with family and friends. The night after the hockey game, we took a quick detour to St. Petersburg to have coffee, bagels and bacon with another one of Trisha's business school classmates and former General Mills colleagues (Chris Brandt and wife Heather), at their beautiful home. It was so nice to catch up with old friends. We then headed to the Villages to spend the afternoon and evening with Aunt Joy, Uncle Bud, and Aunt Mary. The weather did not cooperate for evening music but we had some nice toasts to Great Granny Kohls and a fun evening of Mexican Train.

Spring Break 2018 - Updates from Spring Training

The baseball team had multiple coaches/chaperones on the trip. The chaperone Canyon was assigned to was awesome in sending us updates and pictures of the boys. Some families that watched some of the scrimmages also sent us updates and pictures. The boys worked hard all day with early starts and training through the afternoon. The boys were fortunte to train at the Baltimore Orioles spring training area. Most of their evenings were spent on the beach or hanging with their team. Sounds like the boys had a great time. Here are some of the pictures we received....

Spring Break 2018 - 2nd Stop Pass-a-Grille/St. Pete's Beach

On Tuesday, we left Siesta Key and headed north to St. Pete's beach. Mom always likes a "must-see" attraction. So we started our adventure at the Sunken Gardens, one of the oldest roadside tourist attractions in the United States. We were pleasantly surprised with this botanical paradise in the midst of a bustling city. Our lodging was at the cute Coconut Inn in Pass-a-Grille, a super cute area just south of the busy St. Pete's beach area. Once again, we enjoyed the beautiful sunset.




On our 2nd day in St. Pete's Beach area, we headed to Fort De Soto State park, a beautiful park with miles of pristine beaches. We started our morning kayaking in the mangroves. We were fortunate to see beautiful birds, discover some friendly manatees that let us get up close and personal. In the afternoon, we played with the wave runner in the ocean ("goalie training"). As always, we ended with dinner and sunset on the beach.




Our 3rd day, we took a boat ride to Egmont Key, a unique wildlife refuge that also contains the history of Fort Dade -- built in the late 1890s as the US prepared for the Spanish-American War. It was a pretty windy day with pretty big waves. We spent most of our time on the island exploring the beaches, Ft. Dade ruins, and looking for turtles. We ended our day with a sunset dinner (and Survivor on the big screen in our room).

Spring Break 2018 - 1st Stop Siesta Key & Sarasota

This year was a big milestone spring break for the Pergande family. It was exactly one year after Dad completed cancer treatment (we had to skip spring break in 2017). And it was the first spring break that the 4 of us would not be traveling as a family. This year, Canyon had to travel with the high school baseball team for spring training in Sarasota, FL. Families are invited to watch training and can see their kids in the evenings (as long as it doesn't conflict with baseball activities). Since this was Canyon's first year, we decided to also spring break in Florida. We stayed in Siesta Key, which is about 15 minutes from the boys' hotel and was also named one of the top beaches in the country.

We all arrived on Friday. Mom, Dad, and Presley spent our first full day on Siesta Key, playing at the beach at our hotel, taking the trolley into town, enjoying the sunset and enjoying dinner at the Lobster Pot.





On Sunday, Easter, we picked up Canyon and 4 other boys and took them out for brunch. We then took them to Siesta Key public beach with our pals, the Englebrekts. While the boys mostly did their own thing at the beach, we did enticed them back every once in with cold Gatorades. While it was just a brief time with them, it was nice to see them enjoying their time as friends and and as a team.





After some gelato, we dropped them off at their hotel and headed back to the beach for a Siesta Key tradition -- a huge sunset drum circle! Ron brought his drums for this occasion. He didn't actually play the drums but he was happy to have them for the photo opportunity.