Sam's 33rd Birthday

We were all looking forward to Sam running the Fort Union Rendezvous Run again this year and Sam didn't seem to mind that it landed on his birthday. We headed to the Montana/North Dakota border for the start of the race.

There was some construction so they decided to start the race 20 minutes late. We had a lot of standing around to do while were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. I cannot believe the number of mosquitoes this year. And they all seem to be immune to bug spray.

The race started, I set an alarm on my phone so we could get back to the start/finish line in time to see Sam's finish but not have to wait around too long. Sam said he thought it would take him 50 minutes to run the 11K. Then I took the boys up to the Fort to walk around the Rendezvous.

We only had ten minutes until Sam was supposed to finish so we started heading back down the hill. Edison said, "There's Daddy!" I told him, "No, Daddy won't be done for six more minutes." Then I looked up and there was Sam. We totally missed his finish because he had gone so fast! He took the boys on a celebratory loop because they were planning to run the end of the race with him. I felt so bad.

We went back up to the Fort again so Sam could get a drink and rest before the awards ceremony.

Sam was the 11K overall winner with a time of 43:30. The next guy finished exactly nine minutes behind him. The course was poorly marked and Sam has a few reservations in his mind on if he ran the complete race. But he was ahead of everyone else the entire time, got lost once, and still finished that far ahead. So we are going to call it a win. This race is not cutthroat, it's just for fun.

On the drive home from Fort Union, Edison and Declan fell asleep. They woke up when we got home and we figured that could count as their naps so we changed our clothes and went to the splash pad.

"Some people were doing this." Quick learner.

We got home, Sam opened his gifts, and then we got ready for our date. 

We wanted our babysitter to come over at 5:45pm but she sent me a text at 6:40pm saying she was running late and would be over at 7pm. I was annoyed because we had planned to go to dinner at a sushi place before going to a movie that started at 7:15. I had already fed the boys dinner so I ordered Jimmy John's online and then went to pick it up for Sam and me. Once I got home, our babysitter had arrived. We ate dinner in the car as we rushed to the movie theater and we made it in time for the movie we wanted to see, only missing a few previews.

  On Sunday, a few friends came over to help us eat Sam's birthday ice cream cake. They say this thing serves 10 people. Maybe 10 people for every meal for a day. So much cake!

Got him with the trick candles.

Declan thinks he is the only one who should have pacifiers and he tried swiping Harvey's.

Although these pictures make it look like I wasn't there, I was. And my hair was straight. Alex said, "Your hair looks soft and long and... put together." I need to be better about asking Sam to take pictures with me in them because it does not occur to him and I want to be somewhere in the pictures we pass on to our kids.