Burli-Mot

We have been hearing about this Burli-Mot race since we moved to Williston but it has not worked out for Sam to participate until this year. It is called the Burli-Mot half marathon because the race starts in Burlington and ends in Minot. We got to Minot the night before the race and it was right at dinner time so we got pizza and took it to our hotel.

After fighting the kids to each eat one slice of pizza (one slice! of pizza!) we went swimming.

Declan was super wiggly and just wanted us to let go of him so he could swim on his own.

My shoulders pull forward a lot and Matthew gave me some workouts to do to strengthen my back muscles. Declan saw me standing against the wall and imitated me. I wish I looked that cute while exercising!

We did not get the boys in bed until 10pm because dinner and swimming took so long. After the boys were in bed and Sam was asleep, I missed a call from my sister so I sent her a text to ask what was going on.

She didn't respond so I had to go into the hallway to call her and I was totally right! Michelle is pregnant again and due in April 2015. I would bet money on it being a girl. Michelle and I did what we always do, which is to talk forever. We cannot stop talking to each other. I didn't get back in bed until really late and then was startled awake at 2:15am because someone was banging on our neighbor's door and telling the woman inside to open the door. Once I heard him yell that he was a police officer I did what any nosy person would do which is to race over to the peephole. There was a lot of yelling and threatening and finally the lady opened the door and then people were handcuffed, the room was searched, and I was very much asleep by this point. I only learned what had gone on because I was talking to the receptionist at the hotel front desk and she told me the drama. Then she gave us a certificate for a free night!

The next morning, we drove to Burlington to drop off Sam before heading back to the hotel for breakfast. We were a little late but I thought we would get there in time for the start of the race. But it was raining so they started the race a few minutes early and Sam missed the start! Not a big deal because they used chip times but it was still a little stressful. We ate breakfast and then went to the finish line to watch Sam. As we were pulling up, we saw him running down the road and into the park where the race ended. I freaked out because I thought we were going to miss him. I pulled into the closest parking spot, dragged the kids out of the car and didn't grab Declan's shoes or my nice camera. It turns out that the race course did a loop around the park before finishing so I had plenty of time (about thirty minutes) but instead of getting there all put together we stood around with a ragamuffin baby and took home some blurry pictures. Oh well. Sam loved running in the rain.

Sam finished 14th overall and 4th in his age group. His time was 1:40:46.

Thirteen miles and some baby bench presses

Sam, Alex, and Edison went back to the hotel and Declan and I went shopping for party supplies for Alex's upcoming birthday party.

The boys back at the hotel went swimming.

We also got some new clothes and the little ones played around.

It was a long day and we had two sleepy kids on the drive home.

The Niederhausers brought over dinner that night and then we played games. We hadn't had a game night with them since October so it was long overdue and such a fun time!