Labor Day Weekend: Running, Friends, Fishing and a Birthday

This past Labor Day weekend was action-packed and fun-filled. We started the weekend by running our annual family road race- the Buckshot Run. Randy and I both ran the 5 mile race while our friends, the Callaghan family, watched the kiddos. It was a great morning for a race and not as hot and humid as it was earlier in the week. Randy had a personal best in the 5 mile running it in 38 min. 39 seconds. I always think it is such a blessing to be able to get out there and try to keep up with the amazing runners we have in our area. I finished 2nd in the women's division and 1st in my age group with a time of 33 mins 8 seconds. Our other good friends, Karen and Mike Eckerman were in town from Rochester, MN and also joined us in running. Both Karen and Mike finished in around 36 minutes! Great job guys! Following the 5 mile race, our whole family, along with the Eckerman's and Callaghan's also ran the 2 mile race. Blake was able to run almost the entire 2 miles and Bennett ran the last 3/4 mile. By the time we headed home the kiddos were pretty exhausted. We always enjoy this annual race because it is so family-friendly and supports such a great cause- Special Olympics of Western Wisconsin. That night Karen, Mike, Randy and I all headed out for a post-race date night. The kiddos stayed back at our house with a sitter. I think both the adults and kids had an equally fun time! To cap off our Labor Day weekend we celebrated Randy's birthday on Monday. We headed down to the backwaters of the Mississippi near Nelson, WI to do some fishing. It started out as an overcast cool day as we all put on our long pants and sweatshirts to see if we could catch some fish to stock up for our freezer. What a successful day of fishing it was! We caught 22 fish overall, 20 of them being some pretty big perch! Randy said this was one of his best birthdays yet!