Busy Labor Day Weekend

We had an amazingly busy Labor Day weekend at the Williams Ranch.  On Saturday, Jordan and I both ran in the UW-Platteville Cross Country Alumni Run.  I was the oldest female alumni that ran, but I did rather well...beating several people.  Jordan did a great job ...especially since he just started running again on August 9!!  Paisley and both grandparents cheered us both on.  It was so great to see old friends again.  We attended the Alumni Picnic, and got ready for Sunday.

On Sunday, we had several people over to our house for games and food.  It was a great day, and fun was had by all!  We had a food boil.  We cooked shrimp, potatoes, sweet corn and brats outside in turkey fryers.  We had tables and chairs set up outside with brown paper covering all of the tables.  When the food was done, the guys dumped it on the tables.  Everyone pulled up a chair, and dug in!  That's right...no plates or forks.  Ketchup, ranch dressing, butter, and shrimp sauce all just was squeezed onto the table.  It was quite a sight!!

On Monday morning, I ran a half marathon in Dubuque.  I had a goal of averaging 8:00 miles for the 13.1 miles.  If you know anything about Dubuque, you know it is hilly, and I knew the last 7 miles were going to be tough.  I went too fast during the flat first 6 miles, and the hilly miles 7, 8, 9 were tough.  I was in rough shape near the end, but I did manage to beat my goal.  I ran the race in about 1:42:00!!  I also placed 3rd in my age group!  Jordan, Paisley, and both my mom and dad and Jordan's mom were there cheering me on!

Following the race, we came home and power napped, as we were all pretty tired.  We picked up the house from the previous day, and made two batches of cookies.  The UW-Platteville cross country team takes scenic runs on Mondays, and one of their runs just happens to go right by our house.  Each year (this is the 3rd year) we have them over to our house after their run for cookies and lemonade.  Jordan and I don't really know any of the current runners, but we enjoy doing this.  One of the girls (Ann Tank) fell in love with Paisley and Paisley really enjoyed her energy and enthusiasm for playing.  We actually got her number to possibly babysit sometime!!

We are definitely ready for bed, so pictures will have to wait for a couple of days to be posted.  We need to go back to work to rest from the weekend!