Davis 3rd Birthday in Decorah

We spent the weekend in Decorah for Davis' 3rd birthday party! The weekend consisted of: eating, drinking, celebrating, shopping, watching football, building shelves for their storage room, organizing Kelly's junk in her storage room, visiting, chasing boys, watching cartoons, playing, dancing and more! It was a lot of fun! And, it was the first time we've had all 5 boys together in a long time!

On Saturday morning, I begged my husband to go on a nice leisurely jog with me to start our day. They have beautiful scenery and trails in Decorah so I wanted to enjoy them. He resisted, I pressed on; he made up excuses, I wouldn't listen. He was concerned about game day starting without him, I assured him that I was up for just 2 miles! He finally gave in. And, this is how it went.

Mile 1- Holly: Well, I think we've probably gone about a mile if I could guess, wanna turn around?

Mile 1- Joe: Nah, I'm feeling pretty good- let's keep pressing on.

Mile 2- Holly: Well, I think this is about 2 miles...what's our plan?

Mile 2- Joe: Yeah, well, I forgot to tell you that Tony said this is a loop so if we keep jogging it will go in a circle.

Mile 2- Holly: Oh, okay, well, let's keep at it. (Then, I see a man jogging and I think to myself- maybe I should ask him how long the loop is...nah, Joe and Tony know what they are talking about).

Mile 2.5- Holly: Well, looks like our trail ended- it continues over there....but there's no way this trail goes in a loop. We can't even see the end of the trail. Your brother is full of crap.

Mile 2.5- Joe: yeah, it does look really long...let's turn here. I recognize the fish hatchery- this should take us back into town.

Mile 3- Holly: Well, I recognize this house- kelly took me by it.

Mile 3- Joe: What does that mean?

Mile 3- Holly: It means nothing except that we are still in Decorah.

Mile 4- Holly: Where the hell are we?

Mile 4- Joe: I have no idea. We are lost. I think we should go left.

Mile 4- Holly: No, there's no way it's left. Let's go right- that should take us back into town. But that is a mountain we have to run up.

At this point, we are exhausted and our car is a long ways away. We went through the whole "do we turn around or keep moving forward" dilemma several times along the way.

Mile 5- Joe: Where the hell are we?

Mile 5- Holly: No frickin' clue. I don't recognize any of these houses, or this road or anything. But, we have no choice. My legs are killing me and I'm cold.

Mile 6- Holly: yeah!!! There's McDonalds!! Do you know where McDonalds is from their house?

Mile 6- Joe: yeah, I think we go this way.

Mile 6- Holly: I think you are directionally challenged right now. We should go the other way.

Mile 6.5- Holly: Well, so much for game day!

Mile 6.5- Joe: Wonder if Davis' birthday party has started without us? Maybe they'll come looking for us.

Mile 6.8- Joe: We should hitchhike- I'm going to find someone to give us a ride home.

Mile 6.8- Holly: You can get kidnapped and murdered on your own terms, but I'd rather run home.

Mile 7- Joe: Well, we can run home, but it's way up that hill with cars whizzing past us at 65 mph. My hip hurts.

Mile 7- Holly: I don't care, still better option than hitch-hiking, however, we could hop onto that tractor and they probably wouldn't even know it. My pelvis hurts.

Mile 7.5- Joe: I'm done. I give up. Let's go to that hotel and call Tony to pick us up.

Mile 7.5- Holly: No, I recognize that hotel! I totally know where we are at. But, we are still a ways away.

Mile 7.5- We almost get hit by a car crossing the street illegally. Nice.

Mile 7.5: Holly: Why would you try killing me after we put all of this work into this run? by the way, do you want to just add another 5 miles so you can claim you ran a half-marathon?

Mile 8: Halleluja! Halleluja! (I actually sang it) We see the Hospital sign. We knew our car was parked there!!!

We could barely get in our car- our legs hurt, our butts ached, our feet were in pain.

We made it!!! Just with a little detour! We got to see lots of Decorah. We walked in to Tony and Kelly's and they all thought we had gone to breakfast. Not exactly. And, yes, Tony was right- it WAS a loop, but the loop was approximately 20 miles or something. Small detail Joe missed. And, even funnier, if we would have taken a left instead of a right the very first time, we would have been fine! We chose the road less traveled by and that my friend, made all the difference. (I might have stolen that from Robert Frost, by the way).