Monumental Marathon

 Brian ran his 11th marathon and the whole family decided to tag along--It may not have been the smartest move, but it was definitely the most fun!

We drove the 2.5 hours to Indianapolis and went straight to the temple for me to do initiatories while Brian and the kids hung out. It was chilly, but nice, so it was a good time for all!

We went to Bibibop for some lunch before heading to the hotel and it's really funny to take our whole family places. We don't do it much besides church and soccer games, so restaurants, hotels, and galavanting around cities is kind of hilarious!

After checking into the hotel we went to packet pick up for Brian-

Then for a stroll around the heart of Indianapolis!

I love the scenery of cities!    

I hung outside with the little girls while the big kids checked out the inside of the capitol building with Dad. It was a win-win!

We stopped for a pre-dinner snack-

And laughed as we let Mae do things we never would have let our older three do at 2-years old!

We took a stroll around The Monument that the Monumental Marathon is named after-

It felt kind of European and was fun for the kids to see.

They all had to take a silly picture after Thad's antics!

After our city stroll we made our way back to the hotel for some chillaxin' and pizza in our room before bedtime-

Like I said, doing things with our whole family is really funny!

We scored with a huge closet that accommodated the pack-n-play and were sure we were going to have a decent-ish night with some tired monkeys...

Well, this baby was perfect and woke up a couple times as expected, but Mae turned into a toddler terror and fussed most of the night. We also got some stuffy noses that led to sniffing, Eve fell off the bed, and Brian and I ended up with a couple hours of sleep tops. I wasn't as concerned about it, but Brian had a MARATHON to run the next day! 

I got everyone downstairs for breakfast (with Thad's help)-

And then we made our way over to the finish line a couple blocks from our hotel-

We found an awesome spot where Mae could play and the big kids could watch all the runners passing by.

We waited about 45 minutes before we saw our favorite guy making his way to the finish line right on schedule!

I didn't get great pictures because my hands were full and Wes got lost after he and Thad tried to run to the finish line with Brian without telling me, but we got Brian up on his feet to walk back to the hotel and snapped some quick pics. 

Brian is an absolute beast and with only a couple hours of sleep and some inadequate nutrition due to some side ache issues, he ran his best time and finished at 02:55:41!!

We are all just in awe of his dedication and grit and love watching him accomplish his goals he so diligently pursues. We love you, Daddy! (But next time we'll get two rooms)

There was a little more of this before we hit the road and it just made me smile. Why are hotel rooms so fun for kids?