WhyNot Minot

We had some tentative plans for last weekend which included a birthday celebration for Ben and me going to my cousin's baby shower and all of us were going to travel to Eastern ND for these events.  But...plans changed.  Do you KNOW about this thing called Class B basketball?  It's fun thing and an Eastern ND team that happens to include my kids' second cousins made it to the tournament.  District 3 REPRESENTING at the B!  I say that because, although districts are now just large regions, district 3 is my old district and I know all the those schools almost like I know my own.  I remember their locker rooms, their concession kitchens and where their bands would sit.   It is always fun to see a familiar school at state.

Justin took Ben and Tessa to the games on Friday and Saturday in Minot.  I titled this post "Whynot Minot" because my own school visited the state tournament twice (for girls basketball...yeaaaahhh!) in my teen years and that first time that was the chant everyone said when it was apparent that we were going to win the game to get us there.  I had a Milo weekend because I took Milo to the baby shower and it was like I was living the easiest life ever. One kid felt like a vacation. 

This was taken on Friday night with cousin Blake.  How the players are their second cousins is Justin's mom and their grandpa are brother and sister.  Justin is the youngest in his extended family, especially on that side.  I am the opposite...a lot of my possible second cousins are not born yet.  For those of you not in the know about family sanguinity "lingo", the degree of cousin-ness has to do with your generation.  So first cousins share grandparents, second cousins share great-grandparents, and third cousins share great-great grandparents.   I have encountered a lot of people who think that marriage makes a second cousin or that it refers to generally distant relations.  Also, once removed means you are removed a generation so, for example, my cousins that I grew up with are once removed from my kids.  I knew this before, but there is a whole chart in my property law book about it too. 

So anyway, one of the cousins playing, Kyle, is a senior and in the championship game he hit a buzzer beater and won he game.  Most people who read this were probably watching it and it's been all over social media.  It was class be awesomeness at the peak of awesome.  "One Shining Moment" for sure.  (One Shining Moment is an old late 90's early 2000's PBS documentary about Class B basketball. I just looked it up and you can watch the whole thing on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NtKgdx29yQ.  You can also purchase a ND documentary pack from PBS with it, a quilting movie and the history of Bobcat manufacturing for 29.99!  If you are sentimental and like watching old guys cry in documentary interviews this is for you.)  I think they should do a part two which also includes some girl's basketball because it has been just as special to many people as boy's basketball has been. 

I don't want to know what transpired at the hotel hospitality room that night.  If it was anything like the 1995 trip my town took there it involved people in their clothes in the pool at 4 a.m. and impromptu karaoke sessions with made up songs dedicated to the coaching staff. 

Justin sent me this picture of the kids before the game on Friday.  They went shopping and got new "beanie baby" animals.  The original beanie babies are no longer a thing but the company still makes lots of cute little stuffed animals and they are still cheap like the originals so they make a good "treat".  I love how they love little stuffed animals.  I know those days won't last forever. 

Friday was St. Patrick's day and we didn't do anything to acknowledge it except I dressed Milo in green.  Then he got a hold of a red marker and walked up to me looking like he had been feasting on the heard of his enemy .

Eeek.