Well, it's over...

you wait and wait and wait and BOOM it's over.

But it still was a blast.

Attending this year were Dad, Paul, Mike, John, Steve and Tod Mike's eldest son.

Steve and I decided to share a suitcase to defer the cost of the checked bag. We were able to get his clothes and mine in one suitcase. The bag weight limit was 50 lbs. We were at 54. We had to take two of my sweatshirts and a pair of pants out of the bag to get it under weight. (and in typical John-packs-like-a-girl fashion, I did not wear said sweatshirts or pants so they were completely superfluous) I would have to lug the three items of clothing to Seattle but it was worth it to save the...what?...there is no charge for a checked bag?...DO'H! Luckily Dad did not check his bag so I was able to put the clothes there.

We went to the closest bar and had a drink and our typical toast to family and victory. On the plane ride out Steve and I had our own row. No one in between us. Elbow room, elbow room, gotta gotta get us some elbow room. It was nice. You could rent a DVD player for $5. Which we did and watched Dark Knight-it sure makes the flight go faster. Heath Ledger was very very good. It was a good movie. From what I saw. I didn't get to see the end because the flight ended. Tod filled me in. During the flight Steve had an episode where he was very light headed and felt like he was going to pass out. It passed quickly enough and he felt fine-enough so he was imbibing another Captain Morgans within hours.

We got there later than expected and Paul had been waiting a while. He was quite productive though. He had done all of the grocery shopping. He even had booze waiting for us. I love him.

I decided to drive to the cabin having been in Seattle most recently and often. So I used my knowledge of the area and my scouting of the local freeway scene to surmise the 405 would be the quickest way to I-90 so we could bypass I-5 traffic altogether and miss the Lake Washington bridge traffic which should get us into Snoqualmie Pass in no time because...405 was at a dead stop. For about 3 miles. It took us 45 minutes to go those 3 miles.

Now, imagine me in a car going 4 miles an hour on a freeway for 45 minutes all the while people are trying to sneak in and out of traffic to make it to where ever their pathetic little lives are taking them. Can you see the steam coming out of my ears?

Multiply that by 6.

Actually, the 6 of us together had just the opposite effect. We were laughing and just taking the moment in stride. I think everyone would have been very proud of us. One thing we did prove was Murphy's Law. I was in the middle lane while the left and right lanes were just flying by us. After about 30 minutes, I made it into the left lane ready to go. Go Go.

Brake. Stop. Crap.

The middle lane starts flying by. If I hadn't been driving, we would have been there 15 minutes earlier. Oh well, the rest of the drive was uneventful except for mention of black ice, I love you Dad, and we arrived at our "cabin".

It was huge. 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, hot tub, foosball, darts, playstation, basketball game, two big decks. It was well worth the drive. The house served us quite well for our stay. Kudos to Steve for finding the place.

We stayed up until about 1:30 Seattle time talking. Exhausted we went to bed. We all had our own rooms by the by except for Tod and Mike who shared a king size bed.

And that was Thursday.