Ok, so it wasn’t really any of our birthdays…yet, but we knew the snow would be suspect at this time of year and figured that adding a birthday celebration into the mix would definitely keep our 3-day weekend interesting. It did:

Throw an awesome 5 bedroom house, multiple cases of beer, and some luchidor masks in the mix, and you have the recipe for a great weekend!

Lewis, Eric, and I (with Burton) were the first to arrive on Thursday to check in and open the place up. Drew and Theresa (with Ceasar) arrived well after we’d returned from our usual stop at Foxfire Grill, but we kept the party going until about 4:00 am. I actually woke up Friday morning with my worst headache of the weekend, but I blame the blonde ales I was drinking with dinner.

Lewis and I had a hard time getting motivated to ride on Friday, but finally made it out for several runs down the quickly melting trails. Then it was back to the house for hot tubbing, cocktails, and to meet up with Dharma. Along with Ben and Steph (with Bailey) arriving early Friday afternoon, 8 of us were now there. The other 3 – Tom and Amy and Laura – would arrive later Friday evening; missing out on the lasagna dinner, the initial rounds of beer pong, and Drew’s hip-hop iPod mix (uh-ohhhhhhhhhh!).

On Saturday, we were all excited to get out on the snow with the exception of Laura, who had some school work to do, and Theresa, who hung out with Ceasar. Lewis took Amy under her wing with some snowboard instruction while I helped Dharma. Team Mummert made some laps by us and would stop to throw snowballs and generally harass the pupils and teachers. Tom actually took off on his own and made great progress in his first day on a snowboard. Amy and Dharma both took to it quickly as well, but soreness prevented them from riding the next day; even after a marathon hot tub session (literally like 3 hours). We never did see Ben and Steph out on the snow, but rejoined them back at the house for the requisite cocktails and hot tubbing. While Laura, Lewis, and Amy continued to enjoy the tub for the aforementioned marathon, the rest of us chilled on the sweet leather sofas watching DVDs (primarily “Triumph: The Insult Comic Dog”) and enjoying our beers.

Saturday night, after our awesome ham dinner, was the night the luchidor masks came out that Eric discovered on the Wrestle Warehouse website. We played some flip cup and then more beer pong to keep the fun factor high and shuffled back and forth between iPod playlists. We laughed a lot, quoted Will Ferrell movies ad nauseum (we had already watched “Blades of Glory” earlier that morning), and Lewis managed to keep her clothes on.

We woke up Sunday to a light dusting of snow on the ground, but only Lewis and Tom made it out on the slopes while the rest of us started cleaning up with “Anchorman” playing in the background. It’s always a bummer having to part ways after such a great weekend, but Theresa had to get back to Buffalo (via Ohio) and the rest of us had our 4-hour drive back to Virginia to contend with.

In the end, the weekend brought Lewis’ and my final day count for the season to 24.