sunday morning we woke up bright and early, even hiro got up at 5:30. we managed to get all together and on the road by 6:20 in the morning. the traffic wasn't too bad, but hiro and sasha hated spending so much time in the car, so we had to stop a few times. we arrived at victoria's house at 11:30, just in time for lunch. her husband was preparing fried rice. we always seem to arrive just as food is being served!

this is the fourth year we've gone to takachiho, you can read past posts here: 2005, 2006 and 2007. the 2005 post isn't so interesting, but do check it out and see how my blogging has changed!

when we got to victoria's place, she was out shopping, so we took in the food we had brought (i'm the one who lives closest to costco, so i usually do the costco run) and then enjoyed spending time with the other families who had arrived on saturday. later in the day, three other families showed up which brought the final number to seven families!! there were thirteen kids, tommy was the youngest and fourteen adults--and two dogs! sunday night was the largest number for dinner, victoria's in-laws showed up, as well as one brother-in-law and his family. that night was yakiniku, as well as a couple of chickens roasted in dutch ovens (with potatoes) and everything was so delicious! i confess, i had a few cups of sangria as well as a few cups of white wine! after the kids finally, FINALLY went to sleep, the foreign wives stayed up and enjoyed a lovely chat, it's great to be able to speak english so naturally!

i'll have to blog tomorrow about monday, the big stair event! don't worry, sasha is perfectly fine, but what a story! or not, i guess we'll see tomorrow.