'Hit the head pin for heaven's sakes'

One of the first events of the wedding week was the Bachelor Party. This was organized by Jon (the best man) and Brian (a new brother-in-law).

I stressed to Jon to keep the party on the tame side, and while there were moments of nervousness to see if he'd get outnumbered, I really appreciated the guys allowing it to be fairly low key.

Jon made everyone T-shirts that said, "Ladies, only two more days to ride the Farner Express, reviews are A-Ok," and "This is the craziest night since Keith bowled a 178, sank a hole-in-one in putt-putt, and order wings extra-hot." There was another one, but I can't remember what was on it. Even more funny, was the pictures on the shirts came from our trip to Hilton Head a couple of years ago with Jon's family, and our middle of the night party after Rob's wedding.

Back to the Bachelor Night, we went to the restaurant "Firewater," which was pretty good, but more importantly gave Pops time to tell a lot of stories, old and new, which became a theme of the week. I don't think Jon, Wes, and Brent, especially, would have had as fun a time without these, and the following inside jokes.

- Hit the head pin for heaven's sake

- Gotta drain it

- The Heifer story

After dinner, we hit the Stars and Strikes Bowling Alley. Of course, everyone's expectations was that Pop would blow us all away with his skills. And that panned out, especially in the first two games. But Bruce gave him a run for his money in the second and third games, and I posted a 194 in Game 3.

The best part for me was that I had all these guys in one place. It's never happened before. The groomsmen hailed from five states, three time zones, and all except two drove at least six hours to arrive.

It was the start of a very memorable and fun week that I had looked forward to for a long time.