Across One April

Watson.  Lord of the Couch.

Man, this month was nuts.

Generally April tends to be a pretty quiet affair, but we've been insanely busy this year.  Since the girls have gotten older, they've become far more involved with school and extra-curricular activities, and so, just like last month, we saw way more stuff pop up on our monthly calendar than in previous years.  Alayna's choir group sang at the Dow Diamond, Abby had a field trip and a musical, we had multiple social obligations with our group of friends, a couple different sleepovers and play dates, Girl Scouts, Easter, a couple random snow days (seriously), and Kris up and bought a new f***ing van.

All in, total chaos.  And we haven't even run the dreaded May/June/July gauntlet yet.  That's going to be downright brutal this year, mark my words.

Anyway, here you go:  the Hough Family's April '19. . .

Kris and I met up with Chris and Nicole for a few drinks the first Saturday of the month, over at Whichcraft Brewery downtown.  This one's called New Holland's Pilgrim Dole - 12% ABV wheat wine.  Really good stuff, this.

A mural on the side of the brewery.  Not sure if this is particularly 'Salvador Dali'-ish, but I'm not an art nazi.

Later that evening, we went over to the Shepherd's residence to hang out with the usual group of friends.  Finally broke into this rather expensive four-pack that I had lying around in the beer fridge downstairs.  It was awesome.

Mid-April.  A f***ing snow day.

I felt this was a fitting beverage, given the circumstances.

Seriously, Michigan. . .

Watson's not a big fan of this snow nonsense - he's pretty reluctant to go outside when it's like this.

He's a pansy.

A few days later, the snow melted and Alayna's choir group was to perform the National Anthem at Midland's Dow Diamond.  The local team - the Loons - weren't even playing, it was some scrub-ass college game between Northwood University and SVSU (shown here.)

Alayna, Makara, Christina and Gabby.

This was easily one of the crappiest extra-curricular kid events Kris and I have ever been to (so far.)  It was cold, windy, and everything was soaked from a downpour earlier in the afternoon.  Abby was super crabby and wanted to sit in the stands, and of course all the seats were soaked, so we all got wet.  We had to wait around for awhile after dropping Alayna off with the rest of her choir group, so we sat in water, freezing, for about twenty minutes before her choir made their way out onto the diamond.

All of the parents were sitting in the stands behind Home Plate, and we assumed - in our naivety - that the kids would face us, since more or less no one else besides us parents were in attendance for this game anyway.  After assembling all the kids, we realized - in horror - that the kids were facing away from the stands, and towards a random American flag, near the scoreboard. 

Since Alayna is relatively short compared to the rest of her classmates, she was positioned in the first row of her choir, meaning that there were two rows of taller kids between her and the audience.  I had brought along my SLR and lenses in the hopes of getting some good pics, but all I had in front of me was taller kids' asses - I couldn't even see Alayna.  So, as they started to sing, I moved down to where Kris was standing (she had moved for a better vantage), and we were luckily able to snap a couple mediocre pics and take a meh video, shown below. . .

High-fivin' some of the coaches and players on the way back inside the stadium. . .

Third week into April I finally broke into growler I picked up from Midland Brewing (when I went with my brothers at the end of March.)  The Lime Rock IPA isn't bad - not my favorite by any means, but decent.  I might order a pint of it again sometime, but probably wouldn't go out of my way to order an entire growler.

One Friday night, me a few of the guys went out to the Midland County Sportsman Club to shoot some handguns and play some poker in their clubhouse (shown here.)

A few of the guys are members and were able to get us in for $5 apiece.  Not too bad to use the range and have full access to the clubhouse. . .

The top floor

That fridge was filled with already-grilled burger patties and hotdogs.  A ridiculous amount of meat, and little else.

See a common theme in this magazine selection?  I didn't see a lot of Rolling Stone mags lying around this joint. . .

A defibrillator.  'Cause why not.

Once we established headquarters, we went downstairs to the handgun range.  You can tell they haven't remodeled this place in a few decades - it's pretty creepy and gross downstairs. . .

This is the sort of shit you see in a movie right before a clown jumps out and stabs a bunch of people.

Noted.

After an hour or so of shooting handguns, we went back upstairs to have some beers and play some cards.

You can't tell from this picture, but the head of this grizzly bear was frickin' HUGE.

'Terror Bay.'  Sounds like a nice play.

One day, Alayna realized I still had working holes in my ears (from years ago, back when I had gauges), and asked if I'd wear earrings to work the next day.  I told her 'no,' but later on in the evening found this note left on my nightstand.  That kid is persistent.

Abby and I went clothes shopping at Marshall's one weekend, looking for summer clothing for our upcoming Florida trip.  When I stepped into a dressing room, I let her sit out in the waiting area with my phone.  Later on, I stumbled across this crap on my phone. . .

 What the hell is this?

This old picture of Mom's side of the family, from last month.  The girls were, once again, playing around on my phone, and made a few 'changes.'  I like to think this is what Jeff would've looked like had he been born a girl. . .

- Brian