Girls' Weekend '21

What's up, America.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this all before, but this group of friends of ours enjoys it's adult weekends away from their families.  The Wives - by far - do this more regularly:  I looked for blog posts in The Archives to link here, but it looks like I've never gone out of my way to write individual posts about Kris' outings.  Rest assured, they happen about twice a year - starting in 2018, they always take place in January/Febrary, then again in the summer - and almost always consist of eight or nine moms sitting around an Airbnb, doing nails and facials, doing crafts, drinking lots of wine, sitting by a pool, shopping, and maybe going out to eat at restaurants from time to time. 

Pretty chill, pretty boring.

These weekends clearly stand in sharp contrast to the one Dads Weekend Away we've had to date: Brocation 2021, which saw seven of us adventure around Marquette for three days, hitting up natural attractions, points of interest, and countless bars and watering holes.

Anyway, Kris and the Wives once again set off for a weekend away, this time renting a house on Lake Michigan in Cadillac.  This particular weekend was a snowy hellscape, rest assured, which an abundance of snow and chilly temperatures, and no real reason to leave the house.  Consequently, the Wives didn't - they just sat around in pajama pants all weekend long, doing the aforementioned activities I listed before.

Except swimming.  Obviously that shit wasn't about to happen.

Check it out. . . 

Danielle swings by the house to pick up Kris that Friday morning. . .

On their way into town, they stopped off at this place for some lunch.

Afterwards, at some Secret Garden-esque boutique, Kris found a pair of tacky-ass mittens and couldn't help but recreate the infamous Bernie meme.

View from their porch window, overlooking Lake Michigan (I may have edited a few of these - I like to go through my Google Photos and make boring pictures better.)

Living Room, from the steps leading up to the bedrooms.

Wives in the kitchen.  At least some things are sacred.

I guess this is the room Kris bunked in. . . .?

Ummm. . . . another living room?

Meanwhile, back at home, the girls and I did our usual 'Mom's Not Here' routine:  we stocked up on junk food (candy, pop, donuts, ice cream, etc.), got some fast food, and vegged on the couch watching movies all weekend.  Cuddled up with dogs, of course.

Drinks and cards to close out Friday evening.

Pizza and beer.  Sounds like a decent Friday evening to me.

The next morning, the Wives spotted some ice fisherman out on the lake.  Why anyone in their right mind would want to go out and do something like this in such bullshit is beyond me.

This year's 'craft' (yes, they seriously coordinate this activity in advance, like the nerds they are) was photo coasters.  Kris came up with the idea: she takes a picture, buys some tile and cork from, say, Home Depot or some shit, and then stacks them so the picture sits atop the tile, with the cork providing the padding.  She then uses Modge-Podge to create a clear, waterproof lacquer that seals the image atop the tile.  Creating a coaster you can safely set hot and cold drinks on.  Most of these ladies did two, each with one of their kids on it (doubling up on one for those that have three kids.)  Kris had our two girls on one, and our two dogs on the other. . . 'cause that's kinda where we are at this point in life.

Welcome to Hoth.

Someone's cooking, someone's getting a haircut, and someone's working on their computer.  Seriously, would it hurt these ladies to hit up a f***ing brewery or something?

Meanwhile, back in Midland, our view from the back patio.  I'm gonna need to re-shovel out a patch of grass for the dogs to use soon.

This came in the mail on Saturday afternoon, which I've been wanting for quite some time.  Found it on Discogs for $20, which is a great price for a Mint/Mint album (on colored vinyl, no less.)  This is considered the Dropkick Murphys' finest album, being released in the Summer of 2001 (I saw these guys tour on this album at least twice that summer, both shows were incredible. . . just like this pressing.)

Erik's wife, Courtney, was also away on this Girls Weekend, so him and I doubled up on a couple 'single dad' activities throughout the weekend, since our kids are so close and wanted to hang out anyway.  He snapped this in Kris' van as I drove us out to the Roll Arena for some afternoon skating.

Due to Covid (Jesus, I use that phrase a lot), this place raised their prices considerably in order to off-set the lack of people frequenting their establishment.  Admission for skaters is now $8, and they charge $5 for people to just enter the premise without skating (a 'spectator' fee.)  With skate rentals being, like $4, I ended up paying $25 for two hours of watching the girls skating (and Alayna barely did at all, she doesn't like to.)  Absolutely ridiculous.

Abby and Ella tied in the kids race, which was pretty awesome.

Later that evening, the wives sat around and drank and played cards (not much else to do in the winter if you're choosing to stay in.)  Here Danielle holds up the Lemoncello bottle that's sat untouched in our freezer for nearly two years - I told Kris to just take it up with her, as I sure as hell wasn't about to drink it.

The Dads, meanwhile, did the same thing, just over at the Bos residence.  We obviously had the kids in tow, so they were running around the house sounding like a pack of Apache.  Good times.

Kris calls these weekends 'chill,' but I was prefer the term 'boring.'  Whatever floats their boat, I guess.

- Brian