Bowling with the Inner Circle

Hey folks.

Spring Break is upon us, and for those of us who neglected to travel out of state or whatever have been trying to come up with ways of keeping our kids entertained during this week off of school (or work, in my case.)  So Courtney decided it'd be fun to take everyone bowling one evening, with the Boses, Colliers, and us Houghs.  We settled on Northern Lanes, located between Sanford and Midland, because the much larger Valley Lanes (in Midland) has too much other shit in its facility (laser tag, an arcade, etc.) that would cause all of our kids to continuously beg us to drop more money on non-bowling activities.

That's called parenting, folks.

When we showed up, it was a 'league night,' and half of their lanes were taken up by 'serious' bowlers (pfft), but after about a half an hour of confusion and scheming we were able to nab three lanes right next to each other in order to accommodate all the parents and kids that wanted to bowl (a lane for the older kids, a lane for the younger kids, and a lane for the moms - the dads were content to sit around a small table and throw back pitchers of Miller Lite all night.)

So here you go, folks - a night out at Northern Lanes for some bowling fun with our resident friend group.

Enjoy. . .

The older kids - Alayna, her friend Gabby, Drew, Abby, and Ella - took the far right lane, while the younger kids were in the middle and the moms at the far left.

Kris gets serious. . .

Mees is slightly better than Kris, which isn't saying much.

Alayna, Gabby, Abby and Ella

Kelli, Kris and Courtney

The Cannonball, not taking her time at all with this.

Abby, too, doesn't take her time with bowling.  Either kid just kinda chucks it down the lane and then walks away without stopping to see how they do.  You can tell their hearts are really in this whole bowling thing.

Cannonball's balls.

Northeast Vikings, phones at the ready.

The older kids probably could've benefited from the little kids' ramp thingy.  Just sayin'.

It took forever for our food - pizzas, wings, nachos, you name it - to arrive, and by that time (an hour or so after arriving), the kids were on the verge of mutinying.  It was only after the food had time to digest in their bellies that morale improved.  Hangry kids are not fun kids.

The Dads staked out a table behind the three lanes, where we held court over multiple pitchers of shitty, domestic beer.

Abby was probably the hangriest child of them all, which should be a given.

The Inner Circle, minus the Larsons (who are out of town, vacationing in Philadelphia this week.)

This picture gives me heartburn.

Ella, running out of gas.

Kris and a giant-ass plate of nachos.  She felt like crap the rest of the night, having eaten so much shitty bowling lane food (I abstained, having eaten something healthy before we left - I'm no fool.)

The guys asked me to try and sneak a picture of this girl that was bowling next to us, not to be creepy or anything (though, admittedly, it kinda is), but to show our wives later so that they could start wearing shit like this back-less shirt more often. 

After a couple hours of bowling, the younger kids were funned out and ready to go home, but still had five or so frames left in their game.  It was going to go to waste regardless, so the dads finally stepped up and took over. . .

Erik's turn.  (It should be noted that none of us are any good at bowling whatsoever.)

Ryan's.

Yours Truly absolutely sucks at bowling.  Like, borderline embarassing.

Collier finishes off our last pitcher on our way out of the joint.  Not all heroes wear capes.

Afterwards, the Colliers had folks back at their house to 'after party,' though, at our age, with kids in tow, this more or less means cards and snacks.

The wives' go-to hangout spot at the Collier residence.

Some truly exhausted children, around midnight. . .

- Brian