June: Rise of Summer

Abby and Ella

How's it going, America.

This month could have easily been split into two parts:  the first two weeks, which were sunny, warm, and absolutely gorgeous, and the second two weeks, which were rainy, dreary, and, well, not gorgeous at all.

June went by super fast, and unfortunately all of my downtime where I had planned on working on various yard work projects - sifting out the rock beds around my house, treating weeds, fixing part of my chain fence, etc. - had to be scrapped because it was constantly thunderstorming.  I suppose we were lucky enough to have awesome weather whenever we had plans, trips, or other social outings, but I could've really used some sunny days where I was home doing nothing in order to get more outside work accomplished.

Oh well.

So here's a look at what all went down this June, the first month of Summer 2021.

Check it out. . . 

All dressed up for the 5th Grade PYP cumulative project, Exhibition.  Each 5th grader had to present their research on how to make the world a better place.

Abby's first attempt at her Exhibition speech. . .

Parents got to join a Zoom meeting when Abby's class presented their Exhibition projects, the only option at the school's disposal after a Covid-ravaged year of trying to keep the schools safe and open.  Abby's presentation - which you can sort of ascertain in the previous video - was towards the end of the class, and hers was definitely one of the better ones.

Watson stands guard over the front door.

That Saturday, Erik came by to help me trim up our two front maples, which, for years, have blocked out most of the sun in our front yard, thereby strangling the grass and causing all kinds of headaches.

Gotta love chainsaws. . .

We brought down a shitload of tree foliage, but fortunately the city was doing a brush clean up the following Monday, so we wouldn't have long to wait for all this crap to get picked up.  The grass in our front yard began healing rapidly, and by the end of the month it was completely filled in.  Wish we would've thought of this years ago.

Improvising entertainment for kids on a hot summer afternoon, in classic Dad form.

Abby's friend (also named Abby), was going to stay the night after a day of playing out in the sun, so Kris wanted to try playing a movie through our projector on the back patio.

While the location of this particular screen is questionable - I'll definitely be moving it to the left of the door for future use - the setup worked flawlessly.  We'll hopefully be doing this quite a bit this summer.  If it ever stops raining.

A brace of Abigails.

Chestnut Hill Elementary, arranged in formation, towards the end of the school year (this picture swiped off the school's Facebook page.)

Mrs. Schmidt, the Science teacher on my team, and I hanging outside my classroom during lunch.  In nice weather we teachers like eating outdoors and catching some sun while our students watch movies and eat lunch in our classrooms, since they're unable to eat together in the classroom (contact tracing, etc.)

Still got it, kids.

A celebratory end-of-the-school-year beer with my team at Coty's Landing in Shields, right down the road from my school.  This year was an insane gauntlet of change, but we somehow got through it relatively unscathed.

After playing outdoors all day in the newly-fenced yard, the dogs enjoy coming in and passing out on the cool carpet.  Can't say I blame them.

Morgan got me this bottle of pricey scotch for my birthday last year, and I've been saving the last bit of it for a special occasion.

Can't say I can think of a better reason for it then the end of another tumultuous year of teaching.

The fun never stops

The waterslide for Alayna's Birthday Party was dropped off the night before, so we opened it up to the inner circle of our friend group in case anyone wanted to let their kids burn off some excess energy on a Friday night.

Needless to say, everyone showed up.  Can't say no to a waterslide, folks.

Chaos in the bounce house

Dads and Moms, segregated as always.

Kris' Mom, Marcy, had a birthday on the 13th, so Kris took the girls up to Clare to surprise her.

. . . and of course they had to do their nails.

Later that week, on a super hot, sunny day, our neighbors - the Angelottis - were out of town and let us know that we could bring our kids (including Ella, the Johnson's kid) over and use their pool

Bask in the glory of Hough Feet, Interent.

Alayna and Ella on the infamous Swan.

Kris, sunbathing and consequently not parenting.

Downtown Midland, in an attempt to boost traffic, closed off Main Street down a couple blocks and set up several pavilions and picnic tables down the center of the street.  Certain bars and restaurants also let customers get 'to go' cups for their orders and you were allowed to walk down the road with your beverage.  I picked up this craft choice from Whichcraft, and you can see on my cup.

Killing time having some drinks with the Johnsons while waiting for our kids to get done with VBS, down at the First United Methodist Church (Kris' church.)

A Midland staple, Oscar's - located on the first floor of the historic Larkin Building (where our Lodge is located, up on the third floor) - is yet another casualty of Covid-19.  Closed and currently up for sale.

On the day of Alayna's actual birthday, she wanted to go to Starbucks for breakfast.  The quickest way to get there is to take the back way through the mall area from Waldo, and, while driving down Joe Mann Blvd, a flock of geese - shown here - decided to parade across the street and held up traffic for over five minutes.  I hate geese.

I personally loathe this place.  I won't spend more than $3 for a cup of coffee, I don't care how much bullshit you put in it.

Waiting for her order to come up.  I got both kids a drink and food item of their choice.  Which, at Starbucks, sets you back like $25.

Happy camper.

Later that week, I looked out the kitchen window to see Samson calmly sitting in the yard, chewing on something.  This isn't something he usually does, and he was in a rarely traversed part of our yard, so I went out to investigate.  Upon reaching him, I found - much to my horror - that he had eaten off the head of a dead bird.  Dogs are idiots.

I don't usually drink seltzers, but in the summer I prefer their light body to, say, craft or regular beer (which can get heavy in hotter temperatures.)  Since we're in peak seltzer season, I decided to pull the trigger on yet another Yeti Colster for my collection.  Works insanely well.

While the Moms were all away on Momcation 2021 (once again, down at Danielle's friend Dani's place, down by Kalamazoo), the Dads - with kids in tow - decided to grill out over at Tom's place.  Abby and Ella occupied themselves with this swing contraption they had hung up in the backyard.

Mitch, Ryan and Erik

I gave Alayna an old Oberon hat that I ordered last year but seldom wear (the cap profile is a bit low for my taste.)  She just can't wear it to church, school, or anywhere else a child wearing a beer hat would be frowned upon by greater society.

The Inner Circle checking out who knows what on Ryan's laptop.

Ryan, Morgan and Omkar

The Inner Circle, Wife Version: Kelli, Danielle, Kris, Mees, and Courtney

Chow time.

Suns out, guns out.

Brad and Ryan, and some cornhole

Erik and Mitch.  Mitch and Morgan are probably the two best cornholers in this group.

Meanwhile, down in Kalamazoo, the Moms show off some new tie-dyed shirts.

More day-to-day from the Amazon Ring. . .

Alayna's haul from a recent trip to the Library.  Horror novels and Japanese manga.  As usual.

I recently decided to fancify my tobacco jars, buying a labeling kit off of Amazon.  Arguably the gayest thing I've ever done.

Our friend group decided that, for this year's upcoming trip to Jellystone (once again, in Grayling), we should design a bunch of t-shirts.  This, of course, was placed at my feet, since I'm the group design whore.  Since we had single-handedly filled up the campground's Gray Island (an area of camp sites in the campground), we wanted to theme it.  Erik suggested incorporating Castle Greyskull in there somehow.  My mock-up of Lonnie was immediately shot down.

Tie-dying some stuff in the garage with Abby's friend, Abigail.

One Saturday morning, Erik and I decided to check out Michigan's largest pipe store, Paul's Pipe Shop, in Flint.  This place is legendary, and so, being pipe smokers, we figured we should really make it a point and check it out sometime.  Unfortunately, it was pouring rain when we left, and traffic - already a shitshow due to typical I-75 traffic, was downright brutal.  Took us forever to get down there.

Rolling into Flint, we spotted Flint's Masonic temple (at the far left.)

Downtown Flint.  Surprisingly not ghetto as you would think.

The place of legend.

Har har.

Thousands upon thousands of pipes, ranging in price from $20 to $2,000.  I could've spent days in here.

Every pipe manufacturer you could think of, they had in stock.  From cheap Dr. Grabow's to luxury European companies.

The guy that own and runs the store, the son of the original founder, is, like, 80 years old and hand makes his own line of pipes that are critically praised in the industry (his workshop is located in the basement of the shop.)  We knew we had to get one of his handcrafted pipes - this Cayuga brand - before we left.

My selected pipe, with a rustic finish and a colored stem.  Set me back about $100, but well worth it - it's gorgeous and smokes great.

If we thought the way down to Flint was bad, on the way back it was even worse. While it was still sprinkling out, the high amount of traffic had caused numerous accidents on the slick roads (we watched a minor accident happen right in front of us at one point.)  We were stuck in single-lane traffic that was held at a stand still for about two hours, and eventually found out why:  a semi-truck, unable to stop, had crashed into a series of vehicles and flattened three of them.  Multiple fatalities, and the cars and SUVs that fell before the rampaging truck were crushed up like wads of paper.  Pretty chilling to drive past.

This has basically been the last couple weeks of the month.  After a day or two, it got real old real fast.

The Inner Circle - minus the Bos family, who was out of town for the weekend, convened over at the Larson residence for a night of drinks and games.  Here's Ryan, Erik and Morgan hanging out in Morgan's newly renovated kitchen (he built and assembled the cabinetry all by himself.)

Danielle, Courtney, Mees and Kris

Kids raid the fridge.

We played several rounds through this trivia game, and I won all but one of them (and that was only due to poor dice rolling on my part, I didn't get a single question wrong.)  All Hail the Champion.

All-out chaos in the Larson basement. . .

My stepdad John recently helped move his brother out of his condo in Florida in preparation for his relocation to Brazil, and brought a bunch of stuff from his house that he no longer wanted home with him to Midland.  He gave me these bottles of high-end booze to add to my burgeoning bar.  I'm not complaining.

Kids and dogs, doing who knows what in the backyard.

Relaxing on the couch.

Decided I should have my new Yeti engraved.  With yardwork out of the question on account of the unrelenting rain, I decided I had time to design something for the engraver's.  Due to the finish of the Yeti, they had to sandblast etch the design, which was more subtle than my other Yetis, but still turned out pretty badass in my opinion.

After a decade, it was time to cut the cord on this bad boy.  We've been snowballing debt like crazy this year - Kris' student loans and van have already paid off, and my new car should be paid off in a year - so we're laying waste to all kinds of stuff these days.

Abby and Ella both took part in another summer 'camp' at the Rock towards the end of the month, this one revolving around games.

That's it for June, folks - see ya in a month for another round of monthly updates.

- Brian