Total Mayness.

Guys, I'm not gonna lie.  This month was nuts.

Our Mays are usually pretty hectic around these parts, but this May was insane even by Hough standards.  Literally every single weekend in the month, our family had something big going on - just look back on this frickin' blog of ours and see for yourself (hiking trips, masonic getaways, Girl Scout trips, camping trips, birthday parties, lake hangouts, and - of course - lots of grilling and partying.)  And all that crap is on top of the usual school/work/yard work grind that seems to accelerate as the year draws to a close.

We've definitely been burning the candle at both ends this month, but as crazy as May was this year, it was also pretty bad-ass.  Definitely hoping June continues on the same level. . . just maybe at a slightly slower pace.

Check it out, folks:

While Yours Truly was out trudging up and down the Manistee River with Ryan and Mitch, Kris and the Girl Scouts (Abby's troop, that is) celebrated the annual World Thinking Day.

This year the troop settled on Iceland as their country to present.  I would've hyperlinked some crap here, linking to previous years' World Thinking Day presentations, where the girls' troops previously shared out on other countries, buuuuut. . . I couldn't find 'em.  Thought it was in the spring every year, but maybe I'm mistaken.  They're somewhere in the Archives, if you care to look for them.

The girls made 'traditional Icelandic' hats - black beanie caps with rad tassels - for part of their presentations.  I suggested to Kris and Courtney that the girls should dress up like Iceland's biggest celebrity - Bjork - but they weren't having it.  Lame.

Some troop got bagpipers to perform for 'Scotland,' evidently.  I consider outsourcing talent cheating.

Abby (at left) and two troopmates (who I should probably know by now, they've been in the same damn troop since, like, kindergarten.)

Dance around the May Pole, children. . .

The next day, when I returned from my hiking trip, I came home to find Kris had removed this archway from our back fence line and moved it to the rear garden of our yard.  We're filling in the gap with additional fencing, in order to completely lock the dogs in, and so Kris let the girls paint this.

(That's Abby's friend, Gabby, to the left, there.)

While the older girls were painting in the backyard, Abby was hanging out at the Johnson's 'helping' Erik cut some boards.  Who knows.

(Yes, they didn't finish painting it.  Kids are awesome.)

So, as my class was learning about the outbreak of the Civil War, I had kids pull out their phones and Google 'first person killed in the Civil War.'  I do this every year, actually, a is it blows their minds that it was a distant relative of mine.  Still, teenagers being as dumb as they are, I occasionally have to grade papers with crap like this on it.  I mean, seriously - how old do they think I am?  Do they know how 'age' works?

Another lazy Sunday morning, with Kris attempting to show us Church via Zoom.

Abby baked this apple. . . loaf.  For lack of better terminology.  Not sure what the hell it is, actually, but it weighed 20 lbs.  Surprisingly, it was actually pretty good.  You could only eat a small bite at a time, as each bite, I'm sure, was about 1600 calories, but still. . .

Abby channels her inner-Pinterest, taking some leftover boards lying around the garage and creating a rustic sign of some sort.  She's huge into arts and crafts, and totally designed and executed this (I just helped her out with the sawing a little.)

We've had a bird's nest outside my classroom, up in the roof, for weeks now, and every time my students go outside for a mask break - something that happens far more frequently, and for greater lengths of time, as the weather heats up - they keep an eye out for it.  Well, one day we came outside and my female students began shrieking, and when I came over to see what the deal was, I saw this.  Not sure how the hell it happened, but they clearly fell to their deaths.

A fourth one didn't completely fall, though - its leg got stuck in the roof and he must've just hung their in agony until it died.  My ELA teacher, Mrs. Sawley, helped me dispose of these carcasses (I had to grab a rake to pull this one down, that was a fun process. . . in front of a bunch of not-at-all-dramatic teenagers.)

Sudoku.  Kris and Abby thoroughly enjoy this.  Personally, I don't know how it works.

After a day or two of hanging out pool side, with the Girl Scouts at the Soaring Eagle Waterpark, all the dads assembled over at Lonnie's house on Saturday for some grilling and hanging out, sans wives and kids.

Ryan and Lonnie

Coach Lonnie 'Big Balls' Griffin

Digesting food (lotta grilling done in this group, that's for damn sure.) Here's Lonnie, Yours Truly, and Mitch.

Brad, Tom, and Erik

Some gross-ass, teenage girl shots Brad decided we should all drink.  There was more sugar in these shots (caramel apples) than I consume on a weekly basis, pretty sure.

Cigar time.  It's pretty awesome having a cigar salesman/aficionado in this group.  Not gonna lie. 

And yes, there was cornhole.  Grilling, cigars, and cornhole definitely sums this group up.

Technically there were some wives on hand, but they stayed indoors and out of the way.  Ain't nobody got time for no wives up in this joint.

Erik, Lonnie and Brad.

Enjoying a fire at the end of the night.

With the weather improving, myself and a couple of the other dads in the group enjoy walking about the neighborhood to get some fresh air and exercise, as well as to drop in and visit with friends.  If you'll recall, we did this on an almost daily basis back during the lockdown.  On this particular walk, Erik, Ryan and I wandered down to Brad's house at one point.

Brad hooked us up with a few of these while we were there.  Nothing like gettin' some healthy exercise.

Kris had the sprinklers turned on halfway through the month.  That's always a good time.

My brother and his fam were passing through the area and we were able to have them over one Thursday, after I got out of work.  In anticipation of her cousins' eminent arrival, Abby pulled out all her old Star Wars toys (the ones that remain, at any rate - she sold a bunch of 'em to her cousins already) so they had something to play with.

Dad came out to visit with the boys (and Chris, I guess) as well, bringing some Buccelli's (the World's Greatest Pizza) along with him.

Twins and Imperial vehicles.

Pizza time.  I ate slightly more than the boys did.

So glad Abby got this out for Louis.  Cindy was Facetiming with him at the time, I'm sure she enjoyed the show.

 

View from my classroom.  No complaints.

The Moron Brothers

After returning home, following a weekend of birthday celebrating and high school camping, I was able to squeeze in a quick lawn job before a torrential downpour descended upon us.  These are the sorta things I stress about now.

Nap time.

We finally bought one of these signs for our yard - you see them all over this side of town, and we'd talked about getting them in the past.  Now that we're gonna have two Vikings in the family soon, we figured we should get off our ass and buy a damn sign.

Had to move the sign.  Most folks have them by their house, not in the front of their yard.

There we go.  Much better.

Another lazy morning at the Hough House.

See?  See what we're dealing with this month?  What the damn hell. . .

Wouldn't be a weekend morning without some quality uke time.

Falling asleep to a movie.

Following a brief - and chilly - day visit at Eight Point Lake, our family returned to Midland in order to hit up the Collier Family's annual Memorial Day Party.  They do Memorial Day every year for our group, just like we do Halloween and St. Patrick's Day, the Larsons do Thanksgiving, etc.

Ryan, grilling up some asparagus, because "it helps fight hangovers."

Cornhole, cornhole, cornhole.

Dads and Cigars.  Look familiar?

Alayna, Ella, and Maddy decide they've had enough of Abby's nonsense.

Brad and Erik

Wives, cluckin' about chick stuff.

Dads aren't afraid to sing, folks.

At the close of another evening.

Kris battles the front garden, her arch nemesis. . .

Behold:  the Next Generation of Hough Toes.  Here's Abby, who, while not having the skinny, long toes of her sister or Dad, can spread hers pretty impressively.

Alayna can do this with her big toes.  Which is terrifying.

Alayna has my skinny, long toes, and can spread them a little, just not as much as Abby or myself.  This is the sorta shit we do in this family on random weeknights.  Just take a bunch of pictures of our creepy-ass feet.

- Brian