The End of Summer

Old Lady Hough turned 40 this month.

 What's up, gang.

We jammed a whole hell of a lot into the month of August, way more than usual, I think.  August is generally, like, the Sunday of Summer, and Sunday is usually the most boring weekend day because you're getting ready for the coming work week and taking care of all your house/yard stuff.  And that's how August usually rolls around here:  back to school shopping, setting up my classroom, lesson planning, etc.

Well, this year we definitely did a lot of that, but we also threw in a few vacations and outings that made the month really zip by.  I could go into more detail here, but I figured since we have so many damn pictures to get through with this month's installment of randoms, I'll just let them do the talking instead.

Behold the Hough Family's Month of August, America:

. . . except once before, when Yours Truly turned 40.  You can't beat this handsome, folks.

Our friend Courtney had planned on doing weekly craft nights for all the kids in our friend group throughout the summer, but that never happened. . . until the beginning of August, when she finally got around to hosting Courtney Camp at her place.

They got their hands on a whole bunch of cigar boxes (I'm assuming from Brad, our buddy who deals cigars for a living) and the kids all painted them.

Whatever works, just so long as those kids are painting stuff over at my house.

Another day, another nap for the dogs.

The City of Midland kicked off its Tunes By the Tridge event one Friday, with vendors, entertainers, hot air balloon enthusiasts, and townspeople from all walks of life descending on downtown Midland and the adjacent Tridge park (whatever that's called.)  With most of Main Street still blocked off for pedestrian drinking (The Commons, as they call it), we had to park all the way down at Kris' church (First United Methodist) and hoof it down to the Tridge area.  Along the way, we got to walk past the Lodge entrance, which is always cool.  

One of the many free attractions on hand for this event was a zip-line set up from Vertical Edge (whoever the hell they are.)  Alayna was obviously too cool for this sort of thing, but Abby was willing to give it a go.

(Abby's up at the top, there.)

Aaaaaand there she goes. . .

Tunes by the Tridge

We met up the Bos and Larson families while we were down there, hanging out in the food/beer tent for a bit.  Kelli, as a member of the local Rotary club, was working the booze concessions, and with her husband, Mitch, still at work (his summer's are like my school days) at the golf course, we had their three kids with us for the evening.

At sunset, they started launching off all the hot air balloons that were scattered about the open grass areas of the park.  One by one they lifted up and begin drifting away over the city.

Checking out hot air balloons float over the Midland Courthouse on our way back to Kris' van. . .

Is this a seal or a manatee?  I'm guessing it's a seal because manatees are, like, the saddest of all animal species and I can't imagine one smiling ever.

The next morning, sifting the rocks in the front yard was hands down the shittiest thing I did all summer.  Zero out of five stars, would not recommend.

Back to school shopping later that afternoon with Kris and the girls in scenic Saginaw, MI.  At the Crossroads Mall, I spotted the ever-elusive Jimmy Jazz (a Clash reference, if you're not up to speed with your London Calling.)

We popped in to a Hot Topic in the mall, where we picked up a small backpack for Abby.  This was ordered back in April for Abby's birthday but it was back-ordered, and only just now arrived in stock (it's one of those Loungefly ones like they sell at Walt Disney World.)  She was pretty happy with it.

Behold the Wall of Anime Shirts.  This store was like straight-up crack for our girls, they both became immediate converts and want to fill out their existing Amazon lists with crap from this store.

Later that evening, we met up with the Johnsons and Colliers down by the Tridge for some live music and drinks.  The cover band wasn't half bad - always a refreshing change, that.

A lazy Sunday in the neighbor's pool. . .

The menu this week at the Hough House.  There is no Girls Weekend, ladies. . . only BROCATION.

The week leading up to Brocation, I took the girls up to Northeast in order to set up their lockers.

Abby was pretty stressed over her locker:  with her tendency to rush through things and not take her time, she had one hell of a time figuring out how to open her locker.  Alayna, when she was in 6th grade, got hers on the first try, but Abby - after a half an hour or so of trying - only got it once.  She's gonna have to put in some serious practice time.

Alayna - who's locker is downstairs - came up to see how we were handling Abby's locker.  She relishes her veteran middle schooler status these days.

There's no A/C in the building, and Abby's up on the second floor this year - it was brutally hot up there, I was miserable.

Downstairs - where it was slightly cooler - Alayna decks out her 8th grade locker.

Yes, she has a chandelier in her locker.

Taking a minute to calm herself down - she was pretty stressed out over her locker and the upcoming start of middle school.

Partially set up - half of her locker decor hadn't arrived in the mail yet, and we still hadn't printed pics.  That'd happen the following week.

A day or two before we left for Brocation, there was a huge storm that barreled through mid-Michigan, cutting power to over 90% of the city.  We were estimated to be without power for three or four days, so I pulled out our generator and got that baby all fired up.  Living without electricity and Wi-Fi doesn't bother me (not after Africa is sure doesn't), if anything it's kinda nostalgic. . . but I was concerned about our two refrigerators, especially the one in the basement.  Our upstairs fridge didn't have much in the refrigerator side of it when we lost power, because we were at the end of the week and about to get groceries, so there wasn't a lot of food to go to waste (just condiments and some produce.)  The downstairs fridge, however, had hundreds of dollars worth of booze in it, so I emptied out all the contents from the freezer upstairs into the downstairs freezer, ran a cord from the generator down into the basement, and kept my beer collection and freezer goods safe and secure throughout the duration of the black out.

Taking a break from my power-less shack to help the guys load up the trailer for Brocation.

I hooked up a cord splitter to the generator so, with one side still connected to the downstairs refrigerator keeping my beer nice and cool, I ran the other into the power strip hooked up to our TV and Blu-Ray player.  That way the kids wouldn't get bored when it grew dark outside.

Can't go wrong with Flight of the Conchords.

You can barely make 'em out, but two electricity company dudes are back there messing with a downed line.  The cause of our outage was a drooping power line right behind our house, and we were lucky enough to have a crew swing by our house days earlier than anticipated.  The day I left for Brocation, they were already working on it, and Kris notified me hours into my vacation that we had full power on once again.  My beer collection was saved.

While I was away adventuring, Kris and the girls made use of the Angelotti's pool some more.

I guess the girls kept filling up their tops with water to increase their chest size.  Kids are weird.

The following week, after Brocation came to a close and Yours Truly went into full-blown Back to School mode, I hauled the girls along with me to my classroom in order to set things up (they still like helping me set things up.)

These fancy Activision panels are like giant iPads, pretty fun to play with.

My kids have definitely inherited the Hough sense of humor, I'll give 'em that. . . 

It only took me a day to set up my classroom, I streamlined the process this year.  Zero stress, folks.

The Command Center

That Friday, we went out to eat at some fancy restaurant at the Soaring Eagle Casino with the Johnsons and Larsons. . .

It was connected to the main gaming floor (whatever you wanna call that, I don't know.)

The couples sat at different ends of the table - conversationally, that just works out better.

After eating, we decided to play slots for awhile.  Nobody won anything except for Erik, who won like $400 at blackjack.  Talk about luck. . .

Things have gotten a lot more high-tech since the last time I was in here (back in, like, 2000.)

The next day, Kris and Danielle took their kids out to the beach in Caseville (where we went a couple times last summer, if you'll recall.)

Old ladies

Alayna and Jackson

Sophie and Abby

Found this offering from Marquette's own Blackrocks Brewery at Cork and Ale recently - if you'll remember, we hit that place up on last year's Brocation.

We finally got around to changing out the decades-old lamps outside of the entrance to Lodge this month.  After years and years of talking about it.  Tom (shown here) and a buddy of his were able to get a crane out to the side of the building and switch it all out.  It was incredibly convenient that this street just so happened to be closed on account of the old Main Street Commons thing going on all summer.

This definitely would've been a pain in the ass if you had to use a ladder.

BAM.  A definite improvement.  For those of you not familiar with these lamps, they light up whenever a scheduled meeting is taking place.  The main ones are the top (what we call Blue Lodge, the main Masonic body) and the bottom (which is an all-encompassing one.)  The second one (the red one) is Royal Arch, which, if you'll recall, I joined back in May this year.  The third and fourth, the Cryptic Council and Commandarie (Knights Templar), are more specialized bodies that don't meet regularly.

Looks pretty badass lit up at night, right?

The night before the First Day of School, excited to go to bed and the ball rolling.

The First Day of School.  Alayna, 8th Grade.

Abby, 6th Grade.

I really, really need to power-wash my front walk.  Holy shit.

Erik was nice enough to drive our kids up to school on their first day - Abby and Ella, being brand new to middle school, insisted on going together on the first day.  He sent us this picture later.  He said they were both freaking out, but holding it together (they both ended up having great first days, as did Alayna.)

A couple days later, we had yet another powerful storm rip through our area, this one knocking down trees in our immediate neighborhood.  Whatever. . . at least my grass is getting watered.

Eating dinner over at the Johnson's.

Chris and Nicole popped in for a visit one weeknight to hang out while they were in town for work, sans-kids, and have a few drinks with us (Mom was nice enough to babysit.)

Later that week, Kris and several of her friends went out to Studio 154 to finally make the set of Cornhole Boards her friends and all chipped in on for her 40th Birthday (remember, that was back during our camping stint at Jellystone at the end of July.)  They had all chipped in on the boards and painting session, but also bought several bottles of wine (with customized 40th birthday labels printed and stuck on for good measure, a nice touch.)

These ladies here are all of Kris' work peeps - Kim, Nicole, Teresa, and Trina.

And then, of course, you had a bunch of the usual mom's from the friend group - Mees, Kelli, Deanna. . .

. . . and Kris, Danielle, Courtney, and Alicia.

Bitches at work

Kris puts down a base coat of paint on our boards (which, I'm told, are 100% regulation, being products of the American Cornhole Association. . . yes, that's a thing.)

Hens, cluckin'

A bunch of moms and their finished products.

Kris and the finished product.  I designed the logo and color scheme for these, and then sent them to Studio 154, who then made multiple screens for the different layers and pain-stakingly laid them down. Kris said they had to spend a lot of extra time because of the fine detail, but whatever. . . they turned out awesome.

They even threw in carrying sling-bag for our bags (which, I think, are black and yellow.)

That Friday, several of our families went over to break in the Holty family's new above-ground, saltwater swimming pool. . .

Abby, Alivia, and Sophocles

Adults chowing down on snacks on the back patio

Jackson and Alayna (still wearing my Oberon hat.)

Swimming pools make the best babysitters. . .

Alicia, Kris, Danielle, Lonnie Big Balls, and Ryan

Later on that weekend, Kris and some of the other moms took a bunch of their kids out. . . somewhere.  I don't know, I saw this in Kris' Google Photos and felt the need to include it here.  I was not here for this, (most likely being at home in full-blown Back to School mode - I start a week after the girls did.)  So yeah.  There you go.

Got stung by a bee while reading a book on the back porch the weekend before my school started with students.  After a day or two, my entire leg turned red and swelled up, and I couldn't stop itching it.  Like, I'd wake up at night it was so itchy.  Eventually had to go on a prescription for that nonsense - I've never had a reaction to a bee sting like that before.  Ridiculous.

Girl pool party over at Alayna's friend Cristina's house.  This has bee a regular occurrence the last few weeks.

An obligatory post-First Day of School round of beers with some fellow grizzled veterans out at the infamous Hill's Tavern, in scenic Shields, Michigan.  This year is definitely going to be doozy, folks, I'll tell ya that much right now. . .

- Brian