The Houghs: Grandma's Summer Visit '14

Grandparental visits run like clockwork with us. Dad and Cindy come down in October and May, Mom (and John, when his work load allows) comes in the Summer. It's been like that for years, with a few change-ups here and there, but having consistency with the visits is definitely helpful with the kids.

Summer means Grandma.

Here's some pics from Mom's recent week-long stay at Casa de Hougho:

Got this in the mail the other day. Apparently the Republicans value my opinion. Gods knows why.

Abby's has a permanent hankerin' for string cheese.

The Cannonball showcases her newly-acquired violin skills for Grandma. . .

Yet another grandparent has their hair tended to by Abby the Stylist. I guess she has a thing for grey hair.

Bedtime stories (sort of - Abby can't read.)

No, that's not a worm slithering down our hallway. . .

Not sure how a baby snake got into the kid's room. Hopefully I don't end up on the new by ignoring this.

Every year on my birthday, Kris asks me what I want to do for my birthday. It's basically the only carte blanche day I get throughout the year, and I'm not a hard man to please by any means. I forego parties and evenings out at restaurants for something much, much simpler. . .

Boarding a British frigate from the comfort of one's living room couch? God bless technology.

A day to myself where I can just sit around unshowered and play videogames.

That might sound like nothing, but when you're an adult with a job and a mortgage, and have three chicks living under the same roof as you, you'd be surprised how little time you have to yourself. Especially for 'unimportant' things like video games.

As I mentioned earlier, I bought a Wii U some months back, and ever since then I've been steadily buying games for it that I never have the time to play during the school year. One of these shelf-warmers was Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The best-selling franchise is incredibly popular and a critically-acclaimed juggernaut, and with this most recent installment the story takes place during the Golden Age of Piracy, smack in the midst of the roaring Caribbean islands.

(You may or may not recall that I'm somewhat fond of pirates.)

One of the coolest features of this game is that it's completely open-ended - you can go anywhere you want throughout the Caribbean islands at any time, and the game's designers (who must've spent years developing all the little details) obviously did their homework when making sure everything was historically accurate. As a history nerd - an pirate aficionado - I was thoroughly impressed.

The Gamepad features on this games are amazing. . .

So anyway, even though I also own Assassin's Creed III (which takes place during the American Revolutionary War), I opted to start Black Flag this summer instead. Mainly due to the piratical setting.

This is one of those in-depth games that takes hours in a sitting in order to accomplish anything worthwhile, so it was near impossible to play during the school year. Consequently, when Kris and Mom offered to take the girls shopping out of the house, I relished in the freedom of an empty house, and promptly killed several hours in front of the living room TV, boarding ships, drinking rum, and otherwise getting shit done.

Not the worst birthday I've celebrated, that's for sure.

During my pillaging of the Caribbean, Mom and Kris took the kids to the mall to play around in its indoor playground and do some shopping. . .

Later that evening, as I was somewhat strong-armed into putting down the Gamepad and rejoining my family, the girls all started decorating cupcakes and what-not for my birthday (not that any of us adults wanted cupcakes, but the kids obviously enjoy that sort of thing.)

Our kids enjoy sugar a great deal.

Abby usually applies a 'decorate one, eat two' mentality when it comes to decorating cupcakes. . .

This is how Abby rolls, folks.

Man, kid jokes are HILARIOUS.

Fairy weirdness ensues on the back of the couch. . .

Abby just kind of ad libs her own stories. The story's usually a lot weirder than the author intended.

Updating Alayna's summer reading log. . .

Mom attempts to fix Kris' antique sewing machine. . .

This summer we decided it'd probably be a good idea to paint a few rooms of the house, as the walls definitely needed it back when we moved in a few years ago, and they've been forced to endure children and dogs ever since.

Teaching the Cannonball how to play Solitaire (which proved to be futile.)

God, I hate this game. . .

After the kitchen walls, the play room was next. . .

Catching a nap whenever possible - these frickin' kids never sleep.

Arts and crafts time with Grandma

Making 'pizzas'

Cooling off in our backyard pool (which is somewhat smaller than previous summers' pools. . . but, as stated before, we opted to utilize Aquatica this summer instead of setting up a large pool in the backyard)

The agreed-upon 'nice' picture with Grandma - we usually get a couple out of the girls first. . .

. . . so that they can get a dozen 'silly' pictures on the back-end.

(It's been awhile since I took some pictures of the backyard)

Abby channels her inner Macaulay Caulkin (or however you spell that washed-up child actor's name.)

More pics of the backyard. . .

Our neighbor's tree spilleth over into our yard (I don't care, though - looks kinda cool.)

I recently took all the metal shelving out of the shed and reassembled it in the garage for storage use, which I kinda wish I had done a long time ago - that shelving is awesome.

This shed has definitely spoiled me - I don't think I could ever own a home without one now. . .

This year I put birthday money and some funds I had set aside towards a new spin bike I had picked up on Amazon. It was high-rated, and gave me an opportunity to get some cardio in after a summer of basically sitting around on my ass doing nothing. I have a weight bench, and use it occasionally, but I wanted something that provided a workout to get my heart rate up. The bonus here, of course, is that I can work out and watch TV at the same time (anything to distract me from the fact that I'm exercising. . . I hate exercising.)