Eight Point Lake '17, Pt. IV

(contd.)

Sunday

July 23rd
"Cornhole '17"

Another pleasant morning over Eight Point Lake...

A couple hours later - a break in the clouds.  We'd have some solid weather for this year's tournament.

Mustering of roommates.

Our defacto commissioner of games, Uncle Larry, came over later on in the morning to go over this year's bracket with his second-in-command, Dad.

Grandma Jones and Cindy's sister, Sue.

Strategizin'. . .

Their system comprises of listing all the eligible players out of everyone in attendance, then narrowing those people into two columns:  A Players (people who are decent or good at cornhole) and B Players (people who aren't.)  They then match up an A with a B, and - voila - there's a team.  This year we had a dozen teams or so, with Yours Truly (a B) being paired up with Bryan Rowley (an A.)

Grandma Jones and Rowley

Going over the year's rules and procedures at the start of the tournament. 

We once again had a ridiculous amount of people up at the Cottage this year, so we had about as many people sitting out and watching this year (wives and kids, namely) as we did playing in the tournament.  This stood in stark contrast to the previous year, when there were about twelve of us playing in total, and no one was in attendance.

Bradley and his dad teamed up against Shirley and Chuck in the opening match.  I forget who won, but both were eliminated shortly thereafter as the bracket advanced.

Andy and Kyle's teams were also pretty quick to go. . .

Aunt Lucy takes her Cornhole pretty seriously.

Out of the tournament, Bradley heads back into the water.

Mackenzie - who was an A but somehow labeled as a B (seriously, what the f***), but paired up with arguably the best player at the Cottage this year, Rob Grant.

Blake and his friend, Nick, were pure garbage the years proceeding this one - I alone beat them twice.  They had evidently been practicing throughout the course of the year, though, 'cause those middle schoolers were straight-up cutthroat this year.

Overseeing proceedings

The littlest kids more or less hung out in this same spot for the duration of the afternoon. . .

Between matches, this is where you could find me - hilt-deep in Jenning's Aztec and enjoying a pipe aboard the Cagafuego.

Aunt Sue took a lot of these pics (hence the filters.)

Abby lives in this swimsuit

The tourney drags on. . .

Checking the brackets

Watson, on guard as always.

Al's convinced holding a beer in your non-throwing arm balances out your body so you throw more accurately.  As ridiculous as that may sound, he may be on to something:  he's pretty damn good at this.

Blake takes down another team of adults

Mom and daughter face-off.

Kris and I in a rare moment of non-kids.  And, randomly, a soccer ball hurling through the air.

Dueling cameras

Taking down Jill's team, which put us through the third round undefeated.

In the fourth round, we faced off against one of the two remaining teams, who, as previously stated, shouldn't have been on the same team in the first place.  My cousin, Mackenzie, was labeled a 'B'. . . despite the fact that she plays Cornhole all the time and OWNS A CORNHOLE SET OF HER OWN.

So it should go without saying that we lost the first match (though not by a lot, we held in there.)  Since this year's tournament was double-elimination, we weren't quite out of the tournament yet.

More dead animals thrown on the fire

Cousins

Casa de White

Dinner break

We don't have pics of it, but Blake and his friend Nick beat me and Bryan by one point.  What's really sad about this is that they came back from 20-11 to do so - ALL Bryan and I needed was to make ONE point, but by that point we had been drinking beer for about eight hours and our opponents hadn't.  So. . . yeah.  We crashed and burned in miserable fashion, but the boys earned their second place spot.  Not surprisingly, they, too, fell to Rob and Mackenzie.

The 2017 Champions and Runners Up.

Tax Deductions

Offspring

The Houghs, version 2.0

Training the next generation of would-be champions

After the tournament wound down, we took the kids out for a tubing venture.  This was a much more mild affair compared to when we take the boys out, but they still had fun.

Back in port, with post-dinner shenanigans

Another shot of Abby posing with a flower (this is her new go-to photo op.)

Greatest.  Babysitter.  Ever.

It's in the genes.

Setting out for an evening booze cruise around the lake (my all-time favorite activity at the Cottage, aside from my usual sun/pipe/book/Cagafuego combo, of course.)

Setting out

The girls spent most of their time setting up their 'bed' (the port-side seats fold down, and make a flat bench) and then arguing with each other while trying to get comfortable.

Whites

Uncle Bryan

Pissed off Abby

DJ Jax mans the CD Player

A lackluster sunset over Eight Point Lake (we got out there pretty late, so there was little to no sun to speak of. . . hence the crappiness of picture quality.)

- Brian