Puck, Poms, and Sleds

What's up, folks.

We had ourselves a pretty busy weekend 'round these parts.  One of those weekends where every day and evening was slotted with some kind of house or social activity.  Makes for a good time, for sure, but not necessarily a relaxing weekend; nobody was ready to head back into work on Monday morning, I can tell you that much.

I'll skip the lengthy intro this time around and just jump right into things, if that's cool.

Check it out. . .

Friday night we went over to the Colliers house for the typical friend hang-out, which was, as always, a good time.  I didn't bother taking any pictures, because those hangouts all look the same after awhile.  The next morning, Kris and I ran a bunch of errands and took care of business around the house.  In the evening, Erik and I had plans at the Saginaw Ice Arena (or whatever the hell that's called) - the Bay City Scottish Rite had reserved a private viewing/eating area for the hockey game (shown here) for all Masonic brothers in the area, so Erik and I figured we'd go and check it out.

I'm not a hockey fan by any means, so I barely watched the game, and the little bit I did watch I sure as shit couldn't follow.  The Saginaw Spirit, the local team, featured one of my former students on its roster, so that was kinda cool, but aside from that I was pretty 'meh' about the actual game itself.  At halftime (or whatever the hockey equivalent of that is), they had a t-shirt cannon with which they started shooting shirts into the crowd.  It was more like a gatlin gun than a cannon, but you get the idea.

Erik and I, drinking Miller Lite in the patrician section.

The food setup was decent (the meal was included in the $35 we paid to attend this evening's event in the private box) - Jet's pizza, some pretzels and chicken wings, crap like that.  Nothing at all healthy, but once and awhile that's not gonna kill ya.

Shout outs from the Saginaw Ice Arena.

Figuring skating with sticks.

Yes, we deemed it necessary to get our pic taken with this. . . eagle?  Falcon?  I don't know what this is.

All hail the losing team. . .

The next morning, bright and early (much to me and Erik's delight), we gathered up our families and headed back down into Saginaw, this time to SVSU's gymnasium for the 2022 Michigan Pom Association's State Championships.  We showed up about an hour and half early, and Erik and I quickly nabbed ourselves a table and some viewing space at the top of the stands (Kris and Courtney opted to sit down in the stands, which soon became jam-packed with spectators.)  By the time it was a half-hour before the pom competition started, it was pretty obvious that Erik and I had grabbed the best spot in the entire gym, and people were starting to crowd around us.  We sat Alayna and Sophie (the Larson kid, who came along with us) at the table behind us so they didn't have to stand the whole time, and blocked off about a six-foot section right up against the railing, which gave us a perfect vantage point for video and pics.

The pop, pretzel, and shitty hot dog came to about $10.  Overpriced garbage, right there.

Ready to take the 'stage.'

The Northeast Pom Team - they did the same routine that they did back when they performed at Northville towards the end of the month, but this time they had tightened the screws a bit and were much more polished.

A much better performance this time around.

"Getcho hands durrty. . ." (if you count it, Abby is sixth from the right, about center of the pic.)

Northeast was the fourth team to perform, and after all the Middle School squads had finished their routines (including my school, White Pine, who are considered the best in the state), Erik and I surrendered our VIP vantage point, gathered up Alayna and Sophie, and drove out to pick up McDonalds for the wives and Abby.  About an hour later, we shuffled back into the gym - this time just along the side, as the competitions were over and the kids were just all hanging around waiting for the results to come in from the judges.

All the pom squads, sitting around in little circles, had to hang out for about twenty minutes while the judges tallied up their scores.

The Northeast team, sorta-patiently awaiting the results.

You could totally see me in the background of this picture if that red basketball hoop obstruction wasn't standing in the way.

Once everything was tallied, Northeast ended up getting 5th Place, which is the best they've ever done at the State Level (my school, White Pine, ended up taking 1st Place, like they have the last few years.)

One last shot of the team before we all headed home.

We got home in the late afternoon, and I was pretty funned out with being out of the house all weekend.  Kris and Courtney, because they're both absolutely insane, decided they had one more outing in them and volunteered to take Abby, Ella and Sophie sledding out at Midland City Forest.

So I guess some other family that was up there had to leave unexpectedly, and ended up giving Kris and Courtney their toboggan tickets for the track they have out there, which the girls were pretty pumped about.

Flying down the track.

So there you have it, folks - the end of an absolutely insane weekend with the Houghs.  See ya next time. . .

- Brian