The Houghs: Eight Point Lake, Pt. II

(contd.)

The next morning, I awoke to the sound of all three girls up in the living room. . . which was pretty weird seeing how it was only 7am and they're, you know, teenagers and everything.

Turns out they weren't up early, they were STILL up - they had pulled an all-nighter, and were in absolute shambles. Kids are stupid.

After grabbing a cup of coffee, I inspected the coming weather from the back balcony - it was going to be some awesome weather today, definitely not as windy as the day before.

Bradley (in the front towards the left, wearing some black spandex or some shit) was participating in this year's annual Eight Point Lake 5K. My folks invited us out to watch it with them, but. . . it was still pretty early and no one in my family was down with that. So here's some pics from my folks.

Dude without his shirt on looks like he thinks he's too cool for school. Bradley beat him anyway.

After the race, the Whites finally rolled in to the lake.

Jax usually makes a beeline straight from his parents' vehicle to the dock, fishing pole ready to go.

Teenagers, still up. I told them that they should take a nap in the afternoon during the downtime (like, between boat rides and things like that.) But I'm an adult, so what the hell do I know. . .

I spent all morning and much of the afternoon sitting on this raft, reading a book and bronzing. One of my all-time, favorite summer past-times.

Playing catch in the lake

Kris and Jill came out to join me after awhile (once I had whipped them up some of my famous Bloody Marys, of course.) Abby hung out nearby and splashed around, clearly bored because all the older kids wanted to do was watch TV and chill.

Couple a' old hens.

Still bothering the moms. . .

After a couple hours of being pestered by children, Brian offered to take the kids out for some tubing in his boat. Alayna doesn't tube, so this was just for Ava and Abby this time around.

Dad came out with us, too - which doesn't usually happen.

Leaving port

Soon-to-be-Freshmen

As always, Uncle Brian beat the shit out of these kids. . .

After an hour or so of tossing kids in and out of the lake, we came back in to dry land and everyone came inside to grab some food (and refill drinks). . .

Nana whipped up more of her usual taco dip, which is always an awesome mid-afternoon snack.

Jax and this soul-less ginger from next door (gingers don't have souls, as we all know) played an impromptu game of baseball in the yard. . . which was incredibly painful to watch.

The Moms made their way back to the raft once they had gotten some food in their system. I joined them shortly.

Brian puts some ribs on the smoker. They'd be smoking for most of the day.

Watson

Samson

Jax, Bradley, and Bradley's on-again/off-again girlfriend, Savannah

Still on the raft

After a few more hours hanging on or around the raft, Brian offered to take everyone out tubing again. This time around, Yours Truly took a crack at it. . .

Lots of waves out on the lake today.

This is definitely waaaay harder than it looks, folks. I am not 25 years old anymore.

I took a 7-minute GoPro video while tubing behind Brian's boat, but obviously that's far too big a file to upload here on frickin' Blogger. After being flipped off the tube a couple times, we let Abby get on to ride for a bit.

Dad goes down. . .

We let the kids tube for a bit after that - generally these outings last about an hour, and by then everyone's exhausted.

The Cannonball. Clearly having fun.

Abby and Ava eat shit. Again.

If Kris could watch kids wipe out on a tube all day, she would.

Today was the 'big' Fourth of July parade around the lake. I'm not 100% clear on the rules, but I think there's a golf kart requirement upon entry (or one of those beefed-up thingies that's halfway between a golf kart and a car, forget their name.)

'Merica

Ah yes. . . nothing says 'freedom' quite like a giant frickin' shark. . .

. . . or Jurassic Park.

I had taken a video of this cavalcade, but it was a few minutes long so I can't really upload here (thanks again, Blogger.) Everyone gave me shit for videoing it anyway.

These ladies were pretty exhausted after spending the majority of the morning and afternoon tanning on the raft and having drinks.

Having smoked for hours in the pellet-thingy, the ribs were finally ready for consumption.

Shortly after dinner, we were all standing around the kitchen bar and saw Brian's boat suddenly list to the side, where it hung at a 45-degree angle (thankfully it didn't fall any further.) One of the supports had broken (or something), and he had to get it out of the lake so that in the coming days he could get someone out to inspect the hoist. While he left to go hook up his boat trailer, I had to stand in the lake and hold on to the front of his boat until he came back, in order to prevent it from floating away. He was able to get his boat out, and fortunately there was no damage - that could have been a whole hell of a lot worse.

After all the boat drama, and evening was coming on, we hauled out the fire pit so kids could do s'mores and stuff.

Bradley and Savannah, coming in from a sunset spin around the lake.

An awesome sunset, but there wouldn't be a pontoon cruise tonight: tonight they were lighting off the flares around the lake, and we had to be on hand to light off ours once the signal was given.