The Houghs: Homecoming, Pt. I

What's up readers.

The last two years, Homecoming has been a very big deal in the Hough family. Alayna's Freshman and Sophomore outings were both major affairs, with months (I kid you not) of planning and purchasing: gone are the days where you just up and borrow a dress from a buddy, get one pic from a point-and-shoot, 35mm camera in front of your front door, and meet up with your friends at, like, Big Boy's or Ponderosa or some shit for the obligatory meal-before-the-dance.

Jesus, if only it were that simple.

No, nowadays everything is a huge production. From the dress, shoes and accessories, to the minute-by-minute itinerary, to the 975 pictures on my pro-level SLR that I took the day of the dance (I wish I was kidding), we poor parents are on call from sun-up to sun-down. And neither of our girls even went with boys this year (though Abby did dance repeatedly with a boy who's pretty much her boyfriend at this point but she's denying it - more to come with that tomorrow.) With dates in the mix, it's even worse: now Homecoming/Prom proposals are more grandiose than an actual marriage proposal, with elaborate signs, settings, and legions of friends filming the entire process.

I'm sooo glad I grew up in the '90s, before all this nonsense was commonplace practice.

Anyway, taking all of the aforementioned bullshit into consideration, Homecoming this year is a two-post affair: this first installment (this one) will focus on the big, Homecoming shenanigans going on at the school, as well as the brief parade and surprisingly boring football game later that evening (nobody scored in the first half, it was insane.) The second installment will be 90% pictures that I took throughout the afternoon of the girls and their various friends around town (I started with 975, but over the course of five hours I whittled it down to a much more modest 150 or so), with a sprinkling of some pics and video the girls and their friends took at the dance.

So anyway, we'll start off this hectic monstrosity of a weekend in the hallways of Midland High, where school spirit was at a fever pitch.

Behold. . .

MHS 'Hall Marching' - something they do at Midland High before every Homecoming. The girls love this (Alayna took this video.)

Later that day, at the school pep assembly. See if you can spot Abby in the crowd (it's kinda like a Where's Waldo? spread. . .)

Abby and two of her squad mates in the Eyeball hallway.

Not sure if the girls are just warming up here or what, or if they just had these small-scale pep assemblies scattered about campus throughout the day. Alayna took these two videos as well (I'm pretty sure, seeing how Abby and Ella are both in them. . .)

Prior to the start of the 6pm parade, the JV and Varsity Pom teams cram together for a combo team picture in the school parking lot.

Kris and I headed down to the school around 5:30pm in order to snag parking (even an hour before the game started, the first few lots were full, and we had to park down by the orchestra/band wing of the school.) Once we secured a spot, we walked over to where the old Family Video store used to be (now it's yet another Dollar General - surprise, surprise) in order to meet up with the Tribe. The Johnsons, Griffins, and Colliers were on hand this evening, so we tailgated with them in the parking lot and awaited the parade.

Dad and Cindy drove down from Clare in order to check out Abby and her pom team, and had arrived early enough to snatch up a spot in one of the parking lots close to the field entrance. They took this pic of Abby as her and her teammates marched past on Eastlawn.

The MHS Homecoming Parade, turning off of Eastlawn onto Washington, right in front of us.

(Kris got this video.)

A shit-load of pommers. . .

The JV Team

About an hour later, the game had started, buuuuuut we were still tailgating. We could see the scoreboard from our vantage point, clear as day, and even had a decent view of the field itself (through the chainlink fence, that is), so rushing into the stands just to sit in uncomfortable bleachers wasn't very high on our priority list. Abby (shown here giving her sis a thumbs up from their holding position on the sidelines) and her team only does the MHS Fight Song routine whenever Midland High scores, and throughout the entire first half of the game, neither them or their opponents scored a single point.

An unedited sunset pic, courtesy of the Cannonball.

Kris and I eventually sat down to check out the halftime show, only to find out shortly beforehand that only the Varsity pom team would be performing.

I'm not sure who this chick is, I think it's one of the coaches.

The band prepares to take the field while the girls screw around on the sidelines.

The band, performing AC/DC's Thunderstruck alongside a guitarist and drummer. After a few songs and crap, they did the whole Homecoming Court thing and crowned the victors, then the second half of the game started. Us dads watched for a few minutes then went back out to the parking lot for more tailgating - it's not like our kids were performing anyway. . .

I hope you guys like selfies, because Kris - who usually can't be bothered to take any pictures whatsoever - took a crap-ton of selfies this evening. . .

Same as the one before, just adding Courtney and a couple other kids.

Now let's replace those two kids with Stephanie and swap out Abby for Ella.

(Okay, Kris didn't take this one.)

This is proof our kid performed at the game, even if it wasn't very much. In the second half, both schools scored a time or two, so the JV team got to perform on the sidelines for the crowd.