Summer, at Long Last

Hey gang.

Yet another bronzing session in the backyard with the roommates. . .

I used to think of Fall as my favorite time of the year, what with Halloween, local Football games, falling leaves, and all that. . . but it's not. Fall's great, but raking leaves is a bitch, and I'm working on top of everything, so there's that.

No, readers - Summer is where it's at. Brocations, stints up at Eight Point Lake (not that that is happening at all this year, thanks to the low lake level), months of not working at all, and plenty of opportunities to sit bronze out in my luscious back yard, have margaritas poolside, visit with friends and family, and otherwise just bask in all the time off and soak up the great weather.

Abby burned herself with a curling iron one day.

June this year was slow, as it has been the last few years - our summers really get crammed with crap in July, usually - and with the exception of our epic Florida Adventure with the Johnsons, we didn't really travel at all. That was totally fine with Yours Truly, who enjoys down time when the weather is as awesome as it was this month.

So here's this month's installment of pictures and video, chronicling some of the stuff we Houghs got up to in between our aforementioned excursions of greater note.

Enjoy. . .

Abby getting her hair done (highlights, blow-outs, whatever) over at the Larson's, towards the beginning of the month.

As you can see, our weekdays were filled with daily grind crap: work (for Kris and Alayna), the gym for Yours Truly, Pom practice for Abby, therapy, appointments, yard work, etc. Then our weekends were filled with social plans, kicking off each Thursday with Tunes By the Tridge, following by dates with boyfriends, get-togethers with the Tribe, etc. Then, about halfway through the month, we set off for Florida with the Johnsons.

In preparation for our upcoming trip to the tropics, we did lots of tanning the first couple weeks of the month. The girls both track the UV level each day in order to optimize their exposure time (if the level is below 7, there's no point in putting on tanning crap.)

Abby and one of her friends from the church Youth Group, up at Valley Lanes for some youth event one Sunday.

I have a very weird taste in music these days.

Abby gets artsy for the 'Gram at some random church off Eastman. Abby has been taking private cello lessons from this local teacher and they meet up once every other week at this church in the country.

Abby's Instagram pic.

Abby at another Youth Group thing during the week, up at the church.

And then working on her tan in the backyard - gotta build up that base.

Working in the yard. Again. This is why I'm so tan in the summer, folks - I work outside on my land on an almost daily basis.

Abby's hair routine. This looks exhausting.

Kris and her henchman.

Practice with MHS Varsity Pom

And this must have been some kinda showcase or something, I don't know.

Samson killed this chipmunk/squirrel/whatever one day while in the backyard. I was working in the backyard and he was nudging and chewing on something, then started acting guilty when I came over to see what the deal was. I mean, it is gross, but I'm glad he killed it - I hate these damn things.

Moving rocks in a wheelbarrow. LOADS of fun (get it?)

One evening, Alayna decided to host a bonfire over at our house. She ended up with like 12 -14 kids over in our backyard from like eight until midnight.

Alayna's boyfriend, Sebastian, sweeping off the trampoline after months of neglect.

Breaking out cornhole in the backyard. Alayna had food, pop, snacks, etc. set up on the back patio, as we told her that we'd stay inside to give them privacy, but likewise we didn't want teens being all loud and obnoxious in our house.

Setting the fire off once the sun started to go down.

Abby and Ella ended up crashing the party at one point.

Amelia and the Cannonball

I have no idea what's going on here. . .

Inside, the Johnsons were hanging out with us ironing out details for our upcoming trip to Florida later in the month (they would be going with us, having spent the last several months planning a co-family vacation to Disney World.)

Back out at the fire, the Cannonball gets a selfie with that frickin' Johnson kid.

One of the girls got a pretty solid moon pic at one point with their phone.

The next day, Kris and I drove to Clare (well, halfway between Clare and Farwell, if we're splittin' hairs here) for Reagan's Open House (Reagan being the oldest daughter of our friends Trevor and Sara.) They held it at the Eagle Lodge (or Moose Lodge, not sure if there's even a difference) in the afternoon, and it was kind of like a mini-Clare High School Class of of 1998 Reunion - ran into seven former classmates, which is impressive considering there were only 102 of us in my graduating class.

Later that evening, back in Midland, Watson was trying to nap in this chair when Samson decided to jump up and sit on his face. I'm sure he loved that.

Alayna and her friend, Cristina, driving around one night with some Taco Bell (of course.)

Abby and some of Kris' purple flowers in the backyard (I don't know the context, here.)

Made a new social media profile picture for my online preference. I feel this one accurately sums up Yours Truly in the Summer.

Another weekday, another pom practice.

Lounging in front of the TV at the end of the night. We still have the kids go to bed at a reasonable time 'cause Kris has to wake up in the morning and, unless Alayna has to work until like 11pm or something - and I stay up to make sure she's home safe first - I go to bed when she does.

That second Thursday, it was time once again for Tunes by the Tridge. These guys were only so-so, playing classic rock songs through the years. Competent, but not great.

All these dudes were in their 60s or 70s. . . playing songs from the '60s and '70s.

Didn't have any takers this week for Tunes, so Kris and I just went by ourselves.

Watching a movie in the basement the next evening (with the dogs.)

Samson looks like he's possessed by an evil spirit here.

Alayna gave the dogs these ring-shaped rawhides the next day (not sure if she found those in the pantry or else she drove out and bought them for the dogs, you never know with that kid.)

My mom stopped by later in the week to drop off a few things, including these old Walt Disney World admission tickets from like 1972 or something. $7.50 is a far cry from the hundreds of dollars we had to drop for a family of four to hit up all four parks over the case of a week.

Kris and Alayna gave the dogs a bath one afternoon - it's basically a two-person job 'cause Samson is horrible with any form of grooming.

Look at how much fun they're having. . . .

Exhausted following the horrible ordeal of bathing. And my glorious feet.

Abby's got the Hough thing going on as well.

Alayna wanted Fuji Sushi for her actual birthday, like always, but they're apparently closed on Mondays (which makes a ton of sense.)

So since she still wanted sushi, and no other acceptable sushi joint available, we decided to just grab a bunch of carryout sushi from Meijer - like, a LOT of sushi - and head home.

After dinner, Alayna opened up a couple presents and we headed into the Study to finalize the packing of our suitcases for our trip in a couple days.

Fast forward, like, nine days. Our epic Florida Vacation with the Johnsons was over and done with, and one of the only souvenirs I bought for myself was this simple, little mug.

Later on that day - a Thursday - us and the Johnsons went downtown for Tunes By the Tridge.

This band was pretty awesome, as far as cover bands go. Lots of 80s, 90s, and 2000s, and they were done very well. 

I'd definitely go out to a bar or something to see these guys again.

The drummer wasn't great, but the guitarist was insane.

Hens, cluckin'.

So these Gen Z'ers behind me were like lying on top of each other with their legs all intertwined, which, you know, is pretty trashy. I sent this selfie out to the rest of the guys so they knew what they were missing this evening.

Abby got her new Varsity top at practice one day, she was pretty stoked.

One of the kids took this pic of me while I was taking a break from yard work. Not sure why, though.

Alayna and Sebastian, out for lunch somewhere downtown.

Kris and I had a small fire one night in the back yard, just the two of us. Not for very long, though - the mosquitoes were pretty crappy out.

The last Saturday of the month, Erik, Lonnie, Mitch and myself drove out to Bay City for St. Stan's Polish Festival. We've been here the last couple years - it's basically Clare Irish Fest, but for Poles - most recently last year when we gave Omkar his very own Bay City send-off.

Immediately upon entering the fairgrounds (or whatever it is in Bay City, that town's probably too scuzzy to have its own fairground), Erik and Mitch bought a few raffle tickets. Lonnie kept bumping into people he knew from work, even though we had just gotten there, since this festival is sponsored by his Catholic school district, All Saints.

Sadly, neither of these guys won anything.

Thanks to his VIP status, Lonnie was able to secure a ride on a golf kart straight back through the fairgrounds to the entrance to the beer tent area.

Carnie rides abound. . .

Is this Polish or German? I mean, practically the same thing during World War II, ammirite?

We thought the golf kart was good enough, but Lonnie's co-workers even managed to get in to the beer tent for free. Usually admission is $8 per person, so not a huge deal, but still. . . pretty cool.

Inside the drinking section, listening to live polka bands and cashing in $5 drink tickets for some tall boys.

Ran into my ex- sister-in-law at one point. Don't think she saw me, but still - close call.

The Pro, Lon-Dog Big Balls, and Big E

Whiskey Six was the band that played most of the evening, and they were a pretty decent, classic rock, cover band, but it was kinda weird that they didn't have more polka music (not that I'm complaining, I'm not Polish.)

Meanwhile, back in Midland, Kris and Courtney took the girls downtown to hang out on The Commons.

Grabbing more beers inside the giant-ass, circus tent.

Smoke machine on full blast tonight. There were way more (drunk) people on the dance floor this evening, which makes sense 'cause people tend to dance to music they're familiar with (and like.) There's only so much you can do with polka music.

Harper, Ella and Abby, underneath those Edison bulb lighting spanning that side street (a photo op you've seen countless times on this blog over the years.)

After our drink tickets were out, we decided to call it quits. Drinking beer is about the only thing worth doing at a place like this.

Heading back to the front of the 'fairgrounds.'

Leaving Bay City, we decided to stop off in Auburn at O's for one, last round before going home.

Waiting for beers.

The next morning, Kris wanted to do an impromptu family, day trip out to Caseville in order to hit up the beach. Our decades-old beach umbrella had finally (thank God) crapped out on us the previous summer, so she insisted on bringing along our giant-ass pop-up canopy. I was against it, but it should come as no surprise that I was out-voted and the damn thing was set up on the beach.

We also brought along this inflatable paddle board that Kris bought last year. Something for the girls to do in the water. 

It was mid-80s and super sunny out (the UV hovered between 8 and 9 the entire time we were there), but there was a nice breeze coming off the water so it never got unbearably hot out. Perfect for bronzing.

After five hours at the beach, everyone got some swimming in, we got plenty of bronzing done (I'm always a huge fan of that), and I knocked out a huge chunk out of The Two Towers.

And, in closing, here's a picture from one of MHS Varsity Pom's practices from the last days of the month (which, I take it, was themed on Independence Day, which was to come in a matter of days - hence Abby's super-patriotic cape.) We'll see you guys again next month, folks. . . 

- Brian