Eight Point Lake '17, Pt. V

(and now, the thrilling conclusion. . .)

Monday

July 24th
"The Sandbar and the Exodus"

A questionable start to the day, but ultimately we lucked out with another  day of beautiful weather.  Kris ended up having to go back to work, so Yours Truly was on solo-parent detail until dinner time, thereabouts.

Today ended up being pretty chill for the most part, with not much going on in the morning at all.  Later on, in the afternoon, we decided to take all the kids up to the Sandbar.  The girls and I rode over with the Whites in their boat, while Bryan took Blake and his friend, Nick, in Dad's.

I about fell into that muck-trap off to the right, retrieving Bradley's ball: underneath those lily pads is about two-feet of mud and grime that sucked me in to thigh before I managed to scramble back.  That'd be a really crappy way to die.

Bryan's friend, Brent, and several members of his extended family clan were also at the Sandbar while we were up there, and eventually we were joined by Lucy, Dad and Cindy, who drove over to the Waites' cottage and walked over (they're located a convenient 100 feet away.)

Alayna, bored.  She's to that age now where splashing around in the water gets boring after five minutes.  Fun times.

(That's not a beer.)

Collecting rocks and 'shells.'  A lot cooler in Florida, I'm afraid.

Alayna, still complaining about being bored.  Bradley, bein' weird.

Cindy and Lucy

After the kids complained enough, Bryan and I walked the kids over to Lucy and Larry's cottage in order to smoke some cigars and let the kids play in the sand.

One of the coolest cigar labels I've ever seen.  Love the kukris.

A couple of lazy-ass dogs. . .

Heading out for another tubing venture.

This is pretty much how the rest of the day was spent.  The kids were pretty exhausted from playing in the sun all day, so aside from swimming and fishing, they pretty much just loafed around most of the evening.  I ended up reading about 1/3 of my four-inch-thick book (Aztec, by Gary Jennings) throughout the day.  Can't complain.

Monday

July 24th
"The Swan Song "

One, last tranquil morning over Eight Point Lake.

A lazy, liberal-leaning morning at the Cottage

Bryan had to fly back to Vegas in the morning, Kris was away at work, and most of the Grants, Waites, and Whites had - over the course of the last twenty-four hours - gone their separate ways, back to everyday life in the Civilized World.  The girls and I would be following their example in the afternoon. . . after we had ourselves one last day on the lake, of course.

My Command Center this week.  You know how I roll.

Taking the Whites' boat out on a leisurely cruise around the lake with my crew of Sprite-chugging miscreants.

Cleaning up the dock (not sure what the hell Abby's doing.)

I forget what this game is called, but Alayna loves it.  And the fact you get to play with Shopkins cards makes it all the more enjoyable. . .

Aunt Lucy, in the zone.

Some forced wind-down time after a morning/afternoon filled with swimming and boating in the sun.

Moana on a tablet.  This kid's in Heaven.

Paddleboatin' with Nana.  This is way too much of a workout for me - more power to 'em.

Cleaning up the offspring before reintroducing them into Society.

A last family picture (sans Kris) at the Cottage as we finished loading up all our crap back into the van, ready to head back home.  Until next year, Eight Point.

- Fin - 

MackMellen's Hitchin'

The Amway Grand Hotel

Who's ready for a Kris-less and kid-less blog post?

My youngest cousin, Mackenzie, had a wedding this weekend, and usually that's the sort of thing that Kris and I would go to together, sans kids.  Alas, Kris is currently in Denver for her work (some dental conference of some kind), so I went stag this time around. . . which was pretty fun.

After dropping the girls and the dog off with my mom Saturday morning, I set off for hipster-ly Grand Rapids and some Waite family nuptials.

Check it out. . .

The drive down was pretty uneventful, but the block or two of city driving once I got off the downtown exit was downright brutal.  Once I managed to fight my way into my hotel's parking garage, I got to cross one of these little catwalk deals. . . which always gives me mild vertigo, passing over streets and moving cars and everything.

The Amway Grand Hotel (this place is slightly swankier than what I'm accustomed to.) 

Front Lobby.  I arrived around the same time as Dad and Cindy, so we all retired to our rooms to throw on our suits and get ready for the wedding, which was about two hours away. ..

View from my room (that's the Grand River - I think that's what it's called - off to the right, there.)

My room.  It's an older hotel, so the room size is smaller, but everything in it is pretty premium.  Super nice room, if not a little old-fashioned.

Command Center:  established.

Once we were all suited up, we all met down in the lobby and carpooled over to the wedding ceremony in Cindy's SUV.  We all had VIP seating in the second row on Mackenzie's side, with a blank, empty row reserved solely for the Flower Girl (seriously.)  Dad (who took this pic) and Cindy were on some couch-thing off to the side, practically up next to Mackenzie in the ceremony.  I had never seen a setup like this in a wedding before.

Maiwwage. . .

. . . is wut bwings us too-geathuh, too-dai.

Following a nice but somewhat-longer-than-expected ceremony (where practically everyone in attendance read some vow, prayer, quote or anecdote off a piece of paper, and there were approximately two-dozen musical interludes), we went upstairs for cocktails while the bridal party had pictures taken.  Both the ceremony and the reception were held in this abandoned warehouse-turned-trendy venue, which sounds weird but appears to be pretty run-of-the-mill for Grand Rapids.

Not pictured:  Kris, Jeff, Annie, Bryan, and many offspring.

After an hour or two of cocktails and standing around, it was time to shuffle back downstairs, where the warehouse folks had broken out the dinner tables.  All the siblings, spouses, Dad and Cindy were all seated together, which was nice and convenient, so after everyone had their obligatory 'couples' picture taken at the table, I made sure they got one of me and my Denver-based spouse.

Following several drinks, the bridal party arrived (unfortunately not to the theme music from Raiders of the Lost Ark, like some totally awesome people I know. . .)

Food took a bit to come out, but the booze helped keep us occupied.

Dinner itself was really good, and as the meal wore on they dimmed lights and started the dance party (in which no Houghs partook.)

Lil' Macker

Dad lecturing Cindy's sister, Sue. . . on. . . something

Chris and Nicole sent me this pic from the now-empty upstairs cocktail area, which was still accessible and much quieter than the downstairs reception.  Earlier in the evening, between the ceremony and the reception, they had an open cocktail bar and a jazz trio playing upstairs, which was awesome.  So, now that we had the place to ourselves, the Hough family migrated upstairs where we could stretch out on the couches and actually hear ourselves talk.

Some pretty awesome decor in this joint, that's for sure.

Brian, Nicole and Jill.  Deep in their cups.

Jill and I might have played this a bit.  Pretty badass-looking piano, but definitely out of tune.

What can I get for ya, Stretch?

It was awesome having this whole upper floor to ourselves

This was one those old 77 rpm record players - we managed to get it working, too.  Not the greatest sound, but rocking out to jams from the 1920s and '30s is always fun.

Mackenzie and her new husband, Matt, had a big, blank stretch-canvas - with this one, lone image in the bottom right corner - set out for party guests to sign with their names and well-wishes.  I made sure to sign my name in my best handwriting, right where they could see it.

The Houghs decided to call it quits a few hours into the reception, but posed for this pretty classy photo op on the way out.  I like to think we clean up pretty good.

Back at the hotel, heading across the catwalk with a few boxes of pizza taken from the wedding reception.

I mean, it's no Doherty Hotel, but we got by.

The end of a fun wedding.  Really, really glad I didn't have to Parent at all throughout the evening.

- Brian