Pom Camp '26

Hey kids.

The state of Abby's packing where, according to her, she's 'finished.'

Abby, as you know, was bumped up to the Varsity Pom Team at Midland High last year (one of a small handful that was poached from the JV team at the end of her freshman year), and has been leaning hard into her pom stuff this last year even more than she used to. For the last few years, she's been attending the annual Pom Camps every July at Northwood University, staying in the Dubois dormitory alongside her teammates and various pom teams throughout the region, and spending her days drilling new pom routines, conditioning, and taking part in team-building activities that strengthen the varsity squad. 

My attempt at getting a pic of Abby after she was set up in her dorm room. 

This year's camp ran from Tuesday to Friday, and so with Kris at work the first day of the camp, Yours Truly dropped her off at the dorms and got her situated in her room. Then, each evening around 6:30pm, us parents would return to Northwood in order to watch Midland High - along with all of the other schools participating at the camp - perform the exact, same routine for judges to review (the varsity teams performed a certain routine, and then the middle school and JV teams performed a different one.) 

Abby roomed with Brooklyn this year, and this is their door.

Is it repetitive (and super boring) watching twelve different teams perform an identical routine to the same song? Absolutely. But as parents that's the sorta thing you signed up for when you decided to have kids - it's not like we're not going to watch our kid perform at a school function, c'mon.

So we had four evenings full of pom routines this week, and Abby (and all the other kids there) wore themselves out drilling day in and day out. I don't know how the hell they do it, practicing and performing from breakfast until the time they go to bed each night, then getting six hours of sleep and repeating the process all over again. But hell, whatever floats their boat, I guess - all the kids involved with this sport seem to love it.

I took like 99% of the pics and video clips below straight off Abby's phone, so I don't know the details with most of it, but I did my best to arrange them all in chronological order and give them some context for you. About the same as the last two years she's done this whole Pom Camp thing, we're just gonna take a stab at how her week looked sifting though the dozens of pics she took of her and her teammates throughout the week. I'm sure she could do a much better job at explaining all of this to you folks, but, like I've said before, I'm the only one who contributes to this blog anymore so you're stuck with my two cents here.

Enjoy. . .

Midland Varsity Pom, on Day 1 of Pom Camp - ready to get to work at practice.

The team's mascot (or pet, not sure what the culture here is), watching the team practice their High Kicks.

That chick in the black is the designated 'trainer' or 'staff member' from the camp (usually a recently-graduated varsity pommer from another school who works for the camp program), teaching the team the day's assigned routine at practice.

Each day the teams receive a new routine and they have to drill it all damn day, then perform it for the judges (and whatever families members show up) in the evening. Abby's second from left in this one.

Team huddle (or something.)

A pic of team, somewhere on campus (the seniors get to wear a sash throughout the week, I guess.)

We had to buy multiple 'spirit day' shirts for Abby, as we do every year when she attends this camp, which was not included in the camp's ridiculous registration fees. 

I don't have the patience to be a pom coach, I'd straight up murder some teenage girls over something like this.

At practice on Day 2 (I think.) Not sure what's up with this pedophile flag, here.

This must be Northwoods' indoor football or soccer complex (I didn't know they had one.)

The trainer leads the kids through a new routine.

Summoning dark spirits from the abysmal plains to aid them in their evening performance.

Midland High, performing their new routine for the judges and families.

Logan showed up on Day 2 and brought Abby flowers, so Abby asked if I'd take them home for her and put them in a vase of water so they wouldn't die in her dorm room. So I obviously looked pretty cool just standing around bored, holding flowers.

Logan and Abby, following the conclusion of the evening's routines.

These two are a couple of dorks.

No idea.

Abby, Nica, and Brooklyn, showing off their new pom camp sweatshirts (we paid $50 for hers, in case you were curious - she'll wear it twice, spill coffee on it, and never wear it again.)

This generation's new obsession with shitty point-and-shoot cameras is weird.

Another team huddle, I'm guessing on Day 3.

Or maybe Day 4, I don't know - they wear the same uniform for every evening performance.

(Abby is in the back row, on the left.)

Practicing the kick line again.

Day 4 Pom Routine

The bleachers they have here are absolute murder on one's back, so Erik and I got into the habit of bringing camping chairs and sitting off to the side. He wasn't able to show up on the last day of the camp (because they held the final performance at noon, right before pick-up at the end of camp), so I sat off to the side of the bleachers by myself. Kris or Alayna took this pic of me sleeping during one of the other team's routines. Sue me, this shit gets super boring when it's not your own kid's team on the stage.

Following the end of the performances, there was about an hour's lull where kids just ambled around the gym, taking pics with one another and dancing along to music that was blasting over the gym's PA system. We had to kill some time before they announced this year's All-Star Pom Team for the state (Abby once again tried out for the team this year, which should be nice and expensive for us), so we had to sit around and wait for the results. In the meantime, while we sat around bored, Abby went around getting pics with all of her friends and teammates (like Brooklyn here.)

With Nica.

Of course with her best friend, Ella.

Abby and Ella do their custom 'handshake,' which they've had since they were like 10 years old.

A pic with Emma.

One with her coaches.

I don't know who this is, I forget her name.

Not sure who this is, either - but she's been on the team with Abby for years.

Abby, Ella and Harper recreate their old Northeast Middle School Pom pose.

I'm not familiar with this pose, must be some new viral thing all the kids are doing these days on social media.

The frickin' scuba thing.

The dreaded Six-Seven.

Abby and some old chick, holding up participation ribbons (I think.)

Dancing along to 'Macarena.'

After an hour, they announced the All Star Pom Team, and the girls here from Midland's High's team - including Abby and Ella - qualified this year. So now the Johnsons get to spend Thanksgiving down in Detroit with us this year, and drop an arm and a leg on that whole shit-show.

Abby poses with their team's designated staff trainer after Midland High took the Grand Prize for this year's Pom Camp (they were deemed the best pom team at the camp for the second year in a row, which Abby was super excited about.)

Probably talking about something super important here.

The team, posing with their hard-won trophy.

Abby and her awards from this year.

Money well spent, right? Whatever makes your kids happy, folks. FML.

- Brian

Memorial Day: a Parade and Yet Another Party

What's up, kids.

Mitch affixes our Lodge signs to a truck Morgan lent us.

So I didn't end up getting nearly as much sleep as I should have had, following yesterday's Collierpalooza, Despite going to bed around midnight I slept like crap, as did Erik, who picked me up around 8:00am to start getting stuff around for this year's Memorial Day Parade. Like we've done the last few years, we planned, organized, and recruited folks to accompany us in the parade for Centre Lodge #273, Midland's local Masonic Lodge. We usually get between seven to ten people to help out, and this year we had seven - not an ideal turnout, but better than nothing I guess. Masonic bodies are pretty elderly these days, and you can't really count on those guys wanting to walk a few miles in full sun on a Monday morning, so Erik and I always end up doing the heavy lifting for this every year.

An EV truck that Morgan got for us from his Ford dealership.

As we've done in previous years, our rally point was down on Revere Street, off Main Street downtown, where we were queued up next to the Midland Shriners (and their little clown cars.) Abby was once again marching in the vanguard of the Midland High Marching Band, along with her Varsity Pom teammates. Kris always organizes a group to march for her church, First United Methodist, distributing flyers and candy and whatever, but this year she ended up marching in it herself. Which left Alayna the sole Hough who wasn't participating in the parade at all (surprise, surprise), but she was good enough to take some pictures of us all as we marched past her vantage spot on Rodd Street, towards the tail-end of the parade route.

After the parade, Erik and I - accompanied by Mitch, who helped us out this year - had our traditional, post-parade lunch-and-beers up at Big E's, and following that we packed up a couple coolers and drove over to our girls' friend Julianna's house, whose parents had invited our families over for a driveway cookout for the afternoon. Pretty low-key, but the weather was about as perfect as you can get, so it was definitely a good time.

So here's how the Houghs spent Memorial Day '26 - enjoy. . .

Abby and the rest of the MHS Varsity Pom Team shuttled over to their staging area downtown via bus, and rallied at the second street over from Revere Street. Those groups meeting on Revere Street (like us Masons) make up the first section of the parade, while Abby and the Pom Team/Marching Band lead the middle section. Kris' church was rallying on the third street down, so they and the other organizations on that side street were bringing up the tail end of the parade.

This weird lady was sitting on her bike and staring at us for a solid twenty minutes before driving her wonky bike over and asking us where in the parade she was supposed to be at. Turns out she was supposed to be riding behind the Shriners, so we had to endure her weirdness for about an hour as we waited fellow Masons to join us on Revere Street.

Meanwhile, two blocks over, Kris and folks from her church were ready to roll with their banners and handouts.

Kris managed to walk a block over and get a pic or two of Abby as she and her fellow Chemics awaited the start of the parade.

The Magnificent Seven

Abby and Brooklyn

Killing time, still awaiting the start of the parade.

Pic courtesy of one of their coaches.

We ended up pulling ahead of this giant, inflatable eagle that the Shriners brought a long - they swapped places with us this year.

The infamous Shriner cars.

The parade finally kicked off at 10am, and as we marched onto Main Street, we passed by Midland High's position and I was able to snap a quick pic of the team in formation.

As we passed the third street, where the rearguard of the parade was waiting for the first and middle sections to pass, Kris took a couple pics of our Lodge marching past I once again helped carry our Lodge banner.)

I actually prefer carrying the banner to throwing out candy - it's way easier.

A little while later, Kris got some pics of the pommers and marching band as they marched past her. 

Entering downtown (the weather today was just PERFECT - mid-70s and nothing but sun.)

Throwing out candy to the gathered throngs.

Passing in front of our century-old residency (our Lodge owns the top floor of the building.)

Turning onto Rodd Street. The guys throwing out candy had to restock from the back of the pickup truck several times over the course of the miles-long route.

A couple blocks later, Steven and Alicia were watching the parade and took a few pics as we marched by.

The candy was holding up decently this year - we've run out by this point in the parade before, so folks bring more to throw out nowadays.

The Shriner Cars were tearing ass behind us, regularly zooming past us within arm's reach and then taking giant loops around us to return to their starting position. If you weren't careful these things would probably take your leg off.

Alayna, Sebastian, and Samson (yes, Alayna brought the dog a long for the hell of it) were a few more blocks down the road, on the opposite side.

A short time later, Abby and the Pom Team lead the Marching Band past Alayna's vantage point.

Running low on candy, but definitely not complaining about the weather.

Probably the biggest turnout we've ever seen for a Memorial Day Parade - both sides of the street were pretty packed a long the entire route, all the way to the end.

After stowing all the parade crap and partying ways with the other members of Lodge, Erik, Mitch and I drove up to Big E's for our traditional lunch and beers.

Taco Salad was on point today, for sure.

After packing up a quick cooler, Erik picked me up and we drove over to Julianna's house, where Kris, Courtney, and the girls were already hanging out in the driveway, soaking up the glorious, glorious sun.

Bought a sixer of this recently, and figured the weather today almost demanded I include it in my afternoon lineup. Tastes exactly like the original, just half the calories (and a slightly less ABV.)

I lasted a little longer than these guys in the full sun, but eventually I retreated into the shade as well.

After a couple hours hanging out there, we decided to call it. Most folks had to work early the next morning, and Yours Truly had to get up at like frickin' 4:30am in order to be at my school by 6am for our annual 8th Grade field trip to Cedar Point (which I'll cover in tomorrow's post - stay tuned for that one.)

All tuckered out. This is what a full day of sun and beers will do to a guy in his mid-40s. See ya next time, Internet.

- Brian