One, Final Pool Party

'Sup, Internet.

Samson, hiding under Abby's bed for some reason.

Considering it's the end of August, and we're in the middle of a four-day weekend and everything, Mitch and Kelli offered to host one, final pool party for the Summer of 2025.

All the usual amenities would be provided, of course - the pool, corn hole, tons of grilled and smoked meats, bourbons of all walks and life, etc. Things were scheduled to kick off around 1pm, and since most folks were around - aside from the Colliers, who were away camping this weekend - we had a pretty decent turnout (well, the wives didn't hang out long, but they're much more lame than us dudes.)

So yeah, decent lil' closing chapter for the Summer. I'll leave you now and let the following pics tell the story (it's pretty straight-forward anyway.)

Enjoy. . .

Kris took this after spending a couple hours in the morning, cleaning out the garden (she wrestles with the garden like I wrestle with the yard.)

Abby attempts to wake up her sister. Alayna usually lies in bed on her phone for an hour before slowly getting her ass out of bed in the summer. Pretty sure that's the case with most teenagers.

Some of Kris' flowers that are blooming right now. No idea what they are.

So since Mitch was grilling up a ton of meat, he just asked his guests to bring sides. Between all the other families coming out, there weren't a lot of sides still needed, so I just went to Kroger and bought a half-gallon of Captain Morgan and a couple daiquiri mixes. After Kris and I arrived to Mitch's around 1pm, it was brought to my attention that the little security lock thing (that sets of the store's alarm) was still attached to the bottle. This makes sense, 'cause when I was walking out of the store the alarm started going off, but I didn't bother stopping to figure out why. Oh well.

Taking some ribs off the grill.

He had a few of these things going - they got eaten up like crazy.

A little while later, another thing of ribs comes off the grill.

The Johnsons and Griffins rolled in around the same time we did, and for awhile it was just us four couples there (not a ton of kids on hand today, which was kinda cool.)

Grilling some bacon-wrapped goodness.

Hope you guys like copious amounts of meat pictures. . . .

Bacon-wrapped venison, lamp, salmon, etc.

This finger food went fast as well.

Rob showed up after awhile (without his wife Lacey, as usual - she's kind of a hermit.)

Kris, Stefanie, and Kelli.

The Bos girls. They were the only ones who really took full advantage of the pool today, but I attribute that to the weather (the high was like 75, so not ideal for swimming.)

A briskett (of some kind) comes off the grill, which was good 'cause we were feeling like we didn't have enough meat on hand.

If you look closely you can see the juices running down it where he's cutting it. This dude sucks at a lot of things, but cooking meats definitely isn't one of them.

This is about the only 'pool time' the adults got this afternoon.

Some of the other dads eventually migrated out there to take advantage of the sun and water.

The Griffins.

The Kings of the Hill (minus five of us, who were out of town or otherwise occupied today): Erik, Rob, Tom, Mitch, Yours Truly, and Lonnie.

The wives, like always, hung out around this table all day. Sometimes playing games, sometimes on their phones, but always clucking about woman stuff.

As the afternoon dragged on into evening, Mitch and Lonnie broke out the cornhole boards and we paired off. . .

This is what passes as a picture for Kris. Like, she couldn't have stood up to clear all those frickin' chairs at the bottom of the frame?

After our first game (where Mitch and I managed to claw our way out of a ten-point deficit to lose by a single point), we let Rob and Tom take a turn at the boards against the defending champions.

Penny walks wherever the f*** she wants, folks.

 I helped Mitch get a fire going, but no one really sat down around it for a couple more hours.

The wives randomly decided that they would make their own Fantasy Football League and had themselves a cute, lil' draft tonight (yes, even Kris.) I guess I shouldn't make fun, some of them probably know more about football than I do.

Kris and I left around 11pm, as we had been over there since 1pm and were getting funned out with drinking and gorging on meat for hours and hours and hours. Most of the other couples ended up leaving within twenty minutes of us, too. Still, an awesome - and very much-appreciated - way to close out the summer.

- Brian

Poms, Parties and Pools

Abby and Ella hitched a ride with teammate Harper and her fam this morning.

Hey gang.

Today was jam-packed with The Houghs being spread out across the State of Michigan, scattered to the four winds and each of us tasked with separate goings-on. 

Abby had to be dropped off at 6am to Midland High School, where another JV Pom parent was taking her (and Ella) downstate to the team's Atomic Pom invitational. This was like a mini, day-long, boot camp where teams across the state drilled a new routine throughout the morning before performing it in front of judges the very same afternoon. This quasi-exhibition was more of a fundamentals camp than an actual competition, but it marks the first time Abby and this new team have performed together, so they were all still pretty excited about it.

Meanwhile, Kris was currently on Day Two of her annual Momcation - the female equivalent of the grander, more elaborate Brocations our friend group does - that saw her once again in downstate Michigan, kinda by Three Rivers, hanging out poolside for three days. It's a low-key event where moms just bronze, float in the pool, do their nails, gossip, and drink a shitload of seltzers. I included a few pics Kris got from today, but one thing's for damn sure - the wives definitely don't take as many pics as us guys do.

That left Alayna and I, who had to attend Bradley's Open House in Clare this afternoon. . . with her driving us to and from the Whites' house in order to catch up on her required driving hours. Compared to the other two, Alayna and I didn't have as much going on, but still - we did stuff, too.

I'll leave you now with an assortment of pics and video that chronicle how today went down, all over the frickin' state.

Enjoy. . .

Some of Midland's JV squad, assembled outside the school (somewhere in Plymouth, I guess.)

Navigating their way through the school, our team had to go to some designated area where they would warm up and do. . . whatever the heck pommers do at practice.

Learning the new routine. Not sure how long they had to rehearse this, but I can't imagine they had very long because there were tons of other schools there.

You can spot Abby there at the far left.

Post-practice break time.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Southwest Michigan, Kris and the moms continue to soak up the sun (which must've been nice, we didn't have any to speak of back in Midland. . .)

Mees greets a colleague.

Bathroom mirror selfies are super popular around these parts (not sure if the random-ass, little kid in the background there appreciates them, but whatever.)

Abby and Nica, pre-performance.

Abby, Ella and Harper

Waiting to perform.

So later that evening, once she got home, Abby told us that the squad performed really well, but that the judges rated the song choice and routine poorly. She said it 'lacked sass and energy,' whatever the hell that means.

Also, I'm not sure who took all these pictures, but from the looks of things (I pulled all these off Abby's account) they came from multiple vantage points.

Some more still pics from the routine (I don't think I really need to caption all these. . .)

(I assume this was screenshot from someone's social media thing.)

After pom performances, all the teams come down to the gym floor and sit in these weird-ass circles while they await the judge's results. Lots of anxiety, lots of emotion, but this time around - seeing how it's not a real competition - Abby said most folks were pretty chill.

Not sure what this collage is, or where it came from, but there ya go.

Loading back into Harper's family vehicle, following the boot camp.

Sometime in the early afternoon, on the way back up north, they all stopped off at Chik Fil A (is that how you spell it?) for a late lunch.

Yes, this is a thing.

Meanwhile, a couple hours north, Alayna had successfully driven us to Clare without getting into a car accident (so that's definitely a win.) It was on-again/off-again raining out, so when we got there we hung out in the garage with my siblings and parents.

Lil' Bradley and two of his homeboys.

They once again catered a local food truck (slinging burgers, hot dogs and fries), but had a dessert spread out for folks to graze upon while they came in and out of the open house.

Many Bradleys.

Me and Dad

Bradley and two of his friends, hanging out inside away from his guests.

Yours Truly and the Cannonball, waiting for food (we got ours to go - now we didn't have to worry about dinner when we got back.)

A few hours south of us, the moms continued swimming and drinking and clucking about boys (I guess.)

Aaaaaaaaand that was The Houghs' random-as-all-hell Saturday, guys - we'll see ya next time.

- Brian