Abby's Birthday, Pt. I (feat. 8th Grade Graduation)

Hey gang.

Today was a pretty busy day, despite it being a random-ass Tuesday and everything.

First off, today is Abby's 14th Birthday, but as it falls on a typical weekday when everyone has to go to work and school and what-not, it wasn't like we were going to go all out for it - we're throwing a big party for her this coming weekend, on Saturday, when everyone actually has time to acknowledge it properly.

Abby and Ella, on their First and Last Days of Middle School. 

Secondofly, today also happened to be the day that Northeast Middle School - in their infinite wisdom - decided to throw their 8th Grade Graduation Ceremony. On a random Tuesday, in the middle of the work day, with an entire week of school still remaining. Seriously, guys - what in the actual f***. My school at least has the decency to wait until the second-to-last day of the year, so it sorta feels like a graduation ceremony. . . instead of just an hour in the middle of your day where you have to be somewhere else.

Needless to say, I didn't get to go to said Graduation Ceremony. Fortunately Kris did, and was able to provide all the pics and video you're about to see in a sec.

Abby was one of only a few All-A's Honor Roll and Conduct Award winners.

After school, Kris took Abby, Ella and the Larson kids out to Great Lakes Ice Cream for some celebratory sugar, and once I got home from work we let Abby open up a few of her birthday presents from us. Around 6pm, we met up with the Johnsons and Larsons at Big E's for a combination Abby's Birthday/8th Grade Graduation Celebration Dinner. Food was good, service was horribly slow (the norm for that place anymore), and we all got to bed at a reasonable time because, like I've said before, this was on a school night and we all had to work the next day.

So here your are, folks - a bunch a shit that happened on this random Tuesday.

Enjoy. . .

Waiting for the obligatory handshake from the school administrators. 

At my school, we present students with their folders full of certificates - what's the point of the students having them beforehand?

At least they pronounced her name right this time around (they usually pronounce our kids' names at things as 'hoe,' which - even after all these decades of hearing it - is frickin' hilarious.) Danielle's the woman who yells 'Happy Birthday' at her as she walks by, she was sitting with Kris and Mom at the ceremony.

(You can tell she loves the spotlight.)

It was unbearably hot and muggy inside this non-air conditioned gymnasium. Kinda glad I didn't get to go to this. . .

The band and orchestra each performed a song for the ceremony, too.

That loud 'bang' you hear during the song is Abby dropping her bow across her cello, which probably wasn't embarrassing for her at all. . .

After the ceremony, Abby got a picture with. . . whoever the hell this is.

Abby and her friend. . . Kiersten? I think that's it.

A forced one with the Cannonball.

Kris had to wait her turn to get a picture of Abby standing next to this old, old monolith (it was there when I went to Northeast, back in 1992.) Abby leaned up against it like this, and - according to Kris - a bunch of nearby kids and parents who had already taken their picture with it were like, 'Crap, that looks good, let's get another one with me leaning on it like that, instead.' #influencer

The Dynamic Duo (or Terrible Twosome, depending on the day.) 

. . . .aaaaand another with fellow Northeast Pommer, Nica.

After school, Kris took all the OG kids over to Great Lakes Ice Cream to celebrate. Courtney and Danielle met her up there, but the moms 'weren't allowed' to hang out with the kids, because there were other middle school graduates around and, you know, you can't be seen with your parents whilst in public. Common knowledge.

Forced .5 pic of Sophie.

And one of Ella.

Sophie, Abby, Ella and Jackson (who also graduated today.)

While our five were sitting out on the patio, enjoying their ice cream, a few different groups of fellow 8th graders arrived, and - much to everyone's chagrin - Kris insisted on getting a big, group pic of everyone (Alayna did not want her picture taken with a bunch of 8th graders, it was 'below her.')

Happy campers.

After ice cream, and once I had gotten home from my own day at work, we let Abby open up a few of the presents we had gotten her for her birthday.

Kris started decorating the house for her birthday, but most of it would go up this coming Saturday, the day of her observed party.

It might look like a simple, red box, but that son of a bitch perfume costs like $100. Nobody should spend that on a frickin' scent you put on your skin, it's stupid.

For dinner, we planned on meeting up with all the Johnsons and Larsons at Big E's, around 6:15pm. Alayna insisted on driving us there in her car, The Black Pearl (the name she chose for it.) Kris snapped a selfie of the two of us in the back seat, while Yours Truly did his best to avoid falling into an anxiety attack (riding along with my kid driving stresses me the f*** out.)

Adult end of the table, post-meal. Service was waaaaay too slow, and it took us forever to get our food, then far too long to receive our bill. Yet another reason why I prefer to eat at home. . .

While we were all not-so-patiently waiting for our bills, Alayna showed off The Black Pearl to the other kids (she's very proud of her new car.)

Heading back home, at the end of a busy Tuesday, in order to start winding down. . . seeing how we all have to get up and go to work tomorrow.

- Brian

A Return to Bavaria

Hey kids.

The OG's, as they like to call themselves these days. . .

So Abby's best friend, Ella, had herself a 13th birthday this weekend in scenic Frankenmuth, and her folks (the Johnsons) told her to invite a handful of friends for the big event. The itinerary was pretty stacked, including an overnight stay at the Bavarian Inn, a morning/afternoon outing to the Frankenmuth Aerial Park, and a day of running around the main drag, ducking into shops and checking out all the quasi-touristy sights the town has to offer.

Ella ended up inviting Abby and the Larson kids - Jackson and Sophie - along for the ride, and so Kris and I (including Alayna) and the Larsons met up with the everyone else once they were all wrapped up at the Aerial Park. We coordinated things this way so that we six adults could walk around and hang out throughout town while the kids ran on ahead, before ultimately retiring back at the Inn for the night after everyone else took off.

Kinda looks like the Ewok Village from The Return of the Jedi. . .

As far as day trips go, it was pretty awesome - weather was great and everyone had a lot of fun. We always come to the conclusion, whenever we make this kind of an outing with people, that we don't hit up Frankenmuth nearly as much as we should, considering it's only, like, a half hour from our house. Definitely going to need to start orchestrating some couples nights out there sometime soon.

Anyway, I'll leave you folks now with a crap-load of pics and video, as usual, that chronicles our day trip down to Frankenmuth for Ella's birthday. Enjoy. . . 

FYI - all of these pictures from the Aerial Park come courtesy of Erik (us and the Larsons didn't end up meeting them until lunchtime-ish, once they had wrapped up.)

A signboard detailing all of the available courses at the park, some more daunting than others evidently.

Jackson and Abby, harnessed up and ready to rock.

So I guess you start off lower to the ground and progressively go higher and higher as the courses grow more challenging.

I feel like I could manage this one.

Here's where I'd start to get a little nervous. Not a huge fan of heights, myself.

Jackson helps Abby clip in (I guess there's some kinda harness safety feature where they don't unclip unless they're clipped into a back up line. . . that way you don't just fall to your death like an asshole.)

The Johnsons were nice enough to send video of the kids doing this, too.

Back at a more reasonable height.

Preparing to zip-line.

Abby, Ella and Sophie, with Jackson high above them (he was the only one that tackled the more intense courses at the park, higher up from the girls.)

Nope.

Abby and Ella, progressing through the course.

Snack break (I guess the kids were getting pretty hangry after so much physical exertion throughout the morning.)

Look at how far up Jackson is from Courtney, here - there's no way in hell I would ever do something like this. I don't care how many harnesses you'd be wearing.  Screw that.

The Birthday Girl

Last shot of the morning, shortly before exiting the park and heading back into town. 

Kris, Alayna and I headed to Frankenmuth in the early afternoon, and the Johnsons told everyone to meet up with them at some Mexican joint called Pablano's. We beat the Larsons there, so we made sure to grab a couple tables to accommodate the eleven of us.

About twenty minutes later, everyone rolled in. We were smart and made all the kids sit at their own table.

Courtesy of Alayna's phone. All the kids were cracking up at the birthday cards they had picked out for Ella, Abby especially.

Among all the birthday gifts the kids got Ella for her big day, Sophie and Abby additionally created this framed collage of pictures of the three of them over the years. They painted and decorated the frame as well (which came at the expense of our basement coffee table, by the way - gonna have to figure out a way to get all that bright, pink paint off the glossy black surface. Super stoked about that.)

Enjoying some food and drinks at the adult table. Definitely more our scene.

Morgan, Erik and I make an amigo outside the restaurant on our way back to the cars.

The first order of business, before we could head out onto the town to hit up the shops and what-not, was to check in to the Bavarian Inn so that the Johnsons could check in to their suite and set all their stuff down.

The check-in line was insanely long - much longer than I've ever seen in the few times we've checked in here - but with four front desk workers helping folks it moved along pretty fast.

While Erik wrapped up, the girls and kids waited sorta-patiently nearby outside the lobby.

Their suite was in the absolute farthest room from the front desk, so it was probably a half-mile walk through the various hallways and wings to get there. Good times.

The second room of their suite - where the kids would be staying - had its own door that opened directly to the outdoors (which was kinda weird, but whatever.) The kids locked Abby out at one point while they were settling in and Alayna snapped this pic of her.

With the crap dropped off, we attempted herding everyone back out of the room so we could hit up the town.

Crossing the Covered Bridge to hit up the River Place shopping district.

The Three Amigas - Abby, Ella and Sophie - heading into River Place.

Scenic shot of the Covered Bridge (you're welcome.)

They have some cool shops at the River Place district, and seeing how us and the Johnsons had been there about six months ago (remember?), we kinda knew which shops we wanted to pop into. This Irish one is pretty cool (if not a little overpriced), but it's fun checking out all the same. Last time we were there I bought a Celtic 'Trinity Knot' wall hanging (made of wood) and Erik bought a scully cap, but this time around no one grabbed anything. 

Back outside, on to the next stop. . .

Somehow we didn't get any pics of us doing it, but we did do the wine-tasting here at Cherry Republic - one of our must-do's when strolling around Frankenmuth.

Same goes for the Grand Traverse Distillery, where us dudes hung out and drank some bourbon while Kris, Danielle, and Courtney ducked into some lame candle shop or some shit.

As dreary as it looks, the weather was pretty good - low 60s, not windy. Sure, no sun, but I'm good so long as it's not like raining or snowing at this point.

We next headed into this strip mall-ish sorta building that had an arcade, a small bar, a used book store, and a few other random stores. 

Stockin' up on some Dad Juice.

This was a pretty cool, little used book store, but I didn't buy anything - they were asking a lot for used books. Erik grabbed a couple of beat-up paperbacks to keep him company in his deer blind next month, but that's about it.

Once we grabbed our beers and struck out at the book store, it was back outside so that the kids could hit up some hoity-toity coffee shop they kept nagging us about.

Abby didn't even get a drink, she just bought an entire cup's worth of boba. Seriously with this frickin' kid. . .

See? I'm here, too.

We headed back to the Bavarian Inn so that the girls could change into swimming suits - they were wanting to hit up the hotel pool area next - and so the Larsons headed home.

Breaking Jackson's back. . .

While the kids were suiting up, we decided that, while the kids were otherwise occupied in the pool area, us and the Johnsons would head back into town to hit up some more shops and drink spots.

Beginning the loooooong walk back towards the center of the hotel.

Dropping Jackson and the girls off at the pool area.

Once again crossing the Covered Bridge, back towards the main drag.

The Cheese Haus (which we didn't venture into this time around.)

Kris and I checked out that Prost restaurant/wine joint on our anniversary weekend, but haven't been back since (it was pretty slammed when we walked past it, unfortunately.)

While Kris and Courtney wandered off to hit up a few boutiques (ew), Erik and I popped into Frankenmuth Brewing to grab a couple pints.

On our walk back to meet up with the wives, we passed some weird animatronic thingy going on in the tower above the Cheese Haus.

We found the girls enjoying some appetizers and Bloody Mary's at that Bavarian Inn Restaurant.

After a couple more drinks, the girls got their food boxed up and we headed back, one final time, to the Bavarian Inn.

Hope you like Bridge pics, guys - I got a shit-load of them for you today.

Wives on the Bridge.

We got the kids back into the room and changed into pajamas for the time being (they wanted a break from the pool, but weren't entirely finished with it quite yet.)

Kris, Alayna and I at this point said our goodbyes and began the journey back to Midland, leaving Erik and Courtney alone to wrangle the remaining four teens.

About an hour or so later, Erik texted me this pic of the kids in the hot tub, where apparently they hung out in for a couple hours after we left.

- Brian