...aaaaaaand That Was January.

2016 marked the coldest start of the year for the Hough family since 2006.  Our Floridian blood, still not accustomed to the frigid tundra of Central Michigan, has made this winter particularly brutal (despite everybody and their brother saying, "this is a mild winter, guys.")

With the Holiday Season officially behind us, everyday usualness returned in due order.  Kris and I went back to work, the kids went back to school, and time slowed down.  A lot.  While not seeming as long and dull as, say, August, January is still a far cry from the three-day-long month of December.  As you can see from the pictures that follow, we didn't do too much outside of the usual grind (which definitely stands in stark contrast with the previous two months.)

Check it out. . .

Came down into the basement to find the girls playing with a bizarro-mix of Playmobil and toy dinosaurs, chanting "SACRIFICE! SACRIFICE! SACRIFICE!" over and over and over again.  Nothing creepy about that.  At all.

Reenacting Abby's favorite Star Wars movie, The Return of the Jedi, with some of her Christmas loot. . .

I forget what, exactly, she was pissed about, but one morning Abby decided to boycott our family breakfast and seek solitude instead out on the back patio.  In the middle of winter.  In her Darth Vader pajamas.

It had been awhile since I had gone vinyl record shopping, and the itch was starting to get to me.  While Kris and the girls were off visiting her mom in Clare one Saturday, Yours Truly hit up three different thrift shops in Midland over the course of a couple hours on a quest for new jams. . . 

I ended up spending a total of $12, and scored 8 LPs and three 4-record box sets (all, surprisingly enough, in Near Mint playable condition), two books, and one old PS2 game for the girls.  It took a little conversational prowess with a flirtatious girl at the register in order to get that price, but at the end of the day I was able to walk away with a pretty sound collection of plunder (mostly classical.)

(FYI - those Tijuana albums are GOLD.  Especially that Tijuana Christmas LP. . . I imagine that gem will get some pretty heavy rotation next Holiday season. . .)

The boxed sets

See that Bird Sounds boxed set at the right in the previous picture?  The records inside are slightly smaller than your usual 33 RPM, and are insanely flexible, which I've never seen before.  Kinda weird, but the kids get a kick out of them. . .

Another retro videogaming session, featuring the NES and PS2.

Dad and Cindy got me a Bose Color Soundlink bluetooth speaker for Christmas this year, and while it was the color that I wanted (standard black), I felt that the speaker could use some definite 'snazzin'' up.  I therefore bought this leather, Old World-styled case off Amazon, and the sum'bitch fits like a glove. . .

The cut-away areas accommodate all the usual plug-in areas for chords, as well as buttons, and there's a protective mesh covering for the speaker faces, meaning I can keep this thing on at all times and further protect my speaker.  To make things even more awesome, even with this protective case on, the speaker still fits in my foam-fitted, hardshell zip-up case I have for the speaker and chords.  Consider this Nerding Out at a Master Level. 

Kris recently started a new series of books with the girls as part of their nightly, wind-down, reading session:  Baum's Oz series.  The Wizard of Oz - the most prolific book in the series - is the first book, but there's, like, twenty or so books that follow it.  So far the girls are really into it, so we'll see if Kris can complete the entire run.

Our basement, on any given weekday.

The girls had a weekday School event at the Roll Arena a couple weeks ago:  Chestnut Hill rented out the entire place and the girls were able to skate around (or awkwardly try to do so, at any rate) with their friends from school.

Abby spent more time on the planks than her sister did, as the Cannonball was too busy socializing and ohmygoshing with her friends from school around the arcade and ticket-spewing games. . .

Winning some tickets with one of her friends from class. . .

Abby wasn't very happy with her sister's lack of enthusiasm for skating. . .

Kris showed up after she got out of work, just in time to get some usual scolding in. . .

Waiting for the doc at the Pediatrician's Office (they let kids pick out out a free book to take home, so Alayna scored herself a National Geographic reader about Sharks.)  Alayna had been complaining about her stomach on and off for a couple weeks, and the night before we took her in she actually woke up crying due to the pain.  The docs where we take her (I forget the name of the place) are pretty thorough, and they determined her stomach pains were caused by her switching back to dairy milk after years of drinking soy.  Consequently, Alayna was put on a two-week, no-dairy diet, which eventually cured her of those nasty stomach pains. 

Dolled up and ready for school (usually Kris takes the girls to school in the morning, so I wasn't sure if the make up thing was even allowed.  They eventually talked me into it.)

Some creepy Spanish poster at work, featuring that "know what I mean, Vern?" actor.  Ernest, I think.  Right?

Playing in the snow in the back/side yard

No idea why she's so happy - it's cold as shit out.

I had been out there shoveling the driveway and decided to have a pipe so I could watch the kids frolic in the snow like a couple of idiots.

Abby moves in for the kill, snowball in hand.  Even at close range, her aim is comically terrible.

The onset of another lightsaber battle in the basement, exchanging some Force throws/pushes. . .

(It should go without saying that this is one of Abby's favorite past times. . .)

. . . and no, you can't borrow my shirt.

I hate kids.

- Brian

St. Augustine - Day III

Time for the final chapter, fans and fanettes.

Day II was a draining, draining day. Shuffling about in the 95+ degree weather (with 100% humidity), trying not to lose our patience with our bored and sweaty kids when they do something stupid (and kids are always doing something stupid), and trying to squeeze in as much of the surrounding attractions as humanly possible.

Like this, for example..

For Day III, we decided to take a far more leisurely approach - we wanted to take our time and soak in the city a little more. I had already seen the Castillo, and my rage had subsided since our not-as-cool-as-it-could've-been experience at the Pirate Museum, so I didn't really care all that much how we spent our last day in St. Augustine (I did want to check out the Spanish quarter and visit the infamous Fountain of Youth,in order to obtain immortality and maybe a shirt). As for Kris, she wanted to take the girls to a nearby, gigantor wooden playground and hit up a few last souvenir shops before hitting the road.

The girls just wanted to hang out back in the hotel room - eating pretzels, spilling drinks, watching Ratattouille (however the hell you spell that) on my MacBook, and more or less resuming the behavior they usually exhibit at home.

Go figure.

Well, we managed to do a little bit of everything during our last hurrah through the Old City, and we were still able to hit the road by 6pm, which put us back at our house in Orlando just in time to put the kids down for bed, unpack our luggage, and pass out.

Enjoy the pics and video. Slainté.

- Brian

The St. Augustine Visitor's Center. We had to check out of the Pirate Haus by 10am, so we were forced to check into the nearby parking garage and figured it'd be worth it to snoop around the adjacent visitor's center.

A Spanish rapier found among the wreckage of the Acona (pretty sure that's what the name was), a Spanish ship that sunk off the coast of St. Augustine with all her crew.

Yours Truly and some super big priest that will haunt my dreams for a long, long time.

...and here's his nasty sister. Or Shrek. I can't tell.

A replica (not to scale, or necessary likeness) of a 16th century Spanish galleon. But hey, it's the thought that counts, right?

Some creepy fountain outside the Visitor's Center the kids wanted to play in

One of the oldest cemeteries in North America

...and again

Enjoying a morning pipe

The Oldest Drug Store in America/Pharmacy in America (St. Augustine seems to have a lot of "Oldest _____ in America"s)

A crapload of antique medicines, toiletries, and whatever else

The counter

Look out, ladies - this guy ranks 'Wild' on the ol' Passion Scale...

Some over-priced toy/doll store (wherein Kris failed to read the posted signs)

Walking to lunch at Barefoot Bill's

Some old, dilapidated (and probably haunted) house that was for sale. I was serious about buying it and taking up a job as a pirate full-time, but Kris wasn't having it. It would definitely be a fixer upper (however you spell that), but hell... so is the house we're in now.

At Barefoot Bill's

Abby, about to turn into the Hulk

Shenanigans at Barefoot Bill's.

After lunch (where we were served by some creature whose sex we couldn't determine - I hate it when that happens), Kris let the kids hang out in the church courtyard while I ran down to a particular gift shop to pick up the necessary souvenir shot glass I had seen the previous day.

The Catholic church of St. somebody-or-other

Abby gettin' out her Ya-Yas

Down by the Market Plaza

Walking through the Plaza

Back in the Cathedral courtyard

Strolling along, having a pipe

We loved pushing this beast around St. Augustine. Absolutely loved it.

The place to go when you need to bury a Huguenot

Ripley's Believe It or Not (...we didn't go there.)

We decided to check out a nearby playground that came highly recommended by Captain Conrad at the Pirate Haus. The kids needed to burn off their pent up energy (after being strapped into a stroller or otherwise being forced along, sweaty and bored with what their parents were doing), so we figured it'd be worth it in the long run for us to let them go nuts for an hour or two...

The playground, conveniently located right across the street from our parking garage (and our air-conditioned Tactical Family Transport Vehicle... which we were looking forward to after spending the duration of the day in a humid, Hell-furnace)

Arriving at the Playground...

Swingin'

Goofin' off

Abby, enjoying herself

Alayna, not enjoying herself

After hanging out at the playground for a while, we drove out to the infamous Fountain of Youth, located outside St. Augustine's historic downtown district, where conquistador Ponce de Leon landed in 1513.

The entrance gates Tons of Spanish moss in the area, which appropriately makes everything look really, really old

Posted sentry and informational signboard

Kris asking for admission info from a local swordsman and some chick from "Joyzee"

Entrance to the Fountain of Youth

The Spanish used this exact spring when they first landed in St. Augustine, and the local Injuns believed it to be the Fountain of Youth

The famous Fountain of Youth

Obtaining immortality...

...which consequently tasted like sulfur and butt.

"Tastes gross. I don't want it."- The Cannonball, valuing taste over ever-lasting life.

Pool from the Fountain (Sulfur) Spring

Abby

Some cherub getting pissed on

Weird Cherub Statue/Fountain...

Close-ups

An old Spanish ship anchor recovered from a shipwreck off the Florida coast
Lots of relics pulled from shipwrecks - like the aforementioned anchor, as well as numerous cannons - are placed along the walkways throughout the 15 acre exhibit, which also houses a replica Native American village, a Planetarium (that we never had the chance of checking out), the Fountain of Youth, and, of course, a Gift Shop.

The park also features tons of Peacocks... for whatever reason. They were everywhere.

Cannonball and the Peacock

A peacock atop a 16th century cannon. Why not.

Cannonball chasing more peacocks

Abby finishing Alayna's water from the Fountain of Youth. That chick does not care about trifle things like 'taste.'

Cannonball and Kris

Alayna Reading Signs

Approaching the landing site of Ponce De Leon - the site marking Europe's first stroke of imperialism in North America

The Ponce


Big-Assed, White Peacock - showing off his goods, trying to get a date

Exit Through Ye Olde Spanish Gift Shop

Aboard the S.S. Fountain of Youth

Posing with the Sentry
_____________________

The Houghs (technically this was taken on Day II, but I forgot to upload it - my apologies)


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