Homecoming 2026, Pt. II

 (cont'd.)

Abby had spent the night at the Johnson residence the night before, after the game, and the next morning Erik and Courtney invited Kris and I over for coffee and breakfast (they were anticipating girls coming in and out of their house most of the late morning/early afternoon, as their place was designated this year's 'getting ready' location.) We hung out for an hour or two while the girls slowly arose from their late night shenanigans, but Abby didn't have any of her 'getting ready' stuff with her so she ended up following us home after we had hung out for a bit. She then the next couple of hours doing her hair and make-up and whatever else the 'getting ready' process entails, and by 2:30pm Kris, Abby and I were heading over to Dow Gardens to rendezvous with Ella and her date, Isaac. 

Ella and Isaac are just friends and were going to this dance as such, and the Johnsons were just about wrapping up their photo session when Abby and us arrived. Abby's schedule was all sorts of screwed up today because her boyfriend/date, Logan, was downstate at some big Cross Country event and was rushing to get back by like 5pm or whatever.

Isaac took off to get some pics with a bunch of his buddies at one point so us and the Johnsons took advantage of the exclusivity to get some ones of just the two best friends. . .

Abby didn't want me touching up ANY of her pics this year (who knows why), despite the shadows the bright light was casting in some of the shaded areas of the Gardens, so if things don't look up to standard in this post you know why.

They always insist on getting a couple of them looking like they're pissed at each other. They've done this since they were in elementary school, don't ask.

The line for the coveted waterfall shot was next to nothing, so we jumped in and knocked those out while the gettin' was good.

Just imagine how awesome these would look if they were touched up. These shadows are killing me.

A few solo ones of Abby in front of the waterfall. . .

This arm band of Abby's switched arms in nearly every shot, depending on which arm was facing the camera.

Abby's group wouldn't be arriving at the Gardens until like 4:30pm, so Abby didn't want to spend a whole hell of a lot time doing pictures this afternoon - she just wanted us to shoot a few in a handful of locations and drop her back off at Ella's, where Ella and Isaac were doing some TikTok video she was a part of (seriously.)

We grabbed a few under the arch, which is one of our go-to locations whenever we shoot our kids here.

A brief 'walking away' shot down this pathway (which usually has flowered arches over it, but those have been taken out since last year I guess.)

Had to twist her arm to get her back onto the stone bench sitting atop a small hill nearby. She was ready to leave by this point.

They had dinosaurs set up around the Gardens this year, so you can spot them here and there throughout these pictures (like the stegosaurus head off to the left, there.)

Kris tried, in vain, to get more pics of Abby in front of various flowers, but she wasn't having it. Abby wanted to take off, and, despite Kris' pleas, wouldn't take any pics in front of any of the larger, more impressive dinosaur statues. We drove back to the Chestnut Hill neighborhood and dropped Abby off at Ella's before heading home so I could whittle down the paltry amount of pictures I had taken in the 25 minutes we were actually down there at the Gardens (a record for sure - usually we're there for two or three hours and I have hundreds upon hundreds of pics to go through.)

This is what Abby had to rush home for, guys. This is what raising teenagers is like in 2026.

An hour or so later, Abby wanted to head back up to Dow Gardens again in order to meet up with all of her entourage, so Kris and I hopped back in the car and drove down there (yet again) for Round 2.

Abby told us we didn't have to come this time and that the other parents 'would just take pics with their phones.' Kris was pissed, being one of those parents who loves taking pictures of the kids in their dresses for hours, and didn't feel like she got the full experience last time, so we went anyways and just followed the herd of parents around while our kid got pictures taken. Once and awhile - like you see in some of these pics - Abby would call out to me to take one with my SLR (which I brought, just in case, knowing my child well.)

Some random parent got this one with her phone of Abby with some of her pom teammates (I don't know all their names, sorry.)

Another parent took this one of Abby and Ryleigh (another girl from pom.)

I took a few of Abby and Kennedi, who's a follow pommer and one of the kids Abby planned on going to dinner with later on in the evening.

(I'm not captioning all of these, there's only so much you can say about a bunch of girls posing in dresses, folks.)

Abby and some more pommers. Left to Right: Kennedi, Harper, Abigail, Emma, and Abby.

Passing through the rocky canyon, some random parent got a pic of the girls posing in front of these giant boulders. We held up traffic on both sides for awhile while this mom took this pic, so appreciate the hell out of it.

On the other side of the river, Abby ran into a few more people she knew (she seems to know everyone in school these days, so that isn't surprising), so I snapped a bunch with various kids - I only included like about a third of the ones we go in this stretch (some with my SLR, most with parents' phones that turned out like crap.)

Ran into the Griffins a few times, who were there getting pics with their daughter, Liv, who's a grade behind Abby and Ella.

Abby and Kennedi requested a pic of their matching flowers and shoes. . .

Abby, Kennedi, and three other girls they were walking around with for awhile (I don't know their names, either.)

Abby and Brooklyn, being weird.

Ella and Isaac showed up (sans their parents) just as we were on our way out, so we got one more of them with someone's phone before Kris and I called it a day and headed back home (again.)

After an hour or two, during which the kids left Dow Gardens and I think went out to dinner, the girls met up with their boyfriends (including Logan, who had finally finished suiting up after his downstate Cross Country meet) down at the Midland Courthouse to get some couple pics. Abby asked us to drive downtown to meet up with them for a bit, but Kris and I were pretty funned out with Homecoming and Abby's indifference to us helping her out today, so we declined. All of the following pics here were taken by Logan's mom with her phone.

Posing in front of the front doors.

Logan and Abby

Gotta have a serious one. . .

Spider Man. Why not.

And one with Kennedi and her boyfriend (forget his name. . . begins with a 'D' I think.)

(This is probably off social media, just spit-ballin'.)

Peaking over one of the courthouse walls. . .

These two have a similar sense of humor and personality, so these pics come naturally.

I wish I had rocks this big in my yard, that'd be awesome.

Not sure what's happening here.

Sun was setting by this point, and the kids were like minutes away from the dance starting at this point, so they grabbed a few last ones on the sidewalk on the way to the cars.

The classic 'walking away pic'. . .

That's the thing with the walking away pics - you eventually have to walk back to the photographer.

And, because they're teenagers, this is the one and ONLY pic that they managed to take at the dance itself (and afterwards.) So, all in all, a little shorter than previous years' installments of Homecoming, but we'll have an opportunity to redeem ourselves here in a few months when Prom rolls around. Stay tuned for that nonsense, sometime in early May probably. See you guys later.

- Brian