Borthers Assembled, Pt. I

Welcome back, Cyberspace.

So today kicks off the Houghs' annual extended stay up at Eight Point Lake. It's not unusual for us to come up for a couple overnight trips here or there over the summer, but at least once a year we pull a four-day/three-night stay that's a call-back to our longer stays back when we frequented the old Eight Point Cottage (2002-2019.)

Usually, these recent extended stays of ours have been over the Fourth of July weekend, as the weather's about as good as you're going to get for summer, there's crap going on (fireworks, flares, golf kart parades, my birthday, etc.), and we have no other plans because most of our social circles are out of town with family as well. This year, however, the weather was so bad that Eight Point wasn't an option, and seeing how most of our friends were stuck in the same boat, we just circled the wagons and hung out at the Bos' in Midland instead. Definitely a bummer, buuuuuut what are you gonna do.

Fortunately for all parties involved, my stepbrother Bryan and his newly-acquired wife, Chelsey, were flying in from Tennessee the following week for a six-day visit, and staying up at Eight Point Lake for the entirety of it. This served as a rallying cry for the extended family, who used this as an opportunity to reclaim our lengthier visit that was taken from us the week before. I ended up picking Bryan and Chelsey up from the Tri-City Airport late Wednesday morning, and, after stopping off at Witbeck's and the Lake General Store so the the pair of them could stock up on supplies for the week, we rolled in to the lakehouse around 1pm.

Kris had to work until Thursday afternoon, and Alayna - who recently got a job at a local Taco Bell - also had to work Wednesday, so Yours Truly established headquarters all by myself this year. I'll leave you now with a series of blog posts - each featuring a crap-load of pictures and videos - that chronicle the day-by-day goings-on of our annual, extended visit to Eight Point.

Behold. . .

Day I

"Establishing Headquarters (sans Family)"

We'd have a ton of family on hand this week, so Dad and Cindy rented out this condo across the street from the lakehouse from its owners. Bryan and Chelsey - along with Bryan's friend, Brent, and his wife and daughter - would be staying in the apartment above the garage for the duration of their visit.

The interior decor of this place was reminiscent of that found in the lakehouse, which made sense after we learned that the previous owner of the lakehouse had also built and owned the condo, just sold them off separately (to my parents and to some other people.) Dad and Cindy actually intend on buying this condo, though, and the owners have told them that they'll have first crack at it when the time comes - God knows it'll help out a ton as all the kids get older and start having families of their own.

The Master Bedroom.

There's only one bathroom in this condo, which can be accessed from the master bedroom and the living room.

The second bedroom (which will most likely be converted into a room with a few bunk beds (either during Dad and Cindy's tenure or our generation.)

Much more spacious than it appears to be from the outside.

Settling in and putting crap away in the kitchen.

This staircase leads down into the garage on the first level.

From the top of the stairs, looking back into the kitchen.

The garage, which was full of crap but could potentially hold multiple vehicles.

Bryan and Chelsey work on prepping food crap for the day.

The Whites rolled in in the early afternoon, and we brought them back over to the condo so that they could check it out.

They had a ping-pong table over there, too. . . which didn't really get as much use we anticipated this week.

In the afternoon, after we had all been there for a couple hours, we started getting bored sitting around at the waterfront (it was a little cold to be actually in the water), so Dad let us take the pontoon out.

Booze cruise around the lake - my all-time favorite thing to do up here.

No rain, but overcast and low/mid-70s today - decent, but not necessarily swimming weather.

Pointing out various cottages around the lake - a pontoon staple.

Chelsey and Jill.

Brians and Tequila.

Bryan had to sell me on this, I wasn't having it at first (I'm not a huge fan of tequila outside of a margarita), so he acted as if he was proposing with it. In the background you can see our old cottage sitting there.

Comparing toes on the boat. Again, more weird shit this family does in its spare time.

Back on shore, our boat ride complete, Bryan got the grill going for some steaks he wanted to fire up.

Women folk prep food in the kitchen while Brian and Dad certainly don't.

#PureMichigan

Bryan shows off some of his culinary school knifery skills.

Brian White, patiently awaiting dinner.

Steak fajitas. F***ing incredible.

Jill, probably asking her husband to come up the stairs and get her something (even though she's probably far closer to it than he is. . .) 

The weather had improved in the evening, with the sun starting to peak out here and there, so Bryan felt it was high time to get his ass into the lake (along with his nephew.)

Some time later, hanging out with the adults under the deck.

First Sunset of the visit - the weather rapidly improving as the evening drew on.

Bryan and I got a fire going at dusk, having picked up some bundles of wood locally (parents didn't have any up at the cottage when we rolled in.)

A last-minute, end-of-the-night cruise around the lake in the pontoon (too late in the evening to call it a sunset cruise, it got dark fast.)

If Bryan Rowley was an action figure, this bottle of tequila would be the accessory he would be packaged with. Hands down.

Due to the low lighting, this was about the only pic I got on this cruise - everything else came out blurry and with too much light noise.

A while later, pulling into the boat hoist, Jill was horrified by the amount of spiders that clung to the inside of the hoist's canopy.

We stayed up decently late this first night, sitting and having some drinks around the fire while listening to these guys' shitty-ass, bro-country bullshit music. 

- to be continued. . .

Festivus

Hey gang. 

It's been a hectic couple of days, guys. We had two Festivals this weekend, one with Alayna and the Midland High Orchestra, and one with Abby and the Northeast 8th Grade Orchestra. At these Festivals, the schools perform three songs for a panel of judges, then have five minutes to sight-read a brand new piece that they then perform for a separate judge. Top scores are given '1's, bottom scores are given '5's. It's more for vanity's sake, there's no consequences for getting shitty scores or anything like that, but the kids all take it super seriously.

Alayna's orchestra performed Friday night, at a considerably late 8pm start time, with Abby's taking place the following afternoon around 1pm. We would have been better off just bringing along some cots and staying the night over at Bullock Creek High School, where these Festivals took place, but Kris kiboshed the idea.

Later that evening, we had a semi-formal 'plated dinner' party over at the Bos residence. Mitch wanted something fancier for a friend group hangout for once, instead of doing the usual 'everyone bring a dish to pass' and we all just graze while hanging out. He offered folks four entree options: smoked salmon, bacon-wrapped pork, sirloin steak, or grilled chicken, and then had tons of sides and wines on hand to accompany them. After that, he had a couples game tournament, featuring a couple different trivia board games and card games.

Kris and I took second place in every round of the tournament, which was definitely respectable, but I hate losing trivia games - I'm usually a powerhouse when it comes to trivia - but we lost to the Johnsons, so it was understandable (aside from Yours Truly, Erik's probably the best at trivia.)

So here you go, folks - a crazy day and a half for the Houghs. Check it out. . .

Alayna and the Midland High Orchestra (you can see her in the front center, wielding her violin.)

I apologize for the VHS-level of quality with this particular video, folks - it's like five minutes long, so I had to degrade the quality down to 480p in order for Blogger to host it. I couldn't even condense the rest of the videos, as they were all well over five minutes in length. Abby's pieces are slightly better - two of hers I didn't have to scaled down - but whatever.

The performance part of the Festival went very well, as did the sight-reading aspect that followed immediately afterwards (pics and video of that part of the Festival aren't allowed.)

It took about a half an hour for the school to receive their scores for the evening, which were posted in the hallway adjacent to this cafeteria where we all waited. Midland High ended up receiving '1's - the top score - for most of the categories, and ended up with a '1' overall. Alayna was pretty stoked.

The next day, Abby and the Northeast 8th Grade Orchestra took the stage. . .

(Abby's in the front with her cello.)

This judge in the sweater vest off to the right was pretty strict, and ended up giving the orchestra a '2.'

Northeast ended up with a '2' overall - two of the judges gave them a '2' for their performances, while they scored a '1' for sight-reading. Abby was fine with it, though - she's not as in to orchestra as her sister is.

Later that evening, we all made our way over to the Bos residence for food, games, and drinks. The dads, as usual, set up shop in the kitchen where food was easily at hand.

Mitch made up some of his usual sushi rolls as appetizers before dinner started.

Flatbread pizza.

Lonnie helps Mitch bake some sides.

Grilling up some entrees in the Bos' gazebo out back.

Dinner is served. . .

Some snacks and desserts - gotta make sure folks have enough food.

My dinner for the evening. That steak was unbelievably good.

(That's some kinda bacon/onion garnish you see there.)

The Bos girls, Maddie and Audrey, came out of the basement to stock up on some dessert options before disappearing back into the basement for the evening.

Courtney, Kris and Stephanie, clucking about wife shit.

Danielle and Kellie at the wine station.

Collier channels his inner-gangster.

The gaming tournament begins. . .

Mitch had a lot of bourbon on hand this evening as well. Here's a glass of my all-time favorite bourbon, Woodford Double-Oaked.

Kris and I would have won this, but we lost a turn twice and got some really shitty questions. Still finished in second, though.

Stephanie, Danielle, and Kris.

Skip-Bo. Kris and I got 2nd place in this one as well.

Due to the amount of people we had, it was necessary to break of into two, separate tables for cards.

Morgan, who's already tall at 6' 4", was sitting in a high-seated chair, with Yours Truly (standing at a whopping 5' 9") was seated in a folding chair. Folks found the height discrepancy hilarious. 

Tried a glass of this next. A very, very expensive and rare bourbon, I almost felt guilty having a glass of it. Almost.

We had to break off into teams for Mind the Gap, which - again - we almost won.

We teamed up with the Colliers for this one. Mees definitely carried us with the Gen Z knowledge.

The battle rages on.

Lonnie and Omkar took a selfie at one point because they thought they were 'twinning,' despite the fact that, you know, one's black and the other's Indian.

Mitch, being inappropriate as usual.

A celebratory toast at the end of the tournament.

(Kris, your Farwell is showing.)

- Brian