Everything Else March

What's up, gang.

So Winter '21 is finally starting to thaw somewhat.  This month has been pretty busy, what with St. Patrick's Day, my trip down to Kalamazoo, Spring Break, you name it.  We're still in the school/work grind, and during this third quarter slums, we're all just trying to survive until the end of the year (this is usually the low point in the school year, after the Holidays and before the good weather decides to get its ass in gear.)  

Anyway, here's your monthly round-up of all things Hough, March Edition.

Enjoy. . .

After Lodge, the first Thursday of the month, Erik and I had a couple post-meeting beers over at Whichcraft.  This one was fairly decent.

That weekend, Mitch decided to bust out some of his mad-scientist grill/smoking skills and threw this slab of brisket on his pellet burner.  Awesome as always.

Some shots with the boys to chase down the meat.  I wasn't sure I was gonna be up for hanging out on this particular night, since I had taken my 2nd dose of Moderna earlier that day and that one usually puts folks on their ass with fever-like symptoms.  I managed to hold it together for most of the night, though - I didn't start to feel shitty until about 4am.

Hanging out at the wives table.

Our snowman family isn't holding together so well these days. . .

Our girls like adding 'inspirational quotes' on our weekly meal menu on the side of the fridge.  None of it makes a whole hell of a lot of sense.

The second week of the month, I dropped Alayna off at the orthodontist to have her grill removed. . .

The end of Phase I.  She'll need to wear a retainer for awhile, then might need to get more stuff done in the future.  She's pretty excited.

Erik and I, who co-lead our Masonic Community Initiative, have been working to build our lodge's presence out there in the local area, and have been working with reporters to have articles printed in the Midland Daily News.  Here's Part II of a series they did on our lodge's 150-year history in the area.

Cleaning up dog shit in the backyard.  Always fun.

Testing out one of my lenses for our upcoming St. Patrick's Day party.

This kid is weird as f***.

The Johnsons took Abby out with them to visit some ole timey something-or-other one weeknight, somewhere where you can collect your own maple syrup.  They sent us this pic of the girls checking out the syrup-making process.

Mr. Hough.  For the children.

Questin' with some ESO.

While I was down in Kalamazoo, adventurin' with the ol' Sausage Pad, Kris and the girls enjoyed a male-free weekend.  The moms got together one night at our house for some drinks and nail-accessorizin', which is all the rage these days I guess.

Out for lunch with Kris and Courtney. . .

Grease Fest

(Not sure what they're doing or where they're at.)

Hanging out with Ella downtown.

The girls had their nails done, too.

On a scavenger hunt down at Kris' church, Sunday morning.

The sign that is currently hanging on Abby's bedroom door.  Kids are awesome.

A glimpse at the Hough's March.

Taking the Dynamic Duo out for an afternoon stroll. . .

I forget which kid drew this.  Both girls are getting more and more into drawing lately.  They come by it naturally.

While shopping at Kohl's with Kris one weekend, I noticed they had a ton of suits on clearance.  Since I wear suits a lot these days (mostly for Lodge), I decided to stock up.  Kinda hard to pass up $200 jackets for a mere $35 (seriously.)  They're not custom tailored, so they have that off-the-rack fit, but still - you can't pass a deal like that up.

Part of our annual Lawn Resurrection process:  burning all the debris in the yard that's accumulated over the course of the Fall/Winter.

This is how our girls 'help' us with yard work. . .

Kris focuses primarily on our ridiculous amount of garden beds.  It's a non-stop battle.

This fire burned all damn day.

A hearty meat offering off the grill.  I don't get down with 12-hour smoking like some of the other dads I roll with, but I can handle my own with traditional fare.

Having a beer/bathroom break at the Collier residence while out on an evening walkabout with Erik and Mitch.

A coworker of mine has a daughter currently enrolled in Delta College's Dental School, and she needed a child to log some hours with in the chair, so to speak.  So I bribed Abby into spending two morning having her teeth worked on over Spring Break (cost me a bit, but it helped out a college kid with her coursework.)  While Abby was occupied with this, I nerded it out working on some side projects in one of the nearby study lounges.  Just like old times.

On another walkabout with the families in our friends group.

A solid easy-drinking offering from Bell's.

Erik and Ryan, prowling the streets of Midland.  We'll be doing this more and more frequently as the weather starts to heat up.  Finally.

- Brian

Fall at Midland City Forest

Midland City Forest

'Sup, players.

So Kris has been harpin' on me lately to go take the kids out to check out fall leaves, seeing how they're comin' in pretty 'flamboyant' right now.  She wanted to go driving down some rural road up north, or walk around somewhere, and finally determined we were going to take the kids - and the dog - up to Midland City Forest to check out the changing foliage.

And then she decided I was going to take my new camera and take some pictures of the kids.

And then Ella invited herself along.

And that's how we ended up with today's blog post, folks.

I'm not going to bother captioning a bunch of these - they basically speak for themselves.  We parked, walked about a mile into the forest, then turned around because I had to leave by 12:15pm.  See, my good friend Trevor - an old buddy of mine from high school - was practically raised by his grandmother during our high school days, and she recently passed away.  I had to be at the memorial service in Clare, which started at 1pm today, which explains why a.) we were only there for, like, a half an hour, and b.) why I'm dressed up in a suit for these pictures.

So yeah, here's some pictures of my family walking around the woods, with Watson and Ella in tow, and with Yours Truly rocking a suit.

Enjoy.

I'd like to try running these paths at some point, but it's always so awkward when you bump into people on these trails.  Plus I don't have the paths memorized yet, so I'd have to stop at every one of these map things in order to assess where I'm at.  Honestly, I'll probably just run on my treadmill at home.  Where I can watch Netflix and not get lost or have to engage in awkward small talk with passersby.

Having the time of her life.

The answer is 'no.'  No, they never stopped running.

Kris asked if she could take my picture, more or less to make fun of me for being dressed so ridiculously out-of-place in Midland City Forest.  I guess you don't see many guys in full suits strolling around the woods.  Whatever.

Who got to walk the dog next was always hotly-contested.

That's Kris.  Picking up Watson's shit.  You're damn right I needed a picture of this.

Striking a pose.  Always have to be ready for the camera in this family.

When the dog ultimately dies I may have to frame this one and give to Alayna - these two are pretty close.

Once and awhile we came across these giant mud patches we'd have to walk around - we've gotten a crap-load of rain around here lately.  Not the kind of thing I was wanting to walk through in a suit and dress shoes, I can tell you that much.

Some creepy-ass tree.

Alayna requested her picture taken on top of this hill along the side of the pathway.  Whatever you say, kid.

Taking a break.

How is it that Abby's the one who's not messing this picture up?  She's usually the toughest one to photograph these days.

Of course you always have to get yourself a few of these. . .

Trail markers of some kind.  I don't know, I don't know how to read these things.

At the first bridge.  We had to wait a couple minutes for a family - with a far-less impressive camera, mind you - to wrap up taking their lack-luster pictures.

The dog never sat still for long.

Heading back towards the car, after about a half an hour or so.  We more or less walked to the bridge, snapped some pics, then started back.  I was running short on time, but Kris wanted to hang out on the trails with the kids (and dog) a little longer.

Alayna took this picture of the two of us, hence the bizarre framing job.  I took off right after this was taken, as I was going hard-pressed in order to make it to Clare in time to catch the memorial service's start time (I ended up walking in ten minutes into the service, but was able to grab a seat in the back without having my tardiness noticed.)

After I left, Kris snapped a few selfies.  Of course.

One last picture on their way out.

- Brian