Mall of America

On our way back to the Minneapolis airport, we had a little time to kill. Kim suggested that the aquarium at the Mall of America would be fun. Indeed it was! We really enjoyed our time at the aquarium and even got to pet some baby stingrays. Okay........ that was a little gross.

When we were done walking through the aquarium, we went to the amusment park and Legoland. Alex loved building the cars out of Legos and racing them down the track. After lunch, the kids and Kirk went on some rides. They rode the Semi Truck ride and loved it. After that they went on the Carousel. The only thing that would've made the trip more complete was if we had the time to get Dippin Dots (I looove those!)

Natalie's Baptism/Trip to Dufon's in Minnesota

Our next blessed event was going to meet Natalie Grace Dufon and attending her baptism.

We flew to Minneapolis from Flint. The Slivinski's, Thompsons's, and Bumpa and Gigi also came. Instead of our yearly camping trip at the farm, we had it at Steve and Kim's.

They borrowed a bounce house from their friends for the whole weekend. Not only did the little kids like it, but the big kids and "bigger kids" did too. Even Bumpa and Gigi jumped on it! That was a blast!

On Saturday, we walked down the street and went into the river. We played in the water and then floated down in tubes to where Steve's house is. Elizabeth thought that was pretty cool. That night we had a great barbecue and we celebrated Anna Marie's 7th birthday with cake and ice cream. Saturday included lots of tennis games, jumping matches in the bounce house and card games.

Sunday was the baptism. It was a very nice ceremony during Mass. I was blessed to be Natalie's Godmother and Dale is her Godfather. You can see how sweet Natalie is from her pictures and how much her brother and sister love her.

After the baptism, we took some family pictures. You can see how big all the kids are getting.

It was a great weekend and a lot of fun to all be together. Thanks for hosting Dufon's!

Visit to the Park

We had to spend the morning at Dr. Politis' getting 4yr old and 2 yr old checkups. They are both on track. However, they both had to have shots! Fortunately to take their mind off of the pain, Aunt Chrystal invited us to picnic with them at Firefighter's Park in Troy.

This is a really nice park that Chrystal takes the boys to and meets Kevin for lunch sometimes. The only problem was that there was a considerable amount of dirt on the ground since there were a lot of trees and the grass in some spots couldn't grow.

Of course, Alex is naturally drawn to dirt. We think he will definitely be either a farmer or an archaeolgist when he grows up. You can see from the pictures, he was covered in dirt shortly after we arrived. He and Ethan also had much fun playing on the structure.

Wisconsin Visitors

A trip to the US wouldn't be complete without seeing the Wisconsin gang. Jill, Jan, Amy, and Kelly graciously made the drive to Michigan to spend the weekend with us. We had a lot of fun basically just goofing off!

Police Concert

The Police reunited for a tour and it just so happened that they made a stop in Detroit while we were in town. A few years ago, Kirk took me to see Sting in Detroit and we got lucky and got front row seats. Since we've seen him once in the front row, we had to do it again.

The concert was great! They played all of the great Police tunes. A lot of 40-50 something year old women were screaming!!! See the video attached.

Elizabeth's 1st Trip to the Dentist

Today Elizabeth went to the dentist for her first cleaning. She went with me last year to watch me get my teeth cleaned, but I don't think she remembered that. She was SOOOO good! I had an appointment too.

They took xrays on her teeth and then we went into the cleaning room. She listened to the hygienist talk about what was going to happen. My hygienist then came into the room and said that she was ready for me. I asked Elizabeth if she needed me with her for her cleaning and she said no. I was two cubicles away and heard everything. She did great and never cried once.

No cavities (for either of us!).

After the dentist, we visited our old neighborhood and our neighbors, the Bruett's. Elizabeth was curious about our old house, she remembered it.

Allison and Nicholas both grew a lot over the year. We had a great time visiting. Allison gave Elizabeth a manicure and pedicure and of course she loved it. Scott and Cindy were both there and it was good to catch up with them. Unfortunately, this is the only time we had to spend with them as our time got too busy.

We'll look forward to seeing them again next year!

Nolan's Baptism

Here are picture of the first joyous party that we went to. Nolan William was baptized. We were able to see Chrystal's family and all of the kids had a great time playing. After the baptism, Kevin and Chrystal had a party at their house. It was a really hot day and the kids ended up getting out the hose and having a splash party. Alex loved to fill up the bucket and dump it on his own head!

Michigan Friends Summer 2007

We left the farm and headed south to the Harris' mansion on Commerce Lake. I teased Andrea a lot about the size of their house. You have to understand that we are used to living in a small apartment. Compared to our apartment, their house is an absolute mansion. I could never keep it clean! You could fit a couple families in their house. Ten Chinese families. :()

Anyway, we had a great time with Jeff, Andrea, Ryan and Rachel. We actually met John, Suzanne, Clare, and Maggie (the dog) on the way. They were coming down I-75 also from Suzanne's parent's house up north on their way back to St Louis. Cronley, although we were having dinner at the Harris', was hungry as we drove through Grand Blanc and we pulled over to the Hot Dog Stand. He ate 3. Does that surprise anyone?? :)

You can see from the pictures we had a really good time. We were able to get out on the lake and do some tubing and some swimming and some Jet Skiing. Elizabeth likes to go fast, imagine that! Maybe next summer we'll have her up on skis.

We made a trip to Cass Lake beach and the kids loved using the slide. That night, Pelton and I were able to go meet up with friends. Michele Miller and Angie Bohr, then Pelton and Beth Hatsios, then Jeri Ward and Kath in the pictures. We had a great time catching up.

The next night we took pizza and salad over to Chesna and Beth's new house. Harris got pulled into doing some moving as they were not all moved in yet. Alex liked hiding in the furniture. You can see him in the pictures with his pink Wowee still. Nichoel Wasik, Nick and Katherine also came.

The rest of the week, we just hung out and played. I think Ryan was ready to get rid of us so that he could have his toys to himself again! On Friday morning, we got to finally have Friday morning breakfast with Grandpa and Grandma Pelton and Aunt Deborah. Uncle George had to work. Aunt Deborah is pregnant with twin girls!!

Thanks to the Harris' for letting us live in the lower wing! We felt so much at home and loved hanging out. Can't wait to do it again.

Dufon Farm

After my leadership conference, I drove back to Cleveland and picked up the kids. Gigi and Jake and us had a caravan back up north. They brought Olivia with them and Dale and Nicole followed a couple days later.

Wow! What a great time we had. It was really hard for me and the kids to be away from Kirk for so long, but this was the best thing for the kids.

Let's start with Elizabeth. She was so excited about being able to spend time with Alli and Anna. When they came over, I didn't see her again until they left. They had fun playing in the back, going for golf cart rides, and we went to the beach as well.

Now for Alex. If he heard anyone say "Golf cart", he would be right there by the door ready to go out. Being the routine boy that he is, he would talk about what we would see next on the ride. Let me walk you through:

We would drive down the lane, pass the pond, go around the junk pile, go over the bridge, look for fishes, drive past the cornfield, point and say "cornfield", go into the new paths and look for berries along the way. Then return and say all the same things!! He just absolutely loved running around the farm.

At the pond, Bumpa had to put up a rope to keep the little kids from walking into the pond. One day, it was windy, and we flew kites by the pond. Bumpa had a lot of fun doing it and said it was the first time he'd ever flown a kite. He was the last one flying them.

Oh, and the swing. Alex still loves to swing. Everyday, we had to walk down to the swingset and swing for at least 30 minutes.

On Tuesday, July 3, we loaded up the kids and went to Scottville to hear the world famous (well maybe) Scottville Clown band. We got there, sat down and waited for them to start and then it started raining. We thought it might, so we brought umbrellas and waited and thought it would pass. It started raining harder. So we went into the VFW hall and waited. While we were waiting, Elizabeth saw one of the clowns. He was dressed as a girl. She said, "Mom, look at that silly boy, he's wearing a dress!"

It started raining so hard and didn't look like it would quit. By this time, we were wet dogs and it was warm, so I hauled the kids through the pouring rain, through puddles into the car. You can see Elizabeth's displeasure at being so wet!!

The next day, we went to the parade in downtown Ludington. We went to the same spot as last year, by the shoe store. The girls had fun dancing around in the empty street before the parade. Jake was bored! House of Flavors gave away pints of ice cream again. Alex's favorite was the firetrucks, Elizabeth's favorite was the Clown band. We came back after the parade and had an awesome cookout!

At night, we attempted to go to the fireworks at one of Suzanne's friend's house on Lake Michigan. No luck...cancelled due to fog. They rescheduled on Friday, but Nicole and Dale wouldn't be able to go since they were leaving for a wedding during Friday afternoon.

The rest of the time at the farm was spent just enjoying the fresh air and wide open space. The kids loved playing in the pool that was set up and running around in the back. It was too short of a trip and we'll spend more time next summer. This will be a place that we will spend time at every year in the summer no matter where we may live. Thanks to Gigi and Bumpa for a great time!

Construction Everywhere!

Construction Everywhere click above for pictures

All around our apartment there is construction. There are cement trucks, welding equipment, digging machines and cranes moving 24 hours a day. Behind us they are building an office building. They have dug the underground garage. Across the street they are building a shopping mall and a 5 star Japanese hotel. They are continuing to add more restaurants, shops, and a small boutique hotel in the strip mall behind us. Down the street they are just completing a tall office building. Soon they will start construction on a new 5 star Shangrila Hotel. All of this is supposed to be complete within the next year or two. This will not be the quiet area for too much longer.