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!