Ginger’s parents have been asking us to come down and visit for ages. For some reason things always seemed to be getting in the way and our weekends haven’t been clear. Either Lanie had to be at church – or I’ve either been ushering or needed to grab a couple of pictures for the Church Facebook page. To top it off October has been Ginger’s month of being ‘choir mom’ so she’s had to be there each week too.

Looking at our schedules, we knew I had to be in Springfield the weekend of November 3, as I’m speaking at the diocesan gathering and on Saturday I volunteered to take pictures of the Diocese’s Youth Gathering ‘Zombie Rave’. So this weekend, Lanie got excused from choir, Ginger got excused from ‘choir mom’ duties, and we packed our bags and Friday night straight after school we headed down to Ginger’s parents.

The guest house had been warmed up and prepared for us and Lanie stayed in the house with her grandparents. The last time I stayed in the guest house was on my second night in the US on August 12, 2007!

We had a great time. Saturday we went on a short hike up the bluff and and around to the north of Ginger’s parents farm. We made a short diversion to visit a farm with baby pigs, baby goats, chickens and turkeys. More cuteness than Lanie could possibly cope with.

In the evening we had a big fire with toasted hot dogs, marshmallows and s’mores.

Sunday Lanie took me exploring up the hill, to find Ginger’s childhood cave hideaway. Lanie had only been there once and I’d never been there so we had great fun looking for it. We found Lanie’s uncle’s old abandoned shack in the woods, and after a while found the bluff by the creek and then Ginger’s cave.

Rather than find our way back through the woods we decided to cross the creek and take the easy way home.

All in all we had a great time.

Copyright © 2012 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.