The Little Mud Puddle in Our Backyard!

The Little Mud Puddle in Our Backyard

A Story Told By: Shelby Duke

One hot summer day at the Duke house Mom was in a panic. Adi had gone missing and no one knew where she might have gone. After a few minutes after calling here name, she heard a faint, "Mom... I'm out front swimming!" Knowing that Adison is a little dare devil and wasn't scared of anything... Mom and Shelby ran out front to make sure that where ever Adi was her head was above water. When they got outside they found her splashing up and down the ditch bank. Mom had irragated at 7:30 that morning, and someone on our ditch schedule was still irragating... So there was still water running. Adi always enjoys swimming and helping mom out with irragating, but 7:30 was quite early to be splashing around in freezing cold water, so she had decided to play in the water later. Mom wanted to get chores done but didn't want to leave Adi outside alone because she feared her getting stuck in one of the ditches... She tried coaxing her in with no sucess, so Shelby volunteered to play in the water with her.

Alex decided that he wanted to play in the water with Shelby and Adi... But after he got in trouble for taking Adi's toy boat "Tuggy" He decided it would be more fun to go ride the four wheeler in the backyard.

A few days earlier dad had gotten sick of Alex begging to go fourwheeling so he allowed him to ride the fourwheeler in a circle in the backyard where there was a bunch of weeds. Alex rode and rode and rode until there were no weeds left, he had built a mini berm, and the fourwheeler was out of gas. He begged for gas for days, but he would always do something to tick one of the parents off and they would use the "I'm not buying gas anymore" excuse. Finally it annoyed mom enough to the point that she finally broke down and bought some gas. Anyways back to the important story...

Alex ran back to ride the fourwheeler and Shelby and Adi kept playing. Mom finally saw the light and decided chores were boring and she was going to come out and play. They splashed and jumped and played "catch Adi if she's going underwater" for a while. Then Alex came back to check in with Mom. He was covered in mud. He explained that there was a little mud puddle he had to drive through in order to get to his "circle spot." Mom and Shelby didn't really worry about it much and went on doing their own thing. All through the day Alex kept telling Mom and Shel how much fun he was having going in circles, and each time he would have even more mud on him. Finally after dad got home from work Alex convinced him to come check out the "mud puddle" he had been splashing through. When dad walked back there this is what he found.....

Alex was just so excited that someone had come to check out his riding that he hoped on the fourwheeler and started going in circles... Mom and Shelby heard dad laughing his head off so they decided to come check it out... when they got back they discovered they probably should have brought there umbrella's and raincoats because it was raining mud!

But now is when this story becomes very exciting well... at least for dad. He remembered that Alex was riding the fourwheeler where he wanted to plant grass... (another project on the list!) So he had to stop him. But that made another problem... this messy kid COULD NOT go in the house. That would be awful so dad decided to use the "portable outside shower" or a more common name would be THE HOSE!

Dad enjoyed this so much! I think it kind of shows in the picture! While alex was "showering" Dad told Alex that HE got to clean the mud off of the wheeler! It should have been a couple hour job... but with a good enough spray nozzle it only took a good 20 minutes!


Next time someone in the Duke household hears the word "little" I think it won't be taken as lightly... but after reviewing the pictures... it helps you remember how much fun mud can be!

No Shoes, No Shirt, No problems !!!

Here is this years new purchase. Alex is quite happy to show off the new (to us) boat! Around our house everyone has a new favorite past time.... BOATING.

Allen was the first to get up on the knee board. After that the girls took it as a personal challenge to get up on it. It took several tries but now they are addicted.

Adison, better known these days as little fish, is not allowed to have her life jacket off. She has no fear what-so-ever. So nothing stops her from jumping over board when she wants to swim!! Luckily when she decided this one day with out telling anyone Allen was close enough to grab the handle on the back of her life jacket. She wants to knee board so bad. She will tell you "I's am big enough" as she flexes her muscles.

Alex has the title of "First mate" He makes sure everyone is obeying the rules and the rope is clear from the engine before starting the boat. He is mostly in charge of the flag when someone falls off while boarding! He will tube but isn't quite up to knee boarding.



Shelby is quite the show boater. She goes in and out of the wake. She's like the energizer bunny. She wants to keep going and going and going. Until she is made to give someone else a turn.

Cheyanne, the bathing beauty. She has quite a tan going on. Despite the fact her mom works for a dermatologist and preaches SUNBLOCK. She hasn't quite grasped the concept that you don't just take sunblock but you actually put it on. So the Duke family has a new theory NO SHOES, NO SHIRT, NO PROBLEMS. On the lake we forget all our troubles. We just laugh, relax and have a whole lotta fun. To bad summer is growing near the end!!!