Welcome, Baby Kam!

The newest edition to the family made his debut. Welcome Kameron John Muilenburg! The kids could hardly contain themselves on the way to the hospital
The needed to check out every inch of him. Thankfully, he obliged.
Here, Bri is checking out his fingers.
Nate giving the toes a once-over

"awwww" was said very frequently by both kids.

Camping at Gun Lake 2009

This is, hands-down, what vacation should look like!The two boys getting ready for a bath...hmmmm which one is which?Uncle Bruce brought Great-Grandpa Elzinga's cane poles out to the lake.

Here Bri is, fishing in the channel.Nate giving it a shot, with some help from daddy.
Nate managed to get a bit ahead of himself on the road

Fishing with Grandpa

At Bri's request, Grandpa Don and mommy took her fishing. The trip started out with a special treat; thanks to locking airbags, Bri could ride her booster in Grandpa Don's truck. The drive alone brought on major cases of the giggles and "look at this!". She had never been so high up in a vehicle, let alone able to see the entire view.

For bait, we used wax worms. Here you see Bri pointing to them.

She would go as far as to hold the container of worms,

but was really not interested in touching them.

She did, however pick out the "right" ones.Obviously her choice in bait worked. Here she and Grandpa are posing for a shot with her first fish of the night. Notice how she's leaning away from it?

She still will have nothing to do with touching them. Unfortunately, you can't see her face; but Bri is facing the shore and shouting

"Here fishy fishy...glub, glub"I absolutely love this photo. It gives me a smile each time I see it. Bri loves to do everything just like Grandpa. See how she's standing on the ledge in the boat, just like him?Bri is an expert at navigating with the fish finder. Every time she sees a blip she say "that's a big one, get it Grandpa!"Watching the bobber.

I even manged to get a line in the water a few times.Silly face! Look how dark it is getting in this picture. Grandpa kept saying "Bri, do you want to go home?" and she'd always respond. "Nope!" Toward the end of the evening it was getting a bit chilly,

Bri pulled her fleece over her life jacket.

Father's Day 2009

This father's day I was totally on top of it. I picked out gifts long ahead of time, had them wrapped, and even had cards.

Boy was I suprised when Dad Koetje opened his gift and found a piece of garlic bread in a sandwich bag.... Bri had "Packed" it in there so she wouldn't forget it. Oh well, who wouldn't want cold garlic toast with their polo shirt?

Bri also picked out Dad Kooistra's card. She found one of a man fishing and when you tilt the card the man pulls the fish out of the water. She knew it was perfect.

In the evening my folks came over to our house for dinner and the kids played outside. Here are a few shots from the night.

A step back in time

When I was a kid I absolutely LOVED the muppets. Yup. The muppets. Especially Miss Piggy. Tonight I watched "The Muppets Take Manhattan" with my kids.

It was so strange I think it's been more than 2o years since I've seen that movie..and I still remembered much of it! Bri wasn't so sure what she thought - she really did not like Animal. She thought he was a scary monster.

Nate, on the other hand was singing (loudly) and dancing along to all of the songs.

All in all it was wonderful to share something from my childhood with them.

Binder Park Zoo

The weekend of our 6th wedding anniversary we decided to take the kids to Binder Park Zoo. We took them both last year on our actual wedding anniversary. It's always our "joke" that we had a "5 year plan" when we got married and we ended up taking both our kids to the zoo on our 5th wedding anniversary. Now taking them there around that date is becoming a tradition.

This year Nate was still a bit young to handle all of the walking, but he was certainly not willing to sit in a stroller throughout the park. Here is how he checked out most of the exhibits:

In the children's portion of the zoo, they had this fun little activity. Looks like bri is still short of a grasshopper. Nate didn't quite get the concept.

I'm not sure exactly what he was doing here. Taking the giraffe off the wall perhaps?

I think Jeff enjoyed the petting zoo more than the kids.

In fact, he bonded very quickly with this goat.

I may have a slight obsession with taking photos of my kids on statues.

Jeff and Bri walking down the trail into "Africa".

(Note: I am pushing Nate in a stroller over a wooden boardwalk (that curves) with one hand while taking a fantastic picture with the other hand. Am I wonder-woman or what?)

Feeding the giraffes. Neither of the kids was willing to risk being licked, but they sure loved watching it when Jeff and I fed them.

At the end of our trip each of the kids was allowed to pick one stuffed animal from the gift shop. Nate picked a fuzzy zebra. (he also took "eee-eee" with him that day)

Bri picked out a giraffe and named him Purple because the giraffes at the zoo had purple toungues. She also has Polo (The small zebra) with her because that is who she brought home from our trip last year.

What a trip home from the zoo should look like:

Camping with Church July 7-12

In July we went camping with church to Wabasis lake. I believe, at last count, there were 17 kids within our kids' age range. Which meant a lot of chaos, but also a lot of fun.

My kids LOVE s'mores (not that I know too many kids that don't). Somehow, even though they love the taste, they have difficulty keeping all that goodness in their mouths, not on their faces and clothes.

Nate looks like a true camper to me here. Just chillin out in his frog chair.

I think this photo of Benny is adorable... he kind of looks like he's searching for someone lost at sea. The hat and top getup also make me think he's going to pull out a metal detector at any minute and start scanning the beach.Bri is not interested in building castles on the beach. No, she likes to dig holes. I don't know how this started, and I'm not sure I entirely understand it; but one of the most common phrases to be heard from her this summer was "Mommy, look at this big hole!"

Cora, Bri and Quinn playing little people.

(Notice the little row of crocs)

For those of you who have never been camping, cleaning your children is very very difficult. Your options are shower (pain in the neck) or sink (eeeeeewwwwww gross!). Thankfully, Alisha had a brilliant idea and took a handy little swimming pool to fill with soap and water.

I know Nate will kill me for posting this someday, but I just could not help myself. Oh, and I'm not sure who taught Will to put bubbles on his face and say "ho,ho,ho" but it's hilarious!