Pineries Provencial Park Camping

This weekend we went camping to the Pineries Provencial Park in Ontario, it is right along Lake Huron. We had a great time, the beach was just a short walk down the road. Nate had a grand time playing with Evan and Collin, Joel and Marsha's children (Left), Deanna and Kevin are in the back row, Tracy and Kristen and Dave and baby Gabe on the right. Delia and Conrad are in the front. Us adults enjoyed time with friends, remincsing and eating some yummy camping food. All in all it was a great success. We have plans to do this annually, but all agreed, some more amenties, upgrading to cabins and going a bit longer would be better. The second picture is of a pretty darn good sand castle that Conrad and Kevin Elzinga made.

Birthday Planning/Reminiscing

My dad turns 60 this year, (my mom next year), we are planning a party and making a traditional cheesy slide show and I have come across some old pictures that are pretty funny, worth sharing.

Here is my family circa 1978

The next is of my dad as a young child.

Bike ride anyone?

We recently purchased a bike trailer that can also be used as stroller, Engie seems to like it, as you can see in the picture. Nate is always very cautious before consenting the ride? Will it be a long one? Where are we going to go? And then when we are riding, he gives us orders "faster, turn that way". I can't blame him for not enjoying it, his sister does harass him trying to keep entertained she pinches his face and can't keep her hands off of him. Yesterday, we had Jaden and Nick (my sister Kristi's kids) over to swim, they are posing. They had a grand time, lots of wet water. Another hot, but nice day here.

Cheers and ode to the inclusion of women!

Okay, when I first told my sister I was making a blog, she said, "now your not going to write about your feelings and stuff..." I have mostly kept to kid reportings, but I can't help but share my enthusiasm and joy at the news of our large body of the Christian Reformed Church (the denomination I grew up in), called synod, permitting women to be delegates to synod and leaders in the church. This decision only confirms for me the gifts of so many women I know and love in their ability to proclaim and share the gospel and TO VOTE on key matters of the denomination. I celebrate with our church's, Paster Lynn Likkel and Erika Dekker and many others who have worked so hard to follow the spirit and the calling they can't deny to be leaders in the church, despite some very hostile situations. All I can say IT is HIGH TIME and I was an inpatient, cranky person in this process. I am so thankful for the women and men who have been working tirelessly (and been kind, surprizingly NOT cranky in the process) on this issue since 1974 (the year after I was born). The Grand Rapids Press had a nice article featuring this great news http://www.mlive.com/grandrapids/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-36/118173690883190.xml&coll=6. I could go on and on...but I am so happy and rejuvenated in the my denomination and proud of the decision. Other newsworthy notes, Kevin has one class left in his summer Tues/Thurs class, Yeah for him and Yeah for us, we will get to see him more! It has been a hot summer day, we have spent the last couple of days in the pool on the deck, dumping, filling, refilling, drinking lemonade, more lemonade...Over the weekend, Kevin's uncle John Wisselink came to town (actually for synod) and we were able to go to lunch with him, it was a joy to see him, he is a kind wonderful uncle that we unfortuantely rarely see because he hails from Telkwa BC. We had a great time and of course I didn't bring my camera, but you can try to imagine a man that looks like Kevin's dad, a little more hair (sorry dad :). Well off to bed after a long day, Love to all Kerrie and Fam

New basement Floor and Tree on our deck

We have had all kinds of excitement here over the last couple of weeks. We finally finished our basement floor, working hard over the Memorial Day Weekend and beyond. It had some nasty carpet that should have been gone long ago. The new floor is a wood looking laminate and is great for all the abuse we put it through. Kevin and I actually survived installing it ourselves, learning that if I stood on the already installed floor he could get the other pieces to lockin to place. Needless to say that wasn't in the instructions. We love it and already love wipeing up the messes,verses, scrubbing them into the carpet fibers. We also has some excitement of a big storm last weekend. My friend Michelle was here with her twin boys for supper and we were watching our big canopy of trees sway with the strong winds and Michelle asks me, do you ever worry about trees coming down being under the trees, and before I could answer her, BOOM, the tree fell on our deck, we were standing by slider and nearly sent us both to anxiety attacks! What a surprize! The tree did overall very little damage to our deck, but made a big mess. Our neighbors already took all the limbs off the tree, so now it looks a lot less threatoning. I didn't get out there with my camera soon enough. We are all thankful we are okay and really just a good story to tell in the end.

Here are some more pics, the first couple are from our trip to IA, Engie is feeding Grandpa Van Weelden some popcorn, who wouldn't like their face stuffed with grimy baby hands---grandpas, I guess. The next one is of some of the Van Haaftens examining rocks! My Grandma Van Haaften died in 2005 and has a massive rock collection, we had fun getting them wet to see all the colors and details and then trying to identify them. My grandma was full of knowledge and zest about rock hunting! The last couple are recent ones of Nate and Engie. Engie stuffing her face, she just got done licking the bowl. Nate older and more mannered, uses silverware and smiles like a champion for the picture.

Ear tubes!

Nate had new ear tubes put in today and had his adnoids removed. He went to outpatient surgery. He did very well. This is a picture they took with a polaroid and gave to us just before surgery. They gave him some drugs before he went into surgery that made him very groggy, he was slurring words, trying to talk and couldn't, which is a little hard for a parent to take. We got home around noon and he is already running around, feeling close to normal! They found lots o' gunk in his ears and they said it would not have drained on its own. So, it was good we did it. We are so glad it is over. Kerrie