Northern Pines Family Camp

We have taken a trip to Green Lake, Wisconsin, to be a part of a wonderful family camp. Ben and Kara are thoroughly enjoying the built-in daycare and babysitters and having the opportunity to listen to the excellent speakers interruption-free.

We are here because of Ben's coworkers and friends, the Kirschlings, who also got the Howards to come as well. Nina has enjoyed getting to play with Jimmy and meet all sorts of new friends. We've gotten to swim, jump, eat a lot, kayak, make crafts, climb, canoe, and tons more. We're looking forward to the rest of the week!

Fun, fun, fun

The Naks have been having fun all over. It was a pleasure to have Ben's old teaching friends, the Moravec's, stop in with their lovely daughter Myra. She and Nina had a blast playing and riding together in the wagon from Jake and Kelsey. Myra was a bit better at sharing her toys than Nina ;)

We went to a movie in the park and Nina won a stuffed Shrek! She's been carrying him around like a baby doll since. We also made a stop in Owatonna to visit Grandpa and Grandma and see all the new decorating. Now that the humidity is down we've been outside a bit more too, hitting up Minneapolis and Saint Paul lakes to check out all the ducks and dogs. The music at Como has also been a treat and Nina had quite a few fans laughing when she busted out some of her dance moves the other day.

Wagon ride sharing------------It's like a mirror!

Rec Center Festivities-----------------Nina-sized bridge in O-town

Como Lake and Lake Calhoun

Walk it Out

Good news for Ben today as the x-ray shows that the ankle is healing and only slightly displaced. Therefore, he is cleared from surgery and can start walking in his boot. Putting weight on his left foot is so foreign that he's a bit tentative and wobbly, but he's making progress and he even beat Nina in a race.

We're still getting a hang of the new camera, as you'll see the zooming is a bit fuzzy in the video. One cool feature is the image snip which let us take the photo above out of a movie.

Trying to keep cool

Triple digit temperatures have been tough to deal with when Nina is such an active outdoor-loving little one. She had a great time hanging out with Britta at their pool during a Young Life reunion. She also has been playing in her own little inflatable pool at home.

Sadly, the combination of heat and a non-stop-eating growth spurt caused for Nina's first bout with vomiting. She had a rough night, but now she's gotten quite a few liquids and some longer naps to make for a quick recovery. In fact, she felt so well that she was getting cabin fever yet again so we took her to the children's museum. The theme of the trip was "oooooo" as she saw many cool animals, played with water, and met plenty of other kids.

My treats are in here somewhere!

movie and a slideshow

Here's a clip from the birthday party of Nina eating her cake. A million thank yous to Paul and Karen for the awesome new camera.

As promised, here's a slideshow of favorite photos to encapsulate her first year.

Birthday Party

Nina's first birthday was a success. She was a bit crabby, but was quickly cheered up by her first experience with cake (which she dove into headfirst). So many wonderful family members and friends were here to celebrate, but we dearly missed Cassie and Kelsey. Thanks for everyone's kindness, she's a pretty spoiled little gal. We'll get some videos up when we learn how to work the new camera ;)

One Year Old!

They grow up fast... it truly is remarkable how quickly Nina's first birthday has arrived. We feel blessed every day to have her in our lives. The video shows her growth, development, and speech. Since she's the first child, we'll probably have yet another slideshow once we take pictures from her birthday party.

As for today, we treated her to a double-header trip to the dentist and the doctor. She had fun at both (minus the shots). She's still 20 pounds and up to 29 inches.

I can do this------------------Brushing the dentists' teeth