Kailee saves the day

Jason needed to build some hours in the Cessna 206 that he will be instructing in once the semester starts at Moody, so the family got to go along on one of his flights.

Mirielle was so excited about going flying that she was up first thing in the morning ready to go. We packed up all of our stuff and headed out to the airport. Jason preflighted the airplane and we got Kellan and I strapped into the middle row of seats first.

Things were going really well until we tried strapping Mirielle into the front seat. She was not excited about sitting in the front up by all of the controls. My super cool and calm husband explained how she needed to sit up in front to balance out the plane and that Kellan was too little to sit up in front and how she was just right and could watch him fly, etc. etc. The pep talk didn't seem to help much as she still was convinced that she needed to sit next to mom.

Since our first attempt didn't work so well, Jason took Mirielle back inside the building to get some seat cushions so that she could get a better view out the front window, thinking that might help calm her down. They came back talking about the pictures they saw in the office of the first mission aviation pilot, who happened to be a woman. We thought it would be a go until we tried strapping her in, which resulted in more tears.

On to idea 3. Next we tried putting her in the back row and pushing my seat back so that I was sitting in between her and Kellan. She wasn't too thrilled about that idea either....

So after more than 30 minutes of trying to convince her that she would be okay and have fun once we got in the air, we finally gave up. Defeated, we packed up and put the plane away. In between packing up and getting ready to leave, Jason discovered that one of his coworkers had brought his teenage daughter, Kailee, with him to work. She was more than happy to accompany us along on a flight and was able to sit in the back next to Mirielle. Kailee saves the day as you can see her presence made for all smiles in the back seats!

We enjoyed the ride around town and even got to see our house from the air. The scenery certainly was different than the last airplane ride we took into the tribe. Fields instead of coral reefs! We were so thankful that it turned out to be another fun family adventure (and we discovered a new babysitter that lives close to our house!).

A Perfect Day

We went exploring this weekend. A neighbor had told us about a farm area just outside of town that sold pick your own fruit so we decided to go check it out. It ended up being the PERFECT day! The weather here is still beautiful and with a breeze and clouds rolling through the bright blue sky, it was the perfect temperature to be outside for the day. It was a beautiful drive through the country up onto a bluff to the fruit farms.

Strawberries are in season now, so we picked our way through the fields until we were covered in red and our stomachs and our basket were full of delicious strawberries. It was a fun family activity for all four of us. The best part was that we had all of that fun for 95 cents a pound!

After strawberry picking, we still had some room in our stomachs for a little lunch. We drove our way around the bluff to another farm that had a restaurant. We had hamburgers and Jason and I enjoyed a piece of pie and a cup of coffee while the kids were busy working on their giant suckers. FUN!

Check out our photos

We Made It!

After 4 days of driving, we finally made it to Spokane! It was a LONG trip with lots of miles, a billion gallons of gas and way too much fast food.

Jason's parents were able to help us drive which was a huge help. They took the kids in our CRV while Jason and I drove the UHaul towing a car ( actually I just scanned for radio stations and passed snacks). The trip was mostly uneventful except for a blowout just outside of Butte.


We have slowly been unpacking our boxes. Jason was able to return to the Philippines in January to ship some boxes of our things home. Most of our stuff made it home in one piece, however most everything has evidence of the Philippines in it or on it - and boy does it stink. The process of opening and emptying out boxes is stinky enough to almost make me gag! All of our things were wrapped in clothes, towels, sheets, etc. and has taken at least 2 cycles through the wash to start to get the smell out of the fabric. So it has gone a little on the slow side.

Another thing we have been busy doing is fixing up our fixer upper. One of the first things we did was pull up the carpet. The house smelled like dogs and smoke so getting rid of the nasty carpet was a huge help.



We were re-reminded of the previous presence of dogs when we moved the stove and found this lovely surprise! Now that really made me want to GAG!



On a much nicer note!! We are enjoying spring here. We pulled into town right when all of the tulips were in bloom. We even had a few out in front of our house. We love having a nice big grassy yard and a beautiful Hawthorn tree which is in full bloom right now. The tree looks like it has a million tiny rosebuds on it. Beautiful!

I'm still waiting to put away our cold weather clothes. It is a cold and rainy day today and was only 43 degrees when I checked the temp this morning. I can't believe that it is almost June and it is still this cold. Welcome to the Northwest!!

So much for a family photo!

Working with tools is without a doubt one of Kellan's favorite activities and he loves to work along side of his dad. Kellan has a set of play tools, but after discovering real tools, the plastic ones are not anywhere near good enough. He recently had lots of tool time while Jason replaced the engine mounts in one of our cars. Unfortunately this was the result:




Three stitches to the middle of the forehead due to a fall while holding a wrench.







While Jason was taking Kellan to the doctor to get stitched up, out walks Mirielle looking like this:

She decided that she was too hot to have bangs so she cut them off and threw them away in the garbage. Thankfully she didn't decide that she was too hot to have the ponytails that she was wearing that day. What do you do with a girl like that??

I guess this means that I will postpone my goal of sending out a new picture prayer card in our upcoming newsletter!