March 12th

Here's our day in pictures. I didn't take any pictures on the 10th like I normally do because that was the day I took Ella to the hotel for her birthday. All our pictures would have been of us watching The Sound of Music and painting our nails!

9:00
Roman reading his "Bible"



10:00
coloring - the new favorite activity



11:00
Drew helping me get all the pencil/pen marks off the outside of the house



12:00
my new addiction - spinach quesadilla



1:00
my calgon moment. And it really was just a moment



2:00
the kids' fort - notice who isn't taking a nap



3:00
pumpkin bread getting ready to go in the oven



4:00
D & E drinking their mud soup



5:00
on our way home from a quick visit to a friend's house



6:00
our messy eater

Birthdays

We've celebrated 2 birthdays in the last 3 weeks. Roman's birthday was on the 13th of February and Ella's was yesterday on the 5th. Tripp already posted some pictures of Roman's new bike we got him here but I wanted to share a little bit more.



I rarely pass up an opportunity to create something and make fun decorations and birthdays are certainly no exception. I know Roman doesn't appreciate it now but it's something I love doing for my family and I hope once he gets older it will be something he cherishes on his special day. I made a simple heart cake for my almost Valentine's baby and a garland that I strung from a picture frame.



Here are a few of the things our new 2 year old is doing and saying:
*he can say a few 2-3 word sentences
*he has a handful of Indonesian phrases he can say
*for breakfast and most lunches he doesn't sit at the big table with us, but at a little kids' table looking out into the backyard. He reminds me of an old man eating all by himself at the retirement home.
*he sings when he rides his bike
*he is in full swing demolition mode these days, knocking down everything in sight from puzzles, legos, plates, cups, etc.
*since our return from the States he's had a rough time getting back into a sleeping routine
*he loves to wrinkle his nose
*in the book if you give a cat a cupcake, there is a picture of a cat doing karate and I always say, "Hi-ya" when reading it. Roman is the cutest thing when he tries to imitate me. He has moves to go with it too.
*he still cuddles with me, mostly after he wakes up from his naps

As I type this I can hear all the kids giving Tripp a "performance" as they like to call it. Drew on the drums, Ella behind the mic and Roman doing whatever he can to fit in. I can hear Roman belting it out trying to be the loudest of the bunch. He has such a fun, lighthearted personality and we are so thankful God brought him into our family.



Ella turned 4 yesterday and we had such a fun time celebrating her life. I found a picture of a cake on pinterest that I thought was super cute and tried to re-create it. Well, it didn't turn out quite like the picture but Ella absolutely loved it and that's all that matters.



She has been asking for a cash register for the last 4-5 months and she finally got one (thanks Grandma and Grandpa). She also got a rapunzel dress because she LOVES to dress up and she loves the movie Tangled. I am planning on taking Ella to the nice hotel in town for a night of mother/daughter fun. When we told her about it she got a huge smile on her face and gave me a big hug. I'm really looking forward to spending some one on one time with my Ella girl.



Here's what Ella's been up to lately:
*she loves Happy Kids (Indonesian preschool) and we're thinking about enrolling her for next year
*she is quite the perceptive little new 4 year old. she asked me the other day why a certain person's nose was "skinny" compared to someone else's not so skinny nose
*she is really helpful when I ask her to clean up
*she knows so much Indonesian. she doesn't really speak it to us when we ask her to but she understands a lot. she's taught me quite a few words
*she has such a motherly spirit and can't wait to be a mom. she's informed me that she's having 6 kids
*she loves to perform, hence the aforementioned performance. give that girl anything resembling a microphone and she will sing her heart out
*she must be wearing lipgloss at ALL times

I see a lot of myself in Ella but I see so much more at the same time. She is so smart and full of life. She has such a sweet spirit and she LOVES to laugh. Her understanding of the Word of God is humbling and I pray that it will lead her to her Savior soon. She is a true blessing in our lives and we love her so much!!

Happy Birthday Roman and Ella!

here's a picture of the kids all dressed up for our Valentine's dinner. Drew requested a tie.

From the Flight Line

A few portraits and pictures from the flight line.

Long Padi





Buduk Kubul



Mahak Baru



Craig, aka "Big Cheese"



Tinan Kule (literally means "mother of Kule"). She is one of the airstrip agents in Mahak Baru, and also sort of an adopted mother to all the pilots. She always has fried rice and tea waiting for us when we go into the village of Mahak Baru.



Chris



And Chris on the ground in Long Lebusan:



Isto

Roman's New Bike

We got Roman a new bike for his birthday. I guess I need to teach him to keep his eyes on the road:

Meanwhile, Drew was tearing it up:

Avgas Finally Arrives!

In Indonesia most planes use jet fuel, the kind that goes in jets (duh!) and also turboprops, like our Cessna Caravan and Quest Kodiak. MAF is gradually moving to a fleet that burns jet fuel, but it takes time. For our piston planes, like our venerable Cessna 206 like I fly, we still have to buy shipments of avgas, which is both expensive and also not readily available. However, we have a system in place for our operations, and for the past few years we've been able to order a large tank of avgas fairly easily. We had a shipment of avgas that was supposed to arrive in December, but for a number of reasons, it kept getting delayed. By the time the gas finally arrived, we were down to emergency reserves and weren't really flying our 206's at all, except for extremely critical flights. So we were pretty excited when the truck pulled up with 80 drums worth of fuel inside (normally it arrives with around 120 drums worth, but for whatever reason we didn't get a full tank).





We basically just drain the fuel from the big container sized tank using two huge hoses into our drums. It takes about a minute to fill each drum, except here Jos is doing the first drum through a filter to catch the initial bits of trash in the bottom of the tank:



We can fill two drums at a time, then we roll them to their storage spot:













It's kind of fun when an avgas shipment arrives, like a big block party. But the best part is that it means we can begin flying our 206's again! And for me, as a 206 driver, I'm happy to get back to flying again and serving the people of Kalimantan.

February 10th

Our day in pictures:

9:00
skyping with Granddad.



10:00
Roman enjoying a homemade Oreo cookie.



11:00
playing airport. Ella does a great job as ATC.



12:00
a chicken melt with the newly discovered Indonesian lunch meat.



1:00
Pinterest. one of my favorite ways to relax and get inspired. Roman's birthday is coming up.



2:00
Ella showing off the airplane she made in room time.



3:00
D & E helping me make Roman's birthday cake. It'll go in the freezer until his birthday on Monday.



4:00
Drew recovering from a fall



5:00
Roman loves to play on Tripp's bike after he gets home from work.



6:00
D & E hanging out before we head over to a friend's house for dinner.

America the Beautiful

For those who didn't know or didn't get a chance to see us, we just got back from a quick, three week trip to the land of the free and the home of the brave.  If we didn't get a chance to see you, I apologize.  We really didn't mean to avoid anyone.  At the same time, for a city with a metro population close to a million people, Raleigh still feels like a small town.  Almost everywhere we went we saw people we hadn't seen in years.  It was truly a refreshing and fun time.  And yes, it was totally worth the almost 48 straight hours of travel time on the front and back end.  I think the more we do this trip the more used to it we get, and the easier it is.  There's even something kind of fun about it, although after sitting on a 777 for 9 straight hours, hoping you're almost there, and then looking at your watch and realizing you still have 5 more hours to go....yeah that's not so fun.  Especially when one of your kids has peed in her pants and your almost-two-year-old doesn't want to sit down.  But it was totally worth it!

I'm not much of a writer, so I'll just share our trip in photos.  One thing I really noticed is that the light in NC in the winter time is so much nicer and less harsh than Indonesia.  The sun never gets very high, which makes for much better photos.  The sun is SO bright here, my eyes start to water if I'm outside and not wearing sunglasses for long.





































Our little Ella is such a performer.  She loves to sing and dance, and I love these photos because she is in the middle of one of her little performances where she breaks out in song & dance.  This really typifies who our little Ella is.  It also kind of reminds me of the characters in Charlie Brown whenever they sing:





































Goodbye America, we'll miss you.  I hope you will continue to be the land of opportunity and a beacon of freedom and justice.