We're comin' home...ready or not!

Stripes & stripes

I feel I have a very important responsibility, as the mother of my children, to teach my kids the art and skill of everyday attire coordination and development... otherwise known as "matching."  I know this is not something that is learned overnight.  It takes a lot of trial and error, sometimes in the face of ridicule and mocking. It is my job to teach my children the rights and wrongs of everyday dressing.  I'm not talking about keeping up with the latest fads or encouraging them to make any kind of statement...I'm just talking about  the more obvious fashion foe-paws like - wearing socks with sandals, coordinating bottoms and tops and the basics of matching.   If they don't learn these valuable lessons from me they will learn them from the world...or worse yet...from their dad.  :)  

Avery was extremely proud of this outfit she picked out all on her own.  "Look mommy!  stripes and stripes!"  I guess we need to have a little lesson on coordinating patterns and prints.

Vince comes to stay

It has been such a joy having Vincent with us.  When April and the kids came down to visit in Feb/March, Vincent met so many friends his age and was in a euphoric state the whole time he was here.  He loved chasing "small" game with his bee-bee gun, riding bike everywhere and anywhere, and the late night games of capture the flag.  He was in heaven.  That's why it was easy to put air miles into sending him down again this April.  I assured his mom (April) that he would be so easy to have around and a huge help to us as we get ready to move back to AK.  

He HAS been a huge help and it has been so wonderful watching him with all his new friends.  He went on a dirt bike camping trip with his uncle Zach.  Some of his favorite daily activities are having air-soft wars and playing capture the flag, at night, in his camo garb with all his buddies...and of course taking out the trash for his favorite Auntie.  :)  Yesterday he called me out of the house because "he had something to show me."  It sounded urgent, so I rushed out to find him holding a live snake with a big cheesy grin on his face.  It was his friend Carson's pet, nothing dangerous, but it thrilled me to see him having such good guy fun.

Vince and Miah will be traveling with Zach in the truck/trailer all the way to Alaska. I am flying home with the younger two and will probably be home a good two weeks before them.  It will be quite an eventful trip.  They will get to see the Grand Canyon, Yellow Stone, Bamff and a visit to Cody, WY to Uncle Dave and Aunt Carol's house.

It's finished

Before taking off for the first time, Zach and Paul Dye, 

offer up a prayer of thanks and commit their flight to the Father.

Two very happy boys!

The maiden flight

The 185 is finished!  What a beautiful airplane it turned out to be.  I just realized I should have posted some pictures of what it looked like before the restoration process.  Zach and so many others poured themselves into this project for many months and I think it is safe to say that the finished project is more than they could have hoped for.  The past few weeks have brought so much excitement and anticipation as well as relief as everything checked out.  Zach's brother Matt flew down to ferry the plane with Zach back to Alaska, it's new home.  It was such a beautiful sight, watching the two brothers take off into the sunrise, it brought tears to my eyes. They flew from Mexico to Palmer, Alaska in 3 days!