Summer Highlights

YeeHaw! I am finally finding time to give to this blog. Oh, what a summer it has been and it is by no means over yet. I have been drowning in life and only now getting opportunities to come up for itty bitty breaths. Please pray me through the rest of the summer. Since it has been so long since communicating with you I will only give you a glimpse of the highlights of our summer. Mark has been doing quite a bit of flying this summer. Unfortunately there are no pictures because he does not know where his camera is.

In April, our three girls participated in their annual year end music recital. Alaina began the program with a piano solo. Katelyn was adorable playing her violin with another little girl her age. Neakita participated through the entire program with the exception of the cello solo and the duet played by her instructor and a fellow orchestra member on the viola. This year Neakita's orchestra group performed and also played along with the student soloists. The program was exceptionally well done.

In May, Mark was extremely busy giving flight instruction to a friend from one of the villages in addition to his regular responsibilities. Much after-hour time was put into the instruction. It was a joy for the kids and I to get to know his student during that time.

Can't you teach it better than that, Mark? It looks like he has become a bit confused by it all. Hee Hee!

Is he giving you a headache, Mark? Haa Haa!
We had a lot of fun during those weeks!

June began busy and ended crazy busy for us.

Neakita went to Christian Youth in Action, Child Evangelism Fellowship's training camp. The first week of camp they learned how to communicate the gospel to children.

During the second week of camp they practiced what they learned by doing kid's clubs at local homes.

I was able to host a club at our home.

We had a lot of kids attend the club at our house that they split the age groups up and had two clubs going at the same time. The older kids are in a group on the left side of the picture and the younger kids are in a group on the other side of the driveway. It was so cool to host two clubs at the same time.

We raised meat chickens this year. We got them as day old chicks, raised them up and . . .

. . . butchered them. It is great to have stored away chicken for the winter. Yes, the kids helped us with the butchering too! They are a great help in all the work we do to fill the freezer, whether it is chicken, fish, or moose.

All four kids have been playing outdoor soccer with the Boys and Girls Club this year. Here is Katelyn in one of her moments of playing her best. She has decided, however, that soccer is not her sport. Neakita on the other hand LOVES to play soccer and has really progressed in the skill of the game. Her team worked their way to the championship game. They earned second place! What a thrill the game was!

Alaina and Jeremiah played on the same team this year. It was a fun team that worked very hard together. All the kids have exceptional coaches. It is a sacrifice for anyone to commit to coaching a team.

We celebrated Alaina's big double digit birthday - #10. It was loads of fun with all her friends! We had a sleepover and the girls stayed up until 2 AM.

We had the most fun set net fishing this year! We camped on the beach for two nights. Mark set up a great camp for us. Although it rained most of the time, we were warm and comfortable. We get most of our year's supply of fish this way. The rest we get by dip netting and rod and reel fishing.

The end of June brought a visit from Mark's mom, step-dad, and brother. What a wonderful time we had with them here. We were on the go pretty much constantly, but we made time during the last two days to rest before they headed back home.

Zac was ministry flight crew member for a day. He helped take a group of bible camp counselors out to KAKO on the Yukon River.

During Grandma and Papa's visit, Neakita was a part of a big orchestra concert here in town. Her orchestra group had the priviledge of being the opening performance for the world famous Young Peoples Symphony Orchestra out of Berkeley, CA. It was an exciting evening.

July has continued to be overwelmingly busy, so I will have to wait until the next time I can squeeze in blog time. Please be patient and know that when there is not an entry for a long time it is because I am far too busy with life and ministry to get time on the computer which means I need your prayers all that much more.