Almost there

At the beginning of this month Mike still needed 15 more flight hours to be qualified to take the technical evaluation at MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) headquarters at the end of the month.  We were a bit stressed out because anybody from the Northwest knows that spring here is notorious for rain and clouds.  We have been praying and asking people to join us in prayer for good flying weather.  The weather lately shows that prayer actually works!  There have been sun breaks every weekend this April so that Mike has been able to fly!  Mike only needs 1.3 more hours before he hits the grand total of 400 flight hours needed.

This Saturday Colton had a slumber party with his cousin Riley so we only had Macie to hang out with.  Macie loved being the center of attention all day and was in a great mood (I think that deep-down she wishes that she was the first born).  Mike scheduled a training flight in the Cessna 206 to do some Instrument training with one of the flight instructors at Servant Wings and Macie and I decided to hitchhike in the back.  It was a beautiful day outside but Mike couldn't see anything because he was under the hood (or as I like to call it his "Darth Vader" mask).  Wearing the visor forces Mike to only look at the instruments while he is flying and it simulates what he would be able to see in bad weather.  

On Sunday Mike took Colton flying in the Cessna 152.  Remember the slumber party the night before I mentioned?  I don't think that much slumbering went on because this is what happened during the flight:

Poor little guy was so excited to go flying but he missed most of it!

This next couple of weeks Mike is going to study and practice in the flight simulator with an instructor to further prepare for the technical evaluation.  It is crazy to think that we are only two weeks away from a test that Mike has been preparing to take for the last seven years!  No pressure, right?

Colton is four!

It is hard to believe that we have a four year old in our house now!  We celebrated Colton's birthday this weekend with yet another "airplane" themed party.  Everybody who comes into contact with Colton soon figures out that he is obsessed with airplanes.  We had a few of Colton's friends over for some pizza, orange juice (at his request), cake and ice cream.  Colton wanted Mike and I to make his cake into an aircraft carrier but our cake decorating skills are not quite up to the challenge of that yet so we opted for a float plane jungle scene instead.

Thanks to Señora Flynne and high school spanish class I was able to make an airplane piñata for the party.  I knew that Colton would not take to his friends beating his piñata with a stick very well so in order to escape tears I thought that I was being clever and designed a door that would open and let out the candy with the pull of a string.  Let's just say that I am not an engineer and the design had some flaws to it and there were tears anyway.  Oops.  Other than that the party was a success and Colton has been requesting to have another one ever since.  

Whenever we have gatherings at our house like this I realize how much we are truly blessed by all of the friends placed in our lives and in our children's lives.  The amount of love that our friends pour into our children blows me away every time.  It saddens me to think of the future when an ocean will be dividing us from each other.     

The big 4 year old with his cake

....and yes Macie liked the cake too.

Baby sister Macie and her slice