What a Summer!

This summer literally flew by!  Working as a maintenance intern with the Fargo Jet Center proved to be an amazing experience for me.  I gained some confidence working on a wide variety of aircraft and learned a lot from some experienced mechanics and inspectors.  I was even invited to come help out during school breaks and next summer if the opportunity arises.  I think what I enjoyed most about it was the close proximity to Erin's family in Fargo.  I spent most of the summer riding my bike to work and seeing everyone during lunch breaks and in the evenings.  It's kind of nice to get paid to have fun all day!

We were blessed with a lot of quality time together as a family despite the busy schedules and never-ending activity.  Sammy discovered an intense passion for the riding lawn mower (which he calls a tractor).  We went camping out in Cohasset, MN at a big family reunion, and Sammy got to ride a real tractor on the family farm.

Shortly after shooting this picture, Sammy went from just saying "tractor" to "tractor-ride".  I think the boy likes tractors!

When I say that we were at the family farm (really more like a big airstrip with houses and forest all around it), I mean they even have a street named after them there! We had an awesome time connecting with family and playing on the farm.  We hope to get back to visit real soon.


Because it was so close to where I did my internship all summer, we spent a lot of time down in Fargo with what we lovingly called our commune... 3 families, 3 toddlers, 2 dogs, and lots of great memories!  We got to spend some time together out back with the annual bonfire.  Elsie and Sammy are wearing fire helmets that they got from visiting the Mentor volunteer fire dept. near Maple lake, MN.



We even got new members in the commune during the middle of June when my folks made a surprise visit out to see us and the kids (they stayed in a hotel...don't know why)!  Elsie and Sammy had no idea they were coming, so it made for a fun surprise.  Grandma Lynn and Papa Paul made clues for them to follow at the hotel, and they had to find the room and knock on it for their big surprise... and boy were they!  It was a lot of fun being able to spend some quality time with all the family each day, and share sort of a day-in-the-life of summer time at the commune.  We played at parks, went to museums, got yummy treats, toured the hanger, played at the lake, and much more.

My Dad isn't smiling because he is sad that he could not sit on the elephant.  He really had a great time at the park!

My folks never had the opportunity to come and play at Maple lake, MN during the summer.  It brought back a lot of memories my Mom had growing up on the east coast near Thousand Islands.  We miss my parents and family a lot after moving out here, and it was an awesome surprise for them to visit and share some great memories together with us.



Later in the summer, I had the opportunity to do some flying with the commune!  After getting current again in the airplane, I was able to take shuttle flights for tours over Fargo with the commune.  I also got to fly Erin's Grandpa over Devil's Lake in central North Dakota (big lake).  The airplane they have available happens to be equipped with a glass cockpit (Garmin G1000)!  This is a pretty fancy instrument package that is beginning to replace more and more of the older round-dial instruments.  MAF uses them in the Kodiak.


This was Sammy's first time in a small airplane.  I taught him how to check his six, and get behind the controls.  I even had a little ramp crew that untied the plane (I think they were excited to go fly!).  It felt soooooo good to get up in the air again!  It was a great night to fly, and a great way to end a "work" day.

 One of the more recent adventures we got to go on together was a trip to the corn field.  Because it was a friend of the family, we got to get first dibs on however much corn we wanted before they harvested it.  We picked about 12 bags of a dozen ears of corn each!  That is a lot of free corn, and a huge blessing!  The kids had a ton of fun, and we all get to enjoy the good farm food for months to come.

As the sun sets on our adventurous summer, we are looking forward to the coming year.  It's exciting to think that a year from now, we will be done with the technical training aspect of our journey, and on to where God is leading us.  The truth is that all of this is part of the journey that God has us on, and we will never stop learning!  We are learning to keep our vision fixed on the long-term calling God has placed in our hearts while keeping our eyes open to what He is doing here and now.



Looking ahead, this is going to be a busy school year for both of us. While I am dissecting and re-assembling engines, Erin is beginning to dive deeper in the Word with an online Bible curriculum. We have been majorly blessed since we set out on this road, and we are very thankful for your prayers and thoughts.

From our family to yours, may God bless you abundantly in Christ!