Family Trip Part 1

Our family traveled to the West Coast for two weeks in March. Every couple years we fly to California to visit family and friends and this trip we added several other activities, pictures of which can be seen in posts to come(hopefully:)! The west-bound flights gave us many beautiful views out of the windows, with minimal cloud cover as we flew over the mountains. 

The farm fields surrounding the Sacramento area.

The second day in California, we drove up to the Lake Tahoe area to spend the weekend with grandparents and other family members. The snow was beautiful and it was snowing most of the time we were there.

At our favorite sledding hill, Daddy constructed a jump, over which we broke at least two sleds. :)

Whee!

This is one of the sleds which ended up broken by the end of the day!! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted and we had a blast together!

For quite a while before the trip, Philip said that he wanted to dig a tunnel in the snow when we were at Tahoe. Not only did he dig the tunnel pictured above, but he also made an impressively large, two-room snow fort with a tunnel connecting the two rooms! 

We spent two days skiing at a nearby slope. The first day Daddy, the two younger boys, and I skied along with Grandpa, Daddy's brother, and a cousin. It rained the whole morning on the slope making very wet and heavy snow, so we returned to the cabin around noon to play games by the warmth of the wood stove. 

The second day skiing, Mama took the older boys out and it snowed the whole day! They made some great runs and several of the rest of us went to watch them. The snow actually began to stick sometime in the afternoon and, by the time we made it "home" again, everything was covered with the beautiful white powder. 

The next day we spent most of the morning packing up and then played in the snow. We had great fun sledding down the drifts made from the snow that had fallen from the roofs of neighboring cabins. We left in the afternoon to travel down the mountains and on to our next destination.

Watch for more posts about later adventures in the trip!

~Clara~

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. 

Genesis 8:22

In the Air!

For the past two years, we have been going to music camp at Bob Jones University and have really loved it. We really like the strong Christian atmosphere at BJU and have had wonderful teachers. This year we decided to try something a little different; aviation camp.

So why aviation you may ask. Well, I(Emilee) have always thought it would be neat to actually fly a plane. We have been very blessed to have been able to fly a lot commercially so I have been exposed to flight since a very young age. I love air shows as well, especially if the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels are there! I think that aviation is an interest that God has placed within me. So do I want to be a pilot? Well, not necessarily. I believe that first and foremost, God has called me as a young lady through his Word to be a keeper at home and to serve my father until The Lord gives me my own husband and family to serve. Maybe along the way it might be in God's plan for me to become a pilot in order to serve my father or husband, I just don't know what God has in store. It may just be though that God gave me this interest in order for me to more fully appreciate his creation and bring glory to his name. All this said, I really enjoyed aviation camp and have even a deeper interest than before.

I(Kyle) have enjoyed flying since I was really young as well and always thought that it would be neat to actually fly a plane. I enjoyed taking off and landing and the actual flying with the stick. I also enjoyed being able to use the different controls on our short cross country flight. We flew over some beautiful lakes.

These are our fellow aviators.

Kyle and I are third and fourth from the left.

The first plane I(Emilee) ever flew. It is a Diamond-20.


Inside the Diamond-20 with a flight instructor.
He let me do a lot!!


I love the bird's eye view!

The other half of the class waiting their turn.

Bob Jones University from the air.

Flight controls in the Diamond-20.

It's not that complicated once you know what does what.

A very cute biplane that we saw just about everyday!

The Cessna 1-72. It was the oldest plane that we flew.

The 1-40 which is a four seater.

This wheel looked a little out of place:)

A little blurry but I thought this looked pretty neat!

A beautiful lake on the South Carolina/Georgia border.

The Anderson airport which was our destination on the cross country flight.

Clear the runway!!

This was our where we spent many hours learning aerodynamics,

airplane mechanics, navigation and all that good stuff!

Kyle preparing for his trip.

The Greenville control tower. We were able to take a tour which was really interesting.

Everyone got to make an aluminum plane which was a challenge and lots of fun!

Freshly painted.

We learned a lot about plane engines.

We started the engine and felt the breeze!! It could hold us up with no problem!

A really nice sport plane.


While Kyle and I were in Aviation camp, Davis and Clara were in Junior Music camp.

Davis was second chair in the viola section(pictured here) and Clara was fifth chair in the first violins. It was amazing what a group of 9-13 year olds could learn and perform in 5 days!

Philip really enjoyed the concert!

"Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings."

Psalm 36:5-7