What's next?

Briant will now be flying a Beechcraft 1900. It is a turbo-prop plane that seats 19 passengers. His training will be in Denver, July 24th-Aug 4th. Briant will be busy the next two weeks doing all the "pre-studying" that the course requires. While Briant is in Denver, Harmony will fly to NJ and Chicago to spend a week with each of her sisters. Right now we are living with Briant's parents in Fayetteville, AR. We have taken over the upstairs of their house and have managed to spread our things out across all three upstairs rooms. We are very greatful that Briant's parents are so easy to live with!

On August 9th, we'll be headed for Africa. We are flying from Tulsa to Houston to Paris to Bamako. In Houston, we are meeting up with another couple who will be doing the same thing as us in Bamako. The husband will be a pilot and the wife will be teaching at the same school as Harmony.

We found out that Briant will have to spend about 7 days in South Africa to get a South African validation on his pilot's license. He will be in South Africa from August 15th-22nd. Harmony starts teacher inservice at the international school in Bamako on August 14th.

If you were wondering, Sahel Aviation Services (SAS) does plan to replace the crashed King Air 90. However, they are not sure if they will replace it with another 90 or not. After the crash, SAS shuffled several of their pilots around that were scheduled to arrive this summer and fall. That's how Briant ended up flying the 1900 instead the the 90.

New Jersey and Pennsylvania

Picture one: Harmony and her grandmother
Picture two: In Starbucks with John and Katie (Harmony's brother and his wife)

Since Briant did not end up going to the the planned training in NC, we got to spend a couple extra days with Greg, Gretchen, and Sophie in NC (Briant's sister's family). In NC, we took the time to fix the air conditioning in our Pontiac for the third time. (Is it still working, John?) Then, we headed north. We saw Harmony's old college roomate and her husband in Baltimore and Harmony's grandmother, cousins, and aunt and uncle in NJ. Our next and final stop was Bethlehem, PA. We got to spend a couple days with Harmony's brother and sister-in-law, John and Katie.

We left our car in PA with John and Katie and flew back to AR on June 24th. We already had one way plane tickets from Raleigh to Tulsa (via Houston). So, we had to buy more one way tickets from PA to Raleigh for that Saturday morning. Our second set of tickets went through Washington, DC. It was somewhere between the 4 flights and 5 airports that Briant got a serious case of food poisoning which landed us in the ER that night. I (Harmony) must have cought a stomach bug while staying up all night in the ER worrying about Briant. As soon as Briant started to recover, I got sick. Thankfully, I was not near as sick as Briant was!

With the exception of Harmony's dad, we saw every other member of our immediate families in June. That's pretty impressive! We'll make up for not seeing Harmony's dad starting August 22nd. That's Harry and Kathy's arrival date in Bamako, Mali.

Ocean Isle, NC

Picture one: Briant and his mom, Margie, on the beach
Picture two: Greg and Sophie after a good dinner
Picture three: Playing our favorite game, Settlers of Catan, with Greg and Briant's parents
Picture four: Briant's whole family

After making a few stops along the way to visit more friends and family, we eventualy made it to Greg and Gretchen's (Briant's sister) in NC and then to the beach :) Briant's parent and grandmother met up with us at the beach.

By this time, we were really happy to just relax on the beach. I read two books. Briant probably read three. And there's no telling how many Gretchen read. Maybe 7? (She just reads a little faster than I do...) We enjoyed relaxing, playing games, and boogie boarding. We took all the spoiling we could get before moving to Africa!

The Wednesday before Briant was supposed to go to training on the King Air 90, we found out that the plane he was going to fly in Mali had had a landing accident. As a result, the training in NC was canceled and Briant ended up having a week off to spend with me - instead of studying! We went to NJ and then PA that week.

Chicago

Picture one: Harmony standing in front of Lake Michigan
Picture two: Our lunch at Bubba Gump on Navy Pier
Picture three: Almost all the girls in Harmony's family (missing you Katie!)
Picture four: Cameron in a tree
Picture five: Keelson and his Nana

On June 1st we headed for Chicago where about half of Harmony's family gathered. Bob and Heidi were gearing up for three weeks of training in Wheaton and Heather and Mo were hosting us. So, I guess just Briant and I and my mom who were really on vacation. We enjoyed celebrating both of our brother-in-laws' graduate degrees, walking by the water, going to the Aquarium, riding on Charis and Cameron's scooters, playing frisbe with the kids... How did we fit so much into two days?

I just talked to both of my sisters today so I know all the latest on our neices and nephews. Charis is a confident little girl who told me that she was sure that her Uncle Briant would be willing to talk to her on the phone even though I had just told her that he was studying/working. Cameron, at 3 and a half years old, couldn't wait to tell me that he can now ride his bike with no training wheels. Keelson can sit up on his own, weighs a record 22 lbs, and is already looking like he wants to crawl. Amelie walks really well by herself now and is saying more and more words. Her favorite are "b" words (ball, Bible, baby, book... maybe "Briant" will be her next word!)

Forest flying?!

I was about to finaly update our blog with pictures from our June road trip when I came across some really neat pictures from May. Briant took Forest flying. You can see in the second picture that Forest really is flying. Briant was busy taking the picture. Forest took the last picture. I had to include it because I was impressed with Forest's picture taking ability!

June's Schedule

Yesterday was our last Sunday at Liberty Church for a long time. We had a good time sharing about Mali with our Sunday School class. We felt increadibly blessed to have all of our friends spend some time praying for us. We will truly miss everyone at Liberty!

Here's what we will be doing for the next month:

May 31st
Load up a U-Haul with all of our belongings
June 1st-2nd
Store all of our earthly posessions in a storage unit in Fayetteville. Get AR driver's licenses-with valid addresses. Take care of paper work. Rest a little... (maybe!).
June 3rd-4th
Drive two cars to Chicago. We will be leaving our Honda with Heather and Mo.
June 4th-7th
Spend some time with Harmony's sisters and their families. We'll get to see 4 of our nieces and nephews :)
June 7th-9th
Drive to NC. We'll be taking a couple of stops along the way.
June 10th-17
VACATION on the beach with Briant's family!
June 19th-23rd
Briant will be training on the King Air 90 in Waxsaw, NC. I'll just be hanging out.
June 24th
Fly back to AR. John and Katie will be taking care of our Pontiac for the year.
July 1st (+/- 3 days)
FLY TO MALI!

Easter Sunday

We spent Easter afternoon at the park with Angela's family. I think it was 95 degrees out. Knowing that it's supposed to be 106 degrees in Bamako on Tuesday, 95 really doesn't seem that hot anymore. Briant is with Forest and has Cory on his back. Harmony is with Jackie.

Fencing

It's amazing the games that boys can come up with! This is Briant and Forest in their "fencing" atire, complete with bike helmets and sunglasses. The swords are really miniature pool sticks.

Dinner at Tim's

Our last afternoon in Fayetteville, we ate at Tim's Pizza. We just wish Greg could have been there too.

Picture one: Sophie and Papa

Picture two: Sophie, enjoying her pizza too much to take a pictue. (Or is she just admiring the good looking croud in front of her?)

Picture three: Gretchen and Margie

Fayetteville Pics

Here are a few more pictures of our week-end in Fayetteville. Mawmaw, thanks for staying an extra day to see us!

Sophie loves to ring the doorbell and say "Who is it?" - even when she's the one doing the ringing. She gets especially excited when Papa opens the door.

Picture one: Briant, Mawmaw, and Harmony
Picture two: Sophie and Harmony bonding over cake
Picture three: Sophie admiring Marmie's beautiful flowers

Two Birthdays!

We spent the week-end of April 1st in Fayetteville.

Here we are celebrating both Bill and Margie's birthdays - a little early. Mawmaw, Gretchen, Sophie, Briant, and Harmony were all present.

Crossing Paths...

While on our way back to Tulsa from NJ, we had a layover in Chicago. At the same time, Heather and Moises had an outgoing flight to Puerto Rico. We met up at American Airlines at O'Hare. Amelie kept trying to crawl away in the airport. She's fast!

Picture one: Amelie and her stroller
Picture two: Briant, Harmony, and Amelie
Picture three: Heather and Moises

Spring Break with the Winslows

Here we are in Ventnor, NJ! We played with the kids, walked on the boardwald, went to Chucky Cheese's, and played Settler's of Catan. (Harmony won 2 out of 4, by the way...)

Picture 1: Briant and Cameron
Picture 2: Heidi, Harmony, and Charis
Pricture 3: Harmony and Keelson

On the boardwalk with the Winslows

This is the boardwalk that goes to Atlantic City, NJ.

Picture one: Bob and Heidi

Picture two: Cameron on his bike

Picture three: Briant and Charis riding together

The Tigers

These are pictures of "Coach McKenzie's" Upward Basketball team at Liberty Church. They played from January to March 2006.

A King Air 90

Briant will be flying a plane similar to this one in Mali.
We just found out that his training will be June 19-23, in Waxsaw, NC.