Flying
The week of
April 13th, our family of three headed to Anchorage in the Cherokee
6 to do a BIG shopping trip. We left on a Monday afternoon with the last minute
decision that we were leaving that day. It’s nice when the weather is beautiful
and you have the flexibility to fly yourself in. Generally, we fly commercially
if we need to get somewhere at a certain time, especially in the winter time
when the weather is so iffy. Initially, Jeremy was planning on flying to Kenai
as well, and so we were going to combine a trip; but the Kenai trip is postponed
for now. When we arrived, it was basically time to eat something and get the
boy to bed. We are so thankful that we have a place to stay while we are “in
town”. Some friends with SEND almost always have room for us and many times
they have an extra van for us to use. What a huge blessing with all the grocery
shopping and shipping!!
I think at
one point during the trip I lost track how many times we did a Costco run, but
it was at least four or five times; plus Sam’s Club once, Walmart (only!) once,
and Fred Meyer at least three times. We were doing shopping not only for
ourselves, but also for our VBS summer teams. If you’re curious more about what
all is entailed in our shopping trips, feel free to ask. Malachi did an amazing
job and loved all the shopping. His favorite part was jumping over all the
cracks in the floor at the stores and riding in all the carts. He would “organize”
the food for me as I put it in the cart. He didn’t want to buy food for the VBS
team though, because he knew it wasn’t going to be for him. Typical
preschooler.
In addition
to grocery shopping, we also bought a new mattress (yay!) and even had time for….
Fun
Malachi’s
absolute favorite thing to do in Anchorage is to go to the mall and ride the
elevators and escalators over and over and over again. He knows the routine too.
Daddy takes him on numerous rides and Mommy goes clothes shopping. So, it’s a
pretty cheap source of fun while there….for the boys anyway. ;)
We also took
M bowling for his first time. He loved it! We were able to have bumpers and the
ramp thing you roll the ball down, so no gutter balls!
One of
Jeremy’s favorite parts of trip was his chance to fly a Piper Super Cub
simulator with our friend from SEND.
We stayed in
Anchorage for a week, which was great to be able to have that much time to allow
ourselves limited stress. Limited stress
there anyway…
Fear (for
Lacey)
The day we
decided to head home it was snowing there and a little bit at home. It was in
the afternoon and the snow was coming down in huge flakes. I guess it was
trying to make up for lost time with the mild winter we had. We thought, “Well,
maybe we’re going to have to stay here one more night.” Surprisingly though,
around 6, it really cleared up and the weather looked great all the way home.
So, we quickly just packed up the stuff from the fridge and freezer and headed
out to the airport. We took off shortly after 7:30, after Malachi decided to
walk under the fuel vent and got a fair amount of avgas on the hood of his
winter coat. Great. So, we stuffed the stinky thing (the coat) into a few
plastic bags and layered the boy with a pj shirt.
Ok. In the air. The flight through the
mountains and pass was as beautiful going as it was coming. Crystal clear. Basically
half way through the trip we flew past Port Alsworth (this place has been
mentioned before in past blog posts) and noticed about 15 minutes out that it
looked just a tad hazy. Jeremy mentioned, “I think I’ll call the weather
service to get an update since it’s been since Anchorage that we had one.” No
problem. Wellllll…..He called and Naknek weather didn’t sound so great. There
was a chance we could dodge it by flying “off course” a bit which normally
would be no issue, but we were pushing daylight. So we (or the “pilot husband” rather)
decided that we turn back to Port Alsworth, because it was so close and we had
friends there. We got about 8 miles from PA and the snow was starting there and
making visibility horrible. Whoops. Turn around, again? At this point, I was
getting pretty nervous, but not quite to the fear point. Yet. To make a longgggg
story just long: we weren’t able to go home. We weren’t able to go to PA. We
weren’t able to go to Illiamna either which was the next option, so what literally
seemed like our last chance we landed in the small village of Nondalton with about
100-150 people. Jeremy was super calm during the whole time and promised me we
would be fine. Malachi was completely happy and oblivious and playing the
Kindle about two hours after his bedtime. Thankfully, Alaska has so many
runways around, even if there’s no villages connected to it. (Summer lodges,
fishing/hunting locations/etc)
As soon as we
landed in Nondalton, Jeremy immediately threw on the wing and engine covers on
the airplane and we thought, “Now what?” We didn’t have a cell phone that
worked in those area villages, so we couldn’t call anyone. (We’ll be changing
that soon) Since Jeremy is into ham radio, he had a hand held radio with him
that he always carries with him when he flies, because villages typically have
marine band radios that they monitor. While J was throwing on the covers, I did
a few calls on it to see if anyone heard us. No answer. After he was done, we
decided we would have to walk into the village and knock on someone’s door to
see if they would take us in. As we started walking, J decided to call out on
the radio again and there was an answer! The person on the other end sent her
20 something year old grandson out to get us. He happened to be someone who had
worked at the Bible Camp in Port Alsworth for a couple summers! Alaska is huge,
yet so small. AND they had a place for us to stay. We saw so many answers to
prayer, including the next morning when we went to leave and all our fresh and
frozen food was as we had left it, fresh and frozen!
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We got home
Tuesday late morning with a couple days to unpack our food that was with us and
stuff that came that was shipped with the cargo planes. Oh, and to prepare for
a Birthday boy….
Four (years
old)
Malachi
turned 4! His birthday this year was at our church, so that we could invite
more people than would fit in our house. It was a puppy/ paw patrol themed
party and a lot of fun! (See pictures)
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