Snowmen!

So far our final January here in Ohio has been anything but snowy ... just a couple of days here and there, enough to cause a little disruption to MOPS and schools but gone within 48 hours as if there had never been a Level 1 or 2 snow emergency!! As I write this it's just trying to snow again!

Having said that we would never pass up an opportunity to enjoy whatever comes our way, so the Beckwith girlies have had a few afternoons in the white fluffy stuff with Abigail quickly showing Naomi what a snow angel was, within seconds of getting outside!

As you can see above the first offering wasn't all that impressive which didn't stop us being silly. Below the second heavier snowfall was referred to as packing snow ... basically perfect for making snowmen!! This fell just after Mark left for PNG and almost delayed some of his flights. Without a second set of hands to run in and get Mr Frosty a hat and scarf, I (Jenny) gave up mine for the cause ... what a dedicated Mummy?! Abigail was most disappointed when I took them off when we finished playing and went inside!!

Being responsible for clearing the sidewalks outside your own houses, the Beckwith girlies were very grateful when a neighbour and another friend came to our assistance in clearing our pathways during the very heavy snow! It can be a big job.

As we were a little more restricted with going out we decided to try our hands at making snowmen inside too!! The bake-pop phenomenon reached our house a couple of months ago and we found they were the perfect way to make yummy snowmen! Here are the works in progress (of course there had to be some 'pink' ones as that's Abigail's favourite colour!) ...

The finished articles looked a little more like 'Mr Blobby' than we would have liked ... just not pink with yellow dots! But Abigail took great joy in adding the googly eyes that Mark had got her before he left which made them look a little more freaky!! Presentation was definitely not the priority of the day just the speed in which we could get them finished so Abigail could eat one!!

Abigail had been trying to save one for Mark when he got home ... it took several days of convincing that it would be better to finish the last one of these and make some more for Daddy when he gets back!!

There is more snow forecast which we're really excited about ... especially Popeye who has come to play with us with all her snow gear and so far hasn't had to unpack them!! Maybe there will be the chance to build some more snowmen ... so far our total this winter is 10 ... 1 outside and 9 in!

Off on Rapid Response

Part of Mark's training here at MMS involves going on a rapid response trip to help out another mission with their aircraft for several weeks, either overseas or in the States ... or both! It is free labour and assistance for those they help and invaluable experience for the guys.

First thing Friday morning, Mark left Coshocton with Jim (left) and Andy (centre) and travelled over the weekend, spanning four flights, several continents and the dateline ... arriving safely in Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea, Monday lunchtime. (Andy is another MAF UK apprentice who started his training here just over a year after Mark.)

The three of them will be there for just over three weeks, returning to Coshocton on February 12th. They will be helping JAARS repair the undercarriage of their King Air which got damaged in a bad landing (see below). This will enable the JAARS engineers to continue maintaining the rest of the aircraft and not have to stretch themselves too much to get this bigger job done on top of their usual workload. 

Back at home we're missing Mark lots but enjoying ourselves too. 'Popeye' (Jenny's sister) is flying in today to join the Beckwith girlies left behind and help out while he is gone. The day before Mark left we made a paper-chain with one link for every day he will be away. Every morning we go to the chain and remove another link making it shorter and shorter until there are none left and he's safely back here with us!

Mark will write more himself, probably when he returns ... but we thought you'd like to know what he was up to and that he had arrived there safely!

A Bowling First!

During the week between Christmas and New Year we had some fun family time. As well as getting things done around the house, we spent a day shopping in Columbus and took a trip up into Amish Country as it's been quite a while since we've been up there.

Another fun outing we had was to the local bowling alley. We realised recently that the only time Abigail had ever bowled was on the Wii!! We invited some friends, the Fishers, to join us and it seems that Jonas who is just 2 months younger than Abigail had only ever bowled on a Wii too!! Here they are posing in their bowling shoes ... the smallest size at the alley!

Abigail, Jonas and his little sister Lucy (who is 1) had a lot of fun ... and Caroline, Ben and both of us us enjoyed having the bumpers up the sides to give us a greater chance of scoring well too! Naomi just thought it was fun to slide around the floor and watch everything that was going on!

We passed the littlest munchkins around between us ... and the older two were just too eager to help and play regardless of who's turn it was to bowl! They also decided that sometimes it would be fun to just roll the ball rather than use the ramp to push off from ... the slowest moving bowling balls in history but they still scored some points!

Once the kiddos got the hang of the bowling thing ... they switched their attention to the blower at the end of the ball return ... as you can see it was lots of fun too!

We had lots of fun together and will definitely be returning sometime soon. Abigail will be able to teach Naomi in a year or two. In the meantime she will just give her lots of cuddles!!