Donaldson Crew Adventures

The national EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) has a program ran by volunteers called Young Eagles to help get kids into the field of aviation.  Bend has a chapter managed by some great volunteers.  Hunter has recently joined and will participate each week helping the group put together airplanes.  As part of the program they can also go up with the pilots when they fly.  

Here are a few pictures of Hunter helping thread rudder cables on a plane followed by some pictures from his first small aircraft on Sunday.  His pilot Jack was a commercial pilot in his younger days and now flies just for fun.  The plane they flew in was built by Jack himself.  After his first flight he got a certificate, and a flight log book, to log his trips and flight time.    

Here is Hunter taking off on in his first flight.

Here is some video footage Hunter took from the cockpit.  He also got to take the stick and steer the plane while in the air!

Noah had an indoor soccer game on Saturday and three of his friends from school are on his team. They won and Noah scored 6 goals. We are so proud of him and his teammates. Watching him play is always the highlight of the day. Go Timbers!!

Kelly and I went up x-country skiing this afternoon with Holly.  Kids wanted to just play at the house so we had a date!

We missed the lunar eclipse last night due to cloud cover, but awoke to a beautiful moonset this morning coming down right behind North Sister.  

Some fresh snow today. Holly loves snow. She runs and runs.

Every third Saturday the local shooting range (COSSA) - Central Oregon Sport Shooting Association has a kids day where they teach them safe use of bolt action 22 rifles. They have smaller sizes for kids arms and supply the equipment for $10/kid. This Saturday was PJ’s first time. He did great!

Skiing down Outback with a great view of Sisters and Broken Top with late afternoon shadows.  

Pappie (Ralph) got the kids snowshoes for Christmas so with the two pair we already had we now have a set for everyone. Today was ideal for a practice run with sunny skies. We hiked 3 miles.

Happy New Year 2019 from the Donaldson Crew.

After the Gormlys left early on New Years Eve morning we decided to have a quiet evening at home. We played games and even our dog Holly was tired and hit the hay early.

The Gormlys came into town on the 27th and we had a great time. We went ice skating, sledding, skiing, snowshoeing and spent many nights by the fire. It’s was such a fun week and lots of good memories were made.