Sirakoro Trip

These pictures are from Bryon's recent trip to Sirakoro, Mali. On this trip they were delivering bookbags and school supplies to schools that were started through the US government. You can see in the pictures that they were given the grande welcome. There was a ceremony to recognize the relationship between the school and the US and it was a big celebration. It's nice seeing how we are making a positive impact in countries around the world. Education is so important and I wish everyone had the opportunities to receive an education like we have in this country.

Alaska Trip

Home From Alaska!!!

These are some of the pictures taken on my cruise to Alaska last week. I went with my MawMaw Bettis (my mom's mom). We cruised on Carnival Cruise Lines on the ship Spirit. We departed from Whittier and disembarked in Vancouver, British Columbia and had a great time! The ship stopped in Sitka, Juneau, Skagway and Ketchekan and cruised the College Fjords and Inside Passage. We also took a train into the Yukon of Canada and bussed into the middle of no where into the town of Carcross. On top of all that, we had a beautiful balcony room and the temperature was in the upper 40's-low 50's, my perfect temperatures! Molly did just fine and enjoyed a lot of excellent food and R&R.

The train from Skagway into the Yukon Territory. Without a doubt, some of the most beautiful and majestic views and landscape in the whole world. God truly is great and generous to give us such wonders to look at.

MawMaw and I at dinner on formal night. I think this night we had Alaskan Salmon and Baked Alaska for desert! Yummy!


Me on the deck of our room on the cruise ship. What a great view we had!


I took this picture on the upper deck of the ship during one of my morning walks. The air is so clean and brisk, just the way I like it!

The still waters off of our ship.

Me attempting to push a dog sled. Don't worry I didn't try really hard. Just wanted it to look like I did.

On our 1.5 mile walk through the rainforest. Fortunately for us, no bears were seen. I did learn though that the majority of the 'soil' in Alaska is rock, so trees cant grow deep roots. What happens is that trees fall over, decompose and new foliage grows out of the decomposed brush. You can see this in the trees to the right of the picture.


This is our room on the ship. Check out that view!

Me on the beach in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. On a side note, the jacket I'm wearing is Bryons. None of my will zip up anymore! Molly is poking out too much now! It was great with me wearing Bryon's jacket, like my dad said, it's like having a big hug from him every day.

Off to Alaska!

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm headed off tomorrow to the most beautiful state in the US, Alaska!! I will be going with my mawmaw, and Molly of course and we will be gone until June 18th. I'll be sure to post pictures when I get home. Please keep us in your prayers. It will be an enormous relief to get away from this heat for awhile and get to experience God's beautiful countryside that is so unique to Alaska. We will be going on Carnival Cruise lines. I will post again in a week!

Oh and happy birthday to Mary Sargent, Diane, and my mawmaw, whose birthdays will be celebrated while I'm gone and Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there reading this. Especially to my and Bryon's dads, we wouldn't be who we are without you all!

love to everyone,
Haley

Soccer Match

Bryon sent me these pictures from his soccer matches the past two Saturdays. The match last weekend was between the US Embassy (Bryon's team) and the Malian Ministry of Health and the game this week was between the US Embassy and the Foreign Service Nationals, which are the Malians who work at the embassy.

My husband who doesn't even like soccer is a starter and has really started to enjoy it. It helps being one of the biggest guys on the team. Even the ambassador plays on occasions! Who would have known soccer was such an international sport? I'm sure you can pick him out, he's the tall guy in the blue shirt (and white shirt in two photos), with blonde hair. The other picture is of the city where the matches and runs are held and the opponent team last week as they greeted each other before the game.