So what have we been up to this summer?

Oh, a bunch of wedding planning....

And a little bit of this.

Ain't we cute? :-)

Summertime...

...and the livin' is easy.

So as you have likely deduced by now, there will probably be a limited few number of posts this summer on my Alaska blog, due to the fact that we're not, you know, in Alaska.

I may update here and there to post pics and let you know what's up...there's plenty going on, of course. Between wedding planning (not to mention the actual wedding), seeing people, catching/stocking up on stuff that I can't do during the school year, ya know...it should be a really, really fun summer.

And we'll certainly be doing a lot of this

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Weeeee!

So. After a truly hectic few days, here we sit at gate C3, waiting for our flight from Anchorage to the middle of the Middle-west, stomachs full of good food and maybe a couple beers :-P

See you in a few time zones!

Air Lab

So now that school's over and our days are filled with sleeping in and packing endless boxes, we've had a bunch of time to procrastinate take Loki swimming. We've even got him into dock-jumping. He was leery when we started...the first couple times he'd only do it once, and then only go in from shore the rest of the day...but once he got used to it and figured out how to keep his head mostly above water when he dives in, he loves it. Absolutely can not get enough. Check it out:

Now we just have to find a nice dock when we get home to WI this weekend :-P

*blink*

So that's it, huh? The school year's over already? Doesn't seem like it's possible.

Let's see, what's been up? Well, I helped chaperone a slumber party last weekend for the 5th grade class and the Junior High basketball team. It was pretty fun, and noone was too poorly behaved or annoying (thank god). At one point I let the kids use my camera, which resulted in about a hundred pictures (like the one at right) on my card in a stunningly short period of time. Which is cool by me :-)

What else? Oh, got to drive the boat over to Akiuk for the first time this spring. We took off after sunset, which worried me a little bit seeing as the sun had already set, but thankfully the angle the sun goes down in this part of the world meant we had more than enough twilight to get there and back, still able to see the paths and cuts between lakes. It was cool, actually my first time driving the whole way, so now I'm pretty confident in my knowledge of the path. It was like the first time snowmobiling to Bethel...it's different when I'm the one that actually has to, you know, pay attention to the route :-P I'm really a hands-on type of learner.

Other than that, now it's all about getting stuff cleaned up, packed up, and moved. We're heading out a week from Friday, so we've got a little time left...thank god.

Link

Just wanted to post a quick link to this story I saw from the New York Times the other day. It's pretty sad, but I thought it was worth posting...the author touches on some important issues in this part on the world.

NY Times: In Native Alaskan Villages, A Culture of Sorrow

More Pics

Sara and I took Loki for a swim this weekend. He seemed quite excited to get back in the water after a long winter...or that could have just been me projecting. Here are a couple shots of the action:

Land of the Midnight (not quite) Sun

Here's a fuzzy, shaky, out-of-focus picture taken last night at exactly midnight. The sun goes down these days at about quarter after 11, but it's at such a crazy angle to the horizon that it stays light for a couple hours afterwards (and gets light way before sunrise in the morning). I know it's just because I'm not used to it, but it kind of messes with my mind.

It didn't help that as I was finally getting to bed, not even really tired, at 1am last night...there was a robin singing. Felt like I should be getting out of bed, not in.

The De-frozen Tundra

Well, we're getting right down to it, aren't we? Hard to believe we've only got, what, a couple weeks left of the school year? And then a little packing, a little moving, and we're on our way back to the Minnesconsin (or is it Wisconsota?) region. Not too much of excitement to report from the last week or so, but I do have a couple pictures...so how's about we do it that way?

The snow is gone and the tundra is (mostly) thawed, so it seemed like last weekend was a good time to go for a walk...with guns. Peter was headed out hunting just south of the village and asked me if I wanted to tag along, which of course I did :-) This is a picture of lovely "southside" Nunapitchuk taken from I-don't-know-how-far-away on the tundra.

Here's Peter with a shotgun and his handy walking stick (seriously...it came in quite handy), looking out over the tundra for sights/sounds of avian life.

Me, I was just happy to get out and have the opportunity to sight in my 17hmr...haven't had it out since getting it up here, and the scope had been knocked way off. Boo. (I'm not particularly fond of this picture...I think it's the low angle. But it's me with a gun, so odds are yeah, I'm going to post it.)

Also of note...the river ice went out over the weekend! So I guess that marks the end of ice fishing, huh? Oh well, I guess it's about time to get out on the boat anyway.

Into the Homestretch

So what have we been up to since Trivia? Not much, not much.

Last week was my first week post-subbing, and really, it was quite boring. Nice, but boring. I got our snowmobile put away for the summer (sad!) and some calls made and stuff taken care of for the wedding, but other than that, didn't have too much going on.

Then, over the weekend, we had to fly into Bethel for another marriage prep session at the church. Even without riding in on snowmobile, travel was a little hairy. The airport here in Nunap is on the opposite side of the river, which at the moment is right at that sketchy stage where there is ice in most spots, but it's not very good ice, and you have to have a good idea where to go or else you're going to get wet. Thus, with noone willing (smartly) to take us by snowmobile or 4-wheeler, we had to walk to the airport to catch our plane. We got there, made it to Bethel, walked around and got some dinner, and had a lovely time Saturday night at the White House. Sunday we made it to mass and got our last conversation in with the Priest, and still had time to do a little shopping before heading back to the airport for the quick flight back to the village.

So after worrying about whether the ice on the river was going to be good enough for us to cross back and forth to the airport a couple times over the weekend, what have we been up to since? Well ice fishing, of course!!

Gotta love ice fishing in May :-)