All Boy

On any given day, you can most likely find my son outside riding his bike, constructing the perfect sword out of sticks, setting up booby traps, making teepee's or anything else that might come to his imagination. Today was no different. He has happily entertained himself most of the day, building a new fort. A fort in his own yard. He comes into the house, dirt covered face, with a big grin and asks if I want to see his fort. Of course the only answer I can give, is an enthusiastic,"Yes!" Outside, underneath a large tree he proudly shows me his fort, complete with a "keep out" sign in the front (no girls, of course).

I love my boy and his zest for life. He LOVES to enjoy whatever nature has for him. Be it a pile of dirt to kick around or a tree to make a fort. He is in his element when he's outside. Rain or shine, he is out there.

It reminds me how I should be loving life and taking in the beauty and creation that is right here in my front yard. I need to enjoy what God has given us in this beautiful place. Oh to be like my son! I just love how the Lord has allowed my children to teach me so many wonderful things about life. What a blessing!

Blueberries!!!

Living up here has been one great adventure after another! I have had some great opportunities. I'm learning from some very wonderful people who are helping me survive the elements and take advantage of them as well.

One advantage of living here is that there are numerous places to go to pick blueberries. We have had the opportunity to pick them as a family and I, most recently, had the chance to pick them all day! It was such a beautiful day and we picked and picked and picked! It was great! My family didn't even mind giving me up for the day because they knew I'd come home with lots of blueberries for them!

Riding a float plane out and picking blueberries and seeing beautiful mountains were such a delight. I felt like a little kid! So, after picking for about 5 hours, I came home with about 2 or so gallons of blueberries. (The really good pickers gathered 3 gal. or so!!) Carlon and I ended up cleaning blueberries well into the night. We spent about 3 hours cleaning and freezing them!

It was time well spent. That night I could just taste all the wonderful things that come from blueberries...blueberry pie, blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, blueberry icecream, blueberry cobbler...and so the list goes on! Yum!! A friend of mine put it perfectly, she said something to the fact that this is the best kind of harvest, one you don't have to plant or take care of, but just wait for the Lord and come take your share.

Ali, thinking she's going to go with me.

The view from the plane.

The area we picked blueberries.

Bucket getting filled.

All the blueberries we picked.

Carlon, multi-tasking. He was a huge help!

Yummy blueberries.

Attacked!

On a cool summer day, one of the last days before school started, a couple of the kids and I decided to take a walk. The walk turned out to be quite the adventure, but with a happy ending.

We took a path, a nice narrow path. With beautiful greenery, beautiful flowers and even berries, which we weren't sure if they were poisonous, so opted NOT to eat them. We enjoyed a nice afternoon in Alaska walking in the tundra. The path eventually lead us out onto a more popular trail. Once we reached that trail, we turned around and started heading out. As I looked on the ground, there was fresh bear scat, or poop as others might call it. So, we were glad to turn around and go back the way we came...just in case. Bad deal number one.

Along the trail home we continued to enjoy the scenery and were able to avoid tripping over many tree roots on the ground. We came up to a place that had some sort of bug flying about in the area, in a little hole. Much to our surprise it was a swarm of hornets. Hornets that were NOT happy! So, I scream to myself and my children,"RUN!!!!" and we did! I got stung twice and one of the kids got a sting on her head. Bad deal number two.

So, after traumatizing my poor children, we made a run for our prowler (four wheeler thing). I was told by my children to drive fast! As we drove we started to finally feel relieved when suddenly out popped another hornet from who knows where! Screaming and yelling and some more tears later it thankfully flew out as soon as I stopped and opened the door. Bad deal number three.

After many tears, lots of screaming, and a few stings, we were safely home. We put in a movie ate some icecream, drank some rootbeer and enjoyed the comfort of our home INSIDE. All in all a good deal in the end. And to think, I was worried about bears!!

The berries we chose not to eat.

Standing by the "forbidden" berries. (They are probably just cranberries, but better safe than sorry)

The trail on the way up, when we were happy!

The narrow trail. Hornets here we come!

What Marshmallow Type Are You?

The other day, Carlon and I took the kids out to a creek nearby to have dessert...s'mores! We loaded up with everything in tow, kids included, and found the perfect spot. Building the fire was the boys job while the girls looked for dry wood. Once the fire was lit, we were ready to roast. As I began taking requests as to how they would like their marshmallow roasted, I realized why I like mine burnt!

I've decided there seems to be a connection with the way you like your marshmallow roasted and your personality. Those of us who like them on fire and burned to a crisp, have little if any patience. We stick the marshmallow in, start it on fire and poof! it's done! We've eaten 3 to every one that others eat. Those people who like them just brown on the outside are much more patient. There's a method and a madness to sitting by the fire (smoke in your face) turning the stick and waiting, and waiting AND waiting for the perfectly brown marshmallow evenly spread throughout. Now, I'm not sure what "type" you are if you just like them plain. Even less patient than the burned marshmallow? No taste for cooked marshmallow? A plain Jane? I don't know. We had all three "personalities" at the creek that night!

However the marshmallow, I don't think it really matters once you add chocolate and graham crackers. Really, I don't think you can go wrong. And what's even better is when you get to share them with family!

Going on a Visit

Living in the bush of Alaska has it's perks, like being in your own little world and forgetting about the rest of the world out there. Or how nice it is to wake up to see beauty and scenery in every direction and not worry about it being torn down to build a new housing development. Or even just the quiet that being out in seclusion brings. It's all very nice.

This month, however, we have come into town for a visit to grandma and grandpa. It has been such a nice time, but, oh how quickly I've forgotten how the hustle and bustle of life outside of the bush can be like.

The kids are in swim lessons and they're loving it, and my oldest girl is in gymnastics. I've forgotten what it's like to be carpool mom! The kids have forgotten what it's like to sit in a carseat for hours at a time and I had to recall my driving abilities...it's been five months! But all has worked out and we are enjoying our time and enjoying seeing cars and stores and shops and whatnot.


Shopping is an experience in itself. I'm loving it and hating it all at the same time. Finding enough stuff to last for several months is a challenge, yet I'm using that as an excuse to spend more money! I was like a kid in a candy store the first time I stepped foot into a store once we got here...again, it's been 5 months!

All this to say, that it has been a very fun experience and an enjoyable time. We will continue to enjoy being here and the busyness that it entails, but I'm already looking forward to quiet and seclusion. I guess I really must be acclimated to my new home!

Catch Up

I feel that I've needed to catch up on some of the things we've been up to lately. The kids are out of school and loving it. Riding bikes, playing in sprinklers, picnics, going exploring, it really doesn't get any better than that! Their last week of school, however, they celebrated Native Week. As a result the kids had the opportunity to make (by hand) their own pair of rabbit fur mittens! I was able to attend that last week and help out and it was so fun! The kids pretty much did most of the work themselves. They are both proud owners of their very own rabbit fur mittens. Only in Alaska!!

Here they are making the string that connects the mittons together. I think it was called finger crochet.

Coleson working diligently.

Malea hand sewing the fleece lining.

Coleson working with the fur, sewing it.

The finished product!

My daughter has reached another milestone. She lost her first tooth!! It was very exciting and there were no tears! She's so tough sometimes. She was excited and I was crying. I don't know where the time has gone that she's already loosing teeth! She was even more excited when she woke up and found money under her pillow. She thought that was a pretty good trade!

The missing tooth!

Loving sisters.

Yummy Tortillas!

Tonight for dinner I didn't have any store bought tortillas so decided to make homemade tortillas (it's not like I can run out to the store real quick!). This is something I've been trying to master for sometime. My grandma made the BEST tortillas in the world, and I would love to be able to just come close. No one can beat hers! So, I've used my grandma's recipe, with a little tweaking because her recipe was in "handfuls" and "pinches" and in "just abouts", not quite the way my brain works. I found a similar recipe online through cooks.com. So, now I have actual measurements. They turned out all right, even though their shape came no where near a circle! The kids loved them and it was fun, trying to keep my grandma's tradition alive. I even gave the kids pointers on how they could use their tortilla to scoop their food, like my grandma used to do. It was a little tricky. They almost managed!

As I watched them eat and as I looked at the plate of tortillas, I thought of my grandma. I grinned thinking how proud she would be of her great grandchildren trying to scoop their food with their tortillas. She would have laughed at my inability to make them, but I'm sure it would have made her smile.

So, I will keep making them, keep attempting to form circles, keep teaching the children how to properly scoop and hope that I will be able to keep the tradition alive. My grandma would've liked that!

The girls enjoying their tortillas.

My odd shaped tortillas.

The boys dig in!