Ice fishing, snowmobile rides, and leaving Alaska!

We rode out onto the frozen Bering Sea to make a short video for the staff at Jack's new school in Eagle Mountain! It's just amazing to be on the ocean, frozen.

Mark took us ice fishing at Moses Point.  It is 10 miles outside of the village and it was around 20 degrees.  By the time we got there the kids were cold and complaining, but I thought it was a great little outing!  In this picture we were getting ready to leave.

 Ila rode behind Mark and Zax rode in the sled for a short time.

 Me and Crew on the snowmobile ready to leave.

 Zax was a white ball of snow and opted to ride on the back of the snowmobile.

 We are at the fishing hole!

 Mark dug some more holes to fish in.

 I was the only one who caught a fish!  Look closely or you'll miss it, lol!

I am apart of the family fur hat club now.  I finally finished sewing the hat I'm wearing at my sewing group with lots of help!

 We were checking out these fox furs that arrived and were ready to be cut out. 

Every Friday we get together with my neighbor and her granddaughter for some time to connect!  I enjoy having a friend to hang out with and have missed it so much while living here.

 Ila, three of her friends, and Crew enjoying a snack after school.  Maya, Caris, and Ava.

Jack's new job for Fall 2018 school year is at Eagle Valley Elementary School in Eagle Mountain, Utah as the principal.  On the map it is blue with a white circle around it on the bottom left side (sorry, not a very good map!).  It is a couple miles from the school he worked at for 5 years when we lived in Provo.  We are so excited to be moving back.  I've been making lists, "window" shopping online, and decluttering every area of the house.  The kids get treats each week for putting 10 toys in the give-a-way bag.  It is a very unique way to move since it is by aiplane!  Our house here came fully furnished so we don't have to worry about furniture so the next step is only taking the essentials since mailing is very expensive.  The post master showed me Utah is in zone 7 from Elim so it is the second most expensive place to mail things to!   I'm not overwhelmed by all of it yet, but ask me again in the middle of May how I am feeling!    

2018, we are ready!

In September, I started attending a "sewing group" in the village that was funded through a grant called Suicide Awareness Prevention.  We chose fur mittens to start with because they are the easiest.  I brought Zax to sew because he is a crafty kid and bugs me all the time to do crafts.  It is hard to sew through leather and fur, but I was super impressed he did it.  Ellen, the lady in the back, was patient with me and helped me through the whole process.

 My first pair of mittens!  And now I just started a fur hat for Jack to wear.

 I got the knitting "bug" over Christmas break being with my sister Holly and am loving the new patterns Holly has taught me how to use!  These two are my favorite duo.  I brought back two grocery bags full of yarn to get me through these cold days.  But now that I'm home I am already slacking in projects.  Homeschooling Zax and Ila takes up a lot of time and I find myself holding baby Ky (Skyler) a lot because he isn't going to be small for much longer!

This is a sad month marker picture because he is sick!  We all brought some bugs home with us from Christmas in IL.

Zax's friend, Darin, moved in August to another village and Zax has missed him.  He was just talking about Darin and we happened to see him in the Nome airport!  These two had fun playing for a couple hours.

Christmas break at my parent's house was THE.BEST.  I had so much time with my sisters and parents.  The cousin time was full of laughs!  And of course, my mom made great food.

 ALLLL the cousins together.  Martin/Spencers, Knowltons, and Kingsfords.

My mom took us to a zoo!  There were some pretty incredible animals there and mind you, this is in Cental IL!

We drove a couple hours to Great Wolf Lodge in Ohio for two nights and they had a blast.  The waterpark was impressive and Ky slept really well in a stroller while we played.

 My friend Adrienne is a very thoughtful person and bought these two wands from the gift shop they were eyeing!  I am blessed with some pretty awesome friends.

We welcome 2018 with gratitude and excitement for new adventures to come.

Deja vu, kind of.

We are back in Elim to start our third school year after a great summer in Illinois with my family. Coming back with a 6 week old was like deja vu! Crew was 6 weeks when We first arrived two years ago.  But this time I already had my house set up and I knew what to expect.  So not really.  

We now have to purchase 5 plane tickets and with the Bush planes having a max of 9 seats and all the luggage/mail/packages they carry, this time we were the only ones on it! We even got to leave as soon as we got to the airline instead of waiting 3 hours for the scheduled evening flight.  That was an added bonus.   It felt like a chartered flight just for us!

Since Crew turned 2 this summer our 4 legs of flights were his first ones not as a lap child.

We missed our connecting flight in Chicago so we got to wait 16 hours for the next one! We took several ubers around town to pass the time.  McDonald's was our first stop at 9am and Crew successfully took a nap!

Chicago airport around 11pm waiting for our flight to board to Anchorage.

9 suitcases, 4 backpacks, 1 stroller, and two carseats! We're back in Elim!

Our doors are boarded up over the summer to help prevent break ins. This is our neighbor's door.

The village kids love swimming in the ocean! It was around 68 degrees and these boys were catching jellyfish!

Kindergarten teacher, Sammy, took Zax and Ila berry picking! They were elated and I was so happy they got to go out and do something fun!

This is how we roll with two babies around the village!

About 9am these boys were already in the ocean for a swim using that boat to jump off of.

We had a mini family workout at the beach after Zax's run. He does half a lap around the perimeter each morning and recruited Ila even. We started running with the cross country team this week, he's so excited about running for some reason and it's motivation for me to exercise!

Crew and Ila stretching with the cross country team.  Crew likes to be included in everything his siblings are doing.

Just another day at the beach

Well, kind of. The snow has melted on the land and the ice covering the ocean is melting rapidly. Hunting season is in full force for whale, seal, birds, and probably other animals I'm unaware of. We walked to the store to get the kids ice cream they earned for finishing their reading chart and then headed to the beach for a walk and this is what we found!

This is the insides of a bearded seal. It's pretty incredible how they use every part of the animal.  The hunters pointed out all the parts and talked to us for awhile.

Graduation day was Friday for these two only seniors, Ralph and Jerome.  Since there were only two in the graduating class they both got to speak and both will be attending Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks.

We have Jack the principal, superintendent, school counselor, guest speaker and interim high school math teacher, and native leader over funds...He has a real title, but that is a key thing he does.

Last week was my 31 week marker.  It can be scary seeing myself in the mirror!  How in the world do our bodies do this??

Last week the temperature hit in the 30's and higher consistently and the kids were on the deck playing happily with rocks. Now the snow is all melted around the house and hours are being spent at the playground!  One more week til we leave for the whole summer!  First Utah then Illinois to wait for this baby to be born.

Jack is the best at crafts.  He has so much patience and creativity, it is pretty cool to have a husband with these traits.