Virtual church and School outings

The Bush Branch's first relief society presidency meeting was over vidyo and voice was over a phone line.  It worked great to be able to see each other.  We are in three different villages and one in Anchorage.  It is definitely interesting and I am learning a lot from these wonderful women.

Zax's class at their Valentine's party! 

We took 2 snowmobiles out to Next Creek and onto the ocean to check Mark's crab pot.  You have to shovel the snow, then break the ice and shovel the ice chunks out of the water.  There weren't any crab this time sadly, but it was a cool ride and process to see.  I was glad I got to see how it all worked.

There have been five principals in five years here so there isn't a warm welcome when you arrive. Jack has been doing what he always does, hard work, and little by little he sees the fruits. A student sadly took his own life this week and a teacher wrote this to Jack.

There is a district art director who flies to all the sites and teaches art. Jack wants that job next! The community night was screen printing/painting.  We did a picture of an eagle with Elim written on it and a moose.  A lucky uncle is getting it in the mail!

When the unit is places and there is a store and a post office in town to choose from these lucky kids got to write letters and put them in the box!

Postmaster Gary, he is a character!

Taking turns mailing their letters.

He turned 8 months this week and is one skinny man at 15lbs

I couldn't wait any longer to give Ila her Ana dress I bought online.  She loves to dress up and rotates between a cheerleader costume and a wrestling singlet so I thought it was time to throw another outfit into the mix.

Ana and batman at the family game night held at the school.

Twirling in her dress.

Bush planes

My first bush plane experience was August 1, 2015 coming to Elim and it scared the crap out of me.  The pilot missed the runway in Elim because he came in way to fast and had to circle around which took an extra 20 minutes.  The noise was unbearably loud and I was certain I would go deaf after a couple more trips.  I have found out now that that was a single engine plane and there are other bush planes slightly roomier and less deafening with more engines!  

This was our trip in January to Anchorage for Jack's principal training! 

The blue roof house in the front is ours!  Everything past the houses is the ocean.  It looks like land since the ocean is frozen.

View of the Elim village.

Since the plane stops in a couple villages (routes differ daily) you don't know what time you are being picked up exactly.  They announce it on the CV radio about when they are landing then one of the janitors picks us up in the truck while we wait on the side of the runway for the plane to land. The airline Bering Air does a morning and an afternoon flight.  You can't schedule it online so you call and give them your name and route you want to fly.  You don't even pay beforehand!  When you land in Nome you pay.  So it is easy to cancel/reschedule, which is so weird for an airline.  And that is how we missed our flight to Anchorage, no set times.  We had to take the evening flight and hang out in Nome for 8 hours. 

This is Nome straight ahead.  It is about an hour ride straight from Elim to Nome, population 3,000ish. 

Landing in Nome where we get the jet to Anchorage.

Anchorage was great.  We were there for the 7.1 earthquake. We shopped, ate sushi, went to the dentist, pediatrician, dermatologist, hairstylist, and chiropractor.  I stocked up on some refrigerator/freezer food and best of all the hotel had a swimming pool we enjoyed.  This was Crew's first time in the water.

 What to do when you find an abandoned bike in the produce aisle?  Ride it behind the cart!

One of the Anchorage Walmart's has a "Bush program" to pack and ship your purchased items for you!  It's much cheaper to do it yourself, but it came in handy for all the school needs and huge over sized items.

The Alaska fur exchange had a real crocodile underneath the table....random.

 The fox fur to make hats and mittens for the biculture class.  I see why hats go for $300 now!

The trip is over and this is the kids in Nome walking to our plane to head back to Elim. 

This was the pilot getting in his "door" of the single engine plane.

Leaving Nome.

Elim's runway in sight straight ahead!