Fishing, hunting, 1st date, and school!

The end of summer weather has been good to us.  We've had regular walks, daily playing at the school playground, and playing on the beach!

We hiked this hill for the first time and it has the best view!  We were hoping for a plane to come in since the landing strip was so close.

Reflecting time on top

Half way up!

Jack took Zax out fishing with Mark (who is in the picture) and another teacher, Brendan.

Primary time!  We are still figuring out how to engage the children this time of church.  I tried sitting inbetween them...

Then the next Sunday we tried headphones... Still figuring out how to keep them engaged.

Going on a Sunday walk and attire is never a question.  Wear what you want and no one bats an eye.

He loves to suck on rocks and drool out the dirt.  The beach though, we love it!

This baby comes back for hugs and snuggles, I love it!

Elim hosted a kids fun run before the cross country meet and had a great turn out!

Day date to the hotsprings!  First time ever in Elim someone watched our children while we went out together.  It was a dream come true and we plan on swapping with them regularly.

Jack's first kill ever!  We stopped along the way when Mark or his dog, Sadie, saw spruce hen to shoot. Jack got two.

Half way there.

Strapping the dead spruce hen to the four wheeler!

Mark is a true hunter.  He tore all the feathers off the spruce hens and threw it in the river so he didn't have to do it at home!

A cabin next to the hotsprings that smelt more like a hotbox. Just learned what that is, lol!

Curriculum finally arrived so this is our official first day of school picture.

Sticker charts are huge motivators in our house!

Two of the three ginormously heavy boxes I carried from the school!
The daylight is slowly becoming less.  The weather is now in the 40's as the high, summer is over.

"Welcome Home"

We are here, back in Elim. "Welcome home" is how we've been greeted by our village and it was very sweet to hear. Back to canned chicken, fresh salmon, ordering food online, horrible cellphone reception, no caller id, and chilly windy weather.

This little dude is stealing my heart.

Jack and the special ed teacher went tubing after the picnic. It was 59 degrees and of course they were set on tipping these two. So they did, twice! What is worse than the cold water is that the sewage is emptied out into the ocean!! 

Soaking wet!

The tradition is a back to school lunch at the beach. Roasting hotdogs, baked beans, chips, and juice. The whole village is invited.

Ila is trying to get gum out to share. They are obsessed with going to the store and buying candy when they have any change.

We walked to Next creek, which was around 2 miles and pretty hilly. The kids did great there and struggled on the way back.  It was worth it!  Jack is a fan of making fires at the beach.

You can see the fish swimming upstream! The dark spots are the fish in the top right corner.

Murder scene!

I'm so glad Jack is willing to clean the fish. I'm totally disgusted just holding the garbage bag while he throws the guts in.

Three silver salmon ready to be frozen!

Ok really! They are tubing and I'm bundled up.

This was our last flight, bush plane to our village. It was so loud it didn't matter how much Crew screamed.

 

It was 24 hours of flying alone. Crew was the best he'd been the first and second flights. I was so so happy! Jack flew back two weeks before to start work and attend conferences in the school district village.

We arrived in Anchorage art 10:30pm, slept at our friend's house, the Andersons, and back to the airport in the morning. This was at the Anchorage airport!

Bears have been spotted super close to the village this week. One was killed, but one is still on the loose. It was so close to the village it chased a guy up a pole/ladder a few days ago. So I won't run outside till i hear it's been killed!  We have to get permission from fish and game to kill them otherwise you get a $2500 fine!

Well, we are here for another school year. It feels really nice to not be new at least. New challenges and fun to come this year!

Post Bush summer life

Summer break has officially begun! Jack is back in Illinois. He returned to Elim after Natalie's memorial service while I stayed at my parent's. Its been super tough losing her to mental illness and suicide.

We were finally all together and fulfilled Natalie's wishes of spreading half her ashes at a park she walked daily. We walked across the street from my parents house to the park in silence and tears. 

I wasn't planning on blogging this summer out of the bush, but with four birthdays and visiting four states including a trip to Disney (principal conference) I decided to do one or two posts! 

This past year was the start of our journey to financial freedom and it was HARD in the bush. Lots of adjustments and changes took place. Not having a group of friends to rely on or anywhere to go to to break up the monotony was trying! But we are on track, well more than on track, to being debt free sooner than we planned so sacrifices were made and we survived. 

If you need a good laugh check me out on my way to work! I got an evening job at Fedex. Every time I pull into the parking lot I have to laugh a little at myself for one, the way I'm dressed and two, my blue collar job! I wanted to pay for our entire Disney trip so we could stay on track with our goal. 

My mom invited Holly's family over to celebrate Zax's 6th birthday and threw a water party! It was true Linda style, over the top, and special.

Happy meal for birthday lunch.

My 11 month old stud.

His favorite expression makes me laugh every time.

I found the Disney princess Ila's eyes look like 😂😂

Touch a truck in Champaign with Amy's boys and my parents.

And then we went to Ohio for memorial day to visit our awesome cousins. This was the only picture I took, what was I thinking!?!

We got to attend the annual Bucey camping trip! This year was at Shades park Indiana.

We had a joint paw patrol birthday party at the camp site for Zax and Ila.