Christmas is Coming!

Somehow we've made it all the way to Christmas Break! Time seems to just fly by these days. We had a bit of a hectic week getting ready to travel back to Pittsburgh for break.

Monday morning began with Homer, our resident weather man and school maintenance man, warning us that the weather was going to be awful starting on Thursday late night/Friday early morning. All of the teachers leaving were planning to fly out on Friday morning/afternoon, so you can imagine this wasn't exactly the cheery news we wanted to hear. After some juggling of schedules and looks at the calendar we decided to change our school calendar to make Friday a holiday.

A large problem with living so far from Bethel is that we only have one airline that services our village, Yute Air. They are notorious for their lack of professionalism. To compensate for their inability to manage flights properly our nanny, Gloria, left 2 days early so that the flights wouldn't be too full on Thursday afternoon. Thursday morning dawns with beautiful blue skies and a bright sun! YES! Surely, we'll get out on time today. The time for the first plane comes and goes--nothing. I finally called and they told me maybe around 1pm...maybe. We get the call that the plane is 25 minutes out, pack up the school van, get all of our winter gear on and head to the airport. Sit in the airport "parking lot" for 10 minutes past the 25 minute arrival time. Hear that the plane has turned around due to fog. SIGH. (insert screaming, tired, non-napping baby here) You might recall reading about our unfortunate experience with Yute earlier in the year here.

Frustrated by Yute and determined to beat the storm out of Goodnews, we started marking phone calls to other airlines as soon as we got back to the school. Our principal was finally able to find an airline that would charter a plane to pick us up at 2pm. WHEW--now the game was just sit and wait and hope that they too don't turn around. 1:47PM confirmation call from chartered airline--they will be arriving at 2:10PM. We head to the airport for round two. Plane lands to rounds of applause at 2:11PM. We enjoy an absolutely stunning view on our way to Bethel.

We're in Bethel tonight staying at Bentley's Bed and Breakfast. Imagine Super 8 with common living spaces and you've got the closest description I can give you for Bentley's. In no way does it align with what you think of when you think B&B. But-- the people who run it are the sweetest, kindest people. We've stayed with them several times and will likely continue to stay with them for many more years. We'll hang out here tomorrow during the day and catch the evening jet into Anchorage to begin our looong flight(s) back to Pittsburgh!

Our Lexus of a bush plane arrives!

A view from our seats.

I'll never tire of looking at the beauty that is rural Alaska. It was a stunning day for flying

Fur from coats provides great in-flight entertainment.

The stunning beauty of Alaska.

Catching Up

It's been quite some time since we last posted on here, a reflection on how busy we've been the past couple of months. We've been plenty busy at school, including activities such as Halloween, a pep rally, and hosting an NYO tournament; we went to Anchorage for a conference where we met up with my dad and brother, who came back with us to Goodnews to visit. Enjoy this photo dump of the last few weeks here in the bush!

We hosted a pep rally in preparation for an NYO tournament here at the school where all the students got to attempt some of the NYO events.

Two of my students going head-to-head in Eskimo Stick Pull

The Platinum team with their coach. 

Platinum won the Team Award for most points in the tournament.

The cutest little bear in Goodnews Bay!

We had some trick-or-treaters waiting for us at home....

Junie likes her new bathtub!

I had some weights and a bench shipped up here in August, and TJ and I have been

working out with some of the guys from the village a few nights a week.

We always stop at Silver Gulch every time we fly into Anchorage- for guilty pleasures and fresh food.

We drove every morning from Anchorage to Palmer for our conference. The mountain range here in the Mat-Su is absolutely stunning. As usual, pictures simply can't capture the magnitude of these peaks.

Meeting up with my dad and brother in Anchorage.

Our view from the bush flight out of Bethel to Goodnews Bay. Nick and my dad certainly got the real bush experience, from our arrival in Bethel until they (finally) made it back to Pittsburgh. We got weathered in Bethel, and then had one of the worst bush flights of all time, an hour and a half flight through high winds, fog, rain, sleet and snow. 

Dad setting his first Alaskan trap.

...retrieving his first ptarmigan....

...and the most important rite of passage....first time getting stuck in the mud.

One night, my dad and I were driving the quad up Big Rocky as the snow came down when we spotted a fresh set of tracks. About halfway up the mountain, we caught up to a fox, loping its way through the drifts up the same trail as us- so I gunned the throttle and ran the fox down. When I hit it with the quad, it dropped what it was carrying and scampered down the hill into the brush, miraculously unhurt. 

Nick and my dad exploring the bay at low tide.

Nick trying some of the NYO events.

Junie hanging out with Uncle Nick!

Can you spot the foxes?

And without further adieu, it's a Junie Belle Photo Bomb!