Hopscotch

The Internet is moving quickly right now so I think I'll post another! This is a glimpse into how we fill our days:) The boys helped me make the hopsctoch game this morning and then had a great time "hopping" all afternoon.
Note: People don't wear pants in Savoonga...at least not when potty training!

Welcome Home!

The other day the city decided to plow the roads. I was told when we first moved here that if there was still snow in May/June, they "make it summer" by plowing the roads. When I looked out at the final project, I was hoping that our teacher friends who live across from us had already flown out for the summer. Hours later I saw them standing and staring at the 7 foot pile of snow that separated them from their front door!


Monday brought great entertainment as this couple was moving to another housing unit. First, they brought in the plow to make a path to their door. Then, they moved all of their items using a Honda (ATV) and trailer. Much excitement for all!:)


This is a photo down our road. Apparently the river flows under the road now, so we can go out to the dump without relying on the sea ice.

Spring is Here!

A few days ago, the boys and I ventured out to witness the recent signs of spring:


The river is flowing over the road so now people have to drive on the sea ice to get to the dump. That's the Bering Sea in the distance.


These are the boats they take out fishing, hunting, and whaling.


No buds yet!:)


Look! A patch of bare ground!


Still snow in the mountains, but now there's a river running out to sea.

Jacob's Birthday

This is a rather quirky picture of Jacob's 34th birthday party. The boys are showing off the gifts they made for Papa.

Diversity Within Savoonga

One thing that I have missed from living in Bellflower is the great cultural diversity that surrounded us! Living in Savoonga, we are exposed to the Yupik culture which is wonderful and I love learning about their rich history and way of life, but living in Savoonga, one is exposed to the native people who live here and to the white teachers and that's about it for cultural diversity. We recently had a group stay with us for 3 weeks. One of the women was Bolivian and we had fun speaking (or at least trying to speak) Spanish with her. It had been awhile since we had heard Spanish on a daily basis.
Today, we were walking home from the store when a little girl (4 yrs old?) came up to us asking, "Which one is Logan?" We told her and Jacob said, "What is your name?" No response. "I forgot. What is your name?" No response. Very slowly, "What is your name?" No response. Not knowing how to ask in Yupik, Jacob tried another route, "Que es tu nombre?" She quickly replied, "Bonita!" It was quite hilarious for this little Yupik girl, who speaks only Yupik and English, to respond to a question in Spanish with her beautiful answer!

The Most Attentive Mom?

Sunday, I was joining some women in our church for a meeting during the boys' nap time. As I plugged in the baby monitor, one of the women asked me what it was. I told her it was so I could here Logan and Owen if they cried. She responded, "You are the most attentive mom that I know!"
I do tend to be a pretty attentive mother and I think that a big reason for that is so that occurences such as the one today, don't happen ALL the time!
I left the boys playing nicely upstairs and went down to finish something in the kitchen. When I went up to check on them, Logan was unloading all of the clothes from the hamper. Our conversation went as follows:
Me: Logan, why are you taking the clothes out of the hamper?
Logan: Potty.
Me: You pottied on the clothes!!
Logan: Uh uh...nooooo. Potty stool.
Me: You pottied in the potty stool?
Logan: Yes.
Me: Then why is your underwear wet?
Logan: (proudly) Me pottied in potty stool in underwear.
Me: Oh...so why are you taking the clothes out of the hamper?
Logan: Me pottied in potty stool in underwear and then (he showed me how he dumped the potty from the stool into the clothes hamper.)
So why was he taking the clothes out of the hamper? Hmmm...maybe so they could air dry? And this is why I strive to be a much more attentive mother than I was this morning!!

Some of you may be thinking, "She hasn't posted for over 2 months and this is all she has to write?" I figure I have to start somewhere:) Now that we have Internet in the house!!! you should be getting a more well-rounded post about the most recent happenings in Savoonga soon.

My Blog's a Failure!! :)

I haven't posted for so long that I forgot my password. Bummer. I'm still writing another post because I still have hopes that I will write regularly in the near future. We now have the antennae needed to get Internet at our house...now we just need it installed...give us a couple more months:) The shameful thing is that I've been in Seattle with Logan and Owen for over a month and had access to Internet, but still didn't write...okay, I'm sorry and I'm moving on now!
We've had a beautiful time visiting with friends and family over the last month +. Jacob and his mom arrived the same day, last Thursday, and we've been traveling around the NW enjoying each other's company. Tomorrow, we are set to fly back to AK. It is almost 4:00am right now and we're supposed to leave in 2 hours. We're at my parents' house in Sequim and it has snowed so much tonight that I'm listening to it fall off of the roof as I write. Hmmm. I guess we're getting eased back into life in Savoonga, but one of the things that I like about life there is that there aren't any cars to bother with driving in the snow! I'm not very excited about the trip down the hill and onto the hwy in the morning!:)
So, unfortunately, I literally waited until our final hours to write and now I'm realizing I'm way too exhausted to write anything that's really worth reading. Hopefully our Christmas letter updated most of you who read this and hopefully we'll have Internet at the house soon so that I can write more regularly and easily. Until then...blessings.