Traveling, Snow, and a House Tour

This week was very busy.  Nathaniel started wrestling on Monday.  Our school hasn't had a wrestling program since the 80's so he's starting at the basics.  We also traveled to Mountain Village for two days of teacher in-service meetings.

Learning take-downs at wrestling practice.  The large mats should be here soon.

In the van going to the new airport for our trip to Mountain Village.

New airport is so fancy.  It even has road signs.

Middle and high school teachers loading up for Mountain Village.

I got to sit in the very back again.

I love new airport because we get to fly over Alakanuk.  Here is part of the village.

An aerial view of Mountain Village.  The houses in Mountain sit closer together than Alakanuk's long strip of houses.

They call this the "Hilton" because it is a long trailer used for out-of-town guests.  We stayed at a teacher's house who we met when we had New Teacher Orientation in Anchorage.  Everyone else slept on the floor in the classrooms.

The District Office.  Ooh Ahh.

We spent two full work days in this room learning about ways to "Construct Meaning" in our classrooms.  It was fun to meet other teachers in the district.  They had a pretty sweet "chandelier-disco ball" in the cafeteria.

Around town.

It's been a while since I've seen a jeep.

A house.

Mountain's store was stocked!  They had fresh produce.

Decorated cakes!

They have yogurt, eggs, milk, and drinks!  When Alakanuk has milk, you better buy all you can because in the next week it might all be gone.

Mountain Village doesn't have a police department, so every so often the Alaska State Troopers stop by.

The cemetery up on the hill.  It was very pretty.

The Yukon River is at the bottom of the village.

Some housing.

Dozens of boats.

The Yukon River at Mountain drops straight into deep water.  In Alakanuk, you can walk out 50 feet in shallow water before it gets deep.

Me and my Arkansas friend.

A cute little pup.

A hill!  Alakanuk is as flat as a pancake.  I used to hate hills in Cross Country, but after not seeing any inclines for a while, I didn't mind a little hike.

More houses with pretty aqua roofs.                                                    The school in Mountain Village.

It snowed for a few minutes before we left.                        A plane unloading so we could load up for home.

 I got to sit behind the pilot on the way back.

The seasons changing from summer to fall.  All the tundra grass is now golden yellow instead of green.

The pilot's control deck.  I like watching the radar on the middle screen.  It shows how far away we are from our destination.

Jana helping unload in her stylish turquoise jeans.

We had snow on the boardwalk the next morning.

Snow!  It all melted by noon, but it was still exciting.

Packages seem to always arrive at once.  We have awesome family and friends.  We have all our winter gear: bibs, parkas, goggles, gloves, boots, and gators.  Bring on the snow!  I may regret that later.

Here's a tour through our house now that we are settled...