Christmas Break

Another quarterly update from the Alaskan Waarviks! We promise we haven't been neglecting the blog because nothing interesting was happening, but just the opposite.

First, some numbers! We have been in the Bush for 130 days. That means 130 days without seeing a stoplight, Wal-Mart or Starbucks. We're at the part of winter where the daylight is at its shortest, and right now the sun rises at 11:30am and sets at 2:30pm, but we are gaining about 3 minutes a day, and that pace will pick up as we tilt slowly back towards the sun. We were in the -50's for the week leading up to Christmas, but for the majority of November/December, we've been between 10 and -20, which is pretty warm weather for us.

Cupcake

Belle

This year for Halloween we opted for a spaghetti dinner/costume contest instead of trying to put on a bunch of games for the village. Joe and Alice won 2nd and 3rd in the adult costume contest, Macy got 2nd place in her category, and Arwen and Clara won 2nd and 3rd for the younger kids. For our prizes, we took home a small cock-pot, a sled, a $25 iTunes card and Sorry! the board game. We did not go trick-or-treating again this year; it seems a little odd to go door to door dressed in costumes when your costume is buried under snow gear.

Chocolate Chip Cookie

Peter Parker

For Arwen's 3rd birthday, someone had brought some frozen pizza up to the school, a rarity here, so we cooked the pizza and made ice cream cone cupcakes, which looked like they were ice cream cones. Watching people's reactions when they bit into these treats was pretty hilarious. Yes, we're short on entertainment here. The LED balloons we had were a big hit, especially when the power went out and the gym was pitch-black.

Arwen got help with her candles!

Thanksgiving dinner was one of the nicer events we've had in the village. We put the tables together to create two very long tables, making everyone sit together a lot closer than they normally do. The sight of the village all sitting down together pleasantly enjoying their meal is a good memory to have. Alice prepared the turkeys again and we did the cooking and cleaning up with the help of one of the locals, who also pitched in to help on all of the other meals as well.

Thanksgiving at the school

For our family's Thanksgiving dinner, we had our neighbors come over. The neighbor is a short-term resident, brought in to work on the water treatment plant, and his wife joined him just before Thanksgiving. He's been great to have, since he's spent a good bit of time doing other people's jobs around town when they would not. This includes starting the village generator, flushing out the water system, and helping to fix a leak we had in the utilidor right in front of our trailer.

The utilidor is a raised wall-looking box that the water/sewage pipes run through. It's heavily insulated and kept warm, but on Thanksgiving the far end, away from our trailer, froze and the neighbor had a heater thawing it while we enjoyed our dinner. Right about dessert time, he poked his head out of the door, joking that he needed to check for smoke. He didn't see smoke as much as he saw flames! The utilidor was on fire, and of course we don't have anything close to a fire department. He ran down the utilidor without grabbing his coat (it was -20), another worker friend who was over threw on a coat and went after, and Joe grabbed all of his winter gear and a fire extinguisher and jogged the 200 yards down the utilidor.

The neighbor was busy ripping the utilidor apart while the other worker was running a bucket brigade. Eventually, the fire extinguisher had to be used to put out the flames, and the impromptu gang of fire fighters poured snow on all the burning embers until the neighbor, still without a coat at -20, decided to head back indoors. The water lines were burned through, but the neighbor had everything rebuilt and fixed within 24 hours. Disaster averted!

Our water froze one other time, but it was thankfully only the cold water to one of the bathrooms. We filled the back of the toilet from the nearby sink when we had to use a second toilet and took all of our showers in the other bathroom, so it was only a minor inconvenience until it eventually thawed itself out. Thankfully, our sewage hasn't frozen this year (that we know of, I guess). Last year it was spilling out underneath out trailer, which was disgusting.

When we arrived last year, the former inhabitant had stocked up on giant mouse traps and had poison dumped everywhere (great for a family with kids and a dog), but we never saw any critters in the house. This was probably thanks to the weasel living under the trailer. This year, though, the weasel has been absent since October and a tiny shrew-looking rodent started running around the kitchen at night and stealing the dog's food. He hasn't been seen in a couple of weeks. This might have something to do with the lynx tracks that have been spotted behind our house! That also may be why we haven't seen our weasel, either...

The Christmas program at the school was a lot more low-key than last year's Frosty play. Alyeska flew in Santa again, the village kids sang a few songs and played on the fiddle and we had turkey dinner again, and then it was the start of 24 days of vacation, which we're just over halfway through right now!

While the vacation certainly is relaxing, there's been a few downsides. First, the maintenance man took another extended vacation for the one week the temperatures were below -40 and of course the village power was going out twice a day. We woke up at 4 am one morning to the blackness of an Alaskan winter without electricity and Joe threw on his gear and headed outside to fire up the trusty generator. It fired up, warmed up, and started to run the school and the trailers when it ran an electrical fault and shut off. Joe fired it up again with similar results. Third time, still shutting off as soon as it was used to power the trailers. No worries, on to the backup generator! Joe turned the key...nothing....and the village power was still out. If the temperature was above -20, this wouldn't be too much of a concern, but at -45, it's a different story.

Kids at the playground

The neighbor came out to help, couldn't get the school generators going, so he went over to help with the village generators, which still weren't on. Two musicians were visiting the school at the time, and the young guy came out to help. Batteries were swapped out, and eventually, by having one good battery hooked up to the old generator and running jumper cables to another good battery, the old generator fired up! Just about that time the village power kicked on. We had been without power or heat for just under 2 hours.

The power continued to go out at least once a day for the next several days, but thankfully the village power would come back on within 20 minutes. There really isn't a more comforting sight than seeing smoke billowing out of both trailers, the school and the generator house, and knowing that at Arctic temperatures, the buildings are nice and warm, and you have artificial light to drive away the darkness of the night.

Macy's 7th birthday was a low-key family event, which didn't bother her one bit, considering she got pretty much all of the Disney princes. Now the princesses won't be lonely anymore! She requested a no-sugar cake, which was fine because we just devoured a sugary chocolate cake Joe and Sara Lee made together for Alice's birthday the day before. We ended up feasting on banana bread and homemade whipped topping. Macy spent the whole day ordering Gavin (and everyone else) to play Barbies with her and playing games with the family.

Gift from Nana- 1st sewing machine!

Birthday gift from us- Prince Barbies

Christmas came at last! The kids received three gifts this year, in the tradition of the Three Wise Men: a gold gift (something they really wanted), a myrrh gift (something they really need) and a frankincense gift (a gift that is intangible). Their frankincense gift this year was given in support of a fundraising auction for an adoption-related cause. The "lack" of presents didn't bother the kids at all; of course, they did receive presents from the extended family secret santa exchange, Alyeska, and a church in North Pole that chose to sponsor our village.

Santa, his elf, and Joe opening up the boxes of fruit they brought to the village.

Christmas morning

Arwen's Christmas dress from a secret friend in North Pole 

 The biggest bummer this Christmas has been the same as last, missing out on our extended families Christmas celebrations. We're still saving money for the adoption and chose to spend the holidays here in the village. We were able to Skype with some family and saw some uploaded videos of others, which helped. Also, we got 6 new games to play with the kids and have been spending a lot of time together as a family, helping to keep the Christmas Blues away.

End of Quarter 1

My how time has flown! I can't believe this blog hasn't been updated since the first week of school, and we have just finished our first quarter!

So, what has been going on? Where to start?

The school WILL be staying open another year. We currently have an enrollment of 13. The school has transitioned from 6 non-Waarvik students doing work around 2 large tables to 10 non-Waarviks in a traditional desk setting. Some of the new students, to be frank, have had some difficulty transitioning into Mr. Waarvik's world. Can you guess that I'm a bit of a hard nose as a teacher? The newcomers are coming around, thankfully, and things are starting to settle down.

Alice's preschool program has been going well, although working everyday has been exhausting for the stay-at-home Mom. (My stay at home wife works and my homeschooled kids are enrolled in public school; this only works when work is 10 yards from home and Dad is the Principal/only teacher). It's not just pre-school she's been doing; just like last year, she's the all-around sub. We had a good solid week where both the janitor and the back-up were out of town, and guess who was cleaning the school after hours? (Alice was, if you didn't get that). The plus side? The school was CLEAN.

AND we haven't gotten really sick yet. Gavin had an ear infection for a few days, but no pnemonia. No strep. No emergency trips to town (finger's crossed! Or, better yet, hands folded in prayer)!

We also haven't been to town since the third week of August. I haven't seen a stop light, Wal-Mart, Starbucks or paved road in 9 weeks and counting! We probably won't, either, for 21 more weeks!

The snow held off this year until October 12th, almost 3 weeks later than last year. And it's been relatively warm, so we have taken full advantage of going outside and playing in the snow with the kids. Today we started uncovering the huge puddle that formed in the area behind our house. It was frozen solid! We are considering shoveling it up and using it as an ice rink.

We are also heavily committed to snow removal this year. Alice and I shoveled out the entire area around the school's truck (our front yard) with 2 shovels. Our neighbor must have felt bad for us; he offered to bring a backhoe over and clear out the snow. Thanks to technology for ruining our fun! It was great exercise, though.

We are trying to raise money for the school to go on a school trip to New York this year. We are a few thousand shy of the goal, but plenty of months to raise the money. There are a lot of things that could stop the trip from happening, but if it does, it is going to be a great experience for us and the kids! We had a mildly successful spaghetti bake that raised about a hundred dollars. More importantly, the school has ordered a whole bunch of junk food to sell to the community throughout the winter, which is bound to bring in some good cash.

The older 2 kids are starting to talk about wanting to get back into things like soccer and ballet. Molly Clara keeps telling Alice and I that we can go out and leave the kids with Nana if we wanted to. Time here is limited! We are trying to enjoy everything as much as we can. This might be our last year, or maybe next year...or the year after...

One thing we definitely have been enjoying is the northern lights! The displays have started earlier this year and have been spectacular. The aurora activity is promising to be higher this year than last. One night, the northern lights light up the entire sky and seemed to be dancing just a few hundred feet above our heads!

We're going to do a better job of updating the blog. This next quarter is the shortest and busiest of the whole year. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas Break in the next 8 weeks!

First Day of School

Tuesday the kids went back to school and I, Alice, went back to work. Technically, the kids never stopped going to school. We homeschool them year round, but we went up to the school building to do our learning on Tuesday.

Here is our incredibly goofy children on their "first day of school" 2012.

Sir Gavin

Miss Macy

Sweet Clara

Princess Arwen 

The enrollment this year is less than ideal. Including our 3, there are only 9 students enrolled. October (count month) is just around the corner! We will need 10 students to keep the school open.

Just another day at the office

These are the only children who came to school this particular day. 

Dream bike

It is my dream to own one of these. It won't do me much good here in the Bush... but someday!

Teacher in-service week

Teacher in-service is held in Fairbanks and is usually our September family trip to town. Usually, we're put up at an apartment-style hotel in a 2-bedroom room with a large living room, a dining area and a kitchen. This year, in-service was held in August, and at the dorms of UAF. Nothing against UAF, but no college dorm, especially not the Freshman hall, is large-family friendly. The bathroom was a large shared bathroom with public showers. We were on the men's floor, so the girls had to go down a floor to use the bathroom. Also, we were stuck eating college food all week.

 It actually didn't turn out as bad as it sounds. The food was surprisingly good.The district office was nice to us, though, and got us 2 adjoining room, each with 2 twin beds.  Alice and the two older girls took one room, while Gavin, Arwen and I took the other. Each adult got a luxurious solid-rock twin bed to themselves, and the kids shared.

Alice and I spent the evenings sitting in the floor of the dorm hall and stopping other teachers on their way to the restroom or their rooms for conversation (living in the Bush can make you a bit socially desperate). The kids and Alice spent their days wandering around the campus, blowing bubbles and playing hopscotch. It was still summer classes, so not a lot of college students were there. The campus was set up on a hill and had an amazing view of Fairbanks, and on one clear day we could even see Denali. While I would not recommend living in a dorm to anyone, not even a college freshman, we survived just fine.

Denali viewed from a bench at UAF

A few days in, we noticed Molly Clara started calling the dorms "home." She thought we had moved in for good. Goes to show what our kids think we're capable of, and how flexible they are.

On one of the last days of in-service, we drove out to North Pole, Alaska, to see Santa Claus' house. It had some pretty amazing fudge. It also had THE Santa. He was a pretty cool guy; when we mentioned adoption to him, he started talking about the people in his church who had adopted, and the group that had just returned from doing missions work in Uganda. We found out from some other people that he also has tattoos on his arms. Gavin was impressed with his genuine Santa beard. I was impressed with the fudge; Oreo Cheesecake was my favorite. One piece fed me and the four kids. A few of Santa's genuine flying reindeer (ok, not really) hung out and posed for pictures.

After in-service was over, we transferred over to Chena Hot Springs. On the drive where we saw 19 moose over 4 days in July, we saw....one. Actually, only I saw one, a cow in a stream that had just pulled her head out of the water. The problem was Fall had arrived in Alaska. During the 9 days we were in town, we noticed the trees changing to a definitely more yellow hue. With the average high in mid-October below freezing, we have about 2 months of Fall before winter. When we flew back to Stevens, we reminded the kids that the next time we saw Fairbanks, it would likely be covered in snow.

Macy enjoyed her first horse ride ever while we were at the resort. Well, she sort of enjoyed it. The horse was big for a horse, certainly no pony. The instructors did not really give Macy a lot of insight into what to do; they just told me to help her on the horse. I picked her up on the platform and set her on the saddle...and the horse decided to shift away as I did. She almost fell off the horse, and I had to jump down the platform to steady her. For most of the rest of the ride, she clung to the horn of the saddle for dear life. By the end of the 15 minute ride, though, she was smiling like crazy, and talked about it for a while afterwards, so we figure she enjoyed it.

Alice certainly did NOT enjoy her dentist visit, getting 2 more wisdom teeth removed, but it went moderately better than last time. The pain was a lot less, but the nausea was just as bad, even after Alice took herself off the pain medicine. She's still not feeling 100%, but at least it's over with.

We, of course, did our marathon shopping while in town. We also found out our children do not enjoy shopping one bit. We think it was a combination of being away from home and not being exposed to shopping often. There were really only 5 occasions where we went shopping with the kids over the last 12 months. There behavior showed it.

Molly Clara decided it was appropriate, if her legs were tired, to lay down in the middle of the aisle, flat on her back, with her hands comfortably folded behind her head as if she was watching clouds go by. Arwen, who suffered the most from being out of her routine, decided that screaming was the best way to deal with the stress. At one point on the last day, after I put a bag of cherries in the shopping cart, she yelled "YUCK!" and covered her mouth like she was holding back vomit, then grabbed the cherry bag and threw them out of the cart (she honestly loves cherries). Yeah, I was THAT guy with THAT 2 year old at the grocery store. We had to leave and wait her out for about 45 minutes in the parking lot before she was ready to behave herself.

The fact that our kids are not accustomed to shopping isn't too much of a concern. If our kids have a life-long aversion to Wal-Mart and large grocery stores, that's ok with me.

Only in Alaska

Fairbanks is always full of interesting sights. Apparently, in Fairbanks, you sleep wherever you want. This rather tired gentleman slept with his head a few inches from a fairly busy road across from a shopping center parking lot. We also saw crows eating away at duck tape keeping plastic over a broken window. They were probably just doing the owner a favor, reminding him that he needed to get a real window before temperatures dropped below -40 in December. The garbage trucks in Fairbanks are pretty cool, and the workers all wear solid orange jumpers like Star Wars X-Wing pilots. We told the kids one of them was Luke Skywalker. An older, much more overweight Luke Skywalker...

We are back in Stevens Village for the duration of the first semester, unless we're forced to go back for health reasons or get to go back for adoption purposes. We're focusing heavily on keeping healthy to avoid the pneumonia and strep of last year.

Thankfully, Arwen will be 3 before December, so that very well may be the last time I ever take a 2 year old shopping, unless we adopt under 3 years of age (I will watch 2 year old grandkids, but I will NOT take them shopping). Whew. Glad to be done with THAT stage of my life.

Sun Set

It seems like it has been such a long time since we have witnessed this sort of beauty! We walked out the front door last night and we saw this...

We walked a little ways down the boardwalk and looked at the sky behind the house and saw this...

Neither picture captures the excitement we felt at finally seeing a sunset--or the sadness we felt knowing that a setting sun will eventually set and stay down for many days. I will miss that beautiful ball of flames that melts the river and makes the berries grow. BUT I am ready for the cold and snow. Be gone you darn mosquitos!

More trip photos

The activity center at the Chena Hot Springs Resort was fantastic! We could get on the internet while Gavin played wii and the girls read books or colored. This is also where we went to get ice-cream treats. It was far cheaper to get some snacks or treats at the activity center rather than the restaurant. 

Macy reading to the kids while they finished their ice-cream

This giant stuffed bear was probably the highlight of the activity center for the kids.

BEAR HUGS!

It's obvious that Mr. Bear was getting sleepy so Arwen covered him up and laid next to him... you know... because the  bear was sleepy.

Going to Town!

Tuesday, July 17th

Leaving Stevens

Our pilot told us the flight to Fairbanks should be "nice." His idea of nice must include anything short of a zombie apocalypse. The flight was the bumpiest we’d ever experienced. Turbulence was tossing the plane around like it was dancing (at least that's what Alice told Arwen). Flying in winter is much nicer. The air is too cold to move! Or something like that. I’m not sure on the exact science.

This is a video of our take off. Our airport is a gravel strip and although take off was bumpy this was by far the smoothest part of the trip. You can also see the whole of our village from the air.

Our first stop (after Taco Bell, yum!) was a dentist appointment for Alice to take care of some issues she’d been having with her teeth. Turned out the issues were pretty big. She needed her wisdom teeth removed! I thought most people got that taken care of when they were in their late teens, but Alice likes to do things differently. 

The appointment was scheduled for the next day, so we headed to our hotel outside of town. On the drive there we spotted three moose! This was the first one.

Wednesday, July 18th

The price of wisdom

We weren't sure if we had just been lucky to spot three moose the previous day. We got our answer leaving the parking lot. A moose slowly crossed the entrance in front of us. Three more were spotted before we made it to town. Each one we saw made us comment, “Wow, that one is huge!” Note to reader: 90% of adult moose in Fairbanks in July…are huge.

Alice had two wisdom teeth on her right side removed (the left are coming out next month). The rest of the trip she spent with a swollen jaw and an upset stomach, unable to eat. The pain medicine she was on made her physically sick. We went back to the hotel (no moose this time!) and she "relaxed" (threw up a lot) while I took the kids around the resort.

First, we stopped at the natural hot springs. While you have to be over 18 to get in (the water gets over 100 degrees), they were able to put their hands in the water. They had lots of questions.

"What happens if a duck gets in the water?"

Then there's a duck in the water.

"What happens if fish get in the water?"

Then I suppose there's a fish in the water.

I'm not sure what their confusion was. We went to the playground to play, and they watched a lady feed some ducks. The ducks that hung around the resort were a highlight of the trip for them. Earlier that morning, three white ducks had followed us all the way from our room to the parking lot looking for handouts, which the kids thought was hilarious.

Thursday, July 19th

A busy day

While there was no moose at the entrance to the hotel, we saw seven moose in the span of 30 minutes on our morning drive to the fingerprint appointment. Alice, of course, was on the verge of throwing up the entire time. The federal courthouse where we had to go was pretty intimidating; empty your pockets and remove your shoes kind of place. Dead quiet, too, which is not cool when you’re bringing four kids along. We had threatened them with certain death (not really, but close) if they made any noise, and the three older ones were perfect. Arwen started to whine while we were waiting, which is dangerous because she has a good set of lungs on her. She settled down well enough, though, and we didn’t get kicked out.

The guy who did the fingerprints was really nice, even if we kept messing things up. You know, they ask you to sit down, fill out this paper and wait for them, but the paper says to turn it into the receptionist when you finish. So, I go to turn it in and they politely remind me to sit down and wait for them (duh). Then I missed the piece that says ALIEN ID NUMBER (or SSN). I got skipped while Alice went first. When it’s finally my turn, the guy asks me to take my earrings out. Yeah, I’d need pliers for that. He must have noticed the deer in the headlights look on my face, because he let me keep them in.

Thankfully, though, everyone was, in true Alaskan form, very polite and pleasant. We found out that they only come up to do fingerprints from Anchorage every 2-3 months. We had contemplated rescheduling the appointment to try and get it for August when we will have in-service, but thankfully we didn’t. We might have been waiting until October for the appointment!

Oh, and Alice only throw up once in the bathroom. YAY!

After the fingerprints, it was time to get Alice some new meds that didn’t make her vomit. Of course, the dentist had the day off. We were able to call his home and leave a message. We waited and were about to give up and head to the hotel for a nap when he called back and called in the prescription to Wal-Mart.

Wal Mart Pharmacy. I’ve had some experiences there. This time was no exception. Apparently, they don’t check their voice mail for call-ins unless someone insists that a prescription should be there. Insists three times. Oh, you’re not going away? I guess we’ll check our voice mail. Oh, sir, yeah, apparently the message was on the voice mail! Who would of known!

Alice, of course, was siting in the car with a swollen jaw deciding between pain and nausea. Yeah, one of those days.

By the time we got the medicine, we didn’t have time to drive back to the hotel before meeting up with our awesome Fairbanks friends B. and K. We took care of some other business; our home study got one of those annoying pink slips from the USCIS and our case worker drafted an addendum that I express mailed to Missouri. Hopefully that will take care of it.

Still, we had two hours to kill with the wife in pain and still nauseous and the kids bored. We grabbed a giant sub, crackers and juice and parked at a hotel, of all places, that had a lot of grass. The kids sat in the back of the rental Suburban and ate, then me and the kids ran around the grass in the on-again off-again rain. They had a blast and were soaked. Alice slept in the car. She spent most of our trip sleeping in the car.

Finally, it was time to head to our friend's house! We had a great time meeting our friend B.’s wife K. for the first time and eating homemade pizza and ice cream. I got to play a mindless fighting game on the PS3 and we watched a Monster’s Inc. in Blue Ray magic.

Blue Ray, by the way, is amazing. Don’t watch it unless you are planning on buying a player and new movies, because it makes DVDs seem outdated.

We left their house around 11pm and stopped at the grocery store for some snacks before heading back the hour and a half drive to the hotel. It took over two hours. Seeing moose in the bright light of the morning is pretty cool. Seeing the dark forms of three giant moose in the hazy twilight of Alaska’s summer midnight sun on a narrow, tree-lined road is not so cool. Especially when I was fighting fatigue. I drove 20 miles under the speed limit. Unlike probably any other state, every car we passed was also doing well under the speed limit. Hitting a moose with your car is not like hitting a deer in the lower 48. That would be like saying a garden snake is like a python.

We survived and finally had a day to relax and take the kids swimming in the pool (twice).  I got to swim in the natural hot spring pool. It was probably close to 100 degrees and extremely relaxing.

Friday, July 20th

We make good on a promise

This day had only one goal: swimming. We had promised the kids that we would take them swimming when we were in town. Macy and Arwen love swimming. Arwen was yelling at me in her half-gibberish, half-intelligent language for a while before I realized she was saying "I'll do it myself!" She didn't want me to hold her in the water. Later, in another fit of independence, she demanded being placed in the water without her floaties. I let her head go under water for less than half a second before pulling her up. She asked to have the floaties back on.

I will do it myself!

Macy went all over the pool with her floaties, and even was brave enough to try swimming some without floaties, which lasted until she swallowed too much of the water. Molly Clara was brave enough to get in the water, even if she freaked out a little bit, which is a huge leap forward. Usually she just runs around the pool refusing to get in and then throws a fit when we leave because she didn't get in. Gavin did excellent playing in the pool without his floaties.

Macy helping Molly to swim

We went swimming twice, hit the playground again, and hit the activity center up twice for ice cream treats and coffee. We also had a light dinner; Alice was able to eat a bite of clam chowder. Both of us got in the hot springs this day.

Saturday, July 21st

Guerilla shopping

You should know what guerilla shopping is by now. It's when you drop $700 in mostly-grocery shopping in a short amount of time because you know it will be three weeks before you're back and since we've already paid for the charter, we have to take full advantage. We filled two carts at Fred Meyer's (aka Kroger back east), checked out, and then I went back for a cart of fruits and vegetables. We also hit the farmer's market, the health food store, the chinese restaurant and Starbucks before running out of time and catching our 5pm charter back into Stevens. Thankfully, this time it was a smooth flight and Alice was able to keep her food down.

Back home! We hadn't left the village at all since mid-April, and haven't been out of Stevens for a non school-related trip since December. We head back in mid August for in service and the beginning of the school year! 

New Entry in European Guide Book: Don't pass up the Waarvik Roadhouse in Stevens Village on your way down the Yukon!

We're not the only vagabonds in Alaska, not by a long shot.

Last Saturday was church day, and while heading up we noticed a strange sight in Stevens Village; two white guys walking by the post office. They weren't Troopers or Fish and Game, which made the sighting extra peculiar.

As we walked towards the church we met the preacher heading back out to knock on more doors and he told us a couple of guys from Denmark were attending church that day, which explained the white guys.

Back in September, a gentleman from Holland knocked on my door looking for a place to spend the night, and now two guys from Denmark were here; our village of 50 was apparently an underground European travel destination.

I introduced myself to them in the church and within 5 minutes Alice, who had been suffering a bit from the isolation, found out they were staying the night and invited them over for dinner. I followed up later with offering them a night at the school with access to the showers and a mattress, as opposed to sleeping on the banks in a tent with the mosquitoes.

They had been canoeing the Yukon River and were planning on going all the way to the Bering Sea; another 1000 miles beyond our village. This apparently is a thing to do; they mentioned 3 Norwegians and a German who were heading down the river, and we saw a Frenchman on his own a few days later. A couple from Seattle stopped by our house on the 4th to get some quarters for the showers, snacks, filtered water, and a few minutes of internet. They had kayaked from the lakes in Canada beginning the end of May (they had to kayak through some ice) and hoped to make the Bering Sea by the end of the month.

Back to the Danish guys; they must have thought we were doing them a favor in helping them out, but it was pretty selfishly motivated. They were both in their early 20s, pleasant, and were from a Scandinavian country, a stone's throw from my mother country Norway. I'm 4th generation American, so the genetics and culture are pretty removed, but I like to think it's closer.

 We spent the evening, after the meatloaf, picking their brains about what it was like to live in western Europe in general and Denmark/Scandinavia in particular. For wannabe world travelers like us, it was fantastic. We learned about their system of taxes, their economy, their education system, what they were proud of (Vikings and the oldest monarchy, and Legos, although they didn't mention that until later), how they felt about the rest of Europe, how they viewed America, and so on.

They had questions about America as well; fast food culture hasn't quite sunk its teeth into Denmark, and they wanted to know for future reference if refills were free or not. Then they wanted to know, honestly without sarcasm, why people bought the 32 oz cups if refills were free. The idea that these cups are sometimes cheaper than the small ones was interesting to them as well. I love having the oddities of our culture pointed out by people from another country.

A few other things struck them as odd; how easily we can go into debt (what they called a credit card in Denmark was really a debit card that, after your bank was emptied first, allowed some borrowing of up to $5000), the idea that you can buy a handgun in a grocery store, and that graduating high school isn't something that everyone does. They also didn't know America had army bases in Germany and didn't quite understand why, although they were obviously unimpressed with their own military. Apparently, on their own account, the thing it does best is surrender; the strategy in Denmark seems to be to stay friendly with the Americans just in case a military is needed.

We kept them up pretty late talking and then we made them play Pictionary with us; we had a bit of a cultural advantage. English was their second language, and while they had it pretty well mastered, it was interesting to see what words came up that stumped them.  They got to experience the Wii before we finally let them go, but not after inviting them over for breakfast and one last hot meal before they got back on the river.

We were still throwing questions at them about what it was like to live in Denmark all the way through breakfast and approaching noon when they asked if they could spend one more night at the school; one of them needed to get a letter back home and wanted to stay until Monday when the post office opened. Starved for company over most of the past year, the idea sounded fantastic to us, and we invited them back over for dinner, which they offered to cook for us with some camp food they had brought. Camp food didn't sound too exciting, but they insisted, and to their credit they made the beans and rice work out pretty well.

Alice made some warm bread and we supplied the milk, two things we discovered they loved in Denmark and hadn't gotten in several months. They had left Denmark sometime around February with three other 20 year olds to begin a world trek to Russia, Mongolia and China, and we got to see the photos to prove it.

They had spent 3 weeks in Mongolia being driven around (it's cheaper to rent the driver with the car in Mongolia since the roads are so treacherous) and had seen the Gobi Desert. They had spent a month in Russia and had survived a mugging and an unexpected snow storm that hit them while camping on an island. After sleeping through the storm they woke to deep snow and trees knocked over, covering the path back. They had to trudge 12 anxious hours through waist-deep snow following their GPS and eating uncooked oatmeal and fish oil. They had rented a 2 person apartment in Beijing to share between the five of them, walked some of the Great Wall of China, and had taken amazing photographs of the area. After these adventures,  one of the five went back to Denmark, two went to Borneo to enjoy the beaches, and these two came to Alaska to enjoy something Denmark doesn't have, wilderness.

They had gotten their share; after being flagged at the airport and patted down by security (welcome to America), they had bought a patched-up canoe in Eagle and started drifting down the river, sleeping on gravel islands to avoid grizzly bears. Not that this helped any; they packed up one morning and followed the river around their island and spotted a massive grizzly that had shared the island with them that night. Grizzly bears swim like dogs; 500 lb dogs, that is.

They hope to make it to the Bering Sea, but would be fine if they don't make it there, and then are planning on meeting back up with the other two Danish citizens who were coming into America from Borneo via Los Angeles and driving up to Alaska. They'll tour the lower 48 before, I assume, heading back to Denmark. They asked us if there was anyplace they absolutely had to see in America; we settled on Cedar Point, the Milwaukee Zoo, the Chicago Art Museum (and pizza), Williamsburg, Virginia and thought they should catch a show in Nashville.

Besides the warm bread and milk, we were able to supply them with media for their iPhone that should keep them reasonably entertained for the rest of their trip. They also watched Avatar the last night; it had been some time since they had watched a movie. I can partially relate to how doing something as normal as relaxing on a couch must have felt after being in the Alaskan wilderness for weeks. When we took two weeks living in a car to get to Stevens, I remember fondly the days we took off from traveling, and when we were at a hotel instead of a campsite.

We had them for breakfast one last time on Monday and they packed up, probably grabbed one last shower, and we snapped some pictures with them before seeing them off to the Yukon.  Our hospitality hopefully did them a lot of good; having company certainly did quite a lot for us. We also have a note on our fridge that lists their contact information and says "A Home in Denmark..." if we ever make it that way.

By the way, there are teaching jobs available through the federal government at army bases in Germany and Japan. Just saying.

Midnight Sun Video

(copied and pasted from our adoption blog)

This past Wednesday was the Summer Solstice. To pass the time while we waited, and since there are basically 24 hours of daylight here just south of the Arctic Circle, we decided to let the kids stay up all night until the technical sunrise, which was at 2:30 am (the sunset was technically at 1:26 am). The kids had a blast playing toys, games and watching movies, as well as having a midnight pancake breakfast. We thought all the kids would konk out before 2:30, but everyone except Arwen made it!

2 of the kids slept until 10am and the other 2 slept until noon the next day. We suffered groggily  until 8pm and thankfully got back on a normal bedtime schedule.

Since most of our friends and all of our family are in the lower 48, we put together a video showing the progress of the sun over the 24 hours, using an outside Lego house as a prop. Check it out!

Bantha for Father's Day

It's been sitting in our freezer for more than 3 months, a huge chunk of Musk Ox meat, or, as we like to call it, Bantha. Last night I pulled it out and told Alice we were having it for dinner today.

She, predictably, said over her dead body.

I said I'd cook it anyways.

In what can only be described as a sprinkling of pre-Father's Day magic, she relented instead of boxing my ears in (confession: my wife can beat me up). We were having Bantha for Father's Day!

Now how do we cook this thing?

The chunk of meat, by the way, was over a foot long, about 8 inches high and 3 inches wide, with only a small bone inside. It didn't fit in the Crock Pot, so I grabbed my trusty hunting knife (I don't hunt, but it's been lucky enough to cut up moose, caribou and musk ox so far) and sawed the meat in half, then dropped it on the skillet for some quick searing.

Photo found here

We have two windows in the house, and there is no direct airflow between the two. Within minutes, the trailer was filled with smoke and all the fire alarms were going off. Alice yelled at the kids to hit the ground, and Macy and Molly run to the furthest room (which, coincidentally, was the least ventilated) and drop down under blankets to avoid the smoke. I, of course, am enjoying the pandemonium that my bantha meat has caused and keep the meat on the skillet. It gets worse, and they all run outside, which lasts 10 seconds before the mosquitoes chase them back. No escape.

24 minutes of searing later (3 minutes each side of the two 4-sided blocks), I squeeze the chunks into the crock pot with water and the game mix and set it for 10 hour low. We let it cook for almost 24 hours.

By the time it was ready, we had been smelling delicious game for a whole day and were ready to dig in. The bantha had fallen off the bone and shredded perfectly like BBQ sandwhich meat. It ended up being a fantastic meal, coupled with baked potatoes and baked cabbage. Thora got a plateful of fat and meat, which, after looking at us worriedly a few times to make sure we weren't tricking her, disappeared instantly when Alice and I turned our backs.

The rest of Father's Day was awesome. Being in the Bush means you have nowhere to go, which can cause a panicked feeling a lot like claustrophobia, but also means you spend a lot of family time together. We played Legos, did magnet crafts, played 2 rounds of Disney Trivial Pursuit and Uno Moo, and a round of Mario Party 7.

The day was a pretty good reminder of why it rocks to be a Dad.

Alice won this awesome adoption shirt for Father's Day. You can get one here.

9 facts about our 9 year old:

1. He likes to make lists. Once he made a list of all the spells in the Harry Potter books!

2. The boy has zero dancing abilities and loves to dance.

3. Gavin can read a 200 page book in one day.

4. His favorite things to build out of Legos are swords... actually any giant weapon will do.

5. He is absolutely convinced that it's not enough to push the button to make Mario jump, you have to do the jumping for him in real life, too.

6. Gavin asks everyday to play the role playing board game Legends of Drizzt.

7. He loves animals, especially our last two dogs, Meeko, our late German Shepherd/Husky, and Thora, our English Mastiff.

8. Gavin adores his sisters, but is equally excited about adopting a younger brother!

9. He says thank you for dinner every night without fail, even when he looks like he's about to vomit!

Gavin at our wedding 03/04/05. (A month before his 2nd birthday)

4 years old 

4 years old--first soccer team 

4 yrs old @ a friend's wedding

5 yrs old-dog sled race in Venetie, AK!

5 yrs old on the drive from Alaska to Tennessee

8 years old (right before we left TN to come to AK... the 2nd time)

8 yrs old

HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY!!! (April this year--2012)