So much going on in Nome.....Even in the Rain!

This past week has been so BUSY! I got to travel for work to 3 villages for career fairs. I love travelling to the villages. My first was my favorite one.. Unalakleet, this is Sam's village that he grew up in. When I got there we had some time to spare so Sam's parents took me up the river to try to catch a Silver Salmon. Luck is...Sam's mom hooked one and insisted that I reel it in. I think her bicep was tired from all she has caught this year, or maybe she knew that I didn't remember what it felt like or she knew it was going to be the only one that we would catch in that short hour...regardless I got to spend the next 5-10 , minutes reeling it in. It was huge!!! Of course I forgot my camera like my fishing license so you just have to believe me ! :)

(REINDEER ON THE WAY TO TELLER)

On Thursday we then went to Savoonga, my 2nd favorite place to go in our region. Savoonga is where I went all winter so I have many friends there that I love dearly. It is on our island. That day was just super long. We were there 9 hours for 30 mins of work. One of the health aides took me to her house to meet her family, which was so awesome! I also got to run while I was out there. Then lastly on Friday we went to Teller. That day we were finally able to drive. The drive was great! It was beautiful out! (Reindeer behind me on the Teller Road)

We saw a ton of reindeer, snow on the mountain tops, 2 arctic fox, muskox and lot of beautiful miles and miles of land. The career fair in Teller was a huge success. We had a great lunch spread (no school lunch!!!) and the kids rocked with questions and great fun! I also got to educate some younger classes with diabetes and healthy foods make our bodies healthy education. (EDUCATING THE YOUNG KIDS AT TELLER CAREER FAIR)

I got out again on Friday to pick some berries. It was cold and wet tough to find berries, but 3 hours later I got 3 quart size bags worth. On Saturday it was even worse, but I still got 1 quart. On Sunday after a real mass at church (we had a priest this weekend) I went on the local garden tour in the RAIN! :) We road a bus around Nome for 5 hours to see the amazing gardens of Nome. Some people have some absolutely destressing, relaxing, gorgeous, fruitful gardens!!!

Turnip Flower Bed Yellow Squash

We plant flowers in Everything Rhubarb My teachers flower garden

People in Nome are some of the most talented people ever! Despite the rain all weekend...the weekend was quite pleasant and super fast. On Thursday I get to travel to Unalakleet again to see Sam and hang out with his parents. In a sense it is Sam and I's 2 years since we have began! :) Last week when I got back from the Kawerak camp, I got back to my office to 12 roses on my desk....he sent me flowers for "2 years since our first kiss" :) Sweetie huh???

Villages and Berries..and lots of them

Since I have been back, my time has been very busy with travels and berries. The day that I got home, I was home about an hour before I hit the tundra to find Salmon berries. This year I have put up the right amount, I hope...just 2 gallons, but I'm cool with that. This past weekend I started to find the blues. I picked with my good friend Erika and I put up 14 quart size bags...that equates to almost 4 gallons!!!! That is the most I have picked ever before in one weekend or day! YUM, YUM, YUM!!!!!

About a week ago, I traveled to Elim for their Wellness Fair. It was such a work highlight for me. It was raining the night before when we got there, but we went fishing. One of the health aides took us up river and everyone (4 other people) caught all of the fish and I caught NONE!! They were still very generous and shared some with me. I have to say, b/w Sam's reds he got and now the silvers I brought home...I'm set! Elim is such a beautiful village too! There are trees and it is small. This week I'm headed to 3 villages for career fairs (for my job). I get to go to Unalakleet (Sam's village), Savoonga (the village I went to all winter) and Teller (I'm driving there). I will have to fly to Unalakleet and Savoonga, but in the summers we can drive to Teller. Over Labor Day Sam and I are meeting in Unalakleet to hang out with his parents. Hopefully we will pick alot currants for jelly, catch alot of fish, and just have FUN!

After Elim, I had my softball championship game. We couldn't pull it together so we walked away with 2nd for the season. We were a brand new team, named the Mother Truckers, so actually we did quite well going into the tournament as FIRST, and ending 2nd. On Sunday-Thursday of last week, I was also gone from work hanging out at Pilgrim Hot Springs as the cook for a camp. I was the sole cook for about 50-60 people. Talk about exhausting work, but so FUN! Plus it is absolutely beautiful out there.

Home to the Heat

At the end of July I went home to Denver for work and then east to Kansas to visit my family and see my mom's new house....so pretty!!! I love it and wow, what a great trip to CO/KS!

When I got to Denver, I went straight to my friend from college. We had a surprise wedding shower for her at a restaurant, which was so fun! We then went with her finance' to a Rockies game. Kim and I hung out the following day after I got home from visiting Mt. Evans. Mt Evans is in Idaho Springs and you can drive all the way up 14, 000+ feet. Scary but pretty cool drive. After my two day conference, my sister came out to Denver to get me. We both needed a good vacation so we drove down to Canon City on Thursday to finally see a always wanted to see tourist trap...the Royal Gorge. Pretty amazing site but I have to say, it was abit over priced for the package, but hey it was still cool. We both freaked out as we crossed over the bridge, locked arm and all....so scary!!! That night we hung out in C -town, so we could get up early and hit the rapids. We both have never white water rafted so we thought we would try it out. We did 1,2 & 3's so kind of whimpy but it was still great. After that we drove to Kansas to mom's house. We were going to hit Colorado Springs, but we kept missing the turn offs so took the highway all the way till the "backroad" hit the Interstate at Colby. Once at home, I participated in the local triathlon the day after I arrived. I swam 1/4 mile swim in an outdoor pool (I don't have one in AK!), I biked 10 miles uphill both ways! :) and I ran a 5k. It was so HOT and so hard b/c of many elements! After the wedding I went to my friend's wedding. Beautiful, beautiful wedding!!! Tyrel and Breanne are a beautiful couple. Aunt Loretta had a bbq the next day, Sunday at her new house in Ness City. It was one of my favorite get togethers. All of the aunts were there and my DAD!!!! He drove all of the way from New Mexico to see us all. He is the best. We had all of my nieces and nephews there and he played with them. It was so special and so nice. They all had a huge water fight together and it was so, so fun to watch. The next following days, I just hung out and visited some more people like Aunt Marge and Uncle Danny, Grandma Lyda and Tony and Kathy. All of my visits were special and so nice! I got to play in the yard a bunch (mow mom's yard, pick stickers... YAY) and run late at night when it was still in the hot 80's!!! I enjoyed huge amounts of time with my brother's kids...which I can never get enough of and am always extremely happy about when Chelsea "allows it"! grrrr..... :) My trip was again way too short, but like always, it is always nice to get home....get home this time to go....BERRY PICKING!!! YAY :)

Oh Blogger where art thou?

Blog Blog Blog
So it’s been awhile since I have entered anything in here, I guess you could say I been very busy and also have been very procrastination station. But what a summer so far, well summer slash a little bit of spring. I got to got to go to Pt Hope at the end of June for work and let me say it was still spring there. I went to recruit but got to go and subsist with Rex Rock Jr for Oogruks. So even if I missed Unk oogruk hunting I still got my fix as we ended up catching three I believe. Nothing like hunting till 4 am then having to go to work at 8 am A walrus catch and below me with a dead whale

The Russian River Combat wars!

Shanna checking out the action


Our idea of Camping :) Talk about hard truck bed

So on the fourth of July Shanna came down to anchorage and we made a road trip out of the whole weekend. She got to experience the Russian river and the falls but wasn’t highly impressed with combat fishing. What can ya say it’s difficult to adjust to standing side by side someone fishing when you’re used to having the whole river next to you. We didn’t get to keep any fish as we only caught like 2 or so. It was just nice to camp LOL and be in the outdoors as we ran in to a couple of bears while we were there.

Shanna at the Russian River Falls!! Hike Hike hike!!

Our fishing partner, we saw like 2 bears!

The fourth of July!!

After trying out the Russian we ran on down to Seward that night so we could immerse ourselves in their 4th of July festivities. Mainly the Mt. Marathon, it’s a huge thing here in AK as runner’s race up a steep hill up and down and I think is crazy!! We camped down by the glacier on the side of the river. It was a nice little set up and we quickly crashed out due to fishing all day.

Shanna at the Seward Festivities, you like her shirt!! Total Dietietian

After a good rest we made it down to all the festivities and there were tons of people down there!!! We got to see my friend Mori’s mom and sister finish up but we were really looking forward to watching Sam Hill run the race. Not only did we watch the race but it was a carnival atmosphere so we got our brats and Shanna got to check out the Starfish shirts. Well it was super hot down there! Mr. Hill ran a good race but ran in to some troubles on the way down but still did a really good job!!! The guy who was in first when they hit the streets collapsed!!! Crazy huh!!! He only need around 500 yards to finish and couldn’t make it….I couldn’t believe that. But it was a wonderful trip as we got to drive to Kenai, Seward and Anchorage. Afterwards it was the long trek back to Anchorage. What a great weekend, the next day Shanna had to leave me but I also had to leave AK too.

Sam Hill doing what he does best, running the Mt. Marathon


Penny Jack completing the race hats of to her!


Tons of people and tons of fun

Driving the ALCAN!!

So Shanna went back to Nome and I flew down to Seattle. My friend Kit, or Kitastrophe was waiting for me down there. The reason behind Seattle on a Sunday was Kit and I was driving his car up the ALCAN up to Alaska!!!

Couldn't pass up this photo Op

I love road trips and this one was very very fun!! We got to see all different sorts of wildlife but got to see beautiful scenery and also experience dementia due to the lack of sleep. All in all it took us 2 days to drive up. It was mainly around the clock although we did sleep for a couple of hours when either of us couldn’t go on. At the end of the trip Kit’s car looked like a bug threw-up on it because there was so much bugs on the front.

Along some random river

Can I be the next sign :)

My compadre Kit being photogenic!

We Saw lots of bears and these were 2 cute!

And Bison, crazy motorcyle man

And sheep, good thing i spit out my Stride gum

We made it to Alaska!!

Pt. Hope again For work!!

So got back to work and I got to go up to Pt hope again this time for the Economic summit where I held down a booth and had to get up in front of the leaders of the Northwest.

It says welcome to Pt Hope talk about a welcoming committee

Talk about nerve wracking!! I’m glad I didn’t have to sleep on the floor as Rex put me up and we go to hang out and we also got to see some good Eskimo dancing and great food. The hospitality room was always full of different native foods and I took advantage of all the great food there.

Professional Eskimo Dancer!!

Nome Days!!

So where are we um were at the end of July already. I left work a little early and flew out to Nome and hung out with Shanna for 6 days or so. Most of those days I was bed ridden as I got sick while I got there. I promise it wasn’t swine flu, I tried fishing but got skunked…it didn’t help that my rod was broken but I persevered. I got to watch Shanna play Softball and we also got to go out to the Spaghetti feed out at the GPAA camp. This camp is run by my aunt Cindy and uncle Tom and the food was good and got to visit Cindy and Tom for a little bit and meet some interested people while we were out there. Afterwards they have karaoke and also watch Kavik and Jon do Alaska games as the tourist were mesmerized by this J The day we were leaving she ran the Dexter Challenge. This is a grueling 8 mile run with a big mountain in the middle of it. Shanna got second place for the girls this year as she got to run with Spalding!!! Shanna and I had to part ways in Anchorage as she went to Denver and Kansas and I hung out in Anchorage for a few days before I went on down to Kenai for my friend Beavers wedding.

Shanna and my Aunt Cindy at the camp

Uncle Tom has go go go gold fever!!

Me helping out with the auction

Shanna's Dexter Challenge

Shanna and Spalding finishing hard!! Your so good baby!!

Beaver and Roxy's Wedding!!

I made it down there on Tuesday and bright and early the next day at 3:45 am we tried our hand at King fishing but our controller broke down so we had to switch over to fishing for reds off the bank. All in all that day we caught around 19 fish down on the banks and had a great time.

A bunch of Reds, all day baby!!

The next day I went dip netting with Noyuk and his girlfriend and that was fun!! We caught around 11 as when the tide came in the fish were too far out to catch. That night a majority of the guys came in and we fished some more. The next couple of days were for the wedding as Beaver and Roxy had a beautiful wedding. The weather was perfect, a lot of people showed up and the wedding was great.

Beautiful Wedding....

They had it down at Kenai landing and the reception was there also so everything worked out. Roxy look beautiful and Beaver well looked like Beaver. I would like to say congratulations to Mr and Mrs. Jon Madison. As for the next adventure I am heading out to Unalakleet to try my hand at Silver fishing..Can’t wait!!

Congrats Beaver and Roxy!!