San Antonio and Thanksgiving!!!

A little late!!!!

So this is like really late and Shanna has been keeping up the blog and i have totally been slacking but that is my new blog resolution is to update it as much as i can!! So you'll start seeing more pictures and starting off is of our trip down to San Antonio!! Before we left i was blessed to hang out with my nephew and family and let me tell you he loves to get his picture taken!! He's quite the charmer :) As you could see he is getting big!!

Bojangles !!

So back in November Shanna had a race down in San Antonio so we got to make a trip out of not only was it Shanna and I but her mom, aunt and uncle and family friend made it down!! So we got quite the cheering crowd!! It was nice seeing Momma Moeder there and let me tell you they were quite the group!!! We got to do some sight seeing and even saw the Alamo!! Wow a place so historic that is definitely cool!! We took some tours in the little canals and overall just got to see everywhere.

Shanna in front of her race sign

Shanna and her relatives

The San Antonio river

Race day!!

So race day was finally here and it starts early!! Like 5am early!! So not only did Shanna run the race but the airlines were horrible!! They lost Shanna's luggage so luckily she brought some her running gear as handcarry!! I guess she is a Stoecklein :) But race day came and Shanna's relatives were troopers not only was it hot out but i was driving them from check point to checkpoint and rushing them around to walk half a mile to see Shanna run!! It was fun hanging out with them and even gooder to see Shanna run!! It was a great trip down there and Shanna did great!!

Run Shanna Run

So Shanna wasn't the only racer from Nome the Olsons were down there and some did the half and some did the full ti was a Great day for Nome Athletics

Shanna after the race!! She got a shiny metal

Me at Kincaid park after back from San Antonio!! It was so cold after being in 60 degree weather

The Northern lights of Nome!!

So after the race i had to go back to red dog, which is now my former employer as we are down here in Kodiak. But I got to go to Nome for Thanksgiving and spend time with Shanna but also with a community that i have grown to now which i miss knowing some much people around.

Shanna and Alyssa's daughter before thanksgiving...So cute

Shanna's old neighbor John with Erin's daughter, that;s where we at Thanksgiving at and their daughter was so cute!!

Shanna and Andrea doing the Thanksgiving walk to work off all that fat that we ate.

The water drop!! Beejay gray during the walk

Shanna and I at a fund raiser!!

So as you all know we have moved to Kodiak!! So far it has been really great our jobs are going great and the weather is raining all the time but it's warm!! Its also alot different as i work 5 days a week 7.5 hours a day. As for pictures i will add them in a couple of days as i have some great ones from our hikes and adventures...

We're Moving!!!

In February I received a phone call from a nurse in Kodiak. She was talking to me about coming to Kodiak to be their RD in their Diabetes Dept. Well we have decided that is exactly what we are going to do!!! Sam and I both took jobs at KANA (the native health clinic) in Kodiak, Alaska. He will be the HR director and I will be their Dietitian. I don't have my military orders yet, but they are talking possibly January when we will get there. It rains about 60-80 inches each year. I'm not sure how we are going to tolerate that, but we will soon see. Right now we both come from a place that gets about 10 inches maybe???!!!!!!!
Kodiak is on an island in the south central part of AK. We will be able to take our cars to Anchorage if we want. They have a marine highway that goes from Kodiak to Homer. Then we will have to drive 4 hours to get to Anc vs. a 45 min flight! :) They have A LOT of trees. I felt claustrophobic b/c of the trees b/c Nome does not have any. They have cheaper groceries and a Walmart. It is like living in a city, but I still have to fly to get to Anchorage and it rains a flood! :) Most of all, Sam and I finally get to be together and I will get to see him everyday. Leaving Nome for me and Red Dog Mine for him is going to be super tough, but the other side of the coins (being together) looks much better!!!! :)

I have a house guest!

On October 26 my dad flew in on the big bird. I love seeing my family and I love being able to fly my parents places. They did so much for me, so this is so minimal to give! :)
We toured one of the first days that he got here. We were so lucky. We got to see about 20-30 musk ox. I will out pics, but sadly I deleted ALL of my pictures off of my computer! :( SO SO SAD, and so much work to get it all back! Hopefully, I will be able to do it!
BACK to my dad. A couple of days, we have driven the roads here. The snow is starting to fall so it is not as pretty as it could have been about 1 month ago. He drove to mile 50 on the Kougarak road and the Council road. The ocean was so beautiful on the Council road. That day was so bitter cold though. Brrr.....and of course HE or maybe we forgot the lunch box with my water and the Ham radio so if we would have wrecked or got stuck, we would have been up a creek or maybe just stuck! :( Luckily we made it home and today we took the ham radio when we went driving today. We were going to go hike Dorothy Falls, but he was too scared to cross the river. Yeah, it was abit icy and frozen and flowing in parts, but we could have totally made. I was even willing to go across it first! :) Needless to say, we just left. Him laughing at how I tried to kill him and get him wet and me upset and sad that we didn't do the hike! :) However we did stop at the beach on the way around home. He found us some of the best pieces of beach glass. I told him that his hearing is horrible but his eyes are great! If you are his sibling or family and you are reading this...you need to help me talk him into getting his hearing checked. Hear aides are NOT BAD THINGS!!! :)

Tonight we made some pretty good salmon. No worries....he is getting fed well and much like he keeps walking around the house and saying...."I think she hid my beer again". I'm trying, but actually when he can't find his beer it is actually b/c he misplaced it. Besides these confused wanderings around my small house looking for his drink....I'm trying to keep myself strees free and well entertained. Just a few minutes ago I just said, "THE COOKIES". Dad jumped up and starting looking for the cookies that "he could smell". I tried to make him think that they were burning but knowing that I put them on the table. He walked all over the kitchen looking and saying...."I hide the cookies too". Man, it is so fun to have geriatrics in my house! :) hahaha

We're Moving!!!

Again we are so bad about updating anything on our blog. We have some new exciting news though.
Sam and I just accepted new jobs and so we will be moving around the end of November, beginning of December. We are moving to Kodiak, AK. We are both going to be working at KANA (the native hospital) in Kodiak. Kodiak is south of Anchorage. It is on an island. So again you can not drive to where I live. The ocean does not freeze there so fortunately we can take the marine highway on the ferry and with our car to the main land Alaska.
Sam is going to be the HR director and I will be the sole dietitian at KANA. I will still work with Diabetes, WIC and in the community.

Life is going to be different! Very different. :) Sam and I will be around each other everyday. It rains there, like 60-80 inches of rain we hear. It only rains a few inches in Nome, so this will be a huge change!!! It won't be as cold as it is in Nome and the cost of living with be cheaper! YAY! :)

We hope that people visit us. We have already had many friends tell us, "I've never been to Kodiak" so hopefully that means they and you will come visit!

Big Catch

Shanna and I in a romantic Pose taken by my Gorilla Tripod

So just a quick little update!! Shanna and I went to the Lion King in Anchorage! It was fab, it was like watching the movie and also the actors were great! I liked Timon & Pumba and also Scar the best I think. They did a great job and recommend anyone to go to it! So I am back at work and Shanna is in Nome, I was trying to head up there but work limited me not to go so she is going to the NRA banquet tonight!! So lucky we went last year and had a great time there. Guns and more guns:) Now that;'s a big catch update!

Hanging out with my Nephew, he liked his picture with Spongebob :)

Unalakleet AK 99684

Beautiful Unalakleet where the east wind blows.
Last week I got to go home to Unalakleet again which was fabulous!! Not only did I go out there but met up with Shanna up there. So I flew out there on Pen air which is a rip off!! For a plane ride out to Unalakleet it cost 400 dollars round trip!! For that price just think all the places where I could have gone!! Hawaii, Vegas, Seattle, Denver!! But that’s the village for you. My mom did a lot of cooking so it was nice to have dough fritters and fresh rhubarb cinnamon rolls!! I could eat both of those forever!!

Camp with the sun behind it
So the first night we took a nice ride up to camp and brought along Shanna’s co-workers Kelly and Susie.

Shanna's co worker Kelly

My dad and Mom relaxing
It was a beautiful day out there and right away we caught some silvers but after that they decided to stop biting which was too bad because it was a perfect day but still it was nice to be up river along with family and friends.

My mom fishing at camp

Shanna and her silver

Beautiful Sunset in Unk
The next day Shanna went to the school and gave presentations to the students of Unalakleet high school and while she did I took a ride up the road with my parent’s four-wheeler to try my luck out fishing at the bridge.

Shanna giving her Presentation
Not only was it real foggy but a little cold. Nice to be on the road again, I ran in to spruce hens, a weasel and what not. I got to the bridge and tried out fishing with flies and caught 4 silvers on flies and released them as they were real red and what not.

Not knowing that when I got home that Lorena would have taken them as the real red silvers are good for dried fish. But after taking a break from fishing I saw some spruce hens on the road and since I only brought a .270 I tried my luck at catching them with rocks but to no avail J
In the afternoon my mom, Willa and Shanna and I went up to pick some cranberries out at Musk-ox and there were berries aplenty. Not only were there lots of berries but tons of bugs too!!! I tried my hand at picking berries and picked some but not as much as the pro’s. It was a hot day out and beautiful out again as the fogged burned off!

Shanna picking berries with tons of bugs
After picking berries Shanna and I tried our luck at fishing for silvers and we caught one out there, it was nice to be out in the outdoors with her and fishing!! Afterwards we gave the fish to Lorena as she was looking for red silvers.

Saturday came around and my parents, Shanna and I took a long ride up the river about an hour and half. It’s been about a year since I been way up the river and was amazed at how much it changed!! The channels changed and banks are eroding. I saw a guy name Aapiuk’s cabin on a sand bar. I guess the water eroded the bank where his cabin once stood and is cabin entered the river and floated down like 6 or 7 bends and was deposited on the sandbar.

Cabin that floated down the river

Beautiful day out!
It was quite aways away which was surprising but interesting to see. When we got way up the river we tried fishing but caught a bunch of trout but some silvers. We got way up the river and stopped and had a picnic on a sandbar and there was a little slough there too. In the slough you could see tons of Red salmon, dogs and silvers mixed in which was cool.
Shanna and her Red

Shanna and I and my Red. Big Catch!!
Reds really don’t go in the river but this is where they must spawn because there were quite a bit of them. Awesome to see that. We had a great dinner consisting of fresh silver, smoked king salmon, potatoes and what not. Nothing like a nice picnic.
Picnic Time!

My pops!
Afterwards we made our way back down and stopped at my uncle Junies waterfall cabin where we Gary and Willa, Junie and Linda, my gram and Glenda were all there visiting. It was nice visiting and hearing stories also it was nice to warm up with a cup of hot chocolate.
Uncle Junie at his camp
On the way down it got really foggy and cold!! But we finally made it home and it was nice to lay around and put in a movie and snooze!! Unalakleet is always awesome as it’s where I grew up and it’s always nice to be home. The young kids are all grown up now and it has changed so much.

My gram getting ready for the ride down
Sunday was a relaxing day as after church we had Gary, Willa and my gram over for lunch. We had Egg roe, and soy sauce silvers!! Hmm that was a delicious meal, actually every meal I ate at home was delicious. As I said Sunday was a relaxing day and after finally getting up from our nap Shanna and I went up the river to catch some silvers for canning. We couldn’t find the fish and finally we found a hot spot and it seemed like we were catching them quite frequently. But just as we found the fish the sun went down on us.

Our rewards!!
Monday was nice as we had another relaxing day but we Shanna and I went up the road to the bridge and tried our luck again fishing silvers but the silvers must have caught on to my flies as they weren’t biting them. You could see tons of silvers in the water but they just weren’t biting!! So we decided to check out Little North River and Shanna caught one there but that was the only one that bite. So afterwards we cut up the fish and used eggs for the silvers the only problem with that was we caught more trout then silvers as the trout were like missiles focused on the eggs J all in all we caught 3 silvers and like 15 trout and graylings. We gave the trout to my uncle Gary and the silvers for our friends in Nome. Sadly the trip had to end as the weekend flew by, not only great weather, but great company and decent fishing! I can’t wait till next year when the silvers are running again and I could guarantee you’ll see me up there subsisting. Now that’s Big Catch Alaska!!

Blogger alert,

So I have finally am doing another blog as I have had a whirlwind month since last time I updated the blog. So attention everyone this is fab!! J Anyways work has been going great as I have been travelling around to villages doing our annual village visits. Not only do I get to interact, visit and see old friends at villages but I have the chance to be out of red dog.

Beautiful village of Kiana!!
KIANA TIME
The first stop was in Kiana and we had warm greeting there as the meeting went well. Not only do we inform them of all our year to date stuff but we also give out door prizes and feed them a chicken dinner.

How many Staheli's does it take to use a VHF :)

Elders of Kiana listening to our presentation!
So the presentation went well and I got to explore Kiana while I was there and stayed over at the Staheli’s. Not only did I get to have Heanie’s famous salsa but got to hang out with Zaz and Lee’s boy Joe. Otherwise as Joe baby, that kid is a riot and after not too long he was calling Uncle Sam and asking a ton of questions.

Lee Boy and his son! Kiana in the Morning!! Foggy!
The caribou were running while I was there but I only had one day there. The next morning I had to talk to students about scholarships and red dog and their future. I always enjoy talking to students as they are always interested in new stuff. I suggest that next time don’t talk to them at 9 in the morning as most of them were half asleep J

Noorvik AK home of da bears!!
After departing Kiana we took off to Noorvik, noorvik is where my mom is originally from so I was amped to be there as I haven’t seen some of my relatives for a couple of years. Most notably my Aana (grandma) for those of you that don’t know.

My Grandma Elizabeth Sheldon!
So I was stayed at her place, the only thing is that when I got to Noorvik I had a full blown cold. Why can’t that happen at work and not when I am out venturing to the villages!! But we our first agenda was to talk to the students as they asked questions about red dog and were excited to see that Lois Newlin from Noorvik originally was there and she talked about what she does. I feel she was a great role model for noorvik kids but mainly for the girls of that school as they see that they could too make it at a place like Red Dog.

Fish drying in ORV Lake shot!
Afterwards we had some time to burn so I ran over to my Aana’s place and said hi dropped my stuff off and went on the tour of Noorvik, it was nice to be I a place where I visited when I was younger and it brought back memories of going there for duck, and caribou hunting and also for Christmas.

My parents old house :) Presentation in Noorvik
So after our tour we had our meeting and that went off great as well and people really enjoy the food we bring…i.e. chicken. After our presentation was done (I give a presentation also about employment) I went over to my aana’s house and hung out for a bit and got a treat at the end when my Uncle Allen and aunt and cousin went for a boat ride.


Allen, Benji and Linda up the Kobuk! Nice river!!

It was wonderful to be back out on the Kobuk to venture places where my mom was when she was a kid. So we got to look around for Caribou and saw some on the tundra and what not. But I also caught some ducks while we were boating...ah nice to shoot a shot gun again!! So not only was it a great ride but the views were wonderful, the sun was setting and it put out a ton of beautiful colors out there. Had a great time and didn’t want to leave Noorvik.

Caribou on the range! Beautiful Sunset!!
But we left Noorvik the next morning and my Aana made me some pancakes and I cooked some eggs. A funny story, my gram was mixing the batter and had the krusteaz blueberry mix and while mixing she thought that someone put nails in the batter but they were really dried blue berries that looked like nails J but sadly I had to go back to work.

Noatak Alaska
The next place we went to was Noatak, we were a bit delayed to fall weather but we finally made it to the village and took our bumpy ride out to the school. For those of you that don’t know Noatak has a new school and let me tell you it’s a beautiful school.

Noatak's new school!! Prayer before presentation
I am very impressed with all the art work and design of the school. The village of Noatak should be very proud of their school. So we didn’t have to present that night so we got to venture out and what not. We had our presentation and that went well and afterwards we hung out at the school, got online. We really couldn’t go around the village due to rain so we resided and went to sleep. In the morning we had our presentation to the kids and hope that we inspired some of them to be all they can be. Afterwards I got to interact with the kids by shooting around, playing volleyball and what not. The weather was still bad there so since the mine is only 30 miles away they decided to ferry us back and forth to the mine site.

My new friend Noatak! Noatak's whale bone!!
This gave us time to walk around and me and Cecil took a walk in to town and visiting the native store and what not. On the way back a cute little puppy followed us all the way back and he was very adventurous walking around in the marsh and what not. Afterwards it was my turn to go back to the mine site and riding in a helicopter is fun!! It wasn’t my first time but I love flying in them.

The beautiful Noatak river

Puppy of Noatak


Red dog Valley!