Thursday, November 4, 2010

.catching up.

So. Journaling is typically something I love to do. It can be relaxing, help you reflect, and is really just something you can do for you. In my mind this blog has the potential to be like a journal, and after my adventure here in Alaska is over I will be able to look back and remember all the amazing experiences I have had. The problem is that in similar fashion to a journal, when I get behind on writing I tend to want to quit or skip over things that have happened so I can catch up to my current life; instead of, racking my brain about events that took place a week ago. So aggravating. So in an attempt to quickly catchup I am going to just run through a few of the highlights from these past ten days or so.

Sunday October 17th

Mom was still in town and we were still getting settled in a bit. We went to church Sunday morning and were invited over to Byron and Sue Bruckner's house for lunch. [By the way, Byron is the founder of CYAK, and his hilarious wife sue works with Lauren and I in the office. She pretty much keeps us laughing non-stop]. After eating tons of chips and salsa and dried fish we were served a delicious lunch with amazing salmon. yum. We decided to go on a hike to make some room for dessert, so we headed down the road a bit to hike the Butte. It was a great hike, and the view is super rewarding.






After snapping a few shots and soaking it all in we made our way back to the Bruckner's. Byron was waiting with ice cream bowls and about every flavor of ice cream you could ever want. Oh and we let him practice his barista skills on us with his new latte maker, they were delicious. So lets see, church, friends, food, hiking, ice cream, and lattes...it was a pretty perfect sunday.


Friday October 29

Our church hosted an event called Singspiration. This is something that takes place in the villages on a regular basis from what I understand. Basically everyone gets together and enjoys a time of eating, fellowship, testimonies, and SINGING! I believe it is very common for this to go on for a number of hours with congregational singing from the hymns as well as individuals singing for the group. I feel like I have heard so much about singspiration in the villages so I was so excited to be a part of it here on the road system. Lauren, Nikki, and I had a pretty full morning going to Costco to buy all the food for the teen youth retreat called Fall Blast that will be coming up pretty soon here. After loading our carts, packing all the food into boxes, and shipping them out to Elim we headed back to the church to start the preparation for Singspiration.
Once we got there we started helping to make the fry bread. This is a very common type of bread, and is probably made a million different ways depending on who you ask to teach you. Every family seems to have their own 'special' way with a pinch of this and a dash of that.




Everything was delicious, and we had way more food then we knew what to do with. Everyone is so generous and spoiled us with tons of fish, moose stew,akutaq, and tons of cranberry pastries. It was a great time of fellowship and singing, I can see why it goes on for hours in the villages, it is such a blessing.

Saturday October 30


Lauren [have I mentioned she's my room-mate?] and I enjoyed a morning to sleep in, finally. We decided to go for a hike but thought it would be best to enjoy the beginning part of the morning in bed. By about 10:30 or so, when we were completely rested, we ate some breakfast and started gearing up for our adventure. Lazy Mountain is in the Palmer area, and is definitely a step up from the Butte, so it was the obvious choice for my second hike. Lauren had already hiked it before, but we made a decision to stay active all winter and to try and hike Lazy every other week. People hike it all year round, and we really need to the practice so we can work our way up to pioneer peak by summer! It was pretty tough, especially for me. Lauren is from Colorado, so hiking is in her DNA, but for me, being from the flat lands of Illinois, had a few struggles here,

and there,
but it sure was rewarding once we made it to the top.


it was a beautiful hike.

One thing that was amazing to me was that from the top you could see the Butte, but barely. It looked like a little hill, but let me tell you, when I was hiking it before it sure seemed steep. Can you see it?

yep, there it is, off in the right hand corner. crazy.

Also,on the way down the mountain you kind of run/slip your entire way down. It is a little tough going down carefully so I think next time we need to just hike up with a sled strapped to our backs!
During this little excursion I also saw my first moose up close. When I was running down I had that feeling, when you think something is looking at you. Out of the corner of my eye I saw it, standing right there behind a tree. So I did what any girl would do, I just keep staring back at it. That is until Lauren told me not to make eye contact with it! oops. Either way, we just kept talking/praying out loud, stayed calm, and walked back to the car. Fheww, we made it out alive, but it sure was an adventure.
Good thing we had osa, our protective guard dog with us.

Here are a few extra shots.





Sunday October 31

Happy Halloween, well actually we didn't really do too much. There was a little harvest party at church so we stuck around there for a bit to eat lunch and watch a few of the kids games, but we were very happy to head home and enjoy the night in.

We did however make delicious turkey pumpkin chili and watched benny and joon. And there you have it, my kind of party. A big bowl of hot chili, a flannel shirt, sweatpants, and a warm quilt. 

1 comment:

  1. oh.. i just wish i could be there!
    your photos of Lazy Mountain are gorgeous. i love reading about your day-to-day. don't worry too much about having to get 'caught up'. The normal/right-now is so good too.

    ReplyDelete