Sunday, April 1, 2012

Aurora, doggies, and food

Aurora Borealis
One of the things I have always wanted to see was the Northern Lights.  We saw them faintly in October, but with the solar burst in March they were out and vivid.  John and I went out one night and took some of these cool pictures.  Unfortunately I did not get to enjoy them because I was worried about capturing them on film.  My camera also kept freezing up since the temperature was in the negative.  The next night I let the girls stay up late and took  them out to see the lights.  It was awesome and I truly got to enjoy them.  We also got to see a falling star.  This was one of those moments I will never forget and I am so glad I got to share it with Claire and Cate.



First Grade Artists
My class recently finished an art unit.  We learned about mixing colors and the studied the works of Seurat, Van Gogh, and Picasso.  Here are some of the work they created.
Pointilism

                                                 Picasso's Blue Period
Van Gogh's Sunflowers
                                           In first grade we do not wear our pants on the ground.
                                           We wear them on our head.
                                           We are also rock stars in first grade!
                                                  The coldest day of the year.  Negative 50.


Good Eats
March 14-16 was our spring break.  We were invited one night to our friend Darla's house to try Eskimo salad, tundra tea, stinkweed, salmon, and Eskimo ice cream.  Here is a picture of the salad.  It was beautiful and yummy.  The salad contained wild onions, muktuk (whale), black meat (seal), moose, walrus and crab.  After dinner we went to bingo with Darla.  Thank God she was with us to help.  They call the numbers pretty fast for rookies.  Later that week our friends AnnMarie and CO invited us over to share Alaskan king crab that was caught in Elim by AnnMarie's brother.  This stuff would be expensive if you ordered it at a restaurant, but when you catch it yourself it is free.  Just look at how beautiful that crab is.
Eskimo Salad: Yum!



Iditarod
At the end of our spring break we went to Nome to watch the end of the Iditarod.  We didn't get to see Dallas Seavey win, but we did get to see others.  Cate wanted to pet the dogs once they crossed the finish line and this made me cry.  Cate was attacked by a husky in the fall.  She has some scars from the attack and has been terrified of large dogs since.  When she asked if she could pet the huskies I was so proud that she had let go of her fear.  Here are some pictures from the Iditarod.






                                           Snow?  No problem!
Once upon a midday dreary:)

The furtherest north St. Patrick's Day Parade.



                                            See the ice on the dogs chin.
Cate's big step!


                                                         Notice the ice on his face?
                                            Exhausted pup!
Mocha
Well, we are very thankful that Mocha is in fact not pregnant.  She will be visiting a vet this summer to get fixed.  She is a great little dog!  The girls and I adore her.  Here are some of her latest pictures.





Next Year
We have signed contracts for next school year!