End of the School Year

The last few months of the school year have been super busy.  We completed standardized testing (yuck), took students up river, celebrated Claire's birthday, prom and graduation.  Needless to say we were exhausted when May 18 finally hit.  Lucky, for us we have a fabulous principal who surprised us with root beer floats on the last day of school.

Easter
This was the first Easter where we didn't have a sunny, warm day to hunt eggs.  The  Easter Bunny found us still in Alaska and we celebrated the resurrection of Christ with our new family in Alaska.  The morning of Easter we awoke to a blizzard which caused us to have an indoor egg hunt.  We ended the day, however, with calm winds so our family decided to borrow the schools sleds and go sliding.  It was a fun day.  Below you will see a picture of the ham we ate.  I bet no one in the lower 48 paid that much for their Easter ham:)

Solar Flare
As the days became longer we began to experience some problems with our Internet, satellite, and cell phone connections.  I really don't understand all the science behind it, but I know this is the brightest I have ever seen the sun.  The picture below explains why wearing polarized sunglasses this time of year is a necessity.

Claire turns 8
May 4th was Claire's birthday.  We still can't believe that our oldest is 8.  Time truly flies.  John and I waited 8 years before starting our family.  We often say that we cannot remember life without children. I mean this in a positive way.  John once told me ,when he was 22, that all he ever wanted was a wife and children.  Claire was an answer to prayer and she was brought sunshine to our lives for 8 wonderful years.  Below are some pictures of her celebration with friends.  Her one request for the day was to have Subway, so we called Subway in Nome and had it flown out to the village.  (You don't want to know how much that cost:)

Prom
Since our school is so small, prom is open to everyone.  The evening starts with the elementary kids who stay for a couple of hours and then leave so the older kids can enjoy the night without pesky little kids getting in the way.  John was in charge of the music, but luckily he had Helen Bruns and Angela Olanna there to help him, otherwise the kids would have had to endure Def Leppard and Bon Jovi.

 They both have moves like Jagger.

 John and Claire square dancing.

John and Claire doing the Cha Cha slide.

I love these ladies!  Amy in the middle and Ann Marie on the right.

Graduation

This years high school graduating class consisted of six students.  Since our school is small each graduating senior gives a speech.  One of the elders, Rita, gave the graduates some words of wisdom. A PowerPoint of graduates' baby pictures was shown followed by cake served to the whole community.  It was neat that the whole community attends graduation.  

Another group of students also graduated this year.  The Brevig Mission 4 year old preschoolers graduated from Head Start. Among the graduates was our very own Ella "Cate" Moore.  The guest speaker and presenter of diplomas was none other than John Moore.  

 She was so excited!

 John's speech was short, but sweet.  

Cate with her teachers Liz, Darla, and Hannah.  Oh, and Cate's best buddy Carol.

Saying Goodbye to Friends

On the Thursday before school ended, the Brevig Mission staff put together a dinner to say farewell to two of our teachers who will not be returning in the fall.  Karen and Ann Marie have both decided to take positions on the Kenai.  I will greatly miss them both!