April 2013

up in Anchorage with Chad (Paul's brother) and Tami and the kids.  What a wonderful time!!  We shopped ( our first time in the city in 3 months, stock up on supplies).  We did a lot of outdoor activities during the day and watched movies, played pool, and sat in the hot tub at night.  The temperatures were in the high 30's and low 40's, perfect temperatures!  Remember, we just came from negative temperatures.  Poor Kentucky Secor's, they came from 70's.  

We when to the Wildlife Conservation (one of our favorite places) and Bouncing Bears, land of inflatables (there was an episode of Sarah Palin's Alaska where Bristol took Tripp there).  We sledded, a ton.  Skiing was awesome!  We all took lessons and then took to the slopes!  Simon and Daniel snow boarded and the rest of us skied.  We also celebrated Resurrection Sunday with each other.  What a busy week.  Great times!

This is so typical of this time of year, April.  Break-up.  When the rivers and lakes start to "break-up" and there is overflow.  No more driving on the ice roads!

These are just some random pictures.  To the left, a water filling station.  People are limited on their water supply.  There is a truck that fills up and delivers it to your home and puts it in your water tank.  We are blessed to not have to bother with this living on the compound.  Below:  Pictures of housing and above ground plumping.  Lots of MUD!  

Left: on a lot of the buildings, there are these boards hanging.  The wind is so strong, they help block the wind.  Another different thing here.  In some offices, you are required to take off your shoes in the Arctic entry (a small room before opening the front door, to keep the arctic air from going inside).  There is so much dirt and mud, see in the next picture.  Our dog, Grizzly, gets a bath, at least once a day.  As far as I can tell, the only pavement is on the main road and is a few parking lots.  Mostly dirt and gravel, mostly dirt, roads and very fine dirt at that.  Think about that... in the summer... wind blowing... windows open... I don't know about that.  People have told us that you will get a thin layer of dirt on EVERYTHING.  Hummm.  These below, the slough, by our compound.

Happy Easter!!!

This is a view from the plane (of course) on the way home to Bethel from Anchorage.  Isn't this amazing???