Party Time!!

Why turn a year older without a PARTY!?

Here are some happenings from Aaron's birthday's main event this past weekend!

Nelson in Kipnuk, AK

Here is a powerful 8 minute video from an amazing student and friend of mine, Nelson, who is now a junior at MEHS, where I teach. This beautiful video taking place in Kipnuk, Alaska, a Yup'ik village brings alive the importance of Alaska native family ties and their strong connection to the land, but also paints a very real portrait of village life and the uncertainty of whats ahead.

Enjoy!

something i'd never thought i'd do...

Alaska can be cold, however, Anchorage is colder than any Alaskan I've ever felt, -8 degrees cold in fact. Maybe in my lifetime I've experienced -8, but then again maybe not. But today, no question, I did.

This morning I woke up, looked out my window, and put on my running shoes at -8 degrees.

I ran 40 minutes at that temperature and actually was quite warm (thanks to the beanie, 2 pairs of mittens, neck gator, base layer, fleece and down puff I was wearing). With the exception of my eye lashes, which were frozen, and my belly (my base layer had ridden up and I was wearing two many pairs of mittens to fix it) it felt like a normal sunny day.

But -8 is cold, so cold in fact that when you walk outside you loose your breathe and when you finally catch it, you begin coughing because it burns your lungs. Tomorrow I plan on going back out with cross-country skis, Sunday hopefully to the ski hill, but come Monday I'll be happy to be back in Sitka where it may even be above freezing!

Yesterday

Sorry all you down south folks who are still skiing between snow and grassy patches, this is what sitka snowboarding as to offer this year and boy is it amazing. Fuffly heaven, will try to send some your way! Here's some video coverage:

Second annual shelikof trip

I've been so busy with my new teaching position at Mount Edgecumbe High School I haven't made my "blob" reflections a top priority. Plus without my number one blob reading fan/grandfather to send me email encouragements urging me to keep sharing my adventures another motivation ceased. However I would like to share one other adventure from this past fall, it would be ashame for this trip to go undocumented.

It was our friend groups second annual Thanksgiving trip to Shelikof. The first annual trip was 2 years prior in 09'. However this year was a whole different can of worms.

Here's the summary:
3 feet of snow
2 skiffs
6 sea faring miles
14 miles of trail
4 cross country skiers
1 split boarder
3 hikers
1 sled dog
1 sled
1 Aframe cabin: Shelikof
Another Island: Kruzoff
one wood stove
1 rifle
2 gun shots
2 dead deer
beautiful private beach
sand dollars
no clams
no surfing
3 days
2 nights
Another Nice Alaskan Vacation to write home about

looking for a vacation?

Hawaii is overrated! The beautiful rudgedness of Alaska is like nowhere else on earth. Aaron and I over a lovely Christmas break of hosting Aaron's parents and Christmas dinner decided to take the ferry over to Juneau for 4 days for a good old fashion Alaskan vacation.

Now if you like snowboarding Juneau ski mnt. is the spot right now with currently the biggest snow base in North America. The resort is maintained by the city and it is not only affordable but it is dream to carve in the fresh power. So some of our time in Juneau was spent on this snow mountain, but our favorite part of our trip was our backcountry crosscountry skiing adventure! 13 miles of hiking and backcountry skiing over lakes and to cabins and descending mnts. and crossing narrow bridges returning just as the moon fully took over as the main source of light reflecting on the snowy mountain side. We did a poor job of properly documenting this vacation but this is what we've got for now. I'll included also some Christmas day photos! Happy New Year all!

O-Party

Brandon as the game Operation.

Aaron was overboard and I was on fire!

Amber was Oriental and Arther made an amazing Oreo costume.

Ohio and Oscar the grench.

One of the most memorable parties of all times, for me, was in Asheville, NC right before a good friend moved to Oregon for grad school. In her honor an "O" party was thrown. Everyone was asked to dress in costumes beginning with the letter O.

The party was an amazing success! People went above and beyond with their costumes, and in fact, the party was so impressionable for me, I have always wanted to throw an O party of my own. So, finally 4 1/2 years later I did. This time the reason for the occasion was October, not someone moving, so their was no element of sadness just a fun filled evening of enjoying everyone's creative costumes. Just like "O" party #1 the costumes were dynamite.

Here are some photos: unfortunately, many of the amazing costumes were not properly documented!

Those costumes included: oragami, oragami paper crane, and an owl.