The Yukon River Delta is a BEAUTIFUL place.

The time is flying by! The days have been getting MUCH longer, the sun rises at 7:30 now, and it's light out until about 10:00. The sun has been shining too, and it's even starting to warm up. No new snow has fallen in a while, and things are really melting. The school usually takes a cultural day to go Munuqing (ice fishing) next week about 40 miles up the river and we may not get to go because the river is already starting to melt and get unsafe in some places. This next week is state testing, and lucky 4th graders get to take the regular reading, writing and math, and an extra test for science! Woo hoo. Those poor kids are going to be all tested out when it's all done. When I started preparing my room for testing, I realized I hadn't taken many pictures lately and after testing some of these things might start coming down so I figured I better get some pictures! 

When I say it's been warming up, I mean it. The sun is hot and when the wind isn't blowing we're tempted to do things like this:

This week I got all of my prepping for the next week done on Friday, and we had conferences, report cards, and another early release, so by the end of the week I was ready for a full weekend to enjoy. I'm still enjoying it, and it's only Saturday. Here's what we've done so far: We followed sun spots around the house all afternoon Friday, laying in whatever we could get. Max made me a delicious breakfast before I even got out of bed. AND we just got back from a 3 hour hike around the ridge up above Pilot, in the tundra! We saw a fox, some song birds, lots of ravens, and moose tracks. Here are the pictures from our hike:

These berries are from the fall, and I'm sure they're fermented by now. I tasted one awhile back, and they are terribly rotten. 

Tundra Flora

Tundra Flora pt. 2

This is what the ground on the tundra looks like. Mostly lichens and mosses with some grass and plants growing through it. 

Baby moose print. 

Post holing. Notice the fox prints to the left, they are able to walk right on top of the snow. 

A GLORIOUS place to stop and lay around enjoying the sunshine. It was cold though! 

An amazing view of the Yukon River Delta. What a beautiful place we live in. 

This one's for you dad. Why do you think the ice is this color? Hint: It's very near the frozen sewage lagoon. 

49 days left!

"It's Not An Adventure Until Something Goes Wrong."

It's been a interesting week! We always say "It's not an adventure until something goes wrong." and boy has that been the case. Today is the first day we've had water since Wednesday, on top of iffy power, and hosting the upriver middle school basketball tournament. We had about 6 teams staying at the school, with the whole community spending a lot of time at the school, as well as school in session and the entire community only had water with minimal pressure for about an hour per day, and the school only had water that was brought in with trash cans. We still had fun though, and on Friday it was an early release day. We celebrated all of the craziness by leaving our desks pushed to the side of the room (a team spent the night sleeping on our floor), I ordered my students to use their winter gear to make nests, and we watched a movie and ate popcorn.  

On Wednesday we went outside and played soccer in the snow. SO much fun.

Max's boys got 2nd in the tournament, and the girls got 3rd. They played well, and had a blast hosting the tournament and playing in front of their home crowd. 

Today the sun is out, so we spent some time walking around, running errands, and I got my new iPhone camera lenses in the mail today, so I got to test them out!

Fish Eye Lens: Even makes our dirty house look awesome! 

Spring is on the way, the trees are starting to bud! I can't wait for some more greenery around here! 

Macro Lens: So excited to spend more time trying that one out. 

Macro Lens: Birch tree

Wide Angle Lens: Tree carving

Macro Lens: The only flowers we've got around here are months old. 

Extreme Fish Eye Lens: Capturing my nest, where I laid in the sunshine and enjoyed the silence. 

"The Lagoon"

If you're interested in getting iPhone lenses, I read some reviews and the ones I bought are recommended and so far, I love them! You can find them HERE!