Drew and Candy July 2006

Care package from Gramma Linda

Drew's mother called us from Minnasota and told us to watch out for a package, but the girls had to open it. So everyday we told the girls we had to check the mail everyday and told them if they were nice, they'd get something special. Well, finally about four days when Linda called and told us to be expecting something, it came. Usually mail from there take forever! Like Jodi when she mails things for herself. Anyway, it came Priority Mail. They were happy, we let them open it, their eyes fixed on the box, for THEM! They were so excited, they most they did was gasped and OOOed and Aawwwwed and WOW, for ME!!!!!! They looked at the outfits and they thought they were the prettiest things. They always say," Ma, me pretty princess!" Everytime they got a cute girly girl outfit. They put them on and we letthem wore them to the store. Please thought they looked sooooo cute! My parents saw them, they like them, lol...my dad said," You girls look like city girls!" (smiles and chuckles).

Home coming with our pet ferret, Nanauq

After our trip to the Nabesna and the surrounding villages and towns, we had a few extra days in Anchorage. We went shopping for things we needed for home and Drew thought it would be neat to have a ferret for his classroom. We got this little bundle of white fur-ball from Petco. A cute little ferret we called Nanauq. After the great white polar bear. He the funniest thing, Drew says he never seen a ferret act this way. He's so cuddley, snuggable, lets the girls home himand play with him, just so agreeable! Most ferrets want, need attention, but not like this. He lets the girls wrap him in a baby blanket, carry him like a baby, toss him over their shoulder, just about anything. He their "baby".

First Run of Salmon June 2006

Every year the salmon run is getting later and later. But at least we got to work on some Humpies this year! My absolute favrite kind of dry fish! Drew and I got to do some this summer with my family in Stebbins. My parents were suprised he can cut the fish the way we do. Here you will see the fish on drying racks. We hang them for a couple of days to dry and then smoke them for 3-5 days. We cut all fish this way, after we're done, we store them in 5 gallon buckets if we didn't have freezer space or vaccum seal bags.

Nabesna River rafting trip Aug. 18-22, 2006

Nabesna River, the thought of going on a rafting trip was exciting for me. I've never done any trip like that before. I imagined jumping on a raft and just taking it easy and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Nope. It was hard work! The water was COLD!!! I fell in Jack Creek, where we started from, to the Nabesna River. It was all slow motion when I fell in. Drew didn't know I went in. It was quiet, I didn't scream for help or waved my arms in panic. He said,"duck"...when fallen trees were in our way. Rather than ducking forward, I'd put my arms up to cover my face so I don't get scratches, close my eyes and there I went, slidding backwards out of the raft. It was cold, but refreshing! Twice that happened! At least I was the cleanest! Lol! I was the only one who got a taste of the creek and what it felt like to take a dip! Kim saw me went in, Drew was working the ores...here I go sliding out of the raft like a snake! At least they got a few good laughs out of it! I must admit, it was rather funny! I mean, what are you going to tell your grandchildren down the line of the time you went rafting the Nabesna River!? Something to sit and talk to your husband about when your sitting on the front porch, watching your grandchildren playing in the yard...holding hands and saying," Remember when we were younger, we went on this rafting trip to the Nabesna." (A little chuckle and sigh)

I'm sure we'll do another trip like that. Here you will see pictures of Drew near a smokey camp fire. That was our first night out and we thought our trip was ruined. We thought Kim had skipped out on us or maybe she got hurt and she couldn't get a hold of us. We had so much running through our mind. We laughed, we thought it was a dead end trip and we weren't going anywhere. Heading down this dirt road was a nice bumpy drive, we ran into some people and asked if they might have seen our friends around. Drew pulled up to a rented camper with a lady in it, he was asking her a few questions, I looked over and he was describing and signaling with his hands and arms to a women who knows very little english. I see her husband coming up from a small creek off to the side of the road, looking at us confused, not even smiling. His wife was trying to help, even if she couldn't speak english. Off we went passed campers, trucks...No Kim. Then we reached the end of the dirt road. A small little lodge, a few "locals" that live there and a small airstrip. Sat there, talked of what were going to do. We had very little water and juice left. Kim had the water purifier. Walked around and headed down a trail that was heading down to the Nabesna River and back to the truck, still no sign of Kim! We sat there for a couple of hours, planning on what to do, if she never showed and so on. A little upset on how much money we put in this trip. We had no way of calling her, no phones for miles and miles. Then we thought," Let's do this trip ourselves, we got a raft or maybe let's just go hiking the mountains." We had set up camp near Jack Creek, not knowing that was our starting point. Set up for the night, made a delicious over the fire steak dinner with a can of peas and a nice nalgene bottle of cold Jack Creek water to wash it down with! Yummy! The night was crisp, very little mosquitos out, a little dark, a star filled night would have been absolutely beautiful. The sound of the creek was good enough. We went to bed with the following day planned. Go to Slana and call Kim's mom and see what the hell happened to her!

We broke camp down, heading out of our cute little camping sight, down this narrow dirt road and here we are driving down and a white truck flashing his lights at us, signaling us to stop. We stopped next to him and he told us our party was just up ahead. That they couldn't cross an overflow with their little car, they had to set camp up not far from us. So, our trip started from there. Meeting Kim and another Kim and Aipuq (Kim H.'s dog).