Offspring Opinions, No. 8
- Prof C
- Mar 16
- 5 min read
Wow, it's been awhile. Amazing how the time gets away from you when life gets busy. Without much further ado, a recount from the kids.
Emily: Yo, may I just say this, these lovely classmates of mine are making me tweak out.
So, Christmas was fun, I got a shiny bag for my nail tools and polishes. I ate all of the white chocolate bars with hazelnuts in them, those were scrumptious. For New Years, I soaked a ball of yarn (it was bad yarn) in cheap perfume, then set it on fire for Josh to jump over since we didn't have any fireworks to jump over. We going to skip to when we left to Fairbanks... Fairbanks is special. The only thing I enjoyed doing in Fairbanks was buying my parents' gifts. I bought my Mom a new pair of shoes and my Dad a beanie and a rolling pin. Back in Kaltag, I started making cappuccinos and lattes for the Kaltag Cafe. I'm still trying to get the ratio down so I can make latte art but I've only been successful 3 times in doing some art. That's pretty much it for what has been notable. Bye now.
Joshua: So a lot has happened since I last wrote on the blog and I will tell y'all about the important things that have happened. First off, Christmas was important because Jadyn got to come down to spend Christmas with us and that was exciting because she is going to college in Juneau. Christmas was also important because I got a new phone that I could use to play games with my siblings so that was nice.
New Year's: The New Year had an okay start because we didn't get big fireworks and I wasn't able to jump over any fireworks this year, which sucked, but the village people put on a pretty good show of fireworks based on what I saw from the house.
Fairbanks: Everyone except for my dad went to Fairbanks, because once again we were the top River school in the district for Battle of the Books. So we got to go to Fairbanks to watch a hockey game and just spend a weekend in Fairbanks. If you want my opinion, don't live in Fairbanks. It's very expensive and it's frankly not worth it; there are too many cons to pros in Fairbanks. The only good things in Fairbanks are: Pike's Inn, The Crepery, and Fred Meyers. The hockey game was an absolute disgrace. The team we went to watch/support was an all bark no bite team and we left in the second quarter because they were losing 1-3 so we just left and went back to the hotel. So that's my update from the last time I posted so see y'all later!
Avery: Hello, everybody! So, it's been a little while since I've written on the blog. Let's start at Christmas. Christmas was a little different seeing as how we didn't have all of the family that we normally had around Christmastime. Jadyn was here and that was amazing. I got a new phone, a hat maker (that I have made quite a few hats with), around-the-house slipper boots, a very fluffy jacket (given to me by Jadyn), a shirt and fluffy plaid pajama pants (given to me by Mama Sue and Papa Joe), and some stocking stuffers. We spent most of the morning/early afternoon outside making snow ducks. New Years was pretty good. We saw some fireworks up at the ball field from our house and then we saw some from our neighbor and his family. After New Years it was pretty relaxed. We went to school and yeah. About 3 weeks ago we had a trapper come out and teach us how to set snares. We now have a snare line and we've already caught 3 rabbits. The first rabbit we caught was the day after we set the snare and it was the snare that I had set and where Josh had picked out the spot for it. We recently went to Fairbanks for being the top River school in Battle of the Books. I carried the team by reading 5 books. Heh, heh. Fairbanks is truly ugly compared to the village. All the dirty snow and traffic and all the noise. The only thing I liked doing was hanging out with my mom and siblings, going bowling and eating out and shopping around town. That's about it. Lately, hasn't been very eventful so far. Soon to come though, is the snow melt and the softball games during the summer. I'm looking forward to summer, mainly because Mama Sue and Papa Joe are planning on coming up here and maybe my friend from back home. I'm also looking forward to the games because I've been working to improve my softball skills to become a better team player and understand the game a bit more. I've come to enjoy the sport. Anyway, that's about it for now.
Our life in photos:
February: We (sort of) cleared the roof with our new Avalanche 750 (it'll work better next year, when we don't already have a foot of snow, with ice layers, on the roof), had lot of snow and ice, and took several ski trips with my K-5 class for afternoon P.E. Philip and I also went to a professional development conference in Anchorage for a few days, and used the trip as an opportunity to jointly celebrate our birthdays.
March: With an expert trapper coming to visit our school, to teach the students how to set rabbit snares, our family has been diligent with the practice ever since. Avery was the first to successfully snare one, and since then, we've caught two more. It's not easy, trying to pick a spot that you think they'll pass through, even with the rabbit highway tracks to guide us. We have our own snare line, that we check regularly, and it's been a lot of fun, learning how to do it all. Now that Josh has his own pellet gun, he and Philip work together to hunt for ptarmigan or grouse as well. Philip makes an amazing wild grouse pizza.
The kids and I (Ashley) went to Fairbanks recently, to celebrate their victory once again in Battle of the Books. We took second over all in our district, losing out to one of the district homeschool teams, but we were the top River school in the high school division. Our prize was to watch a Fairbanks Ice Dogs hockey game. It was crowded and crazy, but the kids and I had fun, even though the home team didn't do so well. We also had fun running around town, eating city food and completing errands for the school. Although there are perks to being back in civilization, after a quiet life in the village, the city gets overwhelming rather quickly. Not to mention, none of us are really fans of Fairbanks.
We got back to Kaltag on Philip's birthday, and had a laid back evening to celebrate with goods we brought from town. His birthday week wasn't the best week though, and in addition to some sad family circumstances back home, it was a rough week at school all around. Next post, I'll write a bit more detail about how things have been going. My long break from writing is an indicator of just how tired and stretched thin we have been. Until then, as always, thanks for reading!
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