Hi! This is Joshuah this is my fist post. I am doing great here. We have seen are fist snow in Alaska!
Miah has seen a bear when we were at cross-country practice good for her it was 100 feet away.We will tell you more later bye!:) :)
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Travel to Alaska
I have been wanting to give you all an update of how we got to Alaska. It was quite the journey that started with me coming up to Alaska in July by myself to Kiana for a culture camp. It was a great experience that prepared me so much for the transition. When I returned to Oregon I flew into Boise Idaho where my brother Sterling and his wife Lisa picked me up from the airport. After we went back to Adrian and my parents drove me up to Anthony Lakes, Oregon where I met up with my family. We go there every year, and it was great to see family, share my pictures, and to reunite. I have never been away from Jonathan, Joshuah, and Miah for so long before!
We spent time with Jonathan's family and my family and had a great time. It was great! I hadn't seen family for such a long time, and it was fun to go hiking, 4-wheeling, swimming, picnics....etc! Good memories. We left for Corvallis on Wednesday July 31st. As we headed over the desert in our Jeep pulling an empty trailer we quickly learned that our trip was going to be rough. We finally rolled into Burns after 5 hours of driving. Jonathan had changed the spark plugs and we thought that was the problem. Unfortunately it wasn't, instead we limped on to Bend where we believed that we had found someone to fix our car. (the catalytic converters)! We ate some dinner and then attempted to search for a hotel, because all the campgrounds were full. No luck. All the hotels were full too! So, we went and watched a movie! At 1 a.m. we came out of the theater to Miah asking, "So, what parking lot are we sleeping in tonight!" We chose a mall parking lot and tried to sleep. At 8 a.m. we were ready to get our car fixed, only to find out that he couldn't and the only person who could, wouldn't be able to fix it until Monday! So, we were stuck in Bend and decided to slowly drive up to Smith Rock to wait it out. We knew of a campground that would be available.
August 2nd we finally headed out to Corvallis to return the trailer we borrowed from Thomsons. We had a lovely dinner with them (last bacon we have had for a while!) and headed up to Seattle where we stayed the night at Jonathan's aunt and uncle's home in Bellevue. We left there in the morning and headed for the Canadian boarder. That wasn't the most enjoyable experience. We were detained there for a couple of hours. Looking back I think the reason was a combination of a power hunger/grumpy boarder agent and the fact that I have my finger prints on file (being a teacher). It wasn't a very good beginning to our welcome into Canada! No offense those who are from Canada! Vancouver was odd to us...maybe we were still grumpy about our boarder crossing and tired from our late start to our journey! Anyway, our first plan was to go through the Sea to Sky Highway out of Vancouver. It was soooo beautiful! I would recommend it to everyone, but not if you are on a tight schedule. It was a whole day from Seattle to 100 Mile House (about 400 miles). Oh, a whole day was like 12 hours of driving! We knew we were in trouble, because we had to make it to Anchorage by August 9th at 6 a.m. for our flight to Kotzebue! We decided to ask for help and my mom changed our flight to Saturday morning. On August 3rd we traveled from 100 Mile House to Fort Nelson. During that day of 566 miles we passed through the Rocky Mountains and an incredible thunderstorm! At one point I had been driving for so long and was going to switch with Jonathan, the rain had slowed down and so we pulled over to swap. We were feeling like we were out of most of the storm when we passed each other behind the Jeep to a huge flash of light and a BOOM! We got back into our car sooooo fast! The next morning we left to drive through some amazing areas where we saw so much wildlife. We saw brown bears, (a mother and 3 cubs), stone sheep, bison, and a baby moose calf. We traveled 786 miles to reach Whitehorse at 1 a.m. We were sooooo tired and knew that we still had to travel 724 more miles to Anchorage by the next day for our flight out at 7 a.m. Our pass through the boarder was completely the opposite and we flew through so fast with a smile on our faces! We slowly made our way to Anchorage, tired ...no exhausted! At one point I was driving and everyone else was asleep. I was coming down a steep mountain pass where I could only go 30 miles per hour. I had the music on and had my eyes peeled for wildlife. I saw a movement on the side of the road and stopped to find a moose on the side of the road in the brush. Jonathan woke up to see it and couldn't believe I could see it. I definitely had a lot of help. Also, I don't want it to sound like I drove most of the way...completely the opposite! Jonathan drove the most! He was amazing!
We pulled into Anchorage about 4 a.m. and went to 24 hour Walmart to buy a few items, and then headed over to drop off our car for storage. We took a cab to the airport where we unpacked everything to distribute it among our 8 bags and 2 backpacks. YIKES! But the important thing is that we were successful and made our 7 a.m. flight. We were spread out all over the plane, but I looked back to see Miah and Joshuah fall asleep as soon as we were in the air. Miah was so tired she slept through the landing and everything. We had made it into Kotzebue, exhausted and overwhelmed with what we were experiencing and seeing!
Looking back now on our trip through Canada I can't help but see the tender mercies that the Lord gave us. We met so many nice and kind people that helped us. We found clean cheap hotels that let us rest and feel safe. We didn't hit any animals, or fall asleep while driving. (Although we did get hit by a big rock into our windshield...that I still need to take care of!). We were watched over, cared for and helped. Thank you for all the prayers that got us where we are and all the help we received! We will be honest, there were times that we doubted that we were doing the right thing. You know when you have that feeling of....Uh, what did we get ourselves into????? We are now learning that what we were really feeling was the realization of the experiences we were about to have and that they weren't going to be easy. This has been a time of learning and growth for us. Big Growth!
More stories to come!
The Wolfes
We spent time with Jonathan's family and my family and had a great time. It was great! I hadn't seen family for such a long time, and it was fun to go hiking, 4-wheeling, swimming, picnics....etc! Good memories. We left for Corvallis on Wednesday July 31st. As we headed over the desert in our Jeep pulling an empty trailer we quickly learned that our trip was going to be rough. We finally rolled into Burns after 5 hours of driving. Jonathan had changed the spark plugs and we thought that was the problem. Unfortunately it wasn't, instead we limped on to Bend where we believed that we had found someone to fix our car. (the catalytic converters)! We ate some dinner and then attempted to search for a hotel, because all the campgrounds were full. No luck. All the hotels were full too! So, we went and watched a movie! At 1 a.m. we came out of the theater to Miah asking, "So, what parking lot are we sleeping in tonight!" We chose a mall parking lot and tried to sleep. At 8 a.m. we were ready to get our car fixed, only to find out that he couldn't and the only person who could, wouldn't be able to fix it until Monday! So, we were stuck in Bend and decided to slowly drive up to Smith Rock to wait it out. We knew of a campground that would be available.
August 2nd we finally headed out to Corvallis to return the trailer we borrowed from Thomsons. We had a lovely dinner with them (last bacon we have had for a while!) and headed up to Seattle where we stayed the night at Jonathan's aunt and uncle's home in Bellevue. We left there in the morning and headed for the Canadian boarder. That wasn't the most enjoyable experience. We were detained there for a couple of hours. Looking back I think the reason was a combination of a power hunger/grumpy boarder agent and the fact that I have my finger prints on file (being a teacher). It wasn't a very good beginning to our welcome into Canada! No offense those who are from Canada! Vancouver was odd to us...maybe we were still grumpy about our boarder crossing and tired from our late start to our journey! Anyway, our first plan was to go through the Sea to Sky Highway out of Vancouver. It was soooo beautiful! I would recommend it to everyone, but not if you are on a tight schedule. It was a whole day from Seattle to 100 Mile House (about 400 miles). Oh, a whole day was like 12 hours of driving! We knew we were in trouble, because we had to make it to Anchorage by August 9th at 6 a.m. for our flight to Kotzebue! We decided to ask for help and my mom changed our flight to Saturday morning. On August 3rd we traveled from 100 Mile House to Fort Nelson. During that day of 566 miles we passed through the Rocky Mountains and an incredible thunderstorm! At one point I had been driving for so long and was going to switch with Jonathan, the rain had slowed down and so we pulled over to swap. We were feeling like we were out of most of the storm when we passed each other behind the Jeep to a huge flash of light and a BOOM! We got back into our car sooooo fast! The next morning we left to drive through some amazing areas where we saw so much wildlife. We saw brown bears, (a mother and 3 cubs), stone sheep, bison, and a baby moose calf. We traveled 786 miles to reach Whitehorse at 1 a.m. We were sooooo tired and knew that we still had to travel 724 more miles to Anchorage by the next day for our flight out at 7 a.m. Our pass through the boarder was completely the opposite and we flew through so fast with a smile on our faces! We slowly made our way to Anchorage, tired ...no exhausted! At one point I was driving and everyone else was asleep. I was coming down a steep mountain pass where I could only go 30 miles per hour. I had the music on and had my eyes peeled for wildlife. I saw a movement on the side of the road and stopped to find a moose on the side of the road in the brush. Jonathan woke up to see it and couldn't believe I could see it. I definitely had a lot of help. Also, I don't want it to sound like I drove most of the way...completely the opposite! Jonathan drove the most! He was amazing!
We pulled into Anchorage about 4 a.m. and went to 24 hour Walmart to buy a few items, and then headed over to drop off our car for storage. We took a cab to the airport where we unpacked everything to distribute it among our 8 bags and 2 backpacks. YIKES! But the important thing is that we were successful and made our 7 a.m. flight. We were spread out all over the plane, but I looked back to see Miah and Joshuah fall asleep as soon as we were in the air. Miah was so tired she slept through the landing and everything. We had made it into Kotzebue, exhausted and overwhelmed with what we were experiencing and seeing!
Looking back now on our trip through Canada I can't help but see the tender mercies that the Lord gave us. We met so many nice and kind people that helped us. We found clean cheap hotels that let us rest and feel safe. We didn't hit any animals, or fall asleep while driving. (Although we did get hit by a big rock into our windshield...that I still need to take care of!). We were watched over, cared for and helped. Thank you for all the prayers that got us where we are and all the help we received! We will be honest, there were times that we doubted that we were doing the right thing. You know when you have that feeling of....Uh, what did we get ourselves into????? We are now learning that what we were really feeling was the realization of the experiences we were about to have and that they weren't going to be easy. This has been a time of learning and growth for us. Big Growth!
More stories to come!
The Wolfes
Saturday, September 14, 2013
You know when it is so late and you really should go to bed, but you just can't get yourself off of the couch, or in my case off the floor and walk to your bed. It is nice to know that tomorrow is Saturday and that I can sleep in....just kidding that isn't going to happen! So life in the Arctic is a bit different than the lower 48...yes that is what we call all of you! To go on a cross country trip, or any trip you have to fly on a plane. So, Miah, even though she is in 6th grade, has been invited because of her dedication, (or maybe the lack of participation of others) to go on her first cross country meet to Noorvik, Alaska. (you will have to google it!) Anyway, she flies out at 8:30 in the morning and then returns at 5:30ish. She is so excited! Why isn't Joshuah going? Well he has spent the last two weeks with pneumonia. Poor kid. The health care here is a little different too. He got sick on Labor day, and when I called on Tuesday to have him be seen the nurse was not there because her kids were sick. So he had an appointment for Wednesday. It was inconclusive on what he had so they had us wait until Friday to see how things progressed. (the doctor is in Kotzebue and does a phone chat with the nurse). By Friday he was pretty bad and it had progressed right into pneumonia. That night was a little worrisome for me. He was pretty sick. Oh, I forgot to mention that he also had strep throat too. No worries now, he has recovered quite quickly..and he is getting back on track.
Sorry still no pictures. I haven't quite figured it all out yet, and it is pretty time consuming to load pictures.
A little about the village of Noatak. It is a village of 500ish and the school has 180 students. That is a pretty high enrollment, but it fluctuates a lot I have already lost 3 students due to them relocating to other villages. I guess it is pretty common. I have a class of 21 students...I am teaching 5th and 6th grade. So yes I am Miah's teacher. I have a rowdy bunch of boys in the 5th grade...YIKES! I have had to pull out all the stops and be very oh what would you say...stern! Not my normal self, and it is quite annoying but I am hoping it will pay off. I have had most of the class buy into the idea, just have 5 more boys to go! unfortunately my classroom is a square shape and I only have four corners. The other teachers are very nice although I do miss my Lincoln crowd very much! I keep trying to tell them how great Words Their Way is or Reading Success or even RTI! We are making progress, but it is definitely different.
Some crazy things here is that I live probably 100 feet from the school. It makes it very convenient. I can look out my classroom window and see my house. We live in a very nice place. The school is an amazing building K-12 is all in one building. For those of you who know me know that food is very important to me, and WOW is it expensive. I will hopefully post a picture of our grocery shopping trip to the local Native Store, it barely covers our kitchen table and it cost $300! The store is a bit over a mile away, and we don't have any transportation here. So, we take our backpacks down and fill up our bags and walk home. It isn't so bad, actually I really enjoy it. The only problem is that there has been a lot of rain, and we don't have enough boots for everyone yet. Actually we only have one pair so far, and with all the rain it has flooded the roads. So far we have been lucky to have it dry up enough to travel on dry ground, but we shall see tomorrow morning!
Oh, the other funny thing (I try to keep laughing about this) is that we decided to have our kids eat school lunches for the time being, until we can figure out a better food purchasing plan. The problem is that no one can tell me how much they are! The only clue I have is that the adult meal is $7.19 a person! It is kind of funny too that there aren't any restaurants in town, but every day at lunch time you would not believe how many people come up to the school and leave with trays and trays of lunches, yes at $7.19 a person! I have deemed it the local restaurant in town!
Well, it is getting late. I hope to post some more on Sunday. Kind of my journal day, I can't wait to tell you all about Jonathan's big swim in the Arctic Ocean!...oh there was also the snow in August...and the bears in the village...just to keep you hangin!
Sorry still no pictures. I haven't quite figured it all out yet, and it is pretty time consuming to load pictures.
A little about the village of Noatak. It is a village of 500ish and the school has 180 students. That is a pretty high enrollment, but it fluctuates a lot I have already lost 3 students due to them relocating to other villages. I guess it is pretty common. I have a class of 21 students...I am teaching 5th and 6th grade. So yes I am Miah's teacher. I have a rowdy bunch of boys in the 5th grade...YIKES! I have had to pull out all the stops and be very oh what would you say...stern! Not my normal self, and it is quite annoying but I am hoping it will pay off. I have had most of the class buy into the idea, just have 5 more boys to go! unfortunately my classroom is a square shape and I only have four corners. The other teachers are very nice although I do miss my Lincoln crowd very much! I keep trying to tell them how great Words Their Way is or Reading Success or even RTI! We are making progress, but it is definitely different.
Some crazy things here is that I live probably 100 feet from the school. It makes it very convenient. I can look out my classroom window and see my house. We live in a very nice place. The school is an amazing building K-12 is all in one building. For those of you who know me know that food is very important to me, and WOW is it expensive. I will hopefully post a picture of our grocery shopping trip to the local Native Store, it barely covers our kitchen table and it cost $300! The store is a bit over a mile away, and we don't have any transportation here. So, we take our backpacks down and fill up our bags and walk home. It isn't so bad, actually I really enjoy it. The only problem is that there has been a lot of rain, and we don't have enough boots for everyone yet. Actually we only have one pair so far, and with all the rain it has flooded the roads. So far we have been lucky to have it dry up enough to travel on dry ground, but we shall see tomorrow morning!
Oh, the other funny thing (I try to keep laughing about this) is that we decided to have our kids eat school lunches for the time being, until we can figure out a better food purchasing plan. The problem is that no one can tell me how much they are! The only clue I have is that the adult meal is $7.19 a person! It is kind of funny too that there aren't any restaurants in town, but every day at lunch time you would not believe how many people come up to the school and leave with trays and trays of lunches, yes at $7.19 a person! I have deemed it the local restaurant in town!
Well, it is getting late. I hope to post some more on Sunday. Kind of my journal day, I can't wait to tell you all about Jonathan's big swim in the Arctic Ocean!...oh there was also the snow in August...and the bears in the village...just to keep you hangin!
Sunday, September 8, 2013
I have finally started my blog!
Hi all! I am so sorry it has taken me so long to get this going. We have had a lot of adventures that I would love to share with you all, but it is going to take some time. We have finally gotten settled into our new home in Noatak, Alaska. For now, I will just post some pictures and put more details later of our trip through Canada, getting to Anchorage at 1 a.m. and flying out by 6 a.m.to Noatak . Miah slept through her first flight! We were so tired. I will tell you stories of being detained at the boarder, traveling 2500 miles in 3 1/2 days, bears in the village, Jonathan bailing out of a sinking boat in the Arctic Ocean, Joshuah getting pneumonia and seeing the tundra change to fall colors! We miss you all sooooo much! We miss going to church on Sunday, driving in our car to go anywhere and not packing heat to walk down the road or picking berries! Stay tuned for more adventures from Alaska!
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