Sunny Saturdays are the best : )

I'm sad to see another weekend go here in Port Heiden but it was a good weekend at least. This past week was not quite spring weather in my book. It snowed every day and it was windy... it was a really interested week weather wise. One minute it would be sunny and you could see out the windows and the next minute, you couldn't see two feet out and it remained cold all week. I guess that's just an Alaska spring and I'm sure I haven't seen the last of the snow. Needless to say, we didn't get out at all this week because of that so when Saturday rolled around and it was nice, it was necessary to take advantage of the sunshine!

 

 

Friday night was a movie night at the school and so the kids got to come and watch movies in the classrooms and buy candy, popcorn, soda, etc from the student store. While that was going on, it was adult night gym so a lot of the guys in the village come to play basketball on those nights. I floated around throughout the night, socializing of course : )

 

Saturday, I went out on a ride with Jeff and Heiden. But I forgot my camera, which I know is the second time which is probably a record for me. So I'm sorry that there won't be any pictures but at least you can hear about it. Maybe we'll head out that way again so I can take some pictures. Just since last weekend, the beach got all clogged up with ice again so we couldn't ride down the beach and the tide wasn't good for crossing North River. Instead, we went out towards the volcano and a ways out there's a place called Caribou cabin. It's a tiny little one room building - very tiny with a woodstove and two sets of little bunkbeds and some old things that looked like mattresses. Apparently, it used to be used for hunters that were hunting the caribou. They would stay up there in the cabin. Now, it's not really used for much I don't think other than people hanging out. It's not in the best condition, that's for sure. And the out house out back is missing it's door and who knows what was in that, I didn't look too close! It was neat to see the peoples name's carved into the wall and the little table that was in there. That took a little bit of time to get out to that cabin - it's in the middle of no where and it sits up on top of a hill surrounded by alders so it's hard to see. It's quite a maze to get up there!

 

After we left there, we kept driving towards the volcano and away from the village. We had to cross a stream a few different places and we drove out through a ton of alders... we saw a lot of different tracks and even a rabbit! It was nice to just hang out and enjoy the weather by a stream. Kind of reminded me of home. :) We did some hiking up the hills to get better views from the top. Again, I wish I would of remembered my camera so that I could share the pictures with everyone. As you can imagine, the views were pretty incredible, as usual.

It was a good Saturday that ended with some movies on the couch! I stayed up late and woke up in the middle of the night a few times to try to catch the Northern Lights because it was a perfect night for it, but there was nothing to be seen. : ( Other than a beautiful sky full of stars... I'm beginning to think that the Northern Lights might be one of the only things I don't experience while I'm here in Alaska. I've still got some time... we'll see! If not, I guess that just means I'll have to come back : )

 

Today is my gram's birthday and I got a request from her to put some pictures up of the school and some of the kids. I don't know why I didn't do this earlier in my time here, but here are some pictures for you gram! Happy birthday : )

 



When you first walk in the store.

Back room of the store.

Suprise! I'm bringing home a puppy in May : ) I'm just kidding, I wish I was. For a little while, I debated about it because there was a puppy that didn't have a home. But they're all accounted for now. One of the families in the village, their dog had puppies (they're about 5 weeks old right now, I think) and two of the kids brought theirs into school the other afternoon. We love when these cute little guys come to visit. I might have a slight obsession.

This picture is a neat one, I think! It's Pennsylvania in Port Heiden. This is from when Dr. Bazley from Kutztown brought up some of her students to see the schools in some of the villages for a week. So there's all of us Kutztown people and then Kasie and Derek who are Penn State people. It's pretty neat we could all be here and we were posing with this huge mural that an artist came and did with the students in the school last year. From what I hear, every single student in the school painted something on this board and it's all the things they love about Port Heiden. It's hanging up in the gym now and it's pretty amazing to see. : )

The library after Kasie and I have spent many hours organizing it!

The wolf can now be displayed and our Spring decorations! Check out how organized those books look ; )

And those!

Some of the kids during iPad time after they finished their work!

 

I was literally being attacked and he thought it was hilarious! 

: ) First graders and kindergartener!

Of course I have my fair share of time with Mr. Tate! He's getting so big!

Some days I go into the Elementary room in the afternoon for a short while. We work on handwriting and listen to Kidz Bop... sometimes we sing, too : )

High school room!  

Kasie in her room being productive : ) 

Kasie's room - counselor! 

Main office

 

In my next post, I'll have to post a picture of the elementary room, preschool room and middle school room. I don't have pictures of them for some reason! But now you see where I spend my days : )

 

 

It's a gorgeous night in Port Heiden and this view never gets old... : )