Hobbit Happenings

I finally watched Lord of the Rings (Return of the King. And Nate you were right; I was too whimpy to watch certain parts!) I'm glad I watched it though. Among other things, it gave me a whole new appreciation for Hobbits. :) They are merry, brave, noble little people and so I think "Hobbit" is a very fitting description for my nieces and nephews. :)

We think Caleb is getting scandalously chubby. :)

Last week was miserable. Really.

Four of the young'uns were sick (plus their mommy) and we big people felt dreadfully outnumbered.
Monday though, things started to look up and the kids began to feel better, one by one. Carlee's feeling a lot better too. Since then we've been able to go out a few times and enjoy the brief beauty that Fall in Northern Alaska offers; it's been unseasonably warm. Soon winter will set in, and we're enjoying every opportunity to get outside before that happens.

Yesterday we drove to the beach and let the kids play in the water. It was FREEEEZING but they acted like it was bathwater! The little Sourdoughs. :)

The land of extremes: bathing suits and winter coats.

On Labor Day we drove out to Council, a tiny settlement about 2.5 hours away from Nome. There's no electricity or running water, and you can only access it by driving or boating though a river. People use it as a getaway place or to stay while they're hunting and fishing. It was a beautiful drive, because that far inland there are trees and grass! The fall colors on the tundra were breathtaking and we saw reindeer, beaver, fox, and musk ox.

Crossing the river to Council was a wee bit frightening at times. But Nathan got us safely across.
(Especially since we were traveling in a borrowed van.)

On the way home we built a fire overlooking a river and had dinner.
It was fun to be among trees again. :)

Kuspukin' it :)

These two pictures are unedited... taken within seconds of each other but in different parts of the sky. Isn't it amazing!?

HAHA! The great river rescue! On the way home from Counsel about 30 miles outside of town we saw two stranded boaters waving at us from an island area across the river. It was getting dark and colder, and pretty soon they wouldn't be visible from the road. Nathan and I found a kayak at an empty fishing shack nearby. Unfortunately, it lacked a rudder. Also, it was only a single kayak which meant that we'd have to make several trips to get the men and one person would have to balance on the back of it. Since I was lighter than Nathan, I paddled across the river to rescue the damsels (er...dudes) in the distress. I thought it was wildly fun and on the way over I was contemplating all sorts of heroic pick-up lines to use such as (with a John Wayne swagger to my voice) "Howdy, fellahs; looks like someone could use a lift..." or the maddening rhetorical question, "Having a bit of trouble?" or the standard hero greeting, "I have come to save the DAY!" But it dawned on me that it was probably a bit humiliating for the two crusty hunters to be rescued by a young female, so I settled for an uninteresting but modest "Hey, guys". I also thought it would be best for be to let the men paddle on each return trip so as not to make them think I was completely doing all the rescuing.
Unfortunately for both of us, neither man had been in a kayak before (let alone paddled one in a current with a person sitting on the back of the boat, upsetting our center of gravity). my feet dangling precariously in the water, I tried to keep as still as possible on each trip while the men grunted and groaned, saying things like "Heh... never been in one of these things..." and "yikes... this is hard..." each time the craft wobbled, the guys would panic a little and over-correct, sending us into a quick back-and-forth wiggle that threatened to spill us into the drink. I admit that I didn't relish the thought of swimming in that water, but I was having the time of my life. :) In all, I made three trips across and back. One for each man, and one for their guns and backpacks. (In that trip, I rowed back across with two shutgun barrels poking imposingly into each of my ribs. They were unarmed, but they did add some speed to my flight nevertheless.)
My only disappointment in the whole process is that neither men were secretly multi-millionaires who, in deep gratitude to us for saving their lives, offered us half of their entire fortunes.
Okay, and I did have one other secret disappointment. Why couldn't one of them have been young, handsome, strong, noble...?

Still, it was worth the adventure. It's not every day you get to rescue someone.


(No nasty comments about how I'm zig-zagging across the river! I didn't have a rudder and the current was playing with me. )