Around Kotzebue

So yesterday was in the single temps and to celebrate Chantal and I went for a walk while Kev was out checking his trap line. It felt wonderful to get out of the house for a bit and walk around town. Chantal did really well riding in my font sling and even fell asleep during our outing.

 Here are a couple of pics I took-

 

This is our Front St. next to the sea. Last summer we had the road widened and the lightposts installed for a hefty price tag of 40k a piece! Our neighbors kid came up for the summer to work with the construction crew and made some big bucks helping out with this project...

Here is a house on Front St- shows how much snow we've gotten this year.

Chantal after our walk





Later on that day I became a little worried when the weather took a turn for the worse and the boys were still not back. A storm came in very quickly and knowing they had our neighbor's kid with them, we were all hoping they were okay. Just before dark I happily heard snowmachines coming in the yard, but I knew there had been some trouble when I saw only 2 snowmachines - they had left with a party of 3. Turns out one of the machines had blown a motor and they had gotten it stuck towing it back. At least everyone was alright. All in all they had gotten a lynx, and some frostbite. Here's a cool pic of the lynx found in the buried trap-

I am excited to be off for Anchorage tomorrow!



Getting Back!

I was so excited this morning when I decided to try my wedding band on for the 20th time post pregnancy and it fit!! Well, kind of. Woo-hoo! To top it off I even got the buttons closed on a favorite shirt of mine, also pre-Chantal. This is serious motivation to keep nursing, exercising, and controlling my urges to chow down on the Ben n Jerrys. Actually I'm just kidding ( "I jokes" for you Kotz residents) our store doesn't usually carry Ben n Jerry's  :( 

I like this picture because it was not too long ago I remember not being able to see my feet!



I can't resist posting a pic of Chantal after bath time- she's just too cute! She is starting to really like her baths- just like her momma.

 I can't forget Willow...she recently found a spot in the nursery that gets some sunlight, and allows her to watch over the baby!



Weekend Update

It's almost 2 AM and despite the baby being sound asleep, I find myself unable to close my eyes for more than 5 minutes. I think the mid morning naps with Chantal might have to stop...

So this weekend Kev checked his traps and was pretty pumped to find 2 lynx out of the 3 traps he had set. From my understanding he had only set 3 this year so far because of the bad weather and snow we had been getting. Anyways, all that doesn't mean much to me. I just need to figure out what I'm gonna make with the lynx we already have! I think we might start selling them this year...

I didn't really get out much this weekend. However I did "dine" at our local restaurant with my hubby last night! Which, by the way,  has now started to put sushi on it's menu! I know- fancy! I ventured enough to try the deep fried shrimp roll, somehow I am not yet comfortable with eating raw fish here yet. 

Here are some more pics for you Chantal admirers. The boy is the photo is my neighbor's kid, Gage.

Pics

Playing around with my camera this afternoon. I am considering upgrading to a nice camera and pursuing some photography... but for now I'm just experimenting with what I have!

Snowed In

We are stuck in the middle of a snowstorm that's been going on for a few days now. Luckily it's warmer temps, today is in the 30s, above zero!! Unfortunately the wind and snow make it near impossible to do anything in this near tropical weather. Here is the view of the storm from my (dirty) window-

and my porch...

Being inside doesn't bother the baby. She's busy discovering the world around her. She recently started to show interest in a few toys, especially her dolls.

In other news... I already booked a trip to the big city of Anchorage for next month. I went to the store a couple weeks ago and almost had a heart attack over the grocery prices. Only in Kotzebue does a bowl of cocoa puffs cost as much as a lobster dinner. Gallon of milk- 9.98  Cocoa Puffs- 7.95. Are you kidding me? So as I carried my 2 overpriced bags of groceries totaling almost a hundred bucks, I decided a trip to Anchorage was in order, and soon! I plan to take back to Kotzebue 3 suitcases full of oreos and apple juice, you know the neccessities. Plus it will give me a chance to catch up with some friends and show Chantal off :)

Here's a pic of what a 12 pack of coke goes for in Kotz-

Well Baby Check-Up

Chantal got her first set of shots today! She weighs 12 lb 3.6 ounces and is now 25 inches long!

Just 10 weeks ago she was 7 lbs 2.3 ounces and 19 inches- she's growing so fast! Here's a couple newborn shots-

Fox Calling? Sure, why not?!

So I retract my earlier statement of not freezing my butt off yesterday. Last night Chantal spent some time with our neighbor and I joined my husband for a night out, in minus 40 degree, minus 52 with wind chill, weather. Okay, so our night out wasn't exactly a dinner and movie kind of date. We spent 20 minutes gettng bundled up,drove out of town on our only road (which literally crosses the airport runway), walked out to a bluff on the tundra in complete darkness, sat in the snow bank, and blew into a highpitched call. All this in the hopes we would see a fox and be able to take a shot at it. It was so cold my eyelashes were freezing and I looked like Rip Van Winkle with my frozen hair...

 Last week Kev said he had seen three red fox, but we were not as lucky last night; we got skunked. Oh well, at least I got out of the house for a couple hours. And the cold was nothing a hot bath couldn't fix.

 ...Meanwhile Chantal stayed nice and toasty.