Craving City Food ~

 It was fun being in the city and getting fun foods we've missed. I've become accustomed to powdered milk (I make it really watery so it lasts longer), so when we bought 2% milk I watered it down to make it taste better (well, so it at least tasted better for my taste buds). Brad, on the other, drank his 2% milk with joy.  ;)

 The girls each picked out a fun cereal...Ruthie chose this cereal because it was pink.

 We also ate at a Chinese restaurant...I'm glad the girls aren't picky eaters and ate every item on their plate. It seems like they enjoy eating every food offered them which is a blessing.

 I thought it was cute that the girls took advantage of the city by eating delicious salads...

 ...they like their salads!

Shopping Relay ~

 After our conference we spent a couple days visiting with friends and grocery shopping. Sidenote: the order of these pictures is backwards. We flew a couple tubs into town but ended up buying a few more to mail back some groceries to our village.

 Filling tubs and packaging them takes some time. The girls enjoyed helping load them into the car.

 I was in charge of taping down liquid items (soap, shampoo, etc).

 After filling, labeling, taping and tying down the tubs Brad weighed them to make sure they weren't overweight.

 Then it's off to the post office to spend an hour mailing the tubs back home...we're still waiting for them to arrive. It's like a huge birthday party as we open the boxes and excitedly remember what we bought.

Ruthie commented that her favorite part of any day is "going to get the mail." She said she "likes getting boxes." Friends and family, thank you for being so kind in mailing us care packages...apparently receiving them is the favorite part of the girl's day. Okay, okay...I admit that it's the favorite part of my day too!  ;)

What Are Commercials? ~

 We're in the big city right now. We attended our mission organization's annual conference and are spending another four days relaxing (ie. shopping and mailing back groceries for another few months).

Below: I love how sweet Brad is with the girls...he's even willing to brush their hair after a swim day at the hotel.

 It's been interesting for us to walk into a store and have any item at our fingertips. I just about caught myself asking the cashier, "how much does this order cost?" during checkout. I forgot I wasn't dealing with Amazon but a real-life human being!

 City life is somewhat new to the girls. They have already been asking questions about stoplights and what each color means. While driving away from the airport Nae pondered, "Why are the cars going so fast and how come they're not following us?"

 Since we don't have television at our home the girls don't know what commericals are. During Curious George the girls were surprised (and a little irritated) when it was "interuppted" by several commercials. The kept asking why "George stopped."

 Below: This robin reminded us of Dad....thumbs up!

 The girls did great on the two/half hour flight. We prepared them to be quiet and it was fun to watch them use sign language during part of the flight to communicate to me what they wanted. Hey, as long as you know the sign for candy you're good to go!

 City life is also fun because we can take as many showers/baths as we want....no monitoring water! I've caught myself monitoring how fast I wash my hands, but then realized I could wash them to my hearts content, just for fun!  :)

 We've also been taking advantage of the high speed internet at the hotel. Since we can't download sermons very good at home, Brad's been downloading sermons all day and all night since we got here. I'm excited to go home and watch them with him on our date nights. Yes, our date nights include hot cocoa, popcorn and a sermon.  ;)

Our Amazon grocery shopping mystery hasn't been solved but we were reimbursed for a few items and the others we've had to reorder. Not a big deal...even though the items are over a month late we can buy any missing items from Walmart now that we're in town. A friend in our village did mention that sometimes packages are given to the wrong people...so I'm on the lookout for any individual in our village who is munching on a Chewy bar.   :)

Snowshoe Racing ~

 Spring Carnival was held this weekend. The girls enjoyed watching the dogsled races and petting the dogs.

 I entered the two mile snowshoe race. I have never snowshoed before so I was nervous I would slip and fall the whole way.

 Below: Can you see me across the Yukon? The race crossed the Yukon and up onto a sandbar and then around back to the village.

 A friend was telling Brad that some guys were snow-going to a slough right past the race course and saw some wolves. They went back to hunt them. Thankfully Brad found that out AFTER I was already running, or I would have been a bit nervous to race that far from the village, right near the slough.

 I got fourth place but ended up with the third place winnings ($150)! I was pretty happy about the outcome of the race.  :)

 It was sweet because toward the end the girls ran to me and finished the race with me.

 They had races for the kids too. The girls did the snowshoe race and the ski race.

Brad entered the snowshoe sprint but before he reached the finish line his snowshoe slipped off.

 The girls took the racing serious and were really focused before the start.

 The last event was the ice picking contest. Our pastor entered it and did a good job. They took shovels and picks and the goal was to reach water first. The ice is about three feet thick so it took awhile for the guys to reach water. It made me a bit nervous to be standing near the hole with a raging river of death below us.

Spring Carnival ~

Brad encouraged me to try and cut wood...it took some time but I finally chopped a few logs.

 This weekend was Spring Carnival. One day was cancelled due to high winds and cold temperatures, but the other two days were above zero with less wind.

 All of the events were held on the Yukon river. The events included: snowshoe race, skate ski race, dogsled race, snow-go race, ice picking contest and soda scramble.