And... We're Back!

Hard to believe it, but it's true: our summer is coming to an end. But, I guess the fact that we've been to 5 states in the last two months (Washington, Hawaii, Oregon, California, Alaska) can be an indicator of why the summer flew by so fast! So, here we are back up in Kotzebue to begin our third year in the Arctic. Each year, we become a little more proficient at getting our groceries up here in the best and most economic way possible. This year, we decided to spend 3 days in Anchorage (instead of the insane 8 hours of last year); we stayed with our good friends John and Theresa who used to be our neighbors, but now live in Anchorage. Another thing that made our trip to Anchorage even easier was the fact that I did a barge order of food. Let me explain. Each summer, there are somewhere around four barges that come to Kotzebue from Anchorage. People send cars and boats that they bought in Anchorage, our fuel for the year comes on the barge, and anything else that anyone wants to send comes on the barge. The shipping rates on the barge are cheaper than sending things on the plane (air cargo), especially when you are sending a large amount of items. So, I made a huge order of food that went on the barge; around 700 lbs of food to be exact! The order arrived on the first barge in June, and our good friend Lance brought it to our apartment for us. Needless to say, our shopping list for Anchorage this year was much smaller than last year thanks to the barge. But, don't worry, we still sent off about 12 boxes of food from Costco =). Hopefully we will be set for the year!

Another change this year is where we are living. The apartment above us opened up, and we decided to move at the end of the school year last year. This apt. is almost twice the size of our old place (new one is 1560 square feet), and we have three bedrooms... and a view! We seem to have accumulated quite a bit of stuff, and we wanted to have a place where we could have more than 5 people over at a time, so we made the move. The great part is that we can see most of the town by looking out our windows, so we can keep tabs on all our kids =). Here are some pics of the apt:

Our kitchen, dining room, and part of the living room- this part of our new apt alone is the same size as our old apt.

Our spare bedroom- we have a whole bedroom WITH a queensized bed for any of you who want to visit (HINT HINT)

View out the back of our place... we can even see the water!

View out the front of our place... we can see the mountains AND all the happenings of Kotz:

The last new exciting thing that we discovered this year is that our cell phone works here! We heard a rumor that AT&T and some other local networks were connecting in the Arctic, but I didn't believe it until I turned on the cell phone when I got off the plane and actually had service. Hopefully we can stay even more connected to all of you as a result.

In-service starts a week from today, as does volleyball practice, so we are just enjoying our last week of relaxation before the next year begins!