Nome, Alaska

Hi Everyone!

I have been busy lately with two kids and classes, tests, and my internship and alas, this website is not on top of that list!

I thought you would all be interested in learning a little about Nome.

Here is North America. 

Alaska is all the way up there on the left.  I had to put this picture up because I often forget how far north Alaska is.  In my head I picture it out by Seattle.

Nome is very close to the Arctic Circle in the West by the Bering Sea.

If you would like to look up information about Nome, some good websites are:

http://www.nomealaska.org/

http://www.visitnomealaska.com/nome-maps.html

Oh and if you're hungry check out:

Airport Pizza - They deliver pizza around Nome and by airplane to the surrounding cities and villiages. 

This is just a quick post.  I have more to come!

Spring Break

This may be my last Spring Break ever, and to tell you the truth, we really haven't done anything! 

Matt went to Arizona this week for GameFest at my mom's house.  This is an anual "Festival of Games" my Step-Dad does for his friends and people come from all over the US.  It is a fun time and I'm glad he could go!

Lila, Will, and I have had a little more low key Spring Break. 

After waking up at 2am to take Matt to the airport on Tuesday we stopped at a diner.

This isn't the best picture, but we were there!

That same day we met some friends at Play-All-Day.  And literally played all day.  We played for two hours, went to lunch, then came back and played until 4pm. 

Lila in the kitchen

Will in the exersaucer

We haven't done too much other than countdown the days until Daddy comes home.  Oh and slept in...a lot!

And been really, really cute!

Will is getting so close to crawling.  I hope he'll do it this week before Matt leaves for Nome.



South Dakota

Well it seems like everyone I talk to in Nome has come from somewhere else!  So I am going to talk to you guys a little about South Dakota.

What do you think about when you think of South Dakota?

Well I always thought about Mount Rushmore.  To tell you the truth, I am pretty bummed that I won't get a chance to see it before we move to Nome.  Mount Rushmore is on the west side of the state and we live in the most South Eastern Part of the state.

We are way down there in the most South Eastern Corner..rignt near Iowa and Nebraska.

In Elk Point our little town of about 1,800 people (Nome will feel huge compared to this) we are surrounded by the country and lots of farms.

My dad took this picture last summer when they were here visiting after Will was born.

I have really enjoyed living here in this area.  Sure we get a lot of snow, and last summer was very hot and muggy and mosquito ridden.  But for the most part people are very nice. 

I go to The University of South Dakota.  It has a very nice mixture old buildings and new buildings.   
And we get A LOT of snow here too.  Here are some pictures of the kids outside in January.  This was Will's first time in the snow because it was the first time I felt it was warm enough to venture outside to take pictures.

Lila and Will in front of the snow drift next to our driveway.

Lila on top of the snow drift.

Will in the backyard.

I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about where we live now.  I'm sure we'll have some more adventures when Spring and Summer come!

Packing!

Well it has been a busy couple of days for us.

As Matt has been getting all of what he needs together for Nome, we keep learning about the little nuances there.  For example, they do not deliver mail to your house.  Everyone has to have a PO Box.  This really isn't much of a problem, unless you are moving to Nome and have no where to mail your belongings.  Luckily our land lord has been gracious enough to let us mail to his PO Box.  Hopefully he won't be surprised when he recieves 4 - 70lb boxes.

So we have been busy packing up these boxes for Matt, when suddenly he realizes that he won't have a car.  How will he get the boxes to the apartment?  When we realize things like this, I am so glad that he is going out there first to iron out all the kinks of moving somewhere like Nome.

We did find out, that though the internet will be slow there (very, very slow), you can upload at a normal speed, so that means we'll be able to video chat which each other while he is gone.  Yay!

And I am going to end this post with a little story and (not so great) picture.  Yesterday when we were driving to Sioux City, I looked back at the kids and they were holding hands!!

It isn't the best picture, but you can see them holding hands!!

And one more of them watching Max and Ruby while I clean up after the tornado that is my husband packing.

Until next time!

Nome Sweet Nome

Hi Everyone! 

Now that you have found our blog you probably know our big news. 

We are moving to Nome, Alaska!

Why Nome?  Why not?

The truth is, Matt and I have talked about moving to Alaska for a few years now.  It is somewhere both of us have always wanted to visit, and he once worked with another officer who was at one time an Alaska State Trooper.  So it was on our minds for a while.

Then early this year I started applying for Nursing jobs for when I graduate from school in May.  One thing I have always known is that I wanted to go somewhere that I could work in OB.  After living here in rural South Dakota, I have really fallen in love with rural nursing.  I found the hospital I will be working at in Nome on a rural nursing recuiting page.  I will get to to OB, and a little bit of everything else, it will be a great learning experience for me!  Matt easily found a job as well.

We both feel this is an awesome opportunity for our family!  I hope we will be able to use these next two years to exerience as much as we can in Alaska.  We invite you, our friends and family, along for the ride!!  I hope to post lots of pictures as updates on our family and our adventures in Nome.

Not all of the logistics are figured out yet.  Matt will be going up to Nome to start his job first and then me and the kids will meet him up there in June. 

It is going to be an exciting time!