Local Scenery

What's in the Shop

I have a most excellent blog recommendation for you today. It happens to be written by my oh so talented husband. For those of you who don't know, he can fix about anything. Anything but a broken heart I say. He has begun a blog all about the various fix-it jobs that rotate through his shop here in Brevig Mission. It's titled, What's In the Shop, and is worth a look see for those of you who are mechanically inclined or curious about what kind of work C.O. does.

As it turns out, he really ISN'T a bum living off of his wife's earnings. You'll quickly find out that C.O. deals with a great variety of jobs and does indeed have "The Knack". I am very proud of all he can do and the service he provides for folks in Brevig. He already has a half dozen posts up about he latest projects. I hope you'll check back often and leave him a few comments to let him know you're reading.

--AnnMarie

Whaley, a Boy's Companion

Just thinking about this brings a great sadness to my heart. We have lost our beloved Whaley. Whaley was a baby shower gift we received a few months before Harold joined our family. As soon as we brought Harold home from Guatemala, he latched on to this particular stuffed animal.

Everything about Whaley was just right. His flippers fit in Harold's mouth perfectly, his fur was soft and he was just the right size for snuggling. Burying his face deep into the stuffing and biting Whaley was soothing for Harold. Once Harold was talking, he even offered to let us take our own chop out of his whale. We kindly declined, he was getting pretty disgusting by that time. Whaley was seriously thin, not a lot of stuffing was left, where holes wore through, he had been stitched. Every fiber of him had been hugged, stroked, soaked in drool, cried on and loved deeply by our little boy.

Whaley and Harold traveled the world together. Together they flew on over 60 airplane flights, stayed in many hotels, at friends' houses, in tents, drove in many car rides, stayed with many babysitters and went on over night trips to the grandparents' house. But at last this beautiful friendship was about to come to an end.

On our last journey from Minnesota to Brevig, Whaley was lost. We're not sure if he was left on a plane or in our hotel. I tried calling the hotel to see if they had seen him but had no luck. As for the airline, I don't even know where to begin. Since we're not certain which one he was left on, it's like searching for a needle in a haystack. At last, I just had to come to terms with the fact that Whaley was gone, never to be recovered. I'd like to think that he's gone on to bigger waters.

When I think of all the places we've taken him, I'm amazed he wasn't lost sooner. We did have a few scares along the way, like the time we thought we accidentally donated him to the women's shelter. That time we found him in the sleeve of C.O.'s shirt. A couple nights ago I dreamed, that I unfolded some laundry and found Whaley stuffed inside. If only it were true.

I'm not a very sentimental person when it comes to material possessions. Stuff is just not of very much importance to me. I am on a continual rampage to get rid of things from our house and lives. I have saved very little to give Harold as a memento of his childhood. We saved his "original packaging", the outfit he was wearing the day we got him, his first Christmas outfit and that's about it. The only other thing I had on the list to save was Whaley. Hence, the great sadness of loosing him.

You may wonder how Harold is fairing through all this and I'm happy to report he's doing just fine. For this I am thankful, I can now concentrate my energy on my own grief.

--AnnMarie

Artistic Treasure

We were given this treasure early on in the summer. A relative, Amy Rudstrom, nabbed this photo off of facebook and then made a colored pencil sketch of Harold. We were in love with the piece from the moment we saw it. She did an amazing job of capturing our beautiful son in his parka.

Wanting to properly display the piece, we decided to get it professionally matted and framed. We were not disappointed with the final result. It now hangs in the scout cabin in Side Lake, Minnesota where we spend our summers.

--AnnMarie

Hard Core Swimming

It had been a warm and beautiful day in Brevig,
and Harold was desperately wanting to go for a swim. C.O. bravely agreed.

"Whoa! That's a lot colder than the lake in Minnesota," says Harold.

Despite the cold water, C.O. took the plunge.

Some folks arrived back from boating as the
boys were getting out of the water.
I love the contrast in attire here as the guys chat.

Not being a fan of cold water swimming,
I was more than happy to be the designated photographer this evening.

--AnnMarie

Fairweather

We live on a large bay named "Port Clarence". It is the only sheltered water in the whole Bering Straits region. Because of this we occasionally see ships and boats hiding out from rough weather on the Bering sea. Most of these boats are barges that are hauling fuel and supplies to area villages.

The last few days we had a more interesting vessel hanging out. This is the NOAA ship Fairweather. They are up here mapping and charting the sea floor and ocean depths. There has been a lot of interest in shipping in the arctic in recent years and NOAA has decided to update their navigational charts.

You can learn more about it at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's website.

The photo was taken by holding my camera up to the lens of my 30x spotting scope. The Fairweather was about 5 miles away and the zoom on my camera just wouldn't do it alone.

C.O.

Harold's Harmonica

I just had to share another video highlighting Harold's musical talents. =)
Oh, and my brother John isn't too bad either.

--AnnMarie

Multi-Talented

Musician, Composer & Instrument Maker

--AnnMarie

Who Loves Segways?

We do!

A Summer of 1sts

First dental visit.

First trip to the barber.
First fish caught.

--AnnMarie

Stuff Happens

. . . and sometimes it happens 20 miles north of Ely
. . . on the 4th of July
. . . and your mother has to come and rescue you.

Quick! Order a Pizza

The food was prepared,

the guests had arrived when . . .


Sausage pizza anyone?

Father's Day

encouraging

playful

loving

patient

Words to describe the most amazing dad!

Welcome Back

Nothing says, "Welcome back to Minnesota",
like a church basement potluck.

Rudstroms at Rushmore

I have to admit, our visit to Mount Rushmore was inspired by a Curious George book. We read Harold one of the Curious George adventures where George and The Man in the Yellow Hat visit Mount Rushmore. After reading it for the 142nd time, I decided we had to go and bring the pages to life. And to life they came . . .

A side note . . . today was C.O.'s birthday.

The best one yet, he says every year. =)

--AnnMarie

A Splash of Color

I decided to get another fun hair do,

this time black with a some pink and purple extensions.
Lovin' it!

Life on the Road

Bolger Fast Brick

Today we are on day four of our early summer adventure, a road trip that revolves around this boat. Currently, it lives in Colorado and in just a few short days it will be ours. We are taking two weeks to drive through Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota as we loop back to Northern Minnesota.

You may wonder why we are driving 2400 miles to buy this particular boat. Our reasons are twofold. The first is that the boat was designed by a man named Phil Bolger. C.O. particularly admires Bolger's unconventional, no nonsense approach to boat design. It seems people either love or hate his creations. C.O. falls in the “love it” category. C.O. had a few questions for the Colorado boat builder who spent two years constructing the 12 foot "Fast Brick" . Though it was not our intent, one e-mail led to another until we agreed to buy the boat instead of build a similar one ourselves.

The boat itself is a treasure, but we are also acquiring it as part of our retirement dream. The plan is for the Fast Brick to be used as the dinghy on our live aboard cruiser. In the meantime, it will be kept at the cabin in Minnesota where it'll be used around Side Lake and to explore neighboring waters.

--AnnMarie

A $1 Adventure

One of the great things about being Harold is that people just give you things. Just this week, while buying meat and cheese at the deli, the lady behind the counter gave him a slice of salami to snack on as he waited. At The Stand (a local drive-in restaurant) the waitress gave him a toy that usually comes with the children's meal, even though he didn't even order his own food! It has been this way from the beginning, while traveling back from Guatemala the first time, the lady at Starbucks gave Harold one of the bananas near the register. At the time, I never expected the trend to continue.

To Harold, the best gift of all, however, is money. Perhaps Harold should just stay 3-years-old and adorable forever because he will never have to work a day in his life. People see him and just open up their pocket books and start handing out bills.

Great-grandma Aiti is one of these wonderful benefactors. She gave Harold one dollar that he proudly brought with him the next day as the two of us hit a local garage sale. The very first thing Harold spied were these old fashioned, clamp on roller skates. He was adamant that he buy them so he could go skating with mom. When the time came to pay for them, the ladies putting on the sale told Harold he could just have the skate and tried to give him back his dollar. This was actually pretty upsetting to Harold and he made sure they took his money.

Getting the skates on took a full 15 minutes followed by 2 minutes of skating with a significant amount of help from mom and dad. But it was worth every penny!

--AnnMarie

An Upgrade

Since Harold had mastered and outgrown his wooden push bike, we promised him a "big kid" bicycle once we arrived in Minnesota for the summer. Within 24 hours of touch down in Minneapolis, C.O. and Harold hit the bike shops. They found this used bicycle for only $10. What a steal! We later laughed as we bought Harold a helmet for twice the price.

A little practice and assistance from Dad . . .

and an hour later he was pretty much able to ride on his own.

--AnnMarie