This last week was full.  Tim flew to Dillingham last Sunday afternoon for some Social Studies curriculum meetings.  His meetings were Monday and Tuesday.  While he was at his meetings Kaylee and I were at home packing as many boxes as we could.  I've managed to get a total of 24 boxes packed so far.

Tuesday afternoon our vice principal, Nate, came to pick Kaylee and I up as well as all of our boxes.  We needed to get to the school to meet the student council so I could take them on a trip.  Since we had chartered a plane for the trip Nate had told us we could fill up all the extra room on the plane with our boxes to move to Dillingham.  This was great news since otherwise we would have to pay to have them shipped.  I wasn't sure how much the plane would carry so I just packed as much as possible.  It turns out that only about half the boxes I packed fit on our chartered plane, but the company said they would put the rest on the next plane free of charge . . . um, okay, that's fine with me.  Thank you Grant Air.  The search for a home in Dillingham is still underway, but we are able to store our belongings at the district office until we find a place.

Our final destination for this trip was Healy, Alaska in Denali National Park.  The Spring AASG (Alaska Association of Student Governments) Conference was being held there.  I brought 3 students with me.  Since I had both genders of students I had to have both genders of chaperones, so we met up with Tim in Dillingham and he came on the trip with us.  I love when the male chaperone gets to be my favorite male colleague!  We spent Tuesday night in the bunkhouse in Dillingham and then flew to Anchorage on Wednesday morning.  Kaylee did really well with the flights, but she was getting really sick of being bundled up in her snowsuit.  I felt bad that I couldn't just find a nice open floor to lay her down on so she could kick her legs and squeal. 

Wednesday we were able to spend a few hours in Anchorage at the malls.  While our students shopped, Tim and I met up with our good friend Heather from Juneau.  We haven't seen her in over 6 years, so it was a ton of fun to catch up with her.  Once we rounded up all our students once again we began the 5 hour drive to Healy, AK.  None of my students had been to that part of Alaska before and they were in awe at the scenery.  They all mentioned multiple times how pretty it was.  I'm glad that they appreciated it.

Thursday-Saturday was filled with meetings.  I wasn't quite as involved with my students as I was last conference because I was playing advisor and mommy at the same time.  Luckily, the host advisor was able to find us a small room that we could have all to ourselves.  Kaylee was able to take naps in a quiet, dark room throughout the day.  I can't imagine how awful the conference would have been for her otherwise.  It tends to be pretty noisy in a gym full of 300 high school students all competing to show that they have the most spirit.  Tim stayed with Kaylee during most of her naps so I could be with the students.  The other advisors at the conference loved Kaylee and just kept commenting on what a good baby she was.  She was even gifted a Tri-Valley High School sweatshirt by one of the student council members of the host school. 

I have enjoyed being the student council advisor.  It's a little sad knowing that I'm finished with that phase and that my ideas for the future and making things better aren't really going to come to fruition, but I'm trading all of that for something even better, so it's okay.

Saturday evening we drove back to Anchorage where we spent the night in the hotel.  We got there at 10:00 pm, giving our students 1 hour to take advantage of the hotel pool.  I've never seen anyone get in their swimming suits so fast.  Unfortunately, just before we got there someone threw up in the pool so they had to close it. 

We arrived home from our travels this afternoon.  We missed all of our church meetings for the day and were really too tired to do much of anything.  We managed to make our weekly phone calls to our parents, but that was about it.  I'm sure Kaylee was relieved to be in a familiar space and not have hundreds of people around her.  Really though she did an amazing job traveling and being at the conference.  I couldn't have dreamed that it would go better.

    This week was definitely unique for me.  I think other than having me out of town it was fairly normal week for Tim.  I was a bit worried about this week starting, because we had Saturday school last week.  I was bracing myself to feel really behind, unprepared, and exhausted.  But, surprisingly, school went really well on Monday.  My lesson plans were ready to go, the students were there, and we accomplished something.  I know that doesn’t sound like much of a feat.  Isn’t that what is supposed to happen on any old day of school?  If you’ve been keeping up with our blog, you’ll know that a normal day of school is turning out to be quite unique. 
            On Wednesday, I left after lunch for Kodiak.  I was chaperoning two students on a trip to the spring AASG conference.  AASG stands for Alaska Association of Student Governments.  I was glad for the senior that was traveling with us, because she knew way more about what was going on than I did and she was patient with me and willing to offer help.  I am completely new to student government this year and I had never traveled to Kodiak before.  I had one senior and one freshman with me.  Both girls were totally great.  I would chaperone them again anytime.  I hardly had to worry a bit.
            Wednesday afternoon we flew into Dillingham and had about 4 hours to wait before leaving for Anchorage.  We had flown over on a little Cessna plane (maximum capacity 7, including the pilot).  It was nice that it was just the 3 of us flying over with the pilot.  Normally, I get stuffed in the middle because I am the smallest out of the people I’m flying with.  Last time I flew I was wedged in between two other adults, one of which was a state trooper and whose gun was pressing into my side, and the other who had her snow-suited baby with her and asked me to hold him.  I myself was in my winter gear (you don’t travel in bush Alaska in the winter without boats, snow pants, coat, hat, and gloves).  There wasn’t even room for my feet in the plane.  I had them stacked up one on top of the other at a funny angle.  Moral of the story is that I really appreciated having breathing room on the flight over to Dillingham.
            I was a bit worried about keeping Sandi and Chelsey entertained for 4 hours in Dillingham.  We ended up walking to the beach (which is currently covered in icebergs) and just watching the water and the icebergs for a couple hours.  The girls were completely content and I was too.  We talked and laughed and threw snowballs at different targets.  Sandi discovered that my lack of ability to shoot a basket extends to my snowball throwing skills as well.
            We finally left Dillingham, flew to King Salmon, then to Anchorage, and finally landed in Kodiak just before 11:00 pm.  On our flight from King Salmon to Anchorage Pat Manning was on the plane.  He is a member of our branch.  Tim serves with him in the Elder’s quorum presidency and I serve with his wife in the primary presidency.  It’s really fun when we get an opportunity to see a fellow branch member in person and get to visit with them.  Normally, I wouldn’t even recognize a branch member by looking at them, but I had met Pat last summer in Anchorage. 
            We stayed in the school while we were in Kodiak.  I had never heard of doing such a thing until coming to Alaska, but it is completely commonplace for traveling students to sleep in the school that they are visiting. 
            Thursday and Friday were packed full of meetings and workshops.  Thursday morning Sandi, Chelsey and I went hiking before our meetings started at 10:30 am.  The meetings continued until 10:00 pm that night.  Friday we were scheduled from 7:00 am-10:30 pm and then had a dance after all those meetings.  I’m not sure how the kids kept it up.  As an advisor, I was asked to take a back seat.  I was to be there in case I was needed, but I was pretty much to stay out of things and let the kids run the show.  By the end of the day I was exhausted.  I’m sure all the students were even more exhausted.

    Thursday there was a bit of excitement in Kodiak.  Two coast guard members were found shot and killed.  The school was put in lock-in mode, which means no one was allowed to leave the building, but we could carry on with our regular activities inside the school.  Everyone remained pretty calm and the lock-in situation only lasted a few hours until the police knew they had the situation under control enough that we were all safe.  To my knowledge they still are not aware of who did the killing or where that person is, but there is some speculation that it may have been a homicide/suicide.  They were bringing the FBI in to investigate.  We were instructed to call our schools and let them know we were safe since the information had become public and we didn’t want anyone panicking back home.
            Friday night the girls from my district wanted to go to Subway instead of going to the dance.  They were dropping hints and asking if I would take them to Subway, but their voices didn’t really sound too hopeful.  (Subway is a big deal to those of us who live in the bush.  There is no such thing as fast food or any restaurants of any sort in Togiak.)  To their knowledge, I wasn’t really paying much attention to their pleas because I kept right on working on my computer.  In reality, I was looking up the address and phone number of Subway to find out where it was and when they closed.  Finally, I looked up and said, “well they close in 20 minutes and it’s a ½ mile walk so we better hurry.”  Off we went, running through the night to Subway.  This earned me the “coolest chaperone ever” designation from Sandi.  I guess that’s good since she was informing me earlier that day about what a boring life I led because I don’t drink energy drinks and wasn’t aware of most the songs she liked to listen to.  (I will admit I am extremely media illiterate and sometimes I shock myself at how much I don’t know.)
            The conference and meetings continued on Saturday until 5:00 pm.  However, we had to catch our plane at 11:10 am, so we missed most of the meetings.  I was sorry we had to leave early, but I was excited to be going home.  I learned a lot by watching the conference.  The students wrote resolutions, discussed and debated them, amended them, and voted on them.  The resolutions that passed will be sent to the appropriate place for further consideration or implementation such as specific school boards or the state legislator.  I don’t know how many other states have something like this, but the students in Alaska really do have an opportunity to voice their opinions. 
            Saturday we had a 5-hour layover in Anchorage so I rented a car.  I knew that Sandi and Chelsey would like to go shopping, and frankly, I wanted to go shopping too.  We went to two malls, Wal-mart, and a Chinese buffet before heading back to the airport.  We then flew to Dillingham and then into Togiak before 7:00 pm.  I was extremely grateful that we were able to fly home on Saturday and not Sunday.  I needed a day before starting the new week.