;)
I am in the car with Margie and we are nearing Jacob and Lavina's house. As is plain to see, there is more snow in Anchorage than there is here. I think it is because the way the mountains around us are situated. They scrape a lot of the snow out of the sky before it can fall on us.
That's my theory, anyway.
;)
Laverne and Gracie must check in at the airport late Saturday night for their very early Sunday morning departure back to Arizona. The Anchorage Fur Rendezvous began today and Lavina wanted to show her sister the sights, so Margie and I went in to babysit Jobe and Gracie.
Lavina with Jobe, shortly before she and Laverne set out to explore the Rendez.
;)
What do you think he was dreaming about?
;)
Soon, Margie had Jobe. Jacob came home for lunch and checked him out. Gracie played with Muzzy. Those two hit it off big time.
;)
Gracie is a great admirer of my mustache and beard. Nobody has one in her household down in Shonto, Arizona, in the Navajo Nation.
;)
Gracie became sleepy, and went into her room to take a nap. Nobody had to put her down, she just did it on her own.
;)
Every now and then you meet someone in this life who you wish could be there all the time, a person that you would like to see nearly every day, and say, "Hi. How you doing? Wanna go get an ice cream?" but you know that can't be. You know you will see this only every now and then, in visits separated by years.
Still, you wish.
Gracie is such a person. I will hate to see her go.
Farrell, her dad, will be thrilled to see her come home. He has spent so much time overseas in places like Kuwait, wearing the uniform for Uncle Sam, that he deserves all the time he can get with his little daughter.
;)
Pretty soon, Jobe needed to be fed, so I held him and gave him the bottle. He guzzled it. In fact, he would guzzle three bottles before Margie and I would head home in the evening.
;)
Margie and Jobe, Take 1.
;)
Margie and Jobe, Take 2.
;)
I had a few other people to see, I had to leave Margie with Jobe and the sleeping Gracie. I headed out into the heavy traffic of Anchorage.
;)
I made a couple of stops, then headed over to the Dimond Center Hotel, because Jason Ahmaogak of Iceberg 14 and a member of my Wainwright family had come down to get some dental work done on his daughters, Raquel and Aanavak, here with their mother, Iqaluk.
The family had been out to Fur Rendez, where the temperature was a warm 20 compared to in the -25 to -40 range back in Wainwright, where it had been mighty windy, too. So they wandered about dressed in light clothing, marveling at the warmth, and they say they got a few stares.
Because of their dental work, the girls had to eat soft food, but when they saw some Chicken McNuggets, they wanted them. Jason bought them some and cut them into tiny, tiny, pieces.
Soon, Jason says, they will be eating maktak and other Iñupiaq foods. They will need their teeth for that.
;)
Jason and Aanavak, Take 1.
;)
Jason and Aanavak, Take 2.
;)
I then went back to Jacob and Lavina's, hoping to get a shot of Kalib and Jobe together, but Jobe was asleep. Kalib was helping his dad prepare dinner.
He was making enough for all of us, but Margie and I had to leave, so we didn't get to eat any of it.
We will go back Saturday, to do some more baby-sitting while Laverne and Lavina go watch the sled dog races.
I still hope that maybe some of that cold air will slip down here before Laverne and Gracie leave, but I saw a picture on the news of a low-pressure system spinning this way from out of the South Pacific, so I doubt it.