The Grabuloffs

Shadow dancing Coleman

Tunt Geography

Volleyball Tournament

Icey Tuntutuliak

Hello friends and family! I know you all have different weather
in the the lower 48, but here in Alaska we've already had snow and a lot of ice! Did I mention it's October 20?! :) But, we're having fun and bundling up thanks to all of the nice goodies some of you have sent us! THANKS SO MUCH! Packages are the best when you're so remote! This past weekend, we volunteered and helped with the high school volleyball tournament hosted at our school. Dave reffed, I kept score with Colleen and Cole hung out as the teams played. It was exhausting, but fun and greatly appreciated. TEAMWORK is essential, especially here. Hope you enjoy the latest batch of photos. The rest of the photos are of Dave and I doing laundry, which means hauling it to the school to wash- it's free at least. Also, there are a batch of Cole shadow dancing. After we watched Happy Feet he was inspired- look out Gregory Hines! The last few are of me, Angie, enjoying a few family treats- a hat from mom and a coat from Aunt Sis. Thanks again, we love and miss you all! Happy Early Halloween!

Cole and Dad walk to the airport

Some of these pictures are from Cole and Dave walking to the airport. They skipped stones, chased Hana and saw a large barge making a delivery to help build the new airport. It's October 12, 2007 and it has flurried twice already. We still have many pretty days too as you can see from these shots.
The other pictures of Cole are from when he gave himself his first haircut. He was being punished for not listening and sent to his room. While he was alone in his room, he used his kid scissors to cut the side and front of his hair. The pictures do not look that bad, but it was a big bald spot in the front and pretty funny.

A few more family night photos and Tunt kids

Family Night

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Tuntutuliak is legally a dry town, so our big night out has included game nights and craft clubs, and family night at the school. Thanks to such nice and funny people, our nights out are a lot of fun even without Coors Light! :) (Of course, I still want one waiting on me when we get home!) These are pictures of Family night and some of the kids playing near the school. We played games, created crafts with Yup'ik letters and ate delicious spaghetti. Each child won a prize, too. Cole won a large train puzzle. Free fun is the best! :) The kindness and charity of such an intimate community is wonderful. Enjoy the ones you're with.

Cole's Birthday Celebration

For Cole's birthday we shared brownie cake with several of his friends and the Tunt staff. Marie, Alfred, Juan, and Kate ate brownie cake then Cole opened gifts. The principal Frank and his wife Wanita are sitting near Pam.

Drying fish

Majority of the people that are native to Tunt are subsistence eskimos. The Yup'ik eskimo here fish and hunt to live. These pictures are of the salmon drying in the fish houses, they dry for several days to weeks and then are preserved like a jerkey- called fish strips. Delicious! Momma musher husky is protecting her pup nearby.

Walking near the Tunt river

Cole has plenty of friendly children to play with, here he is with his buddies, which seem to rotate weekly. One steadfast friend, whom Dave and I prefer, is Alfred. Alfred's 7 and in the middle of the 3 kids above. The only thing that's challenging is that children want to play/visit ALL the time so sometimes we have to just run away! Cole runs through the Alaskan tundra of the Kuskokwim delta.

5 year old Cole






Our happy and handsome little man, his bedroom which is large like it was in WV, and our room which faces the lake. It's even nicer now that it's painted- can you tell we're happier campers?!