State Championship Basketball...

We heard that many times last week as every announcer said those words to open each game. We combined Abigail's orthodontist appointment and a seminar Paul had to attend for his aircraft inspector mechanic recurrence training, and took a trip to Anchorage. It happened (Abigail planned her appointment that way) to coincide with the state high school basketball tournament. The two teams that we played with the most this year made it to the state tournament. Newhalen is the closest school to the south of us and the school that we played many games against this year (we played the Jr. High and girls teams). Friends of ours go there every summer and put on a basketball camp where they coach the kids in basketball and do Bible studies with them. For the last two summers, Paul and the kids have joined them. The Wilson's and the Brueckner's are two families serving Yhwh and living in Aniak, a two hour flight into the interior of Alaksa. Every summer a church in Glennallen sends a team there to put on a basketball camp along with Bible study. The Brueckner's invited Paul and the kids to join them this summer. They went and had a wonderful time fellowshipping.

So, we went to all of their tournament games. They both won their first two games quite handily and made it to the Championship game. We sat in the middle between the two teams and cheered for them both. It was a terrific game, close all the way to the end!

The Newhalen Malmutes in the blue...

The Aniak Halfbreeds in the white...

Aniak's first game was at 0800 Monday morning. Only the hardcore fans were there at that hour.

Andy Brueckner homeschools in Aniak...

John Wilson also homeschools in Aniak. It was fun to watch our two young friends play in the huge Sullivan Arena.

Above and below Andy and John are going after a rebound.

Abigail painted her fingernails on one hand blue for Newhalen and the other yellow for Aniak. When Quentin saw that after every game they gave the fan of the game $25 dollars he was ready to go paint his face and collect the money. The closer we got to the championship game it had to be full body paint along with a funny hairdo and a lot of yelling, so he declined...

Deborah is enjoying the game.

Andy came and sat with us when his game was over.

Sarah really wanted to give the lion a high five. She talked Abigail into gong with her, but about halfway there she chickened out and insisted they head back to safety.
All the excitement was a little too much for Benjamin and Sarah. they got a couple of good naps in during the games.

Oh yeah, Aniak won the championship game, but not by much...

Wood Cutting Party

Our main source of heat in the winter is our wood stove. I love the uniform heat that fills the house from our wood stove in the basement. The kids enjoy going out with Paul on the snow machines and getting a load of wood to bring home. There have been some beautiful days lately and they have gone out several times on wood gathering parties.

Below Paul is trimming a tree he just cut.

Quentin and Josh A. are hauling some heavy logs to the sleds.

Benjamin and Sarah don't often get to go along, but it was such a nice day they got to go too.

Anna and Sarah taking a rest from loading wood.

Paul in the sunshine.

Quentin trimming a tree he just cut.

Paul and Quentin tying down the load.

Anna is enjoying the ride home. She and Deborah couldn't haul much of a load with their little sled.

Josh A. is driving he and Quentin home while Quentin films.

On a previous trip when the older kids were out without Paul they got to this slick spot and did a few doughnuts.

Quentin is afraid this bridge is going to collapse every time he goes over it.

They had to stop to tighten the load. As you can see little kids fall asleep on snow machines just like they do in the van on the highway.