The last Buffalo hunt ..... for a while!

Andrew left at about 4 am Wednesday morning to try and get his buffalo. For those of you who are wondering what the "big deal" about buffalo is: first of all, we love the meat, it tastes just like beef and has almost NO wild taste at all, next, you have to get drawn to get to hunt them. There are some guys up here who have put in for 30 years and have never gotten drawn. Then, there's the fact that this hunt is only 90 miles from here and is on the road system, so it's a fairly inexpensive hunt when you compare it to all the other hunting that goes on up here. Lastly, when you get drawn you have a 6 month time table to get your buffalo, 1st of October to the last of March. So Andrew was really down to the wire.

Anyhow, Andrew did get a buffalo at about 2 pm on Wednesday. He went hunting with his friend, Shawn. They both shot their buffalo at about the same time. For those of you who know and care, they were on the back side of Donnelly Dome.

The top picture is of Shawn and Shawn's friend, Mike, next to Shawn's buffalo. The picture above is of Shawn's friend, Mike. I guess Mike had made many trips with Shawn prior to this one, and when Shawn called him to say he'd gotten a buffalo, he took right off from Eielson AFB and drove an hour or more to come and help them get the buffalo skinned and cut up.

Andrew and Shawn and their buffalo

Andrew's buffalo is about 6 years old, so Andrew thinks Drew's is about 8 years old because the bases of the horns on Drew's were bigger than the one's on Andrew's.

We are so thankful to get to buy another freezer to "house" all this lovely buffalo meat. :) Congrats, Shawn. (I hope I'm spelling your name right!!)

Another buffalo hunt

Andrew and Drew went buffalo hunting again last weekend. They didn't get anything, I don't even think they saw any, but they had a good time and enjoyed an 8 - 10 mile "hike". Here are some pictures.
We picked up the meat from Drew's buffalo this past week and last night we had our first meal from it. It was sooooooo yummy. Here is what it looked like. If you want to know what it tasted like all you need to do is go get a rump roast at the store and crock pot it. :)We all thanked Drew for putting meat on the table for us. Now we have to pray that Andrew gets one before the end of March when the time for buffalo hunts is over. It would be really nice if he could get one to fill up another freezer. :)

I took a picture of....

....Katie's mirror. She is 14 going on 15. We are in the process of remodeling Heidi and Katie's bedroom so Katie's dresser is out in the dining area. Here is what I saw...
Can you tell what it is?? Just in case you can't, it is her lip marks where she has been "practicing" kissing on the mirror. I had to laugh and remember when I was 14 and 15. Yes, I did that too, oh quit acting like you never did it..... you know you did!!! :)

Ice Alaska

Mom and Dad were here for an IHC over the last week. It was really good to see them and get to spend some time with them. We went to Ice Alaska for about an hour on Saturday. There are alot of ice carvings there, it's really amazing what the artists can do. We had alot of fun, despite not being dressed warm enough. Upper body was fine, but we should have all had boots on. We had thin shoes and were walking on snow and ice so our feet got very cold.
This carving is of about 4 Eskimos, 3 which are on their knees, along with a seal. I don't really know what they are doing but it was really cute.
This is of a little girl looking at an "aquarium".. it was really cool.

Here's dad, looking like a Conquistador with a very small head.

And here was a single block ice sculpture. :) Well, at least my foot felt like a single block of ice by the time we were done. :)

But I think the most fun thing we did was call Beth and Steve and Marc and Melodie and we stood in front of the web cams that are set up all around the place and had them look online. They were able to see us so we waved at them. So there they are in balmy Texas and seeing us in freezing Fairbanks, Alaska. Needless to say, we felt a little silly standing there on our cell phones waving to nobody in particular. We got a few strange stares. :)

Crazy Hair Day

The kids had "Crazy Hair Day" yesterday at school. Here is what they looked like!! We're so proud!! :)