Aniak Flooding & Danny's Birthday Party

Every year around this time the rivers in Alaska "break-up" and the ice starts to move down river out to the ocean. This year we had A LOT of snow and ice. The Kuskokwim river was super thick with ice. The last week of April the temperature really warmed up in our area. By Saturday, May 2nd we had temps reaching nearly 70 degrees. The heat wave caused the ice to start moving fast...some villages upriver from us flooded, including Red Devil, where Ronnie's aunt, uncle and cousins live. On May 3rd, Sunday evening around 8:30 pm the ice in Aniak started to move. We were standing on the dike watching, when all of a sudden huge 4 ft thick ice chunks were thrust onto the bank. It was only a matter of hours before the water from the river started coming up into the town. To make a long story short...we experienced a couple days of flooding here in Aniak, and luckily I live on the higher side of town, so we didn't lose anything to the flood. I have lots of pictures, and for some reason I can't get some of them to upload, but here are a few anyway...

Water going over the main road to the firestation, high school and housing

This is looking down one of the main roads in town where the store is, the phone company, light and power, post office, and my office----people were canoeing and boating on this road.

One of the side roads, completely under water

This is at the end of the road that goes around the runway...so much ice came up that it completely blocked the road so you couldn't get to the other side of town.

This is at the other end of the airport, lots of water around the runway. A couple of boats even ended up on the runway.

Since Danny was in Bethel for his actual birthday (April 28th) we finally had a party for him on Tuesday, May 5th. His Grandma Grace got all the party supplies and birthday cake---just what Danny wanted a "Cars" birthday party! The party was at Grandma's house with mostly family and a few of Danny's little friends. Of course baby Alana was there, and Ricky & Jenny brought over their little 5 month old girl Skylar too. Danny's 2 year old cousin Landon came too, and he had fun helping Danny play with his new toys! A day before the party, when Danny was at the airport with his Grandma he found where she was hiding his birthday presents in the back. When he came across the big helicopter teeter totter for the backyard he said "Gramma we should buy this!" He also found his Cars TV from his Auntie Rhiannon, and his Cars toy box from his Uppa and Grandma. Auntie Rhiannon also got Danny a new Cars bike! Here are some pics from the party:

Opening presents, sitting in his Cars chair

Miss Alana

Danny's Cake


Ricky & Skylar


Blowing out the candles!

As for my pregnancy---things are going well. I am 27 weeks today, and this little baby can't stay still very long. I've decided to join Ronnie's mom, aunts, and sister in the women's breast cancer run in Anchorage on June 13th, so I've just started getting out and walking---I'm going to have to do a lot more before I'll be ready for 5k!

Ronnie and I have been remodeling his house (with the help of his parents). So far we have Danny's "Cars" room done, and are almost finished with the baby's airplane nursery. Next we will work on our bedroom, and odds and ends around the house. I will post some pictures sometime soon. Only 2 weeks left of school here, and then I will be off for summer vacation (except for the 12 days I'm going to teach summer school in June).

Well, it's a beautiful sunny day in Aniak---hope everyone is well---TGIF!