Weekend Getaway

This past weekend, I had my first prenatal appointment in Alaska. Twenty-five weeks pregnant, and I have only been out of the village once since August; I was pretty excited. I had the doctor's visit, blood tests and ultrasound all day Friday, and then for the rest of the weekend I attended (another!) sewing class. It was all in a fish town called Dillingham. Some people call this town "Dillinghole" because it may be dirty, small and less exciting than Anchorage; but still I was excited. It was like a country girl spending a weekend in the big city. But this big city was a fish town with 3,000 people.
The baby seemed excited to go too. Little "Mo" was kicking me the whole bush plane ride and during the entire ultrasound. (This was the name given to our unborn child by my father in law, John. It's actually Eskimo shortened to Mo. Not Yup'ik at all. More like derogatory. You can either get upset at the politically incorrect title or appreciate the slightly inappropriate humor of Garlets' men.)
And because little Mo was so active, the ultrasound was pretty hard to see. Nevertheless, I walked out of that small hospital with only one blurry ultrasound profile picture - telling me I was a week farther along than what I thought with a healthy baby boy/girl. Still unknown.
To make it even more of a weekend getaway, my friend Danielle came with me to catch up on her doctor visits. We had fun. We successfully sewed two Kuspuks each over the weekend. We enjoyed shopping at the grocery store and buying new thread, gloves, hummus, candy and fruit. We ordered lunch twice at the only fast food place in town. Which was actually pretty funny to find out the ultrasound technician was also the Subway manager: on Friday, he was putting gel on my belly, and then the next day he was serving me my Veggie Delight Salad with chips. 
Despite the good fun we both had, Danielle and I were disappointed when our flight was a day delayed due to weather. We stayed one more night at the hotel sewing our last projects and watching "Friends" reruns. The next morning after waiting two hours for the weather to clear, we took the tiniest plane back to foggy New Stu with a pilot named, Angel.
I got home to a very excited Wolfe ("I missed you, mom! I made you a map on how to get home!") and to a Ruby who just wanted to get back into our normal routine. The house was far from order and cleanliness, reminding me that Ben and I make a great, balanced couple.

This little weekend trip was a good refresher for me; and the time helped me look forward even more to the energetic addition that will come in May.

Friday morning

A view from the plane

Getting home to happy kids

Made a qusbuk for Rue

Nellie, me and Danielle in our qusbuks