Aaka in Anchorage

Eight hours down the road, with a stop for lunch and a view of Denali, and we arrived at Aaka's house in Anchorage. Keet slept for the most of the journey, ida y vuelta (there and back).

He so enjoyed the trip! We saw caribou, eagles, moose, and even a black bear on our way home! Little Grey Jey's came and ate just feet away from Keet on our lunch breaks. It is beautiful to live in Alaska.

The trees are green, but the mountains still snow capped and crisp. It was so hot in Faribanks that there was actually a wild fire already smoking up the place. We drove south and got through the smoke and into the cooler air of the coast.

Da-ka had a piece in the new Anchorage Museum show, so we had an excuse to make it to Anchorage for business (with a lot of pleasure thrown in). We had a little time to spend with Keet's Great-Grandma "Klay" (at least sounds like). I did a video recording of her speaking about her mother's brothers that I'll post eventually.

As you can see from the above photo, Da-ka brought his super fancy DSLR camera, so he got the best photos. These are only a taste...

The museum was really wonderful, but the highlight for me was the Imaginarium. Just seeing Keet play with all of their fun children exhibits was wonderful. Of course the Arctic Studies Research Center was fabulous too (a Smithsonian exhibition space), but I'm a mom after all.


On the drive home we stopped by a lake in Denali park and had a picnic. Da-ka and Keet were too cute, as always. Throuought the trip Keet kept adding new words to his ever expanding vocabulary. He is still aigning a lot, but he is now saying such things as:
"ice"
"barba" (spanish - beard (barbilla is chin))
"aaka"
"boom"
"car"
"yes"
"no, no"
"baby"
"tractor"
"bubble"
"dinasauro"
"dog"
"cat"
"cool"
"hip"
"help"


he seems to immitate almost any word with coaxing, but still signs for many things.

Last night he was restless after a long day in the car, and didn't go to sleep right at bedtime.  He signed:
"poo-poo please help" then pointed to his changing table. I asked him if for sure he had pooped, and he assured me with the same sequence of signs over and over. "poo-poo, please help!". 

I got him out of bed, checked the diaper, and nothing. Little trixter. He was so sincere about it all too!

Oh, family question... I heard a Tlingit song written by a Paul Brown. Anyone know who that was? Relative?

In the meantime, here is a very cool website we'll start taking Keet to:
http://www.sealaskaheritage.org/flash/my_house.swf

More photos from Da-ka soon I hope!