Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Newhalen Basketball and Week 10 - Hands

Last week the NIYAC (Newhalen Iliamna Youth Athletic Club) teams came down to play us.  We had only a week of practice so the games were a bit lopsided.  

The first game vs. the girls we only played the Jr. High and 9th grade ages since we don't have enough Jr. High age kids to make a team.  That game they beat us easily.  So the next game vs. the boys Sonny, the NIYAC coach, asked us to play our high schoolers to give the boys a challenge.  We won that game.

This week we loaded up and headed down to Newhalen to have a rematch.



We all crammed into three vehicles...



... of which I have no good pictures. =P


We decided to do things the same way, younger kids against the girls and a good mix of younger and older against the boys.

Warming up.


The team that played the girls.

Anna jumped for the ball.

NIYAC didn't have enough girls for a team so some of the boys played too.  It made it a bit more fair to have Joshua and Josh A play.

The NIYAC girls only won by two points that time so it was a much better game then the previous week.

Next up was the boys.  We tried to keep a good mix of the Jr. High and High School age group in but we have really tall kids so it was still pretty unfair.



Anna shooting.

Quentin and Dennis rather dominated under the basket because they're so tall even though they're only fifteen.  Quentin is taller then me now and wears bigger shoes then my Dad.



We won that game pretty easily.  I didn't play at all and at the end we put in all the Jr. Highers.

The next day NIYAC came to Nondalton for some more games.  This time we tried to play all girls against the girls and mostly boys against the boys.  Joshua still played against the girls though.  We figured a 6th grade boy is better then a 11th grade girl when playing a Jr. High aged game.


Quentin kept score and I kept stats.

We won by two points.




Next up were the boys (and Deborah and Skye).



Joshua shooting.

Nathan shooting.

Skye shooting.



They beat us by two points.  It was a bit hard to have all the boys in because they're so big compared to the NIYAC kids they couldn't play full out.   Even trying to be careful the still got in trouble some for being to rough with the younger kids.

I can't wait till next week when we should get to travel around some and play high school teams.

Our internet has been out all week and I haven't around to taking or posting our week 10 pictures but here is Anna's.


Monday, January 21, 2013

Russian New Year

This year the city put on a barbecue and firework show for Russian New Year.


They pulled the fire truck out and had the barbecue and a movie for the little kids in its bay at city hall.


After the barbecue we got to send up sky lanterns.  They were pretty cool.




After the sky lanterns we went to the basketball court to set off fireworks.

It was so icy out the city suburban slid off the side into the ditch.


Oh well, they just left it there and took the fireworks out of the back.


It was a pretty awesome firework show.

It would would of been a perfect night to take some really awesome pictures but I was to busy being social. =)

Anna brought the tripod though and snapped a few pictures from right under the fireworks.





Ok, maybe more then a few, but really, colorful burst of lights, who can resist, excuse the overload.





Sunday, January 20, 2013

Week 9 - A Mess

A mess is our yard right now.  

It's spring break up in January.  

I have to admit I don't really mind it.  It's been in the 30s and 40s almost all winter.  It's kind of nice.  I can do without -20.


There are glaciers of ice everywhere.



Our poor snow machines are stuck without snow though.  That is a downside.



Anna's messy pictures. ;)

Sarah

Our poor book shelf.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Week 8 - Black and White

I'm not sure if I'm a fan of black and white pictures.  I love color. =)

Sarah

Benjamin

Anna did much better.  I like her pictures.

Our snow machines after a snow.

"To Kill A Mocking Bird"

Happy Russian New Year!!!
Living in a Russian Orthodox village you get three New Years a year (does that make sense?), a Gregorian one, on January 1, a Russian one, on January 14, and a Biblical one that changes dates every year.
A barbecue and more fireworks tonight! =)