Uuma's

Uuma's, Iluq's, Sistaloon's.

Its one and the same. Our family and friends are important to us. Eskimo's have many words for family and friends, many words for snow...but no word for goodbye. I'm sure it is on purpose too.



Clara and Kaisa are cousins. They call each other "BFF." The two of them together is great. Add one more, and its fighting time!

We call them Chocolate and Vanilla. Even though my sister's much whiter than I, her daughter is one Chocolate girl! (The girls call my mom Caramel!)



My parents loved having them in Chickaloon. My sister and I loved that they're able to do what we did as kids. They barked trees, cut wood, went fishing, slept in sleeping bags, drove around, let off fireworks, pumped water from the well and generally ran around the woods together...just like we used to do. We grew up "helping our grandpa" and they're growing up "helping their grandpa!"



My hope for them is that they stay close. I have 74 first cousins, and I'd consider myself close-ish, but probably not close enough to them. I wish I would have stayed closer. I still know birthday's, and names, and Inupiaq names, etc, but we're not BFF's like we used to be.

Here are a couple of my cousins and their dad, who is fighting cancer the second time around. So, please pray for them. They joined us in Chickaloon for a day of relaxing and roasting hotdogs.



So, to all my uuma's, sistaloons, Iluq, and Cushinsh...I love you.