Ancestors of Kotzebue

My entire family is buried at our camp in Sisualik behind the houses, so this memorial day, I didn't really know what to do. And living up here in Northern Alaska, it was COLD and very, VERY windy, thanks to a nasty west wind coming right off the frozen sound.



(By the way, I KNOW its Wednesday, but I had JURY duty this week (still do) and when I get home, I just want to cook and sew and not blog.)



Since I had a bunch of leftover fake flowers in my car from the Arctic Circle Spring Festival, we decided to find graves in town that looked a little less loved than the others. So, the three younger kids and I went on our a windy and cold trek to do just that. And Keens are once again, the perfect shoe up here. Because in the Springtime, you can wear them with socks...which is why our family has a whole slew of them! (And REI is having a sale right now, so rush on over and gets some!)



We did find my uncle and aunt's graves up on Cemetery Hill (they were married into the family, so they weren't buried at camp) and placed some flowers on their graves.



But the two graves that the kids decided to pretty up were the two that said simply, "Ancestors of Kotzebue."



Kotzebue used to be a huge battleground. Every time a contractor wants to build something, an archaeologist has to come up and dig slowly into the ground here for artifacts and bones. 99 out of 100 times, they find human remains and bury them together on the hill. I'm sure I have some relatives in there, so Ancestors of Kotzebue it was.



The girls wanted to make hearts out of the flowers and Max just wanted to make sure they wouldn't fly away. He dug and buried his flowers down.



Maddie and Kaisa said some sweet prayers for them and we picked tundra tea from up there as well. It was a great Memorial day for our family, remembering those who came before us.



I'll leave you with Kaisa's prayer that I was texting as she was saying it. Oh the mind of a seven year old!



"Dear Ancestors of Kotzebue, I am sorry I stepped on your grave. Please forgive me, it was an accident but only because I was putting flowers on it for you to look pretty. I hope that you are having a good time up in Heaven with God and Jesus and Papa Max... and your friends, if they're up there. Well, I hope you're up there. Thank you for the Tundra Tea too. And I am sorry that I have to step on your grave again to get it. Amen."

By the way, you should all go check out the Video on Cathy's Blog. Those are my ancestors too...