Purdy's Mission

Playing with our Missionaries

We took our Lawton missionaries out for dinner at the Plantation Restaurant in Medicine Park. It is a cute little tourist area. Elder Sheffield's going away dinner, as he went home a few days later. We are losing almost half of the missionaries this summer. We are really going to have a lot of greenies.

Sisters Herrin and Scoresby, they are super. Elders Hanks and Sheffield getting ice cream at Braums one last time before Elder Sheffield leaves for home. We will miss him, he was a lot of fun.

The view from the top of Mount Scott in Medicine Park. The tallest "mountain"in Oklahoma -- 2500 feet.

Independence Day Ceremony at Fort Sill.

They had a ceremony the morning of the fourth of July, that was really fun. We loved it. They had the band, cannons, and General McKinery, the base commander gave a talk. They gave the date each State entered the Union, and the motto of each, starting with the 1st and going to the 50th. And they shot a cannon for each one. I snapped a picture of Uncle Sam as everyone was leaving.

Vanessa's Baptism

Because Lynette is only 5 hours away, we were able to attend Vanessa's baptism in July. It was fun to spend some time with them, and give us a little break. Both Grandma's did the talks. Shauna the one on baptism, and me the Holy Ghost. We made a ton of cookies and cinnamon rolls for treats after. There were a lot of friends there supporting them. We played a little before the baptism.

Dad was helping Jon by mowing as we prepared for the baptism. What you see is just the front yard. The back is bigger.

This is the Nathanael Greene Park. It had beautiful flowers of all varieties, ponds, turtles, and fish.

Annabelle in the butterfly house, checking out ? It was impressive to see so many butterflies and cocoons , caterpillars

If there is something to be caught, Benson is all over it. Here is caught a minnow.

Lynette and Jon caught a skunk in their trap they set, not knowing what they were going to catch. When Lynette saw it was a skunk she was not going to go in and Rocky ran past her, and he got sprayed. This is his bath. It took a lot of soap. Jon let the skunks (turned out to be a Mom and 2 babies) go out in the wild. He put a tarp over the cage, and they did not spray him. He was lucky.

At the Baptism, ---Vanessa and Jon prepared a musical number. Vanessa is getting pretty good on the violin.

The blond soldier is Linderman. He needed a battle buddy to be able to come to church. He is in AIT and not many soldiers want to give up their weekend free time to go to church. So he started teaching Kirkland, and he ended up getting baptized. They are both really sharp. They have a 9 month AIT so Kirkland will have plenty of time to get a firm foundation in the church. That made our 19th baptism of soldiers. Sweet is the work.
Elders Sheffield and Rounds in the picture.

Life Fire Demonstration

We attended a demonstration that showed four howitzers and rockets being fired. It was a "wower".
Here at Fort Sill we are the only training base for artillery for all the services. This includes, howitzers, as well as rockets for defense. Surface to surface, and surface to air.

This is a 105 mm. It was interesting to watch to the precision in which they loaded and fired each shell.

BOOM. We were given ear plugs. A 105mm

This is a 155 mm paladin, mobile transport artillery

This is the mobile ammo unit.

What it looks like from the back. Lots of "Stuff" in there.

This has six rockets in it, and you could hear and see them as they flew through the air.

The side of the hill they were blowing up was about a couple miles away.

Change of Command (Battalion Commander)

We were invited by Lt. Col. Chasteen to attend the ceremony for the Change of Command for his Battalion. It was very impressive. Lots of pageantry.

The full Battalion, 1000 soldiers marched past the to honor the outgoing commander.

The soldiers saluting the commander.

We quite enjoy all the pomp and ceremony.

This is part of the history of Fort Sill. This is called the Half Section. It includes the cannon and caisson.
This is the only horses in the military today. They are used for ceremonies. They galloped past the grand
stand as part of the ceremony.

Easter Pageant at the Holy City in Medicine Park, OK

There was a pageant held that we went to depicting the life of Jesus Christ. It started at his birth and went through to the resurrection. A lot of people watch it every year, as it has been a tradition for years. We all bring blankets and chairs and sit on a hill. It went from 8:00 pm to 12:00 midnight.