Thanksgiving in Nixa, MO with Lynette's family.

We were able to leave from Zone Conference in OKC for Nixa to spend Thanksgiving with Lynette and the kids (Jon was attending his sisters wedding in Utah).

We arrived late in the evening, and the kids pretended they had fallen asleep on our bed while waiting for us.  Then they popped up to say Surprise.  So cute.

Vanessa planned a magic show for us.  This was Brigham going under the magic blanket and Annabelle coming out.

Vanessa is learning violin, and so is Lynette, it is so fun to listen to them both practice.

Benson has become good at creating things with Legos.  He has such an imagination, and he spends hours at it.

A bow after the show they performed.

Every morning all three kids came into our bathroom and watched Grandpa shave.
HO HO HO.  Merry Christmas.

Annabelle helped with all the Thanksgiving preparations of a yummy meal.

Lynette and Jon have quite the chicken farm.  Lots of great eggs of all sizes and colors.  Great stuff.

It is hilarious to watch Annabelle chase a chicken to hold.  This one is easy to catch because he has hair in his eyes, and can't see you coming.

The kids love riding on the 4-wheeler with Grandpa.

We went to a fun restaurant to eat after Jon returned from SL, and then we headed back to Lawton, to prepare for our soldiers for church on Sunday.


We had a very special experience while visiting with Lynette.   We were walking across a parking lot after seeing the movie Moana.  I was carrying Annabelle.  Benson was driving his 250 pound power wheelchair.  Benson suddenly cut in front of me with the wheelchair.  I fell over the back of the wheel chair, as I fell I saw the baby flying out of my arms and clear of the wheelchair and land on the pavement face down.  Lynette and I were hysterical as we watched this.  Lynette picked her up to comfort her, and after about a minute she stopped crying.  We frantically started searching for injuries.  Because she stopped crying so fast we were afraid she had a concussion.
She had NO injuries.  She had no scrapes, no red marks, no bruises,--NOTHING!!!
We are sure that a guardian angel took her out of my arms and gently laid her on the cement.  If I would have held onto her, she would have had serious injuries as I would have landed on her on top of the metal in the back of the wheel chair--which is where I landed.  I had scrapes and bruises.  But nothing serious.   WE FEEL SO VERY BLESSED!  We were told in the MTC that while we are on our mission our children and grandchildren would be blessed and protected.
A sweet quote from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the 12.  "In the gospel of Jesus Christ, you have help, from both sides of the veil, and you must never forget that.  When disappointment, and discouragement strike...you remember and never forget that if our eyes could be opened we would see horses and chariots of fire as far as the eye can see riding at reckless speed to come to our protection."
HOW SWEET IS THE WORK.  

Zone Conference in OKC

Half of the Oklahoma Oklahoma City Mission.  Four Senior Couples (on right - Sylvia is taking the picture).  There are about
220 full time missionaries in the mission, about half are here.  We had Elder Sitati (a Seventy)( in the center and Pres. and Sis Mansell just to his right) from Ghana speak to us and do some training.  He spoke to other half of the mission the day before.

Great Plains Museum

Toured the Great Plains Museum in Lawton.  It was very interesting to learn about the history of Oklahoma.  We have all heard about the Dust Bowl but we never knew what really caused it.  Now we know.

Typical Homestead House.  Windmills very important for water. (There is always plenty of Wind)

Dust bowl times.

This is the root system of the prairie grasses that were growing here when the settlers arrived.
The 1920's were very wet and the soil very fertile.  Many people came and settled here and made good money farming.
The 1930's came and no rain.  The crops dried up and could not hold the soil.  The winds blew away millions of
tons of top soil.  Some went as far as New York.  The great depressions forced many farmers from their lands to seek
employment elswhere.

Tribes of Native Americans from all over the country were forced to relocate to Oklahoma.  Because of the friction between the Native Americans and the new settlers the Army decided the best way to solve the problem was to take away the very
life of the Tribes-- The Buffalo.  They used virtually the whole buffalo for everything from shelter to food to tools etc.  They systematically wiped out the buffalo killing millions just to subdue the Native Americans.

Sylvia standing in from of a picture taken of a pile of buffalo heads.

Something like 17 tornadoes in one day.

A pile of debris after a tornado.  And us without a tornado cellar!!!

AIT (Advanced Individual Training) Graduations

Usually many fewer graduates.  No Family day but families do attend, although not a lot.
AIT usually lasts about 9 weeks.  We get mostly soldier from Ft. Sill BCT but we do get some Marines and some from the other BCT training site. Our AIT training is either the Howitzers or the ground based surface to surface or surface to air missiles.

Much smaller venue.

Back row Molly Comp (honor Grad).

Another honor grad of ours.

Molly Comp and Michaela Moor both honor Grads from AIT both headed home.
(National Guard)

 

Graduation Day

About 100 grads in each graduation class.  We usually have two graduations and two family days per week. Graduations are quite formal, we get to sit with the Chaplains up front so we don't have to wait in the lines.  They show a movie of the graduates during their training and some remarks by a Guest Speaker, present awards for honor grads, sing the army song and are given a graduation certificate.

Told you the lines were long.  We go right inside without waiting.

Soldiers waiting for ceremony to start.

They each announce themselves and then receive a certificate and congrats.

They march out to the front of the Chapel and then are released to Families.

Always soldiers out marching around the streets during graduations.

We had to get in the pictures somehow.  We try to attend all of the Graduations and Family Days.

Family Day at BCT (Basic Combat Training) before Graduation

Families are invited to see the soldiers training.  They perform skits showing before and after training.  They are quite entertaining.  Marching, hand to hand combat skills, PT (Physical Training), combat skills, wrestling, etc.

They recognize the honor Grads.

Parents get to pin soldiers who are advanced in rank.

Grads being released to join their families.

P-Day with our Missionaries

After lunch we went to what is call the
HOLY CITY..  It is where they hold a pageant every Easter.  It is out in the middle of --nowhere, literally.

No town around for 30 miles.  

All eight of our missionaries had Halloween off so we took them to dinner at a fun restaurant in the Wichita "Mountains" Wildlife Refuge.  We have to put mountains in quotes--because they are small hills.  They have huge plate size burgers (we shared) and amazing peach cobbler with homemade ice-cream.

It is typical Oklahoma==not much to look at.  But good food and fun.

This was a Tabasco peppers challenge.  And it was funny. 

BEST peach cobbler EVER with mountains of real homemade ice-cream.\