Sight seeing at the Wichita "Mountains"

We went to the Wichita Mtns Wildlife Refuge.  Lots of prairie dogs and buffalo.  Note "Mountains" in background.
(Hills by Rocky Mountain Standards.)  Stopped at the world famous Meirs Cafe for one of their Meirs burgers (The burger was the size of a full dinner plate.  It served four of us.

Ft. Sill

Ft. Sill is an Army Post.  It is one of two or three basic training (BCT) and does all of the field artillery training (AIT) for the army and the marines.  BCT and AIT last about 9 weeks each.  There are about 5000 soldiers on the base (AIT and BCT does not include permanent soldiers stationed here.  We are here to give support to our LDS soldiers in BCT and AIT.  The permanent soldiers attend church at one of the two Lawton Wards off base.  There are 80 - 100 soldiers at church each week and about 10 - 20 of them are new each week.  Below are some snapshots of the base.

They not only train on the howitzers but they teach the surface to air and surface to surface missiles. 

Most places have deer crossings and school crossings.  Here we have Howitzer crossings.

And you have to watch your speed in case you are driving one of these beasts.

Arrived Ft. Sill Oklahoma

We live in Lawton, OK (912 NE Tortoise Drive #3, Lawton, OK 73507).  It borders the post along one whole side of the city.  Lawton is the third largest city in OK but still not large.  Fortunately the couple that we are replacing (Chris and Carol Luther) was gracious enough to stay and train us for a week.  It is a good thing or we would have been months learning the system.

'Home Sweet Home'
Two Bedrooms, one used as an office.

Sylvia will be making a lot of chocolate chip cookies over the next 18 months.
These soldiers don't get a lot of treats so we provide them once a month.  We bring
100 cookies to church.

OK has a lot of flies!!!
And you know how Sylvia feels about flies.

 

Visiting Stockdales in Ft. Collins, CO

We had a short but wonderful visit with our good friends

 Gordon and Jenine Stockdale on the way to the mission

 field.  We just happened to be able to visit with some other

 good friends Jim and Peggy Hopkinson who were also

 visiting Stockdales.  We got a personal tour of the new

 Ft. Collins temple while we were there.

In the MTC

The MTC was an awesome experience.  We loved singing
"Called to Serve" with 2000 young missionaries and 84 Senior
Couples.  Our training lasted 2 weeks, one week of "Preach My Gospel"
and one week of CES and Military Relations training.

Eric came to visit us before we left.

Had a great time with all the grandkids and Eric.

Visiting Lynette and Jon in Nixa, MO

Stopped in Nixa on the drive to OK and had a great time

 playing with them and having fun day trips. A tradition has

been established to go to Andy's for frozen custard as often 

as possible. 

Visiting Carrie and Ben in California

We met them in Yosemite National Park.  We stayed in a cute house

 outside of the park.  We went on to Sequoia National Park before

 going to Ladera Ranch to their home. 

A repeat of the amazing seafood feast.  Really good.

Visiting Steph and Ryan in Seattle

We went to the Olympic Peninsula, it was lush and green and we hiked
 several trails to 1st and 3rd beaches and a wildlife refuge.

An Amazing feast of every kind of seafood (crab, shrimp, scallops,
clams, oysters, corn potatoes all cooked in one big pot.  It was
deeeeliscious.

Mission Preparation

Had to make sure we visited the kids before we left for the mission.
First stop Hawaii with Becky Brett and Micah:

We stayed at the Hale Koa Resort, an amazing Military Resort on Waikiki Beach on Oahu.
We toured everything there is to tour and ate at amazing places with Becky as the guide.
We will cherish the memories we made with them.