Post 4 Christmas 2010 thru February 15th

In early December, sister Langkilde and I made an all day trip inspecting eleven missionary housing units. We went to Sheep Springs, Tohatchi, Tohlakai, Gallup, Ramah, Grants, Thoreau, and Crownpoint.

We took a memory lane trip past our first home as a married couple in Gallup, Washington Elementary School where Sister Langkilde first taught, and some of our children's favorite hill, elephant hill.

 

When we left Crownpoint I made a wrong turn late at night going part way back to Gallup costing us another one and a half hours drive. I was frosted, we got home about 11pm, but maybe, it saved us from an accident, who knows.

The next Saturday we went to Cortez and Durango, Colorado inspecting housing units. There were deer eating grass right in the town of Durango.

On this trip we detoured and visited Mesa Verde. We were really impressed with the extensiveness of the ruins. Its a must see if you every pass through the area.

We saw two nice buck too, and only about one mile apart. We thought they might have been the same buck, but on a close inspection we concluded they were not.

We made a couple more touring inspection trips with Elder and Sister Jones. One took us to Monticello Utah, Blanding and seeing the Natural Bridges National Park, returning during the night. Here I am with crutches due to a sore heal from jogging.

The other trip was through Mexican Hat, Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley.

We had a great meal at Mexican Hat and enjoyed trying on a western hat at the gift shop.

 We saw a weird incident involving a helicopter and pickups along the road. We later heard that two men had killed each other in the area with knives and now think they were flow to where we happen to come across them loading the bodies into a pickup. Don't know for sure but when Sister Langkilde asked them, "What was going on," they said, "it was not any of our business and get out of the area," strange?

The historic town of Bluff was interesting too. There is a Church Branch building and some ruin we enjoyed seeing.

Monument valley was very nice but we all agreed that the Valley of the Gods, was more serene and different.

 

We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in Dulce, N.M. on December 18, 2010. We go to Dulce every Sunday to help out at the Branch.

For our anniversary we cleaned the small living quarters next to the Branch building anticipating that we would be spending some evenings there rather than driving the 90 miles back to Farmington.

After cleaning all day we had dinner at the Wild Horse Restaurant in Dulce. The photos indicate some of the additional game animals in the area, including bear and cougar. We had a great anniversary devoting our time in the Lords work even on our preparation day. We will always remember our 40th anniversary in Dulce N.M. on our mission.

Staying in Dulce Sunday night became a preference when driving back one evening we almost hit a large bull elk.  Dulce, the home of the Jicarillo Apache Nation is known for its trophy deer and elk hunting. It cost about $10,000 for elk and $25,000 for deer for hunting license, trophy fees, guides, etc.

Well another Christmas has come and gone and would have been non eventful if Irene had not come over with Ben, Ileana, and James. What is Christmas without children? We had a great time making our tight accommodations work for everyone. Irene and kids were troopers and squeezed into every crack we had.

 

Elder Jones finished his 6 month mission and went home the end of the first week in January. He and his wife will be missed, but they indicate that after tax season they may come back for another six months. We had a great time eating, playing Rummikub, visiting the surrounding country side and inspecting the housing units in our mission. Here we are cooking one of our special Chinese dishes at their apartment.



Farmington hit a 20 year record cold temperature. It got as low as 7-10 degrees below zero.  We as many others had froze water and drain pipes.

Sixty seven years old and on a mission. What a great day to be alive.

My medicare insurance company didn't cover New Mexico so switch to one that did and what a surprise. I have a free enrollment in Defined Fitness Health Club.

It is a great place to exercise. It has a large weight room with cycle machines, etc., pool, steam room sauna and hot tub too. 

It has been to cold -10 to 20 degrees in the morning to run so have really enjoyed going three days a week and using the bicycle machine, weights, swimming pool, and Jacuzzi. I have particularly decided to be ready for a Saloma water ski trip when we get off our mission. I have to redeem myself from pulling my hamstring just before we came on our mission. I weight about 200 pounds and hope to get down around 180 or so, we will see.

Its February and what a surprise when Randy and Sally McDowell came over. The occasion was for Sally and Sister Langkilde to give each other a perm.



We went out to eat at KFC and KBOB's.  The women gave each other a perm while Randy went with me to purchase a washer and dryer for a new trailer the mission has in Dennehotso, AZ.

 

We later gave them a tour of our mission office and Sister Langkilde showed off one of her baptisms that she had recorded. 

Sunday we went to Stake Conference with President Monson speaking by satellite.

We later gathered in our 5th wheel and Sally made Andes Mints chocolate covered vanilla wafer cookies. We fixed them a fried pork spare rib dinner and wouldn't let them leave without playing us Rummikub. Thank you Randy and Sally we really enjoy your visit!

 

We had a great experience coming back from Dulce, NM on Sunday (12 Sep 2011) afternoon when normally we see several elk or deer, but this time we saw two bald eagles, here is one of them.

Then we had a visit from Mark Warner and Dee who were at the Albuquerque trade show promoting Doc Warner's in Alaska. They were on their way to Salt Lake City, Phoenix then back to Juneau Alaska.