Adventures

Welcome sign in the arena of the Rodeo

We finally took a fun day this week.  We haven’t done this since Christmas.  It has been snowing off and on for the past week and we were ready to take an adventure.  Thursday, after seeing the town doctor (who I am very impressed with) for Walt’s pre-surgery work up, he found a fun place to visit that gives a huge discount to seniors on Thursdays.  We qualify because their idea of a senior is 55 yrs and older.  Hot Springs, SD is known for its natural mineral water hot springs (only 87 degrees actually).  There is a place there called the Plunge that has been there for over 100 years - remodeled many times, I am sure.  All the water is from this spring and its natural temperature.  We only had to pay $3 a piece.  The water was nice. And  I wouldn’t have minded a tad warmer, but considering it’s winter, pretty darn nice.  They also had two hot tubs, same kind of water though much hotter.  Once we got in those, I was happy just sitting on the bench while Walt went into the big pool again.  

Loved this at the doctor's office

Add caption

The pool of natural spring mineral water

Looks like were on vacation - just the wall of the pool

Selfie at the pool

We ate dinner at a place called “The Vault” and had a very tasty Western BBQ burger.  We actually split it because it was so big and came with fries.  On the way home, we came into a snow storm.  Under an inch was predicted and only snow for an hour.  As we came down over the mountain in Custer, it really hit hard.  We were driving in 3-4 inches of snow on the road and it was coming down like a blizzard.  I was so glad Walt had volunteered to drive home that night.  It was one of the worst storms we’ve driven in.  It was even snowing hard in Newcastle.  So much for that forecast.  We got 5 inches.  It was wet heavy snow too.  Not the usual light and fluffy stuff.  

More views of the decor at the Vault.  I'm trying to decided what yummy thing to eat

At the Vault.  Lots of stuffed animals and skins like the zebra one above Walt

Our driving through the storm

Monday, we visited with the Smith’s.  The kids really love those Book of Mormon videos.  Now they are requesting more than one every week.  We saw the Smiths again on Saturday and they asked for 2 videos again.  I keep telling the kids, if they want to know what happens next - read the book.  It also snowed all day, but really only got a couple of inches.  They were calling for a big storm, but that’s all we got.  School did call a late start for Monday and thus no Seminary.  I think I talked about this on the last email.  How Walt had already cancelled it on Sunday morning.  Must have inspired. 

Tuesday we saw Gary.  The roads were fine.  It was only in the teens but sunny.  Drake knows exactly what that means.  While we were driving to Gary’s, I turned on the wipers to clear the windshield and a wind gust grabbed the passenger side wiper and ripped it off.  We went back for it, but it was broken.  There weren’t a lot of options, so we stopped at a car repair place in Upton.  Ended up paying $25 for a replacement.  

Wednesday was the Senior Center lunch.  One of our friends, Chuck, has a second run of cancer and is going through chemo again.  He isn’t doing well, and we had not seen him at the center for a while.  One of his friends, Miriam was there and was telling me how poorly Chuck was doing and she had been taking him meals all the past week.  Chuck ended up coming for a to-go meal and we stopped and said Hi.  I asked if we could bring him a meal, and he said Yes right away.  So I said “How about tonight?”  It sounded good to him.  The rest of that day ended up very busy.  I still had lots to do on my seminary lesson, and I was having trouble getting what was in my head into a lesson.  The lesson was from 2 Nephi 2, and was about Adam, Eve, and the Plan of Salvation.  I think sometimes, all of that gets quite complicated, and I wanted it to be visual and easier for our students to understand.  The lesson turned out well and the kids were very interactive, but I was up till 10 pm finishing.

I got chocolate chip cookies made (Chuck’s favorite) and Chicken and Rice casseroles for Chuck and for us.  As usual, the rice was taking longer to cook and we ended up taking their meal over 30 minutes later than anticipated.  I did let Chuck know.  Chuck is also a talker and we visited for about 30 minutes when we took over the dinner.  His wife Maggie, literally died and was brought back to life last week.  Boy, they are really getting hit from all angles.  We will try to visit them every week.  

Walt’s seminary lesson that day was really fun.  He is great at coming up with games.  They were divided into teams and then hooked together with strength training bands.  It was hilarious.  The kids weren’t as excited as we were.  One of my favorite parts was how one of the boys tried to stretch one of his classmates across the room.  Those bands just don’t stretch that much.  It’s fun trying new ways to help these students learn.

Walt's seminary lesson

This picture captures the "team work"

The boys bent over are connecting their team mates.  The girl on the right wasn't thrilled about this activity

Thursdays details are above.  Friday was a really fun day as well.  About 2 weeks ago, we stopped by the Willadson to visit.  I had called and left messages a couple of times.  They love to go places and on the last message mentioned we should do something fun together.  He found out the professional rodeo was in Rapid City this week.  He got tickets for Friday evening.  He never let us pay him for them, said it was a treat.  It really was!  We got there several hours early - better parking.  There are vendors, food places, booths selling all kind of things, and livestock.  While we were in line for food, I was asking Jim about brisket and the lady behind us was praising the pulled pork BBQ there.  Sounded good to me.  Then she offered to order our food and get us her vendor discount.  Sweet.  We ended up getting the BBQ with fries and a drink, plus a Fry Bread taco (Indian Taco) for only $9.  That was so nice of her.  That taco was really good!!  What was so funny was that the only thing I bought was a really unique purse from this same lady.

Light show at the beginning of the Rodeo

Selfie - waiting for the show to begin

We looked at the animals.  The cows always look so good at things like this.  They are bathed and trimmed and combed.  There was an area with goats, lambs, and chicks.  Too cute.  Then the rest of the time until the rodeo we just walked around looking at all the booths.  Lots of cowboy stuff, funky and glittery clothes, lotions, lots of jewelry, humidifiers, health screenings, pain reliever thing, etc.  We got lots of steps in.  

Cute momma and baby

This goat was ready to pose for a picture

This kid loved jumping up on to its mother

Well groomed cow

Walt loved this shirt

Little cowboys are just so cute

The closest we've come to a buffalo.  Too bad it is stuffed

The seats Jim got us were really good.  We were on the second level but the front row of that.  No one to get in front of us and lots more leg room.  You know how much I need lots of leg room.  The events that night were: bare back riding (that’s riding a bucking horse bare back - no saddle - nothing to hold on to).   These guys looked like rag dolls flopping around.  It made my back hurt just watching them.  The other events similar were Saddle Bronc Riding and Bull Riding.  With the Bull riding, if they rider falls off, the bull might try to spear him.  It’s on the edge of your seat type watching.  The bull riders wear a crash helmet, not a cowboy hat.  Then there is Steer Wresting.  The steer is let loose, the cowboy chases him on his horse, jumps down at the opportune time, grabs the bull by the horns (literally) and wrestles him to the ground.  The roping events include, steer roping, tie down roping and team roping..  Not everyone gets a good connection with the calf.  Some miss entirely.  The girls have Barrel Racing.  There are 3 barrels to go around, which takes some skillful maneuvering; especially to get it done quickly. 

Team Ropers

Bull Rider falling off,  Cowboy protectors on their way

Bull Rider

 The final event is called “Bullfighting.”  Nothing like in Spain.  These guys are dressed in all kinds of weird clothes, something red at least to catch the bulls attention.  These guys are out there with the bull and have to last 40 seconds.  Sometimes the bull comes right at them and the goal is to keep out of their way.  They learn to do this so they can later be the distracting thing that gets a bull from hurting the rider if he falls off - cowboy protection.  I guess some people call them Rodeo clowns.  It’s crazy to watch.  We didn’t get home till nearly 11:30, but had a really good time.

Bull Fighter competition

Saturday, Walt got his blood work done for his surgery, we visited the Smiths and Walt prepared his talk for Sunday.  It usually takes him all day.  It’s just how he does it.  It did snow a bit on Saturday, but I guess it’s just that time of year when it’s just going to snow for a an hour and see what you get.  So it was a pretty chill day, but even those seem to go by fast.  At the Smith’s we got a bag full of goodies.  His parents are in town and this is the first time since Christmas they have seen them.  They brought presents for the children and tons, I mean - tons of cookies.  She makes a traditional German Stolen, Pizzelles (she brought 600 - mostly all for Richard - his favorite) and 500 of the little crescent shaped butter cookies with powdered sugar and marble cake.  She loves to bake!!  That was so nice of them to share!

Sunday was supposed to be our non-stop day.  Walt gave a talk in sacrament meeting about Agency.  He did a great job.  The other speakers did well, but left him over a half hour for his talk.  He filled it just fine.  I especially loved the stories he shared at the end.  One of them, I had never heard.  The sister that taught our Relief Society class even mentioned a few of the things he said in his talk.  Tomorrow’s seminary lesson is from 2 Nephi 2 and is about agency.  I might quiz the kids about Walt’s talk and give small candy to those who remember what he said.

So after church, this was our proposed schedule - Missionary Correlation Meeting, Lunch at Lucille Dumbrill’s, teach Haley a missionary discussion lesson, go to Gary’s for Book of Mormon and study and refreshments.  The refreshments part has basically turned into a dinner type thing.  We start at 4 pm, then have the discussion ending at 5 pm.  So I had made chili to bring and corn muffins.  The missionaries are sick, one throwing up - so no correlation meeting and they missed out on lunch at Lucille’s.  Then 3 of the other 4 people in the study group are sick.  So I just called Gary to cancel for this week.  Walt’s knee could use the break from lengthy car trips.  Haley wasn’t able to come to church, so no lesson there.  So basically we were done after Lucille’s.  I did try to visit Renee but she is too tired.   Things are really going down hill for her.

When I picked up Kay for church this morning, Abi was with her.  I had already invited Kay to Lucille’s and she was very excited for a second lunch of sourdough pancakes and playing on the player piano.  Lucille was fine with Abi coming for lunch as well.  Since the missionaries were sick, Lucille said to invite someone to replace them.  We called the Knights, and they were on board.  We ended up with 10 people - quite the group.  Lucille got the batter ready and I did the cooking.  With having so many people, there were plenty to help set things out and clean up as well.  I think everyone had a great time.  Kay showed Abi how to work the piano and the girls kept us entertained the whole time.

Abi and Kay at the player piano

All I have left to do tonight is finish up my seminary lesson and get out this email.  Walt takes care of the pictures, so now all that is left is his part.  We do have a lot of pictures this week.  Not sure how many of you just look at the pictures, so we try to accommodate.  Kate only looks at the pictures.  She says the emails are just way too long.

Walt was really cold.  He had his blanket on in front of the heat vent.

We love you all.  We love the Marco Polo’s that are sent.  Send some cards or letters, we love mail!!  My mom is so good about sending a little card almost every week.  We feel the love.