St. Louis Air Show, other activities

Our high flying mission comes to an end with four of us senior couples having been dispersed to fly our separate ways

Mission report. This morning we reported our mission to Mongolia to the High Council. They will set a date for a take fireside/devotional where we will put on an evening program for church members and guests. It will  probably be sometime during the 2nd weekend of June.

Lots of work projects. We have been busy helping with yard projects, table refurbishing and staining, and clearing out the honeysuckle trees and bushes from the forest behind our daughter and son-in law's home.

We need to be busy and helpful and we've found a few ways of doing that for our two daughters and their families that live in St. Louis.

Besides preparing a garden, I restacked their firewood and cleaned up a fire pit area

We do some timely babysitting, mow lawns, attend children's events such as band concerts and softball games


12 year old granddaughter Mariah just hit a single

Spirit of St. Louis Airport's 50th year celebration. One big treat was attending the US Navy's Blue Angels Air Show held to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the airport.

Over 25,000 people came to the Air Show

Crowds along the flight line

This B-25 attracted a lot of attention

There was a Veteran's Motorcycle club to lead the parade

We sang the National Anthem to start the show. This flag was supported by a giant crane.

We spent the morning looking at the military exhibits, STEM booths (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), and vintage aircraft on display.

Chase donning the body armor and fighting gear

Alec ready for combat

Two boys enjoying themselves

The children could operate this robotic photography spy device 

Alec riding in an armored Humvee

The Air Show begins. In the afternoon, we enjoyed the Air Show culminated by the Blue Angels performance of precision flying.

The Blue Angels were started after World War II as a recruitment device to attract pilots to Naval aviation. 

In the diamond formation, the wing to cockpit separation is 18 inches

Echalan formation

We've seen the Blue Angels perform once before as well as the USAF Thunderbirds. It's been a long time and it was like seeing them for the first time.

Wow!!! What a show. I was fortunate to get some good photographs of some of their maneuvers. 

Art in the sky

There were three stunt pilots who displayed their aerobatic skills and several World War II planes. 

Also Army Aviation Skydivers put on a demonstration of a Viet Nam era simulated helicopter rescue flight as a warm up for the Blue Angels.

The Blue Angels will perform in 35 cities this spring and summer and give 55 performances. The Blue Angels consist 6 F-18 Hornet planes and an additional demonstration of a C-130 Hercules cargo plane.

Not to be outdone by the stunt pilots, the Blue Angels tried some dangerous stunts of their own.

Landing gears up or down as the case may be

Two planes flying upside down in formation

Two planes making a knife pass in mid-air

The margin of error is very slim. Don't try this at home without parental supervision. Darlene wondered what it would be like to be the mother of one of these pilots.

Musings after Mongolia

Easter egg hunt in Arkansas

Going from the mission field where all our love, energy, and focus was on moving the work forward to a life without "have to's" is quite the contrast. We had a structured life with a built in support network and plenty to do. Now we do what we want when we want with no specific agenda.

All our friends and contacts in Mongolia don't seem to apply anymore. We haven't yet immersed ourselves in our old network of church friends and activities. We are able to move into our home after July 1 and really unpack and get settled.

In the meantime, we are living as guests in various of our children's homes. The grandchildren are wonderful to be around. 



Our newest grandchild, three month old Max

Tally's youngest daughter, Angelina



Tally's middle daughter, Juliana


Tally's oldest daughter, Elena, - second from the right - during a soccer game warm up




Tawny's second oldest, Chase



With our daughter, Tassa, Darlene, and I helped prepare new ground for a vegetable garden. That meant a lot of digging for me.

We also made numerous trips to a pile of free mulch to cover all the flower and garden beds for three homes in the St. Louis area. It felt good to be engaged in physical activity and to make progress toward a concrete goal.

Darlene put in at least seven hours hemming a prom dress purchased online. It was too long for Maren and needed to be shortened. It was complicated and needed hand stitching to finish. Somehow we are busy as always but not the kind of busy we are used to.

Aunt Tawny, Tassa, and Maren

It was fun to be there as her mother and aunt worked on her hair and to meet her date.

This young man is of Chinese descent.

We probably won't start the new blog, Musings in Missouri, until after we are back in our home. I will be putting a lot of thought about what I want to be doing with my time and what I want to write about that will be of interest to the worldwide viewers of Musings in Mongolia. At the end of our mission we had about 2,500 page views a month from all parts of the world.

We plan a life of service in one form or another and to be active in good causes. It will take some soul-searching to arrive at that point. Family History work - especially with our own lives and our ancestors is compelling. I like photography and need to learn a lot about how to do it better. It is way too early to make decisions like these right now.

We are rather enjoying our time of the sidelines of life and being available to our children's and grandchildren's needs. 

This will be an enjoyable interim as we getting closer and closer to a normal schedule in the fall.  



A welcome rest stop on the way to Arkansas

We planned a spontaneous trip (two days notice) to Little Rock, Arkansas to visit our daughter Tally and her family. She is there alone with her three children awaiting a family move to Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania in June where her husband Eric is working a breast cancer surgeon. Four adults, ourselves and two daughters and 8 grandchildren joined Tally for the Easter weekend. It was a great visit!

This isn't as easy as it used to be



If you give a ride to one, you have to give a ride to everyone

Easter fun - We also attended church as a family with the granddaughters enjoying braided hair.

Each got their hair braided by Nonni



Back row - Nonni, Juliana, Elena, and Mariah - Front row - Aubrey, Angelina, and Annalisa






 



An Easter parade of French-braided grandchildren

In the meantime, I will continue for the next two months on this blog with something called Musings After Mongolia. We will report our mission to the High Council on May 4 and then set a date for a Stake fireside at that time.   


      

Home - at last

Our mission is over. We have been released by our Stake President Hintze. He aked us to report our mission to the High Council on May 4. He said he would like to organize a Stake fireside for us and we will set the date on May 4.

We were able to attend a fast and testimony meeting in our ward on April 13. We both bore our testimonies, Darlene in Mongolian.

It was great to sing the songs of Zion in our own language and to understand everything in a meeting for a change. We enjoyed seeing our old friends again.

Word from Mongolia. What we did miss in Mongolia was Elder and Sister Stewart's farewell party and testimonial. They served well. They went about doing good. They were generous with their time and found creative ways of blessing the lives of others.

Through a charitable philanthropic foundation in Canada, Dr. Stewart arranged for ten choclear implant operations for deaf people in Mongolia.


Nine of the ten are members of the church - one, Elder Oyunsukh, is a fulltme missionary. Manduhai, second from the right on the top row, is our daughter's convert.

All ten came to their final testimony meeting. It must have been something to be there and hear all of them express their appreciation for the life changing gift of hearing they received because of the Stewarts.

Our trip home. We learned that our departing flight had been delayed two hours thus throwing off our connecting flight to Shanghai. We were rerouted to go to L.A. through Tokyo with no Shanghai layover. We arrived in L.A. a day early but our next flight to St. Louis couldn't be moved up.

L.A. wasn't Shanghai but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It was less stressful being in a country where we knew the language.

We also enjoyed thoroughly the relaxing day we had recovering from jet lag and getting some extra sleep. We had our first top of the line Mexican meal across the street from our motel.

Acclimatizing ourselves to the US. Once home we enjoyed the wide array of foods available in the United States, a couple of trips to Costco, driving on the orderly, spacious and predictable roads, and seeing flowering spring trees in full bloom.

Of course our time with our children and grandchildren have been precious. Darlene has been engaged in shopping while I built a challenging puzzle.

I'm helping put in a garden and also clearing honeysuckle trees from the forest behind our daughter's home. The physical activity has been a treat for me.
Looking ahead. Our home is leased until July 1st. we will be staying on our daughter Tassa's home until that date. We will be traveling to Arkansas to spend Easter with our daughter Tally and her family. Two families will also make that journey to Little Rock.

We plan to go back to Arkansas for a visit during May, We are also are planning a trip to see another daughter Tara and her family in North Carolina during June. We will be transporting three grandchildren to North Carolina and then on to Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania to help Tally with her family's move there. 

I also have a ranch consultation scheduled for Northeastern Montana in mid-May. I will try to stop off in Fargo during that journey.

Personal goals.  In the life of Val Gene, "another story must begin." The change from mission life to a life without a schedule or duties is quite the contrast. Lounging around is a treat to be savored. We will be in the swing of things soon enough.

I need some time to get my focus and also to concentrate on grandchildren. As soon as we settle in our home again, I'm sure there will be opportunities for church service again.

After this blog, I will retire, "Musings in Mongolia" and start a new blog, "Musings in Missouri." I plan on turning the blog of our mission into a book - mainly for our family but for others also who want a thorough glimpse into Mongolian life.

"Musings in Mongolia" will remain on the Internet for the indefinite future. I may add some post scripts as I hear news about the mission or its members. 

If any of the readers of this blog were attracted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because of this blog, I would like to hear from you. I've had over 37,000 page views during the past two years from various parts of the world. If you have a story to share, I would love to hear about it. 

The content of the new blog will be advice, perspective and perhaps some conservative political commentary - a little less photography and more thematic content. 

I won't be starting up my regular newspaper column again. My archived writing can be accessed through www.valfarmer.com. The freedom away from those relentless deadlines has be a blessing at this stage of my life.

I will do some part time farm and ranch business consultation to keep my hand in my former profession. Not many people can do what I do in the United States and I am needed.