Warbird Museum

On Memorial Day we traveled to Titusville with the Hills to see the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum. "In the late 70s, some friends, who shared a passion for aviation and its beginnings, had a vision of a permanent home for vintage warplanes and memorabilia associated with them...anything to do with the growth, history, and culture of aviation from WWI to now. The museum displays, maintains and restores all types of aircraft that were indigenous to the world's military Air Forces starting before World War I to the present." It was a fun (and patriotic) way to spend Memorial Day! Free admission for active or retired military and Florida residents. Can't beat that!!

A chat with the biplane pilot who happened to be LDS.




Blue Angels



A WACO Biplane ride was not in our budget!

 


F-86F Sabre

1941 Dodge Staff Car

1954 U.S. Army Ambulance

 





Oh Happy Day!

After three years of hard work and, yes, "blood, sweat, and tears", Patrick graduated from Stetson University College of Law on Saturday, May 12th. Doug and Frank both flew into Orlando on Thursday and we showed them the ranch, including an air boat ride, on Friday before heading for St. Pete. The graduation was at 9 A.M. so we were up and out early on Saturday. We were thankful for a clear sunny day because it was held outside in the Plaza Mayor Courtyard, a large patio area. When they have to move indoors for rainy weather, the graduates are restricted to three guests! We had great seats in the shade because Doug and Frank went early with Pat and saved seats. The music for the processional and recessional was provided by the City of Dunedin Pipe Band, i.e. bagpipes!! It was so neat. The commencement address was very good and inspirational. Lt. Commander Nieva M.S. Brock Pat was awarded a JD/MBA dual-degree. By 10:30 A.M. it was over except for the picture-taking and celebrating! Then we all headed to lunch at the Red Mesa Mexican Restaurant. In addition to our family, Heather's parents, John and Debbie Dickson, and her sister, Laura McClain and son Bayer, attended the graduation and luncheon.

It surely was nice of Stetson to schedule graduation on the same weekend as Mother's Day! Can't remember the last time all our sons were with us on Mother's Day. It was really a special day for me! A big THANK YOU to my daughters-in-law, Tara and Dawna, for encouraging their husbands to make this trip. After church and lunch, it was back on the road to the Orlando airport to drop off Doug and Frank before heading back to the ranch.

Wonderful weekend! Congratulations Pat! Now it's more studying for the Bar Exam in July before joining the Alvarez Law Group in Tampa.



This diploma belongs to Heather & the kids too!




Way to go Pat!




Mom's Favorite Picture



Wrapping Up April

We celebrated Easter by attending an Easter Egg Hunt for the ranch children at Bishop Campbell's home on Saturday April 7th. (Sorry, no pictures!) Easter Sunday began with attending church to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and partake of the sacrament to renew our baptismal covenants to always remember Him and keep His commandments. In the afternoon, we had dinner with the other missionary couples on the porch of the Carroll House. (We eat together on the 2nd and 4th Sundays.)

Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave an excellent talk about the Savior at the October Conference: What think ye of Christ?

On April 19th we went to Epcot with the Mannings for the Flower and Garden Festival that they have each year from mid-March to the end of May. Elder Kennedy "murmured" some because he's not fond of amusement parks, but he was a real trooper and we praised him for that. The landscaping in the park was beautiful! We had some rain in the afternoon, but we donned our plastic ponchos and carried on. We had lunch in a pub in the United Kingdom section of the World Showcase. The Mannings met when they both were serving missions in England. The Fish 'n Chips were yummy! We  called it a day several hours before the fireworks at 9 PM, but it was still a great day. 









An English telephone booth outside the pub.



Topiary outside a butterfly garden.

Beauty and the Beast?

Bambi

Peter Pan

Toy Story

Mickey and Minnie

Winnie the Pooh

Mater from Cars (for Ethan & Grayson!)

Lady and the Tramp

The Mannings



Marking & Branding

Marking and branding of the new calves has been in full swing this month. Bishop Jim Campbell, who is the foreman on Unit 11, invited us to his unit to see how it is done. One morning right after devotional, Elder Zeek and the Kennedys plowed through the early morning fog to Unit 11. They were working with male calves that morning. The calves were already separated from their mothers when we got there. Each calf came through a shute into a metal head-lock which keeps them almost immobile and allows the cowboys to flip the calf on his side for castration. In about 1 minute, a cowboy cut off the tip of the right ear, dewormed, vaccinated, and  attached a "DCC 12" tag to designate the year of birth while the other two cowboys did the castrating and branding. Before the calf  knew what was happening, it was over!



The Head-Lock



Vaccinating



Castrating



This 'n That

Our new missionary couple, who are replacing the Morgans, has arrived. John and Pua Zeek are from Hawaii. John has a plumbing company which their son is running while they are away. The Zeeks have 4 children and 17 grandchildren. They also brought "Kioni", one of their dogs, with them. They will be here for a year, but they are already talking about extending their mission for an addtional 11 months.





Elder & Sister Zeek





Just before the Zeeks came, the missionaries were invited to the South end of the ranch where they are clearing land for more pastures. We all got rides on the CAT "Challenger" which is a monster machine! It definitely gave us a feel for "a day in the life of heavy equipment operators" on the ranch. Running over trees is FUN!!



I think we'll keep our jobs as missionaries!!
(I am in white cap with CK in blue shirt)




Elder Kennedy gets his ride.





Ranch Rodeo

The Deseret Ranch Rodeo was held on Friday, March 16th. This is an annual event that they have been doing for 62 years!! We had been looking forward to this because we had just missed it when we arrived on April 1st last year. The rodeo is put on by the cowboys on the ranch and all proceeds are donated to the Central Florida chapter of Boy Scouts of America. Admission is an affordable $5 with children 6 and under FREE! A BBQ dinner including drink could be purchased for $6 with a corn dog dinner for $4. Additional drinks, popcorn, and candy sold for $1. T shirts and caps were also sold. Many calls came into the Carroll House for weeks before the rodeo for information about this very popular event!

The day of the rodeo the elders were busy cleaning up the rodeo grounds. Actually, seems like they were doing things related to the rodeo all week! The sisters not assigned to tours helped package the food in single serving portions. We did a tour in the morning and a BIG tour (with mostly Kennedy guests from the Tampa Bay area) in the late afternoon. We later found out we could/should have closed the visitors center in the afternoon! The Kennedys also were invited to the youth camp for lunch because the Ft. Lauderdale Stake Young Women had been camping there all week. We enjoyed that!

Our guests for the rodeo: Patrick's family, Bill & Ann Edwards, Roger & Jan Edwards, John & Debbie Dickson (Pat's in-laws), Lance, Nancy , & John Clark (friends of Pat & Heather), Lee & Marlene Robinson (Nancy Clark's parents), Jim & Jan Hunt (friends from St. Pete), and the Ben & Carlie Welling family including Carlie's stepfather Jesse. What fun!! Pat & Heather and the Clarks even camped out on the Carroll House lawn Friday night before returning home on Saturday. It took us a few days to recover which was a not-so-subtle reminder of our advancing age!

The day after the rodeo, a Jacksonville woman who attended our rodeo commented that she had been to many rodeos throughout her life and our rodeo was the most enjoyable. Why? "because it was so clean, i.e. no drinking, no smoking, no profanity, no smokeless tobacco, very family-oriented." We even had an opening prayer! We look forward to attending the rodeo next year with some friends who could not make it this year.

A big THANK YOU to Renee Jacobsen for sharing her rodeo pictures! Check out her website:
http://www.reneejacobsenphotography.com 

 

Children from the ranch sang
the Star Spangled Banner.
(Adalyn, Kaylie, and Cora)

  



Foreman Jim Campbell (also our bishop) worked with the 28 ranch children participating in the Drill Team twice a week for 2 1/2 months.

   




Tyler Wall, age 5, youngest Drill Team member

    


















Rodeo Drill Team

Cowboys were divided into 7 teams.
This is "Teal" team.



Saddle Bronc

Roping



Branding



 Mutton Bustin' for the kids.

Kids love the Pig Scramble!

Hailey Wall (7) in the Jr. Barrel Race.

 Lil" Buckaroo

Future Cowboys

  

 





 





Wanderings

Good news!! February has been the first month since last May that we have not had to return to the Tampa Bay area for doctors appointments!! The other missionaries serving with us usually take day trips on their P-Day to see the Florida sights. (In case you aren't familiar with missionary jargon, "P" stand for "preparation" and is intended to give missionaries a day off to shop, clean, wash, etc. The young missionaries need this more than we do, but we get a P-Day anyway. We are off most Saturdays as well, which they are not.) So the Kennedys decided to follow their example because we have not seen many of the places they talk about!

Our first adventure was on January 26th to St. Augustine. We had a leisurely breakfast in Melbourne and a beautiful drive up the coast on Hwy 1. It was a beautiful day and, because it was a Thursday, traffic wasn't bad. We arrived in St. Augustine in the early afternoon, had lunch in a French bakery (Denoel French Pastry Shop), and spent several hours exploring Castillo De San Marcos National Monument. By late afternoon, we were getting weary, so we hopped on I-95 South and headed home. We know there's much more to see there, but it's a start! Our 44th wedding anniversary was on the 27th so this was a trip to celebrate that as well.



It was windy!!




Castillo De San Marcos



On February 2nd we hit the road again to go to Archer (near Gainesville) to see Sue's brother Roger's place there. We have been there before, when it was a work in progress, but we wanted to see the results of his and wife Jan's hard work. At Ocala we left I-75 for SR 27 winding through the countryside and past many horse farms. Beautiful drive! We met them for lunch in Newberry and then spent several hours at their place.

The property is on an air strip so, of course, a hangar for Rog's airplane was built early on. Eventually he put a 28x60 manufactured home there also. There was a barn on the property when  they bought it, but it needed LOTS of work. We always love the time we spend with Rog and Jan so it was another great trip!



The hangar with Roger & his latest plane.




The house.




The barn where they work on their many projects!




Pretty property!



This week we went to Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, which is near I-4 between Orlando and Daytona. This is where the Manatees "winter" when the St. Johns River gets too cold for them. Again we had an ideal day: not too hot, not too cold. (We have had a very mild Winter so far this year.) We strolled along "a 1/3 mile boardwalk that follows the flowing Blue Spring run through a shady hardwood hammock" watching the Manatees, alligators, and other wildlife, toured the historical Thursby House built in 1872, and took a nature cruise on the St. Johns River. The St. Johns River is a 300 mile river that flows North and eventually flows into the Atlantic North of Jacksonville. This river flows past the East side of Deseret Ranch.



Thursby House




3 dark spots in center are Mantees




Our nature cruise boat.




Saw lots of gators!




And lots of birds! This is a Limpkin.



Friday the 17th was Rodeo Day in Osceola County. This is a ranch holiday. Whoopee! The Osceola County Fair was held in conjunction with the rodeo. We went to the fair for a couple of hours,but did not stay for the rodeo. It was a rainy day and by evening we were dragging.  Maybe next year we'll go to the rodeo because we later found out it was in an indoor arena. We did see some steers that boys on the ranch raised for 4H.



4H steers raised by Isaac & Jennings Genho.




Steers raised by Jason & Tanner Campbell.

 Conference Quote:

"In my life I have learned that sometimes I do not receive an answer to a prayer because the Lord knows I am not ready. When He does answer, it is often 'here a littleand there a little' because that is all that I can bear or all I am willing to do."  

Elder Robert D. Hales, "Waiting Upon The Lord: Thy Will Be Done", Ensign, November, 2011, p.73.