Evan's Thesis, etc...

Evan is working on his master's thesis. By working, I mean physically preparing sections of a core for analysis. I wanted to learn a little bit more about what he did, so I went straight to the source - off to the Hazardous Reaction Laboratory (HRL):














My turn? :)

Did I mention we also have a celebrity in our midst?


Recently Evan received a grant to help fund his thesis. Can you find his name among the large list of recipients? We are so grateful to be a part of such a giving community and can't wait until we get to pay it forward to a well deserving student. Thank you so much Herbert and Shirley Davis!

We also had a ward picnic this weekend, it was incredible! It was in Perry, OK at CCC Lake - which was equally as nasty as the other clay based lakes around here :) But we made it a good time.








Evan gave guided pointing tours for everyone in search of sun-bathing turtles.

Recently we had a youth temple trip. We had 3 newbies, 2 were our newly converted YW.


As intense as working with young women can be, the rewards are untouchable! I can't begin to express the emotions that come from seeing the smile on a girl's face as she holds a new set of scriptures and be told they're hers to pour over, or the smile she has after coming up out of the waters of baptism. It's totally worth every effort.

Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the gratitude I have for the mothers and other women that have given me and Evan life. Thank you for your long-suffering and cheers of encouragement!





And that's just the first week of May! I hope many more good things are to come :) Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

Peace out - E & LB

Branson MO

We have been very busy and needed a mini-vacation. Evan planned it all, leaving most of it a surprise. It was very sweet and he did a fabulous job! Please enjoy the photos:


Using Travel channel's suggestion, we started our trip at Woody's, they serve wood-fire baked pizza; my favorite food. The restaurant is tiny but you get to see the wood-fire stove cook your meal! On to Branson -





A romantic cabin for two in the heart of downtown. It was so relaxing and gave us a sense of being back up North... we both miss it so much!

The next morning we drove around and did some shopping. These photos are some of our best finds:








That last one is my favorite! I laughed until I cried watching Evan squeeze his head into that!


We took the trolley around town, thanks for the great ride Ron! Some of the following are sites from the city:








But no trip is complete without taking a closer look at where we really were, or what was underneath out feet:








Oops... :) Evan wants a badge that says, "but I'm a geologist!"

But we couldn't play around for too long because we had reservations for dinner...


... on a train! It was a beautiful hour long trip through the Ozark's:









It was a really great adventure and delicious dinner!

Our time in Branson was up, so the next morning we headed home. We took the slow, scenic route, with a freaking awesome pit stop:


Down we went, deep into the earth!





Bacon!















Then back to the surface we went - home again, home again, jiggity, jig!


We needed the break and it was perfect! Evan did just a phenomenal job planning the trip :) Oh, and...


... Happy Easter to all!

Racing to the Catfish

The rest of the story:

We had a great turn out for SNB's 5K for the United Way; 30+ showed up in support of this awesome event.


I was so grateful for the warm, sunny morning! It was pretty windy, but that didn't stop us from doing our thing. The best time was 22.51! That individual got to the finish line, slowed to a walk, and then took off again. He went around twice! I was highly impressed.


I didn't participate in the actual
event, instead I was stationed at the start and finish line while Evan and his friend Nate took care of the mid-way point. I was happy to hear that many runners at the lake that morning appreciated the cups of water they set out. An impromptu service project, you could say :)

The saying goes that you should have balance in all things. This definitely applies to our evening, after the race. A catfish eating competition!


There is this great dive between here and OKC that's famous for it's Catfish challenge. It's even been on Man v Food! So, we got together a big group of friends to say "bring it on Adam Richman!"


His record was 29 fillets. We had 6 guys that all believed they could beat that measly record... Things seemed so easy with an empty stomach :)


More catfish please! We ended up with 3 big competitors: Big Nate Mitchell won with 30 fillets, Carson got to 27, and your very own Evan Bagley got to 25 1/2! We had a blast :)


Nate and Carson reached stardom and made it on the white board - for now... But I think Nate said it best, "I'm not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed"! I know it'll be a fond memory for a long time. Please check out the video on Facebook, it truly embodies the moment.


Hope you are all well and enjoying this spring season!

Charity Never Faileth... to be a Rockin Good Time!

Team Rockin Rollers at Bowl for Kids' Sake:


We may not have been the best bowlers, but we were the cutest! We went for a '50's theme: poodles, bobby socks, scarves tied around our necks, and fun hair styles. I tried to rock a modern Elvis-like do. It ended up looking a little Snooky-ish, but it's the spirit of it, right?



We raised over $8,500! All of the money will go to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Payne county. They pair up children from broken homes with mentors in the community. This pairing leads to less alcohol consumption and drug use and raises school attendance for the kids involved. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to participate in planning this incredible event! It was a huge success :)

Where are they now?

*Yawn and stretch* We've finally woken from our winter hibernation, just in time for spring :) Instead of doing a "wrap up" I'll give you the "where are they now?" update:



Evan is just finishing up his last semester of classes in his Master's program, here at OSU (go Pokes!). He is still working on his thesis, Geo-Chemical Properties of Atokan Rocks of Kansas and Oklahoma. Hopefully he'll be defending this summer or into early fall. From there? Take that question mark away because we have made a decision! He'll stay on for a Phd in Geology, of course. The department is amazing, our ward and friends are incredible, and Lacey's job is picking up speed. Speaking of ward, he's the Elder's Quorum President. They just put on the annual talent show and it was a huge success! He really feels like he's finally found his footing and is starting to really enjoy the calling :)



Lacey is rockin it in the free world :) My job is amazing! The day to day stuff had stayed the same, I'm just learning so much about banking! Fascinating stuff I tell you. I was suggested to be a director in the SNB Club and definitely took the opportunity; I'm having a lot of fun with it. We spread the love by working with the charity groups in the area. I'm on the Big Brother Big Sisters Bowl for Kids' Sake and the United Way committees. I'm also supporting the Relay for Life group by joining their team. I've been using my graphic design knowledge to design the t-shirts for these events and the Special Olympics group. It's crazy to think that I wanted to get my sociology degree to work with non-profits and though my job at a bank, I get too! I'm still in the YW Presidency as the second counselor. We're prepping for camp, wahoo! I can say that because we have an awesome camp director this year that is helping us out so much! We had our annual bake sale (in conjunction with the Elder's Quorum talent show) last night and raised over $500! With 7 girls going to camp this year, that puts us well over the half way mark.



We have decided that since we are staying in Stillwater, we'd like to settle in to a duplex. We've got our eye on one and are just waiting for a call back from the owner, I'm terrible at being patient about these things... Our lease is up at the end of next month, so we really need to hear something from him soon or we'll have to go hunting again :(



We love and miss you all so much. We look forward to seeing your smiling faces soon as we're planning a trip to Washington sometime this summer!

Peace be the journey -