Oklah-who?

As always, it's been a long time and a lot of things have transpired since we last updated you on our lives. So, here are a few major things:

I graduated with my Bachelors in Sociology!! My family was there the whole week before to help us pack and get ready for our big trek to Oklahoma! I don't know what we would have done without them! My dad had a gastric bypass in January, so if you don't recognize him, don't feel bad. He'd lost almost 100 pounds by the time we got to see him in July. He's officially down 130 pounds now and feeling incredible! His life has finally begun, is his new favorite saying. Not wanting to be bigger than her husband, my mom has also slimmed down almost 50 pounds, the natural way. So, go family! I'm so proud of their hard work!

I can't remember who pointed this out to us, but we thought this was so funny! It's eVan's moving truck!


This is my ultra artsy picture depicting the beautiful trip we had over the mountains and through the plains!

Bridge 0.000 meant that we were just an 1 and 1/2 away from Stillwater!

And we made it! It was a very, very long trip and we were so glad when we saw the light at the end of the tunnel... and then we opened the back of the truck and realized that we were no where close to being done with moving!!


Overwhelmed is definitely a great word to describe how we felt. But, school was three weeks away and I didn't have a job yet, so we pumped things out and now our apartment looks great! We still have those lingering boxes that may just never get unpacked :)

Another big event that we celebrated was our 1 year anniversary, August 16th! Can you believe time has passed so quickly? I know many of you are reading this and thinking back on your 1 years... I know, I know... Evan and I have a long way to go :) We'll looking forward to every step and bump that's along out journey together! So! To celebrate, we got back in the car and took a trip down memory lane, visiting Evan's old mission territory: Arkansas!

This is Evan's big grin outside of the Mean Pig BBQ, our first stop :) He refuses to eat pulled pork anywhere else. Now I understand why!To those of you who picked Evan up from his mission, this may be a trip down memory lane for you too. He also took me to the old mill that was apart of the movie "Gone with the Wind". It was absolutely picturesque!

I took most of the pictures while Evan played by the turtle pond! He was trying to reach through the water to get one "this little" (see photo above) but we were both afraid that he was going to get his hand bit off by the huge guys waiting protectively under the steps for stupid tourists :)

We traveled around the city more, checking out the capital building and the Clinton library/ museum. However, we were tuckered out after all that driving and decided to call it a night.

Now in keeping with some promises he made me, Evan surprised me and we went camping instead of staying in a hotel! I know, who wants to spend there anniversary in a tent... well... me. So, thankfully I have a wonderful husband who's willing to make compromises... you guys raised him right :)


For some reason we decided it would be an excellent idea to get up as soon as possible and hike up a mountain... It was absolutely spectacular with the morning's light. It was also extremely challenging and exciting to push ourselves up such a great obstacle. Perhaps it was even very symbolic hike for us.

Maybe not so healthy and symbolic is what we decided to have for breakfast after our hike... We decided to eat at Waffle House! If you haven't heard Jim Gaffigan's comedic sketch about it, please check it out asap. It definitely proved to be an adventure :) And the adventures weren't stopping there, the whole day was incredible!

Our next step was an alligator farm/ petting zoo. Yeah... yeah... it was just absolutely and wonderfully backwoods! It is home to over 200 alligators.

These little guys reminded me of some crazy alien movie... it was just creepy/ cool looking. There were, what seemed like, hundreds of them in a glowing, murky pool of, what I'm guessing is just, water. The larger alligators looked like animatronics, truly bizarre.

Of course we had to spend some quality time with the massive turtles they had at the end of the tour. These are big loggerhead turtles and can grow to be 800 pounds and almost 4 feet long!

Next we visited a huge horse racing track. I'd never seen/ been to one before. The track was closed, but the betting floor was open. It was just incredible to see so many people there. Definitely a cool thing to experience, if you ever get the chance.

Our last stop was in Hot Springs, AK. There is literally a street lined with old bath houses that are supplied by natural hot springs. We spontaneously decided that after a hike up the mountain and a day of fun we needed a bath! So, we got some swim suits, found one that was still in operation, and took a dip. It was such a cool experience! Especially thinking about the period of time in which they were the political and social centers of that community. Again, if you ever get the chance, please don't pass it up.

As always, the sun set on a splendid day and we were home again home again jiggity-jig. Hold on tight readers, I'm just about done... I promise!

Here's Evan showing off on his first day of school. He wanted to look super cool and fit in. He pulls it off, yeah? Random fact: not only do the students wear bright orange almost every day of the week, so does everyone else in Stillwater! If you come visit, make sure you only pack ultra-bright orange shirts :)

And here I am ready for a wonderful day at my first real 8-5! I'm a secretary for a non-profit that helps handicapped adults find jobs in the community. If they aren't able to work in the community then they do simple projects on site. Its not super challenging, but it's a really good foot in the door, as my goal is to be the director of a non-profit (preferably the United Way).

Besides school and work we spend most of our time with some new friends: Steven, Natasha, their 18 month old Elliot, and unborn son Malcolm (who's coming any day now!). They moved here from Rexburg just six months before us. Out ward is fantastic! We've already babysat for a family with five kids, I've given a talk, and Evan's taught Sunday school. I also have a calling, I'm the primary teacher for the 9 year old's. I never realized how many plain and simple truths have slipped from my mind, so I'm really looking forward to going over them with my class.

Or we can be found supporting the greatest football team ever! GO COWBOYS! We went to the opening game and saw T. Boone Pickens in the flesh! The stadium, named for its biggest donor, holds 60,000 people and is very state of the art.

We're having just a great time here and look forward to seeing all of our Bagley family members during the Thanksgiving season!

Celebrating the Exemplary

We haven't explained what we got to do for Father's Day weekend yet, sorry if you've just been on edge waiting for these pictures! We went to Yellowstone for free National Parks weekend and it was incredible!

We definitely saw some amazing geyser action! We were just too late for Old Faithful, but we'd both seen her and decided to go hiking around some other geysers instead. They still showed us a good time.

On our first day we drove all the way though the park and headed up to Bear Tooth Pass: 10,950 feet. We climbed the rest of the way: 11,000 feet. It was freezing! Evan and I had a quick discussion of the beautiful glacial features. I love geology!!

We also went to see a fault scarp caused by a massive earthquake in 1959. We did some exploring because the area is just so beautiful. If you take the mountain out, I feel like its a picture of Minnesota :)

Naturally there were buffalo close to and all over the road. It was an awesome adventure. We had so much fun that we decided to stay all weekend. It was very romantic!


After a quick reboot, we headed to Tri-cities. We saw this hot air balloon on the way there and it reminded us of the most amazing movie in the whole world: UP! I suggest it to anyone :)


Sorry for showing some skin, but everyone talked about how amazing the slip and slide was... we wanted to show the true side of the slip and slide, the untold story. It is not exaggerated, this is really how bad it was! Crazy, but Evan says it was worth the pain. I believe it, I wish I could have captured his face after getting up!


We definitely loved the fireworks show and enjoyed being surrounded by all of our loved ones!


The grand finale! Freedom is a great blessing in all of our lives. We are free to express ourselves: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. "We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun." -William Glasser. Thanks for giving us all of them this weekend!

We are also free to graduate from college! I'll be getting my Bachelors of Science in Sociology on July 23rd. It will be great to be free from school :) This was at the grad night event, I mostly took it to show off the new skirt I made, what do you think?

We love you guys! Thanks for such an awesome weekend! We miss the pool... I mean you... already and hope that you have fun at the family reunion this weekend!

10 out of 11 Days: Rain

Our lives have been jammed pack with stuff since our last blog in February! Here are as many highlights as possible without making this a dissertation:


We'll start things off on a more spiritual note. As is tradition in church, we'll play a game:) Eye-spy? This is of Evan practicing as his group sang for the weekly devotional before we headed off to Utah for the big production.


We were so lucky to have my brother Zak, his wife Crystal, and baby Beau join us for the adventure. They brought Crystal's parents out so they could experience General Conference in Utah for the first time. This picture is of us in front of the Provo temple. It's where both groups of parents were sealed for time and all eternity.


Here's a neat picture of the guys just getting off the train after Evan sang in the Priesthood session. They all enjoyed the experience so much!


Continuing out little Eye-spy game, can you tell who this is?


It's our wonderful Prophet! We got tickets for the Sunday morning session also, thank you so much Rachel! It's such a sweet experience to be in the conference center during General Conference.


I thought this was a neat picture, you can see how many people were there. Each terrace was packed full!


Here's us at the temple where Evan's parents were sealed. Afterwards we walked around Temple Square for a little bit and then headed on our way home... a short but very, very sweet weekend.


We made it home but were there only long enough to repack and head down to SLC again to get on a plane to San Diego!


Evan had to hold going to the bathroom until we made it to Salt Lake. He couldn't hold it long enough to get to the airport though:) He had to find a secret spot in the middle of the huge parking lot to relieve himself!


We got to San Diego, checked out our hostel, and walked directly to Petco park to watch a ball game. I will be the first to let you know that it was not the most riveting adventure, but it now I can say I've seen a Major League game...


We didn't get to go inside the temple but we spent a really beautiful evening with our group walking around and taking fun pictures outside of it. It is absolutely as beautiful as everyone said it was going to be!


Our group broke up one day and played tourists. Some went to the zoo, some to sea world, our group went and toured the old missions, drove down to the border, and visited the beach one last time. It was a lot of fun!


I said we drove to the border, this was as close as we got:) We were freaking out that we would have to go through border patrol without passports and that we would get in trouble... that was until we saw our saving grace :)

Our next stop in California was to stay with my old roommate in L.A. It's really too bad that she lives there because we had to visit Disneyland while we were there!

Before we hit the rides, we had to fuel ourselves. It was Evan's first time to IN-N-OUT, he liked it, but didn't love it. We'll have to keep going until I can get him addicted too :)

We made it! This was my first time to Disneyland and boy was I excited!

I didn't know standing in line for the rides was going to be as exciting as the rides themselves! We went on every big ride the park offered! We decided to enjoy it and do it however we wanted before we have kids to help us decide how we get to vacation. To chill out from running around we ate at the Blue Bayou, it was so romantic!


I was so happy to spend so much time with my knight and shining armor. We had an awesome trip!


I didn't think I meant that kind of trip... At the end of the day it was an overload and we headed back and crashed for the night.

Our first adventure back was to relive memories from the mission, Evan wanted to make deep fried Twinkies!

Step one: skewer the Twinkies, while wrapped, with a durable stick. Keep them in the freezer until you deep fry them.

Step two: dip the Twinkie in batter. We used a funnel cake dipping recipe.

Step three: fry it up!

Step four: douse with a healthy amount of powdered sugar.

Step five: enjoy and laugh at those who dare try and eat them:)

Our friends are all at points in their lives where they are moving forward and away from Rexburg. We spent time with them before we all headed out. You know most of the couples: the Dominoes, the Becks, the Forts, and, of course, the Bagleys:


Here we are for our last ladies night at the Dominoes.


We had a BBQ for the Fort's before they left. Here are the boys being goofy :)



Last and most recently, Evan took me camping at Crater's of the Moon. This is the only picture we have from that trip as our camera was not charged :(

Thank you for spending your whole afternoon reading our long update. We hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoyed making the memories! We love and miss all of you. For family members, we can't wait to see you on the 4th of July!