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 -

Geology in the Fall

Hi everyone! Your pictures of Thanksgiving were incredible! We poured over each one just laughing out heads off, ooing and awing at how big the grand kids are, and were very bummed we could be there. We're glad y'all had fun :)

Here are some updates on our life here in Cowboy country:

At work I've had some awesome opportunities to donate either money or time to the community. For the Thanksgiving season Stillwater does a huge food drive called "Harvest". As a bank we were able to donate over 5,000 lbs! Here is the warehouse were we boxed the cans up to be distributed to local food shelves:



I've mentioned my new hair cut a million times on facebook, so I thought I'd include a picture of Evan getting his hair cut at my favorite new salon: Hello Gorgeous! The gals are just young and fun - you can tell by the leopard print apron:



Our friend's, the McDaniels, visited from Colorado. They surprised us with the announcement that they were going to have a baby! So, Elisa and Tolu surprised them with a baby shower! We had a blast and were so grateful to show them how much they meant to us:



I can't talk about the Fall without bringing up Harry Potter! I was so excited to see this new movie and, like everyone else, wishes that the second half was here already! In some ways it will be nice to have that series done already :) I think the craziest part has been learning that some of my young women weren't even born when the first one came out! I'm not even that old, right?



I hope y'all take the opportunity to scan through all of the pictures from our trip to Arkansas on facebook. We were able to go down for just a day, but it was perfect and we found some incredible specimens:







There are very rare times that I have seen him as happy as he is when we are out checking out rocks.

This is a picture of the most recent slumber party. It was so much fun! We ordered in Chinese food, played Kinect and Wii, watched Elf, and had junk food galore! Those girls are teaching me so much, especially how to have fun and laugh until I cry!



Well as we wrap up this blog, I just wanted to show you a fun project I did at work. I made some "windows" out of construction paper and we're having a department wide snowflake making contest! I mean... we work really, really hard :) I've got incredible bosses that allow me to really explore and be creative within the perimeters of my job and I appreciate that a lot!



I hope the rest of the holiday season treats you well! As always, we miss and love you guys and are so grateful for your continued support as we make our way through this "going to school" period in our little family life, following in some big foot steps. Wishing you well,

Evan and Lacey

Octo-update!

I guess we'll tell you about our lives. We are having some awesome adventures here in Oklahoma. Just between work life/ school life and church we are continually on the move or hosting activities at our place. Speaking of church, Evan just got called to be the Elder's Quorum President, so just when I thought we were busy :)


I love working with the Young Women. They continually keep me on my toes and are full of surprises that just blow you out of the water when you least expect it. It's been especially wonderful working with the Sister missionaries to bring Jordan into the church. It's been only a couple weeks since her baptism and she's already bringing her boyfriend to church and he's asked to take the discussions. I love how you might seem like missionary work can be impossible, but you just have to find the right person and a whole flood of people will follow!

We've (Evan) been carving pumpkins like crazy (2). Our first one we did for a Young Married Adult FHE activity and the second one is for a charity auction that I'm having at work. What do you think?

Last, but definitely not least, we've got a new nephew! Renaud Edward Smith (pronounced: Ren-o) was born October 8th. Both Mom and baby are doing great! Crystal said she was ready to get out of the hospital and on with life! That makes 24 total nieces and nephews for us (22 Bagleys and 2 Smiths).

As always-keep on rockin' in the free world!

Oh, and Happy Halloween!