Marissa's Germany Adventures

Marissa has spent the last month in Germany!! She is 'studying abroad' with BYU. Very cool.

She has spent 4 weeks in Berlin and will now spend another 4 weeks in Tubingen. Above Marissa actually signed the Berlin Wall!!

She sent a letter stating:

Wartburg Castle is my favorite thing I've seen so far on this trip--it wasn't bombed, so nothing is reconstructed, which means it is LEGIT. It was built in the 1100's. Wolfram von Eschenbach, a German writer from the medieval era often played there at the court. I've read the english translation of Parsifal (a traditional knight's tale, Parsival finds the holy grail) written by him, so I thought that was super cool. ALSO! I saw the room Martin Luther translated the bible in. In the 1800s, both Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt held concerts there.

Here are some pictures:

This is the room where Martin Luther translated the Bible.

This picture is a little out of order-- but here Marissa is standing right where Hitler stood during the Nazi Rallies. Wow.

This is the Wartburg Castle. Crazy Cool.

Marissa has posted a lot more pictures on facebook. They are awesome. I so wish she could have packed me in her suitcase. It looks so beautiful. :) We definitely miss her but love that she is having this grand adventure.

Holy Salsa!

Yesterday, thanks to a donation of free tomatoes from a local farm, we made salsa!!

We chopped, simmered, and sealed 51 quarts and 16 pints of SALSA!! Half for us and half for the Hardings!! Lots of sonic diet cokes with lime and a delicious lunch from Sequoia! It was a great (LONG!) successful day.

When you come over, it will be wise to bring a bag of tortilla chips!!

Half Dome

It's been an exciting day for Wagdogz!! Here's Riley on top of Half Dome in Yosemite!! Congratulations Riley!!!

Skydiving

Today Jacquie and Paige went skydiving in Camarillo!! They tandem jumped at 10,000 feet. Here they are signing their lives away....

More pictures to come!

Shopping Fail

Warning:

This post is a little full of skin.....

Today Jacquie, Andrea, and I were at the Gap. The clearance was an additional 40% off!! Both Jacquie and Andrea tried on this little number. Unfortunately they both came out of the dressing room having some problems. I guess criss-cross straps are not for them...

Notice the criss-cross on the front of Jacquie, instead of the back! Fail.

Notice the side-seam down the front of Andrea. Fail.

Sorry they didn't have a t-shirt to try these on with.... Fail again!

With a little help they figured out how to wear the dress properly.

Not attractive on either.... No dress for the girls. But don't worry--- we found some other great, cheap inexpensive stuff. :)

GIrls' Camp 2011

We just got home from Girls' Camp on Saturday! This year was new and exciting as I was moved to be the 3rd year hike leader! (I've been the 2nd year hike leader for 3 years previous.)

That meant that Jim and I were fortunate to be the leaders of Andrea's hike again!!

The coolest thing about the 3rd year hike is that the girls get to repel. It's rather scary-- it's a long way down, but they loved it. (some more than others!)

Jim spent the days on top of the rock making sure that each girl was safe :) We had awesome youth leaders and awesome adult leaders. We learn about being like the North Star, holding to the rod, and most importantly about our Savior, Jesus Christ, and His Atonement.

It was the best. I was honestly surprised at how much I loved this hike!! The girls were all amazing. They learned they could do hard things (along with using a girl-made latrine-- ick)

New blog!

We Wagdog girls have decided to share our cooking skills (or lack of skills if you prefer to be brutally honest!). We have started a new blog!! You can find it here.... Wagdogz Whip It Up!

Hopefully you'll enjoy our recipes!! :)

i left my heart in san francisco

After taking Marissa to the airport the rest of us played in San Francisco for the day. We went to Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Andrea found a hot sailor!

cute couple :)

Jim and I overlooking the Bay and the City.... Or should I say the City by the Bay??

Riles and Andee :D

The beautiful Golden Gate Bridge

Andee and me.... the boys rode their bikes over the bridge, while we 'satchel' girls shopped in the gift shop and drove over the bridge!

Jim, Riley, and Andrea before the bike ride.

The boys and their bikes :)

Berlin, Germany!

Grandpa, Marissa, and Grandma

The suitcase can only way 44 pounds!!! Yikes!!!

On Friday, June 30th, we took Marissa here!! The San Francisco International Airport. (It is a pretty sweet airport!!) She boarded her plane (the new Airbus 380 on Lufthansa!) and left for BERLIN, GERMANY!

No, she isn't going merely to watch the women's world cup... She's actually on a Study Abroad with BYU. She will be there for 8 weeks! We hope to see lots of cools pictures and she hopes to become much more fluent in German! A very cool opportunity indeed.

Leaving the American River

The river was rising fast and we needed to head to our next destination... Andrea celebrates that we get to go to Taco Bell :)

The gold panners! Note Riley's full pan! He will search for gold in this 'found' dirt.

Riley kept 'what he found' :) We did find some gold flakes. Panning for gold is quite fun. I think we could have stayed and done it for hours! A nice float down the American River would have been fun too!

He didn't find a big nugget, but I think he had fun.

bored girls...

the girls did get some short turns with the panning... I think they had more fun with the camera :) Enjoy!

vacationing with these girls is fun!

GOLD!

Great photo by Andrea!

Riley.... searching, digging, trying to find his fortune!

Jim is sure he's going to find a big nugget!

Good thing I learned how to capture the gold flakes at our 49'er day at school :D

"in the jungle... the mighty jungle..." ;)