T Swift!

On Friday when I came home from work Jim and I made a crazy decision... We went online and found a couple of nosebleed nice seats at the Taylor Swift Concert in LA.  Many months back Jim and Andrea took a little trip to Yosemite. They listened to Taylor Swift's cd the whole time-- so they Jim has been talking about it for months.  We decided that it would be great fun to go so we snatched bought the tickets, invited Morgan, and off we left on Saturday afternoon.  Above you see the girls, Andrea and Morgan just before we headed into the home of the LA Lakers Staples Center!

Not the best picture of Taylor, but Jim and Andrea look great and are super excited!!

Of course you have to get the t-shirts!! :)

These girls were rocking the party!  Taylor gave a great concert. She sang for 2 1/2 hours!! It was a great show.

Oh yes, Jim bought us each an ice cream cone! :)  They were so good!

One more picture of these adorable ladies! It seems like only yesterday they were in preschool together!! Now they're in high school!! (not together unfortunately....)

Thanks Jim for a great trip (even though we ended up on the wrong side of the freeway once... boy was that an eye-opener!) we girls had a great time!

Celebration Time...

 Ella was pretty excited when she heard that Marissa will be be back in the USA yesterday!

She was so excited she jumped up and caught a bird!!

 She is quite the bird catcher!

silly dog. Marissa doesn't like birds! Nor is she coming to California any time soon :*(

We are still glad that she's back in Utah. :)

Creativity

No sense in wasting paper at the Wagdogz household. When you need to write something down, Jim just grabs the nearest thing....

Perhaps he has crossed a line here!

Three Amigos

 Although Young Men's Camp has been over for a few weeks... I just saw some of the pictures!! They went to Yosemite and climbed Half Dome!  A very cool trip indeed.

Here are the 3 Amigos. Where you find one, you will most likely find the other 2! Riley, Jack, and Conner.  I once heard them referred to as the smart one, the strong one, and the funny one.  LOL!

 They carried these glass bottles of soda up to the top of Half Dome. Way to be unique ;)

You don't see a picture like this every day!

 They are fortunate to have good friends :)

If only Conner could be a G-Hawk too :(

 They do most things together.  It's the way they prefer it.

 Sweet.

 I have no idea what they are doing here.... but they are together like usual.

They had a great time.  Thank you to their great leaders.... they loved it!

High School

Here are our high schoolers!! A cute freshman and a cute sophomore!! Off for the first day of school and seminary. :)

Exciting Phone Call

So, on Wednesday morning Andrea and I were just eating our cereal for breakfast. (Be proud because we had just gotten back from the gym!!) We thought it was going to be just an ordinary Wednesday....

We were SO wrong!

Then the phone rang!  Typically when the house phone rings I have suicidal or psychopathic anger feelings.  We got new phones awhile back and Riley thought it would be funny to change each phone to ring differently.  I have found no such humor in this stunt.  I should change them to something else... but honestly I forget about  it until the phone rings.  UGH!

Anyway, back to the story.... 

the phone rings. Andrea answers. The call is for Marissa. (strange-- we don't usually get calls for Marissa)  This is a problem because Marissa is a little hard to get a hold of via telephone right now!! (for you late bloomers... she's currently in Germany.)  And I know, our kids appear to be world travelers currently.  I've got to be a college student again so that I can travel the world.....

Anyway, back to the story....

So Andrea is trying to tell the lady on the phone that Marissa isn't here. She puts it on speaker which allowed both of us to be somewhat confused. This lady knows some information on Marissa-- you know, like log in stuff for the school website.  Kinda crazy. I take over the conversation at this point to explain that she is out of the country and you can't call her.  Then the nice lady says... "Well. I'm just calling to inform her that she won a Dell Mini Netbook."

"WHAT?"  I exclaim! "Are you kidding?"

She wasn't. Marissa completed a task online on the BYU site which automatically entered her into a contest and SHE WON!!  How cool is that???  I said this is a great start to the day!!  Pretty cool yes?

I had no idea that my day would get even better-- we got some incredibly great news at school about the state testing results! I won't bore you with that... it's mostly something that teachers go crazy about.  It was so exciting and so great that a few people at work cried-- if that gives you any indication about how good it was!! (I didn't cry... I was just really happy fyi)

So.... a great day!! Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Jacquie's Grand Adventure!

 Jacquie left California on Tuesday :(

We miss her terribly, BUT we are so excited for her new adventure!!  Jacquie now lives in the lovely state of FLORIDA!!

She is going to work here.... Disney's Animal Kingdom at DISNEYWORLD!!

Crazy cool right??  If I worked at Disneyworld I would want to work in the Animal Kingdom too. It is my favorite kingdom in Disneyworld.  It's like a theme park and a zoo all wrapped together!  Very cool.

She will specifically be working here... at the Flame Tree Barbeque Restaurant.  Mmmmm.... I can just smell those yummy bbq ribs! Delish.  I hope I get to go eat there soon.... and maybe Jacquie can be working??

If you're planning a trip to Florida between now and January 1st, be sure to head here and say hello to JQ!!

Lake of the Woods, Oregon 3

 Kevin built a fire challenge for Riley-- I should have timed it because his fire burnt that string so fast!!

 Jim ripped his knee apart on the first day. Seriously it looks so much better right here. Thank goodness the marina store had some hydrogen peroxide!! 

 Riley and Andrea on the tube! (our poor tube is dying.... so we didn't get to tube very much as we had to keep blowing it up!)

 Captain Jim

 what a good flagger

 Mark & Carla packing up!

 Pakistinian (?) Jacquie-- at least that's how they sit to eat!

The family (minus Marissa) all ready to drive 11 hours home. (ugh)  The time at the lake was definitely worth it!

Lake of the Woods, Oregon 2

Kevin and Riley doubling it up!

 almost 16.... doing a little driving practice!

 These two girls had quite the fun time... they laughed more than you can imagine!

Uncle Mark & Aunt Carla came too!  They took us on a new adventure rafting down the Rogue River! The water was freezing, but it was fun. Even Ella went down the river!!

Boys-- you really shouldn't hit each other!

Lake of the Woods, Oregon

 We just enjoyed a few days at my favorite place on earth.  Lake of the Woods is the best! It has the best pine fresh clean air you've ever smelled. The water is super clean! The camping is the best.  There is glass on the lake every morning. It just doesn't get better.  Jacquie loved the wake-boarding, knee-boarding, and tubing.

 Andrea and Kevin enjoyed the water too.

 Double knee-boarding!! Riley and Jacquie!

The first day brought some clouds--- this was the closest thing I've ever seen to a funnel cloud. (I really don't think it was....) Amazingly it didn't rain on us!

Oregon Vacation

We are almost home from a few wonderful days in Oregon! As you can see, Ella thoroughly enjoyed herself. We are pretty sure she will sleep for days! More posts coming soon!

Skydiver

Yes, this post is a little late.... but on July 28th, Jacquie and her cousin Paige, jumped out of a plane!! Crazy, I know! It definitely isn't on my 'Bucket List', but these girls thought it was awesome. Here are some pictures from Jacquie's experience....

Crazy, yes??

Pardon the flared nostrils. That's what happens when wind flies up your nose at 120mph.

The chute is open!! (This part made the girls a little sick.)

A nice sweet, soft landing.

Safe and sound. All the way from 10,000 feet up.

I'm so glad they lived.

You can read Jacquie's description at her blog That's What We Said