Midwest Madness

We just returned from the Midwest where we were visiting Mr. Wagner's side of our family. We had a terrific time with Gr'pa and Gr'ma, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and are so blessed to have such a close extended family.

One of Mr. Wagner's favorite pastimes when visiting "home" is to work outside with his dad and brother. It's not all just hard labor since the guys get to take turns driving the tractors and four wheeler while working.

Speaking of tractors, the Little Miss and her cousins each took a turn teaching their Gr'pa how to drive. With all of those lessons I'm sure he'll get the hang of it one of these days!

Here are the infamous driving instructors. As you can see, Owen took the job most seriously. Speaking of Owen, my favorite quote of the trip was when I reminded the Little Miss that he is her cousin. She replied and said, "No he's not...he's just a BOY."

It's no wonder our girl is confused about having a boy as a cousin since the rest of her cousins are girls. The "girlie girls" had fun playing with their new Hello Kitty makeup kits. Here they are made up, just before entertaining us with the first of several fashion shows.

Last but definitely not least, the girls had a lot of fun learning to cook with their sweet Gr'ma. Here Gr'ma and the Little Miss are making cute "rag doll" salads. The girls also had fun making cookies together. Gr'ma faithfully played with the kiddos all week, from tea parties to dress-up to games and necklace making, there was much fun to be had!

We had a wonderful visit and had a tough time saying "good-bye". We are thankful for all of the memories we have to think about until the next time...So. Much. Fun!

Memories in the Making

Each year, shortly before our girl's birthday, "we" like to schedule family pictures (Interpretation: The we is really me. According to Mr. Wagner, getting professional pictures taken ranks right down there with painting, cleaning toilets and picking berries...several of his least favorite activities). My darling hubby kindly appeased me with the memory-making this year and was very patient with the whole process. Thank you Mr. Wagner!

For more samples of our family pics, check out this link. Thanks go out to Emily for again taking great photos of our family and for making the experience fun!

P.S. For the record, Mr. Wagner does take his fair turn cleaning our toilets. As for his love (or lack thereof) of painting? We just paid a college student to paint the Little Miss' room so it's now finished and was well worth the extra bucks! More pics to come of that once we finish decorating.

Still Growing!

Some of you may be wondering if our yard is still thriving and well. We are proud to say that indeed it is! Our family has truly enjoyed our backyard this summer and we are loving the beautiful flowers, green grass and our little garden.

We have had some "lessons learned" in the process. I know I'll be planting fewer marigolds next year. I like them because they are hardy and last a long time but they sure can take over! My favorite flower of the summer has been the Shasta Daisies...so simple and yet lovely.

This is my favorite flowerpot, love how the red zinnia spread (that was just one plant) and contrasts with the deep purple petunias.

Our garden has been faithfully producing this summer too. We eat a lot of broccoli in the Wagner household so I thought I'd give them a try this year. Who knew the plants would grow so grand! I've been blanching what we don't eat right away and freezing it (we tested it and it is so much better than store-bought frozen broccoli).

We planted two tomato plants of differing types, both of which have a lot of tomatoes on them yet have not ripened (we planted them a bit late in the season but I'm guessing they should ripen in the next couple of weeks). We've also enjoyed fresh zucchini (I knew even we would be successful with that!) and have carrots that are still growing. We're sure enjoying this new gardening adventure!

Outdoor Adventure

The West Coast Wagners headed to the South-Central part of our state this weekend for an outdoor adventure with my brother and sis-in-law. After accidentally venturing past our destination (navigating never has been my forte), we arrived at Thompson Reservoir to camp for the weekend. As you can see, we really roughed it in our tiny tent (a.k.a., the Taj Mahal).


My bro and SIL had fun taking the Little Miss on a "treasure hunt" as we all tried our hand at geocaching. We successfully located a few caches, with the Little Miss displaying her "frog" find below.

Hands down though our girl most enjoyed taking care of "Sage" (a.k.a., the world's most-patient-dog). Here you can see Sage trying to recover from all the walks and hugs.

We concluded the last night of our adventure with the real reason we trekked all the way to the middle of nowhere to camp...dinner at the Cowboy Dinner Tree. Even though it's in a very remote location, this place is well known by all the locals in Central Oregon. You would never know from the outside that it's a restaurant but the food does not disappoint. You have your choice of top sirloin steak (more like a roast since it's a 26 - 30 oz cut!) or a whole roasted chicken. That's after eating a fresh green salad, yeasty buttered rolls, cowboy-style baked beans and a baked potato. Needless to say, no one leaves without a very full doggy bag to go!
My brother and I camped regularly with our family when we were kids so it has been a lot of fun to get to share that experience with the Little Miss. We are looking forward to next year's camping adventure and are sure enjoying this outdoor family tradition!

Annual Family Camp-Out

This past weekend the Little Miss and I headed to the beautiful Oregon Coast for the annual camp-out with my dad's side of our family. This year we stayed at Beverly Beach State Park, a campground and beach that my family frequented as I was growing up. We had a great time with aunts, uncles, cousins and their families. We enjoyed visiting, playing games, and eating...and eating some more.

Since Mr. Wagner is still away, the Little Miss and I shared Papa and Mimi's tent. Mason, my cousin's daughter, was such a sweetie and kindly took to our girl, constantly giving her piggy back rides, making crafts and playing on the beach.

The Little Miss adored playing in the ocean and kept Papa and I busy chasing the waves. It took the two of us taking turns to keep up with her youthful energy!

The only thing missing from the weekend was our dear Mr. Wagner. We sure miss him and look forward to his return!

A Long Awaited Milestone

For the sake of keeping it "real", I have to confess that I accomplished a new milestone today. Before I tell you what that may be Dear Reader, I must first ask you to reserve judgement. In my defense, I'll blame my parents. In actuality, they were looking out for my well-being by keeping me from accomplishing this when I was younger (and instead assigning the chore to my older brother). They knew that I had a tendency towards clumsiness and wanted to prevent any potential mishaps, including the loss of life and limb. Now...what is the great milestone that I accomplished today for the first time EVER? I mowed the lawn!!!

(Oh, there you go...judging, judging, judging. Now it's your turn to confess!).

No worries about what others may think about how long it's taken me to accomplish this feat because most important of all, I made Mr. Wagner quite proud. While he's in the great country to the north of us working away, the Little Miss and I have been tending to the house and yard. Though he didn't ask, I got the sudden urge this morning to try my hand at the lawn, wanting to leave it as well-kept as possible for my hubby who has worked hard to keep it looking so nice. Mission accomplished!

(Do I have to admit that it's not like I had to operate a high powered gas mower? We have an easy-to-use manual mower but that's besides the point. Bottom-line is that the lawn is cut and my digits are not!).

Family 4th of July Getaway

We hope you all enjoyed the holiday weekend. The West Coast Wagners celebrated with a weekend getaway to visit family in the central area of our state. We spent most of our days relaxing and enjoying BBQ's with burgers and brats. On Saturday, Yours Truly was treated to a special afternoon massage outing while Mr. Wagner recovered from a long mountain bike ride.

Our 4th of July started off taking Papa downtown to watch the Pet Parade, a long-standing local holiday tradition. As you can see, the Little Miss sure enjoyed having two of her favorite men as dates.

While there were about a zillion dogs that walked in the parade, along with bikers and hikers to boot, Yours Truly is super proud of the fact that the Little Miss insisted her favorite thing to watch was the horses.

That's my girl!