Christmas Letter

This year has been an interesting and exciting one for us. And it started like this . . . .



Last year our family went to Utah to have New Years with my parents and celebrate Ginger’s Birthday. We had a wonderful time. When we got back home the New Year started with me finding out that my company had gone up for sale and that we could be purchased as early as month end. The future at this company became uncertain. As things turned out, a competitive company wanted to move into Southern Idaho, so all my co-workers and I left our old company and moved to the new one. We moved to a new building and had to build our branch back from scratch. It made the first part of the year very unsettling. However, on the upside, I am still employed, we didn’t have to move, and all the kids are doing great.



Trevor turned 18 this year and is just about ready to graduate High School. (I think I just got more grey hair writing that) We think he will be going to a local college until his mission, and then off to a bigger university after that. He wants to be an engineer. This year he buckled down and completed his requirements (at the stroke of midnight on his birthday) for Eagle Scout. We will probably do his Court of Honor the first part of next year, after the Holidays.



Megan has been busy doing Art and French in school and getting the best grades of the family. It seems like she is always off doing an art project or heading to a school club activity. She has finished her drivers training and is excited about turning 16 soon and getting her license. (more hairs turning grey and hair-line just receded another inch)



Logan has been the Deacon’s Quorum President this year and has done a great job. He loves scouting and is way ahead of his brother at this age. He will be a Life Scout in January. He is taller than his Mom is now and has almost caught up to his brother. At this rate will be the tallest person in the family. His favorite phrase is, “What’s there to eat”.



Emma is doing dance and really enjoys it. She did here first recital the other day and it was a solo. She did very well and we are proud of her courage to get up alone and dance in front of everyone for her first time. She also has just begun choir in school. Emma is taking after her sister with the grades. The teachers really have to dig to find anything to talk about during parent teacher conferences. Emma is also into art and draws pictures all the time.



This year we took a vacation at the Oregon Coast. We met up with my sister Ann and her family. Where we stayed, we could walk right onto the beach each day. We all had a great time discovering starfish, mussels, sand shrimp, and sand fleas (which bite) we built sand castles and flew kites. We also went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the Tillamook Cheese Factory, and had seafood in Newport.



Trevor and I went on High Adventure camping trip up in the White Cloud Wilderness. Where we saw some of the most beautiful wilderness in the country and hiked to Lonesome Lake that is over 10,000 feet in elevation. The trip was a big adventure to some because camp was 7 miles from the cars, all up hill. We had to pack in all our food and tents for the four days we were there. On the final day, we went White Water Rafting down the Payette River.



Ginger has a full time job keeping all us on track and on schedule. She’s enjoying being the Activity Day Leader of the 10, 11 year old girls. Her 40th Birthday was a surprise trip to Utah where she got to spend 4 days in Salt Lake City with Dave. We spent an entire day at IKEA and spent time at Temple Square. We had dinner on New Years Eve at The Roof Restaurant. We also drove up to Park City and spent lots of time shopping of course. It was a great surprise.



We have so much to be thankful for especially for all of our friends and family. We wish you a Very Merry Christmas and may the New Year be full of Joy.



Love,

Dave, Ginger, Trevor, Megan, Logan and Emma Wagstaff

Back to School

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We're back in school this week. These are the annual first day of school pictures. I can't believe Trevor is already a Senior. Megan is a Sophomore this year and has already started picking on the Freshman. Logan is in 8th grade and Emma is in 5th grade. It's been one week and they all seem pretty happy with their Teachers and classes.

Trevor's been working hard on his Eagle Scout Project. He's hopefully going to be organizing a Blood Drive in October. That is really cutting it close to his Birthday but he'll get it done.

Emma just started Lyrical Dance classes today. She never seemed interested in Dance until she found some friends who were big time dancers and that got her thinking that she wanted to try. I think she'll do great.

We are just starting to harvest some of the veggies from our garden. We obviously live in Idaho because we sure can grow the spuds. I've been busy canning Mustard Pickles, Bread and Butter Pickles and the Sweet Pickles are curing in the Crock. Hopefully I'll be canning peaches this weekend and if my tomatoes ever ripen, I'll be canning Salsa. Busy, busy times ahead. 

Lazy Blogger

Our first real harvest from our Cherry Tree

Multnomah Falls

Tumalo Falls in Bend, OR

The Daines and the Wagstaff Kids

The Wilcock's and The Wagstaff's at the Oregon Coast Aquarium

The whole gang at Rockaway Beach

Playing in Rockaway Beach at the Twin Rocks

Rachel and Emma not getting wet

Kendra and Megan exfoliating their feet.

Logan's discoveries at low tide

Trevor and Megan checking out the sea life at low tide

The awesome view from our Hotel room in Lincoln City

Marshmallow Fields!

It's been a few months since I updated our Blog so hopefully I can remember all the things that have happened. The school year finished up (much too soon if you ask me) and we discovered that Trevor had 100% attendance. I didn't even realize it. Megan started Driver's Education and finished up right before we left on vacation.  Megan then went to Girl's Camp and had a great time. As soon as she got home, we packed up and headed to the Oregon Coast.

We drove all day and stopped off at Multnomah Falls and were surprised to see that it didn't have much water coming over the edge. Then we took the Family to the Portland IKEA for lunch and with much restraint didn't shop for too long before we got back on the road and headed to the coast. The traffic through Portland made me happy to live where we do and not miss that mess at all. We showed the kids various spots in Portland where Dave and I worked or went to school. We pointed to Beaverton as we drove by and told the kids that's where we had our first apartment after we got married.  When we got to McMinnville we saw the Museum where they have the Spruce Goose.  It was closing for the day and cost too much so we just did a drive by.

We finally made it to the coast, just in time for the fog to roll in. We had a mix-up with our Hotel so we ended up at another Hotel and I think it was a good thing because our room was really nice. It's balcony was right on the ocean! It had a Master bedroom, a fireplace, a kitchenette with cook top and did I mention the view? We just stepped out our front door went down some stairs and we were on the beach. There were also Fire pits right outside our door that they would lend you sticks to roast marshmallows.

The next day we met up with Ann and Mike's Family and drove to Newport and went through the Oregon Coast Aquarium. It was fun to walk through the tunnels of fish and sharks. After that I wanted to get some famous Mo's clam chowder so we had to wait a while but finally got in. While we were waiting Dave found us some fresh shrimp and crab cocktail to snack on. Once we finally got into the restaurant we were frozen by the AC and the chowder was not as good as I remember but not bad. Not sure it was worth waiting an hour. After that we toured a little Light House and then headed back up to our Hotel in Lincoln City. We roasted hot dogs and had S'mores at the fire pits outside our room with Ann and Mike's crew. We popped some popcorn and watched a show after that.  It was a good day.

The next day we drove the hour and a half drive up to the Beach house Ann and Mike's family were staying at in Rockaway Beach. We ate lunch with them and then spent the afternoon playing at the beach. It was a nice day for flying kites an we had three up at one time. There are cool rocks that are really flat so we collected some of them and then we went in to town for Waffle Cones. We then drove to Tillamook and took a tour of the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We got to sample lots of different cheese and see how it's made.  We headed back to our Hotel after that. I had to take a picture of the Hay bales because they look just like marshmallows. I guess they wrap them in plastic to keep them from getting to wet.

It was raining the next day so we decided to drive even further north and walk around Seaside. It was just a lot of shops and touristy stuff but interesting enough. After that we went back to Rockaway Beach for a little bit and got one more waffle cone on our way back to the hotel (yes, they were that good!).

We reluctantly left the coast and headed to Bend. We stopped in Keizer and showed the kids the house we lived in before we moved to Idaho and then tried to find my favorite Vietnamese Restaurant. We couldn't find it and I was pretty bummed. We had a nice drive to Bend where my good friend Heather and her family lives and we spent the night with them. She took us to a really pretty waterfall near their house the next day and then showed us all the fun things there is to do in Bend. We will definitely have to stay longer next time. As we were driving home it felt like the whole trip was just a blur. It was fun but went by way to fast.

As soon as we got home we had to hurry up and scrub the house to get ready for Dave's parents and Grandma to visit. They stayed and even got to hear Megan give a talk in Sacrament Meeting. As soon as they left, we sent Logan off to Scout camp and Emma started swimming lessons. Whew, I think I need another vacation.

March and April Happenings

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Megan's 15th Birthday!

She requested Apple Crisp instead of cake (smart girl).

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Coloring Easter Eggs

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Easter Morning Breakfast

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Megan turned 15 and has already started counting the days until she is 16. I'm pretty sure she's not the only one counting the days ;). She is going to be taking digital photography in school next year so she got a camera for her birthday. She also got the latest Twilight Movie.

Dave and I snuck away to the Anniversary Inn and had a much needed break. Dave's been really busy setting up the new branch. He's been working 10 or more hours a day so it was nice to escape reality for a night. We stayed in the Hollywood themed room. It had a soda fountain and big screen TV and a jacuzzi tub. It was fun.

It was really nice having Easter fall on Conference Weekend. It was nice to stay home and relax all day. We watched Conference and had a yummy Easter Dinner of my favorite Honeybaked Ham, creamed peas with new potatoes and strawberry spinach salad. Banana Cream and Chocolate Pies were for dessert. We ate way too much and then watched movies as a family for the rest of the day. It was great.

Catch Up

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Logan is officially a Teenager! He's quite excited about that.

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Blowin' out the candles on his Boston Creme Cake. It's his Dad's favorite cake and I like it a lot too because there's no decorating necessary. Just pour on the Ganache.

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Dave gave the Family this Chocolate Fountain for Christmas so we brought it out for Superbowl Sunday. It was awesome!

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Right after the earthquake in Haiti, my Achievement Day Girls were talking about it and so we decided to have an activity assembling Hygiene Kits to send to the Humanitarian Center. We asked for donations from the ward and were able to assemble 30 kits. I think the Girls really felt like they contributed to the relief efforts .
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I have been lazy with the Blogging lately so here's a quick update on what's been going on.


January was an interesting month as far as Dave's work was concerned. His Company was in negotiations to be sold but it fell through. The uncertainty of the future for this company caused him to take a job with another company, doing the same work. It was a sad time because Dave has worked for 15 years with United Pipe. We have high hopes for this new company. Now comes the hard work of setting up a new Branch in Meridian.

Dave lost his company vehicle with the job change so we bought a little Ford Ranger. It's not a pretty sight but it runs. It's a stick shift so Trevor will have to learn how to drive a stick. Hopefully once Dave's work is up and running, he will get another company vehicle. Trevor officially got his drivers license so I'm still trying to get used to the fact that he is legal to drive on his own now. The really scary thing for me is, Megan just signed up for Drivers Ed this summer. I'm just barely getting used to one driver and now this? Oh well. Dave's Aunt and Uncle from Texas sold us their Toyota Camry last week. They were even nice enough to drive it here. Dave will be using that car for work so as soon as Trevor learns to drive the stick shift, he'll get to take the truck to school and Young Men's and hopefully a job.

We've been keeping busy with Church activities. Dave was in charge of a combined YM and YW etiquette dinner. That meant LOTS of cooking for me. He did have someone bring the appetizer and the soup so it wasn't too bad. It was a four course meal. They tried to give instructions on proper etiquette between each course. The Menu was Stuffed Mushrooms for the appetizer, Wild Rice Soup, Baked Ham with Scalloped Potatoes and Roasted Asparagus for the main course and Creme Brulee for dessert. I put the hams in a Roaster oven and the potatoes in Crock Pots and cooked the Asparagus at the church so it wasn't too much stress. I made the 30 Creme Brulees the day before the dinner and then torched the sugar on the tops just before we served them. We had some adults doing the waiting on the tables. I think it all went pretty well. We should've collected all the cell phones before the dinner though because there was some texting going on.

Now we're just trying to get through the end of the school year. I've been busy registering Trevor for SAT's and ACT tests. It really shocked me when I found out he needed them done this year and not his Senior Year. I'm kinda frustrated with all the things I don't know. It's hard to get it done the right way with the oldest because I don't know anything yet.

Hopefully that's got you up to date with what's been going on for the past couple months.

Birthday Surprise!

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Whoa!! I didn't believe it would take all day to get through IKEA but it did and it was awesome!

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This is the Ice Sculpture at The Roof Restaurant in the top floor of the Joseph Smith Building.

We ate here New Years Eve and it was really good.

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This is the view from our table. It looks right over Temple Square. You can see our Hotel, The Plaza at the top of the picture.

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This tree was so pretty with thousands of red lights. It just glowed! The snowstorm made it a perfect night to look at the lights.

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Midnight on New Years Eve from our Hotel room.

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Wow, what a blur the past couple weeks have been. We celebrated Christmas and immediately packed up the family and drove to Utah. We dropped the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa's in Logan and drove to Salt Lake City. Dave had planned a 4 night getaway to celebrate my 40Th birthday. We stayed at the Plaza Hotel, which is right across the street from Temple Square.

The first day we spent at the IKEA store. It was amazing. We tried the Swedish foods from the cafeteria and liked them so much we brought some back to feed the family in Logan. We bought so much stuff from there that we were a little concerned about where the kids would sit on the drive home.

The other days were filled with shopping around Salt Lake and driving up to see how much Park City has changed since the Olympics.

The last night we went to The Roof restaurant for dinner. It had an amazing view of Temple Square. They put party hats and noise makers on our table since it was New Years Eve. It was the most money we've ever spent on a dinner but it was worth it. I had an incredible time.