Labor Day Weekend - Squaw Rock and FHE

On Labor Day On Labor Day, we went with Jeena, the Brimhall's and the Magleby's to a place near Chagrin Falls, called Squaw Rock. There are some really nice trails, a great picnic ground, and places to swim.
All the kids loved the swings, and Uncle Seth was very obliging to all the "Underdog, Underdog's!"



That's Curt, just really far away.
Jeff, you're looking buff!
I love this Father, son shot.

Hiking on the trail.
Angie and Hyrum.
The Magleby family.
This is Squaw Rock. It was carved by Henry Church in 1885.

We didn't know to bring our bathing suits, so we didn't get to swim, but we had fun hiking and taking care of the little kids.


Hadley had hurt her big toe before we went swimming, and then hit it again on a rock. From her reaction, we were worried that she wasn't going to make it, but she recovered!
We got back to the Brimhall's after we ate the nice picnic lunch Jeena made us. Then people showered, watched some tennis and Napolean Dynamite, the we said goodbye to the Magleby's. They were going back to Washington D.C. Then, in the middle of dinner, an hour or 2 later, they came back! They said they didn't want to leave, or fight the traffic. So we welcomed them back for dinner and FHE.

This was one of our opening songs, "If you're happy and you know it" The kids were so cute!

Labor Day Weekend - Brimhall Cookout

The Brimhall's had a big cookout at their house on Sunday. It was nice of them to have all 9 of us Shepard's over on top of their own guests. Thanks Angie and Jeff and Jeena! We ate burgers, and hot dogs, corn, cheesecake bites, and yogurt pie to our hearts' content.

The kids took to doing acrobatics

It was fascinating to watch Eva all weekend. She's walking so much, and she eats with a fork!

There's Eva, digging again.

My corn matched my dress!
Trey was great with all the kids as usual. Hyrum enjoyed tying up his buddy.
Martha has developed an ingenious way to eat every entire corn kernel. I'd just like you to know that I have mastered it, and it takes forever, but you get a lot more corn out of it.

I really was intrigued by how Eva was eating with a fork.

Labor Day Weekend - Kirtland

My family came to stay with us for Labor Day Weekend. My parents and 5 of my sibling (all but Hannah and her husband Michael were there. We missed them!) It was very fun to see my family. It's amazing to think we can sleep 9 in our house! We went to see the Church Historical sites in Kirtland. The kids had never been to Kirtland. I'm glad they got to see it. It was another beautiful day!







This is us constructing a pyramid.


Amazingly, we were successful! From the bottom left: Claire, Jacob, Martha, Trey, Ashley, me.
(Seth took the picture. Thanks, Seth!)

I am grateful to my parents for making such an exhausting and treacherous journey
to our house and back. We love you!




It is wonderful to live so close to such an important place in the history of the church. I am grateful to all the faithful saints who sacrificed so much. They believed Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I believe that too. He restored the Lord's true church to the earth under the direction of Jesus Christ. Some days I wonder how I could possibly get through life without the wonderful truths of the gospel. I know it is a great blessing.

Labor Day Weekend - Botanical Gardens

On the Friday of Labor Day weekend, I got to go to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens with my mother-in-law, Jeena, Kristina (Seth's sister) and Curt, and some of my nieces and nephews, Hadley, Hyrum, Felicity and Eva. It was a beautiful day, and I got in for free because I am a Cleveland State University student. We had a lot of fun!

It was Kristina (my Sis-in-law) and Curt's 5th year anniversary!

Hyrum go totally soaked.
Hyrum is a builder. He's got quite an imagination.

Eva loves to dig in the sand and dirt.Felicity couldn't get enough of this little house! It was hard to get her to leave.



Hyrum, Felicity (who will turn 3 tomorrow, the day after my birthday) Hadley, and Eva)
Felicity is pretending the leaf behind her is a Dumbo ear. Hadley was great taking care of Eva.

The Long Lost Blog - Part 2

Now let's see... where are we?

• I have been working feverishly on the house. I've put together all the rooms, and have been planning and sewing curtains for all the windows, which is a huge undertaking.
• I've been practicing the piano for about 30 minutes every day. I am improving a little bit every week, and it is amazing to think of how far I've come since I started some months ago!
• I have 4 callings now at church. I am the chorister for Sacrament Meeting. This past Sunday, the sub for the organist and I couldn't figure out how to make it loud enough, so it was a rough go. On one of the songs, people apparently didn't know it well enough, and I had to sing as loud as I could! I am not a soprano, and it went all the way up to a D! Too high. I did my best, and most of the congregation could hear me singing which usually doesn't happen. Seth and I are the Primary teachers for the CTR B class, which is ages 5-7. We have our hand full with them, but they are fun, and we are learning a lot. Seth and I are both also on the Activities Committee, which isn't too intense of a calling, but still another thing to do. I am in charge of 2 Relief Society Enrichment Groups, Book Club and Spanish Group. Book Club is just a regular book club. I really enjoy it, and I am all about literary analysis and discussion. I have read so many books this summer, and haven't watch really any TV, and not many movies. I am very proud of that, and will have to write a blog sometime about all the wonderful books I've read this summer. Spanish Group is something I felt the need to start so that I could practice my Spanish. We meet about 3 times a month to practice Spanish conversation, reading, and vocabulary. It has been a real success, and takes up a lot more time than I expected, but my Spanish is getting better every day.
• One of my closest friends, Leah Anderson came to stay with us for a week in July. She is the one who got Seth and me into teaching English in Guatemala. It was wonderful!!! I am so glad she came to visit. We tried to spoke in Spanish a lot of the time, saw some sites (Kirtland, OH) ran over my toe with a shopping cart (very painful and traumatic experience), went to my classes, cooked a lot of great food, visited my Aunts Laura and Candi in Columbus, and basically had a ball!
• We've made a lot of new friends this summer from church and some from my classes at school. We are really getting to know our neighbors better. It is nice to have such great support and community all around us.
• I've been trying to write more letters to my family and to my brother-in-law Jacob on his mission, and I am trying to write more in my journal. When I was blogging before, and not writing in my journal, it seemed something was missing... a personal aspect of what you feel free to write when you are not publishing it for the world to see. So, now I just need to find some sort of balance so that I can do both. Maybe I will just take 15 minutes once a week and try to post so I can keep you all up to date on the goings on at the Wagner home.
• During my 10 day break between summer and fall semesters, I went to Utah for a week to help my mother-in-law, Jeena, to get ready to move to Cleveland. It was a busy time packing, organizing, cleaning, getting the car ready, etc. Seth's cousin Jarom got married, and he and his family stayed at Jeena's for part of the time. It was fun to get to know them. I got to visit my sister Hannah, and her new husband, Michael. We even did got to go to ordinances in the Salt Lake Temple. That was my first time there, other than when I got married, and it was a wonderful experience. I got to visit my Mom's parents and sister, and that was nice because Utah is far away now, and we don't get to see them very often. Jeena and I drove the 2,000 miles back to Cleveland together. It was a 3 day trip, very long. I'm glad not to be in the car all the time. How do truck drivers do it?
• Seth and I bought Jeena's 2000 Oldsmobile Intrigue from her, so it will be wonderful to have a second car now that I go to school and Seth works so far away.

OK, well I will leave it at that for the summer happenings. There was a lot more, but this is a pretty good summary. I hope that some of you will still check my blog once in a while. Sorry I've been a slacker for the last 4 months, but I'm back, and I will at least post 2 times a month.