Hawaii, baby!

So I know I have been out of touch and the time gets longer and longer until I finally post, but I am sorry. I need to make this a little bit bigger priority. But I just thought I'd let you all know that Brad and I just got back from Hawaii! We went there with my sister Brianna and her husband Owen. We had so much fun! Yes we missed the kids but it was so nice not to have to worry about what to do with them and keeping them entertained the whole time. Instead we enjoyed the 10 days with just us. Thank you so much Erika, Mom and Dad (Stapley), Shanell, and my friend Shay. You guys were so awesome to step in and help take care of the girls while we were gone. Thank you, thank you!

To begin our adventure, we caught a plane on Jan. 20th from St. George to SLC @ 10am and met up with Brianna and Owen to fly the remainder of the route straight to Oahu. We stayed in Waikiki for the first 3 days. During those days we visited the North end of the island where we passed right by the Dole Pineapple plantation (which btw has the most tasty Pineapple sherbet ever!), we briefly visited the temple because it's been under complete rennovation and will continue to be until the summer sometime, then continued on to the PCC. We decided to stay for the luau and show and it was worth staying the evening for. It's one of those places you have to go atleast once but then you're good! We also took the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor and shop at the famous Aloha Stadium Swap Meet.



Then the other part of our adventure began. We flew to Maui on the 23rd and as far as we're concerned, we were a whole lot more impressed by the beauty of this island over Oahu. Between Jan-Mar is Whale season and the whales are so common during this time that was saw them everywhere we went right off the coast. Maui was more like what you envision Hawaii to be, with just enough conveniences yet the right amount of remoteness. We stayed in a town called Lahaina on the west side of Maui. We rented a car and cute two room condo for a week. It was nice to not be too far away from places to eat. If any of you know Brad, no matter where we go, our vacations always revolve around food, so this town was perfect! One of the first things we did was sign up with a bike tour that takes you to the top of the volcano(dormant) Haleakala (means "house of the sun" because they say it looks like to sun comes right out of the volcano) at 4am to watch the sun rise then we hopped on bikes and coasted down the mountain for about 24 miles.
It was beautiful but freezing at the top.
One day we drove on the famous road to Hana. This is a small, winding road that takes you along the back side of Haleakala where there is lush Rainforest. We were in hopes to see some large waterfalls, but the rainy season over there (which was then) is sort of in a drought, but who knew! we did see a couple of waterfalls, at some super good, warm banana bread in a small village, and hiked over lava tubes.



Another day we went on a snorkel boat which ended up being a whale and dolphin watch as well. We saw whales all over the place and large pods of dolphins. The captain sailed us out to the island of Lana'i to snorkel in a few spots.
>

It was a long boat ride but it was fun. Later we found a hike called the swinging bridges that takes you to a waterfall and a natural pool. That was really neat.


The rest of our time there we pretty much snorkeled, ate, shopped, chilled, and drove around.

The final day we went snorkeling and I finally got to see a turtle up close. I was literally within inches. Loved it!! We had so much fun!

Family pics

So we decided to finally get some long awaited family pictures taken. What a challenge that is to get a family of girls ready. I asked my sister-in-law if she wouldn't mind and she said that she'd be happy to. We ended up getting some pretty cute pics after all the drama and miss-haps! Thanks again so much Lisa for taking the time and being so accomadating. I know it's not easy to get that many little ones to cooperate but it worked out. Some of the pics she took that I love are posted right here. I had a little fun myself doing some photoshoppin'.

Halloween (and the rest in between)

I know I am a total slacker but I guess if I say I'm only making monthly posts than I'm not doing too bad! I know that's a lame excuse but I'll try to do better. So here goes for the Halloween week of events. It all started with Brinly's school carnival the week before Halloween. Brinly had a fun little first grade music performance and I had to sit at and monitor a booth for four hours! yeah!!!
Brad and I were invited to a fun Halloween party by some friends of ours. We dressed up as Padame and Anikan Skywalker from the recent Star Wars Trilogy. This is the first year that Brad has dressed up in the ten years we've known each other. I think he had fun, too! Then the Monday before "H" Brad's parents invited the family over for a spooky surprise dinner party.

We had a ward trunk-or-treat on Tuesday, dance parties on Tues & Thurs, & of course school parties on Friday. We did manage to get our pumpkins carved on Thursday Night just in time for Halloween Night.Brinly's teacher Mrs. Shober was a toothfairy. She has a little boy friend named Chase who dressed up as Luke Skywalker and I just had to take a picture of Luke and Princess Laia. Brinly also had a picture with one of her friends in her class named Olivia the "cowgirl". Here are Brooklin and Madison at their school with their teacher Mrs. Keri. The girls had a little performance and parade but Madi got a little shy.
Finally Halloween Night came and the girls got to go trick or treating. Wow by then they were almost Halloweened out! My sister and her family came into town and we hung with them all night. We had fun but I am glad it's over until next year, right!
And here is my silly sister that wanted to pose for the camera more than the kids would. Hahaha! This is my sister Erika, who lives with us. She was dressing up to co to work. Isn't she cute. She wanted to be a fairy just like all of her nieces! (:<

What's been happenin'

So to start out this month we celebrated our twins' birthday! (And we can't forget Aunt Chantel's birthday either!) Yes that's right, Brooklin and Madison are four! I know! It's a little hard to believe myself. We had a fun party for them. It was their first official friend party and I don't know what I was thinking. We rented a bouncehouse for the back and just let a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds run around in our backyard. It wasn't too bad until I realized we had almost 25 of them in our back yard. Great fun! That's all I have to say. Then of course we had to do a little family party as well so we decided to take the girls to Pirate Island Pizza. We had never been there and what an experience it turned out to be. If you haven't been there it's definitely worth going there atleast once even if it's just for the atmosphere.

For Labor Day, my sister Brianna and her husband Owen invited us to come spend the weekend at Lake Powell. They live there so it makes it convenient to stay at their place and not have to camp with all of our junk. So we took Brad's parents boat out and had a blast (thanks btw, Mom and Dad!) We were a little hesitant at first because of the weather but it all worked out.

The first day we all drove out to the Grand Canyon South Rim to get the "view". If you haven't been there it is breathtaking, but I feel like I need to hike down to the bottom after we had driven all the way down there for just the view then to turn around and drive all the way home again. The expereince though, right? It ended up being pretty chilly and stormy so we were glad we didn't go onto the lake. The next two days we practically lived on the lake and had a ball.
Thanks Owen and Brianna for letting us bombard your house!

Brooklin and Madison had their first day of preschool on September 9th and loved it. They have a ball with Mrs. Keri!


The highlight for the month though will have to be just this last weekend when we had the opportunity to go to California, go to Disneyland, and lounge in the sweetest beach house ever! Brad's parents treated the family to a fun vacation in a beach house in Oceanside. We were literally a rock skipping distance away from the ocean and the beach. We took the kids to Dineyland with Devan and Shanell on the day that the rest of the family were heading down. Then we spent the weekend at the beach. It was so nice to to have to worry about where to be by when. Thanks Mom and Dad for the awesome weekend!

Update!!!

Wow! Where do I begin? First of all, like anyone else's summer, we have just been doing one thing after another. I really don't know where the summer went really. Since the last post my sister has officially moved in, I went to girls camp, Brad and I went to Florida for a week, swim lessons, Ethan's baby blessing, camping, going to Lake Powell (only for a day!), and Brinly started school on Aug. 10th. Phew! I know that was a little short, but in a nutshell that's been our summer! Here are some pics!

Some pics of girls camp. So much fun!

Brad and I at Universal and Epcot in Florida with Mom and Dad.

In Ogden for Ethan's Blessing we took the kids to a Children's museum. They had so much fun with cousins.

These are some pics at Lake Powell. We drove out to Page to visit my sister and her family and decided to go to the lake for the day! We had lots of fun! Thanks Brianna and Owen for letting us come and crash at your place!

This is Brinly's first day of 1st Grade! Wow she is getting to be such the little grown up. Man are we getting old!

Just this last weekend we went camping up on Beaver Mountain and went on some fun four wheelin' rides. Brianna and Owen came with their family, my sister Erika(the one that lives with us) and her friend Bridger(Owen's brother) came and we just all had a grand ole' time! We got filthy! Thanks for comin'! It was lots of fun!

Here's just a little update as to what we have been up to since our last post. We went to Idaho for a family reunion with my dad's side of the family (Graham Reunion). We had so much fun thanks to Uncle Steve, Uncle Gary and Fam, and Uncle Dave and Aunt Brenda, (thanks to everyone else as well). We were always doing something from Geo cashing, playing at the park, observing water falls, playing games, going to a bouncing gym (like Jumpin' Jacks), going river rafting, staying up 'til all hours talking, and of course lots of eating! Ten days after that reunion, headed to Beaver for our annual Stapley Family Reunion. But a few days before that, Skylar came down with some sort of horrible rash that we think was an allergic reaction to something she either ate or something she put in her mouth. Needless to say after four days of a continual rash always changing, fevers and lots of itching, it finally just went away, just in time for the reunion up at the mountain. Which bytheway, mom and dad, was a hit. We were always doing something here as well. Friday evening upon arrival Jake's uncle let the family view ICE AGE Dawn of the Dinosaurs at the cutest theatre ever in the town of Beaver. So cute and funny btw! Thanks Jake and Chantel for making that happen! The next morning (THE 4TH OF JULY)started the day of events with a little treasure hunt with gps', bottle rocket making then launching (thanks to Aaron and Lisa and Lisa's Dad for the connection with the launcher!), crafts with the kids during the annual shotgun shoot (congratulations to Brandon Roper for winning and representing the Rasmussen Family), lots of eating, visiting, and playing lawn golf! We have definitely been busy with family and more family! Pictures to come!

Happy Anniversary!

I just wanted to let my honey know how much I love and appreciate all that he does for me and our family. It's hard to believe that we have been married for 9 years! I used to think people were crazy when they said that time goes by so fast, but I am proved wrong with everyday! 9 years has come and gone and yet it seems only a memory! I couldn't imagine my life any different! I am thankful for our four beautiful girls that we have had together. Everyday I look at you and am more and more in love with you than the first day I knew you were the one for me.

Some things I love about my Husband:
-I love watching him chew on his tongue when he is focusing on something.
-I love watching him play with our girls.
-I love that he loves to take our family to the mountain to go snow mobiling and four wheelin'!
-I love that he doesn't complain when I go and do stuff (even though sometimes I give him a hard time! I'm sorry!)
-I love that he doesn't put pressure on me to be the perfect housewife!
-I love that when I look at him and he gets a half shy smile and says, "what?!"
-I love that he is usually pretty good about doing things around the house that I ask him to do.
-I love that even though I tell him not to get me flowers he always seems to surprise me with them!
Brad, I love you and can't wait for what's to come!
Happy 9th!