Stacie Michelle

May 29th was the 22nd birthday of my lovely sister Stacie Michelle!!! So of course  she needs a blog post in her honor:) For her birthday we went camping at Payson Lake and put our Seven Peaks season passes to good use. It was a great couple of days!

A few reasons I LOVE my little sis:

She is pretty much down for anything at anytime. If it sounds remotely fun, she is in.

Even her 'ugly picture' face is beautiful. Unfair.

She's always good for some juicy story or interesting little tidbit to spice up my day.
Depending on the day I can always count on her to be my "hiking/running/exercising" partner OR my "lets drop this and get some ice cream" partner. A good quality in a true friend:)
I remember when I was first dating Matt, he was so impressed by how nice stacie was (and is) and how she's good at making people feel important and special. And it's all genuine. She cares about people and wants others to be happy, a wonderful quality I admire.

I could get sappy but I will just say Happy Birthday! We love you SOO much and are excited for your future, whatever it may bring!

home sweet home

I've said it before, but going home really recharges my batteries and helps me press on in life. It's just great to be surrounded by all my siblings, parents, cousins, aunts & uncles, and grandparents all in my home town. 

Stacie and I made the drive home for our good friend Yasmin's wedding. It was great to be able to be there and support her and it was great to have an excuse to go home.

Stacie as a lovely bridesmaid second from the left:)

Could my little sisters be any prettier??
My "other" little sister Yesenia:) Cute Cute!!

And me and my beautiful Mom, who has repeatedly been mistaken for my sister. No joke.

So my parents moved into a house in an apple/cherry orchard and I absolutely LOVE their new house. However, all my childhood memories are in our house in town and although I'm glad we moved I still get a little heartsick when we go by the old place. I stopped by and took a picture so I won't feel the need to drive by anymore.

Ahh the old place:) Someday I want to do a post dedicated to memories in this house. Someday.

At the NEW place, this is the view off the front porch to the right...
 And the view to the left. It is so unbelievably peaceful, and you can see all the stars at night since there are no city lights for miles.

I also found a few gems from my childhood as I was rummaging through some of my old stuff. 

First, this beauty!!
My polaroid instant camera!!! Oh man, I lugged this thing all around Yellowstone, Nauvoo, Pebble Beach and more on our family vacations. And I have some very random but classic pictures from those days. Now that I have that it back in my possession there will be many more in the near future.

And finally, the premier find of the weekend...

MY JOURNALS from when I was 12-13 years old!! As any girl knows, this is a time that most of us would like to forget but I for some reason documented (in great detail) my scary obsession with Leonardo Dicaprio ( and a couple other boys) and many other random entries of things most would consider mortifying. 

the inside page of my journal. very classy artwork.
I find them thoroughly hilarious. Matt and I stayed up Late last night laughing at 12 year old Toni. Oh if I could only go back and give her some advice! Don't worry Christina S., I plan on sharing:)

happenings.

Matt is busy busy with his internship. I basically only see him at bedtime and on the weekends but it's going great and I think he really enjoys the work and the people he is working with.

He played in a random b-ball tournament with friends Dave and Nate and they won (keeping the championship reputation alive). They got some free stuff including a gift card to delicious Nicolitalia Pizza which we used straight away:)

Stacie and I are headed to good ol' WA this week for a friends wedding, and because I'm excited to see the new grass on my parents lawn. It's always good to get home and recharge your batteries and I'm looking forward to it.

This pic is obviously PRE-grass and I doubt cars will be allowed on the front lawn:) But who knows, they live in an orchard now, things have changed.

NATE gets home in 2 weeks from his mission to Las Vegas and we are so excited to see and talk to him.

Also, the weather has permitted Matt and I to ride our bikes to the park, where I then proceed to continually prove that I have the better arm (while playing catch) :) He knows he' s lucky he married a Stauffer...it's good breeding.

Life is good.

Mom.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! To our exceptional Mothers and Grandmothers, and the lovely moms to-be in our family!

A Poem

ASHLEY MARIE JENSEN SWAPP

Ashley Marie Jensen Swapp

Upon your couch I'd like to flop

So we could talk for hours and hours

'bout fun memories, yours mine and ours. (thats a stretch I know)

Of surfing boys and Lake Powell 'ears'

Of cousin "trades" and creepy hospital fears.

Of boys from T-town that liked your style

Of swimming to a buoy in Hawaii-over a mile?

Of 2a.m. hot tubbing & donut runs

Of riding our bikes til the setting of the sun.

Of faking sleep to help a friend :)

Of wishing summer would never end.

Of finding me a Cook and meeting your Swapp

Our random adventures never have to stop! 

Okay, okay all cheesy  poems aside today is the birthday of the lovely Ashley Swapp whom I love so very much! You are such a great friend to so many people and you brighten everyone's day. Have a wonderful birthday!

Kauai: Best Trip Ever

We are back from the most amazing vacation! I just can't get over how smoothly everything went. Usually people have some kind of horror story or some kind of mishap to share but our trip was perfect. The forecast said rain on a few of the days but nope! Just sun and one overcast morning.  I posted an insane amount of pictures (mainly for our family to see all we did:) ) so feel free to scroll quickly. Matt and I had a great time together, it was a great refresher for our relationship!

The view from our balcony

The pool & hot tubs right by the beach

Our trusty truck! Thanks again to Drew & Joy who seriously hooked us up. This little beaut' allowed us to see the whole island. And no one really thought we were tourists because this guy is definitely not a rental. It was perfect!

One of the many spots we went snorkeling 

These guys were everywhere

On a hike to Ho'opi'i Falls. Matt swears this is the scene from Jurassic Park when they first see the dinosaurs. He hummed the theme every time I'd turn on the video camera to record something :) haha.

At the falls

I wish this was the view I had driving down the street everyday

Wailua Falls. Taller than Niagara---but not quite as impressive

On Monday we got up early to head up to the North Shore to hike the Kalalau Trail on the NaPali Coast. I still can't believe a place that beautiful exists. I could barely hike 5 minutes without wanting to stop and take pictures. We hiked as far as you can without a permit. It was pretty rigorous but definitely one of my favorite experiences from the trip.




We stopped at a beautiful beach during the hike and had to get in and swim. When we were done we saw a sign saying over 30 people have died swimming there. Oh well it was worth it.
Rinsing off the sand and salt
Done with the hike it was time for what else but Shave Ice

This next adventure was probably Matt's favorite of the trip. We heard of a place called Kipu Falls, a 30 ft. waterfall into a pool surrounded by a rock wall of cliffs (to jump off of course) and a rope swing. It was an obvious choice and it was SO much fun. We spent hours there, jumping off the cliffs, swinging of the rope swing and swimming in the pool. It was the kind of place you see in movies & I can't believe this was a natural creation. God creates some pretty amazing things. 

Me jumping off the cliff--the quality isn't great because we (obviously) had to use our underwater camera. (I need to figure out how to post video of Matt going off the rope swing- awesome)

This was our other absolute favorite. Queen's bath. A natural pool in the lava bench right along side the ocean. It's filled with fish and underwater plant life . Ocean waves refresh the pool every few minutes but you have to be careful if the waves are big. We snorkeled and swam and just sat in awe. It's a LOT bigger than these pictures show.




After dinner our last night in Kauai. We had a blast, I could do a completely separate post on the awesome food and different places we ate but I'll save it for a journal:)  Matt and I are refreshed, relaxed, and tan. And now, Matt starts his internship in Salt Lake on Monday so it was a perfect vacation to get us ready for this next phase in life.