The Beautiful Islands of Hawaii!

Well it seems like forever since we headed over to Hawaii, but it has only been about a month. since our adventure. We had such a blast! The first island was Oahu for a couple of days. There we hung out at the beach, went to a luau, and visited Pearl Harbor. For the next five days we headed over to Kauai. This island was so beautiful and everything I would have thought Hawaii would be. We jumped off water falls, swung off rope swings, went snorkeling a couple of times, kayaked up a river and then hiked to a huge water fall. The best part was hanging out with my husband and the family. Here are just a few pictures of our trip!

Summer Lovin'

It is has been a crazy summer and tons has happened since my last post. With summer comes all of my great loves, Lake Powell, 4th of July, and my birthday.

My whole family (except Minde, Ty and Chase which we missed very much) went to Lake Powell at the end of June. Lake Powell for me is the perfect vacation. We had a houseboat, two ski boats, and 4 wave runners down there. It was such a blast! It was Spencer's first time down and a transformation happened in him he wants a boat! He can't stop talking about buying a boat. This is a big step since on one of our first dates he told me he wanted to drain Lake Powell (he was a bit hippish back then, thank goodness I straightened him out). Spencer wakeboarded, kneeboarded and he even got up on a single ski, impressive! I did everything above except I don't wakeboard I wakeskate! My family even hiked Rainbow Bridge, we haven't done this for years so it was good to make sure that it was still standing! Here are some of our pictures from our awesome time down there! On the right you have Spencer and I at Rainbow Bridge and on the left is Spencer skiing! The bottom picture is all of us girls skiing. We have a tradition that we get all the sisters and my mom out there to get up. We have done it with 5 girls but the last couple of years it has just been 4. It only took us three pulls to get it us all up!

The 4th of July is always a good time and it is all about traditions with my family. We go to the Provo Freedom parade in the morning and then to my parents house for a bbq and a homemade slip-n-slide. My family went to the Stadium of Fire and Spencer and I headed up to the Kaysville to chill with his family and to have a bbq and watch the Kaysville fireworks, who doesn't love fireworks. I just love the 4th of July.

The next weekend was my birthday and Spencer and I celebrated by going to Zions and hiking the narrows and going to one of the Shakespeare plays in Cedar City, The Taming of the Shrew. The play was really well done and pretty funny and we always love hiking the narrows it is so beautiful down there. I was a little nervous about flash floods, but I made sure that I could get to high ground if one did happen to come :). It was such a good time to get away with just Spencer it was just what we needed!

Well in about a week we are headed to Hawaii with my family. I am so excited neither of us have been there so it should be tons of fun. After that trip I believe our summer is winding down.

Spencer's First Triathlon

On Saturday Spencer and my little brother Matt did their first sprint triathlon in Provo. Both finished and that is all that I cared about and really that is all they cared about too, since there wasn't much training that went on for this. First it started out with the swim in Utah Lake. They swam a half mile and then it was off to the transition area to get ready for the bike. The bike was two loops along Provo roads, which equaled about 12 miles. After the bike they change into their running get up and ran about 3 miles. Both of them did great and they were feeling pretty good about themselves afterwards. Now both Spencer and Matt have the triathlon bug and are looking for more they can do. Triathlons aren't cheap though, most of the ones they were looking at yesterday were about $100 each. Obviously not a cheap sport to get in to.

My dad and I were the perfect spectators and tried to take as many pictures as we could. Seeing all those people out there having a good time kind of gave me the tri bug as well, but we'll see about that!

One month down...eternity to go!

So Spencer and I had our one month anniversary yesterday. Crazy how time flies. I almost forgot it was our one month, but quickly remembered in the middle of the day and sent a text to Spencer. Spencer doesn't have the best memory (he tells me often that he does remember the important stuff), so I just assumed that he forgot. Any way I got home from work around 5:30 and on our table was one rose, for one month, and 4 beautiful gerber daisies and a sweet card. He said that he had been thinking about our month anniversary for a whole week. Needless to say I was totally impressed. We went out to chili's to celebrate and then we took back wedding gifts, which was a blast. All this store credit we are getting is going to last us a nice long time.

I can't believe that it has been a month it feels like just yesterday that we were getting everything ready for the wedding. We have had such a blast being married and I couldn't ask for a better, sweeter husband.

Alright here are some pictures

Ok everyone wants pictures so here you go. My cute cousin took all of these pictures, I have not received the ones from photographer yet, but these are just as good!

All of us outside of the Temple

My sisters...I love them!

My nephew Chase...what a stud.

Cutting the cake

Very cute...I love him!

Throwing the bouquet

Just taken a little rest!

Well I hope you enjoy these! I know there will be more to come!

Marriage...is what brings us together!

Spencer and I have had such a busy May. We had three major events that happened in our lives all in three days. Who needs to spread life changing events over a period of time...not us. On May 1st we had the opportunity to go through the temple and receive our endowments, it was an amazing experience. Then on the May 2nd Spencer and I walked for graduation, huge accomplishment for both of us. On May 3rd we got married in the Timpanogas Temple at 8:00am, it was the perfect day!

Everything went as planned for our wedding there were no major hiccups. We were all really nervous about the weather, but when it came down to it it was beautiful! As I look back on it I cannot believe it has come and gone. All of those events were so surreal, they were things that I have been working my whole life to do and they all happened in three days. For our honeymoon we headed to Jackson Hole. It was just what we needed. We relaxed, had massages, took a drive, and did a lot of relaxing. It was great!

Married life is awesome. Our little apartment is coming together very nicely. I have started to work full time which is a bummer, but it has to be done and Spencer started summer school. After an exhausting first part of the month we are back to normal every day life.

All of the recent events have made Spencer and I very grateful for not only our families, but our friends. We have been blessed with great people in our lives that have done so much for us and these things wouldn't have happened without them.

Marriage Is just a few days away!

Well as many of you know Spencer and I get married in about 10 days (May 3). Right now we are both trying to finish our semester at the U and get all ready to graduate and get married. Planning a wedding has been very stressful, but it has also been fun at times. As I think back I don't think I really had all the much time to think about what was going on. I am trying to juggle two jobs, finish school and plan a wedding, which got pretty crazy at times. Thank goodness for my mom and my sisters or nothing would have got planned for the day!

Spencer is staying busy as well with REI, the Army and school. Somehow he always finds time to play, which is one of the reasons I love him so much! The cool thing is we get to walk during graduation together, but he still has the summer semester and then he will start his masters of communication in the fall. Through all of the craziness we found a place to live. We are living at married student housing at the U. It is small, but with both of our fashion sense we have made it pretty cute. Spencer and I can't wait to get married it seems like it has been forever in the works and it is finally here. That is about it for now! The next time I blog will probably be when I am Stephanie Randle (wow if that's not crazy then I don't know what is!)