Colter Bay, 2012

July 19th- July 30th

Once Todd got back from his trip to Utah, we had 5 days together in Richmond before I left.  One of the main reasons for my trip was my family's annual vacation to Colter Bay in Grand Teton National Park.  This is one of my favorite places and I love going every year.  It's so fun to be there with the whole family.  Thanks to my grandma and grandpa Kapple for making it happen every year.     

I love this place.  It is so beautiful and has the best views in the world.  I love these mountains! 

We spent the week boating on Jackson Lake.  The water is freezing but it didn't stop us from getting in.      

 

My sister and her cute family.  The kids loved tubing!

 

I loved hanging out with these two! 

Henry liked me a little more then Lenna did this time.  She had too many cousins to play with and I apparently wasn't that cool.  One day at the beach, I told her to come here so I could tell her something. She turned to me and said "No, I have to go talk to my friends."

Henry turned 1 while we were there! He loved his cake until he realized that everyone was watching him and laughing at him!  He's very tenderhearted and didn't like all the attention apparently. 

One of my favorite things there is all the trails to go hiking and running on.  This year, my dad planned a hike to Holly Lake.  It was so pretty and on the way back down we literally ran into a bear.  We were running back down to the parking lot and the bear was right on the trail.  He didn't seem to mind us though, he was busy eating all the huckleberries.  

(Me and my cousin, Paige)

After the hike, we meet the rest of the family at Moose Falls.  Each year we come here to jump off the rocks.    

It's always sad to see this trip come to an end.  The week goes by way too fast.

(Me, my mom, and my sister)

The last day :(
Next year, we'll hopefully have more people in our family there!

Mt Hood

This summer, Todd and I took separate trips home due to school and work schedules.  Todd flew home the day after we got back from St Kitts.  He had his whole trip planned with everything he loves to do.  He didn't waste one minute and played hard the whole time.  If he wasn't biking he was climbing, if he wasn't boating he was golfing, and the list goes on.  While he was there, he planned a bike trip to Oregon with his brothers and some friends and loved every minute of it.  They also climbed Mt Hood, the highest peak in Oregon.  These are the only pictures he took of his whole trip.  I guess the rest of the time, he was having way too much fun!

Pre Hike
Cole, Logan, Brandon, Devin, Taylor, Cameron, Todd

 

Todd and his brothers on the summit and a view from the top.

He's done!

August 15th, 2012

Todd finally completed Step 1 Boards!  We are both so happy it's over.  He had to take them in Newport News because the testing center in Richmond was full that day so he drove down with Kurt, who was also taking it.  I spent the whole day at work looking at the weather!  Of course, that afternoon there was severe thunderstorm warnings right where he was taking it.  I was so nervous and just wanted him to finish!! Luckily, we had no tornados or power outages that day.  I was so relieve when he called to tell me he was done.  To celebrate, Paige and I drove to Williamsburg to meet the guys at Busch Gardens.  We were all so excited and happy to finally have that test behind us.

Todd's last day of studying. Goodbye First Aid! 

Busch Gardens with the Olson's (and the Church's!)  They even had a firework show to end our night of celebrating!

Todd has now officially started his 3rd year of medical school.  His first rotation is Family Med and he started it Monday.  So far he is loving it and comes home everyday with so many things to tell me.  It's nice that I can finally relate to things he's doing and understand what he's talking about.   

Celebrations!

I feel like for the last few weeks we have been doing a lot of celebrating!  My birthday was at the end of July and I was in Colter Bay with my family.  Since, I wasn't going to be with Todd on my actual birthday, we started celebrating the week before I left.  He took me to a delicious birthday dinner at Julep's.  Then, on our family trip my mom went all out this year and even had party hats and everything.  However, I soon found out that the party hats were for a group picture my mom wanted to send to my brother on a mission for his birthday the following week!! 

Then when I got back to Richmond, my friend Lara planned a birthday lunch for me. These girls are all so sweet and make living away from home so much better!

(Heather, Natalie, Me, Jessica, Ashlee, Cassidi, Paige, Lara)

Our anniversary is just 2 weeks after my birthday so the celebrating continued!  We went to the Jefferson Hotel and ate at Lemaire.  I love the Jefferson's Hotel.  It is so beautiful and dinner was excellent.  And when they brought out our dessert, they had written "Happy Anniversary" on the plate.  We were impressed!!    

 I was definitely spoiled and got to celebrate all month long!

And hopefully we will be celebrating again this week after Todd takes his Step 1 Boards (again) on Wednesday!!  Wish him luck and pray for good weather!!

4 years

4 years ago, I married this guy. He's pretty awesome!
And life just keeps getting better with him. Happy Anniversary Babe! I love you.

St Kitts

June 26th- July 3rd

Well after all the chaos the day before, we arrived in the beautiful island of St Kitts on June 26th.  We stayed at the Marriott Resort and had a great time.  Most of our days consisted of laying by the pool or at the beach.  It was so nice.  

Todd golfed one day and loved it.  The course was beautiful.  The last few holes were all along the ocean.  I tagged along to drive the cart and to be his "caddy."  I did sneak in one hole!

The resort had so many things to do.  Tons of activities and games to play.  I finally found something I can beat Todd at... Shuffle Board! Yes, its totally an old person game (Can you even call it a game?!) but we had a lot of fun playing.  He claims the only reason he lost is because he got a "cramp" in his leg.

We hiked Mt Liamuiga, which is a dormant volcano.  The island makes you use a guide service which we were originally annoyed about but it turned into a really funny day.  There were 4 other people that hiked with us and they were quite the family.  It was a dad, his two daughters and their step mom.  The step mom made the hike so entertaining.  Hiking was definitely not her thing!

We rented a car and drove around the island one day.  We stopped at the Brimstone Hill Fortress, Rawlins Plantation, and the Ottley Plantation for lunch.

Brimstone Hill Fortress was one of the first settlements in the Western Hemisphere.  Both the French and the English settled on St Kitts in the 1620's.  They fought over control of the island leading the British to construct Brimstone Hill Fortress.

Rawlins Plantation was apparently shut down.  However, the gardens were still beautiful.  As we were walking around, we saw an Art Gallery and the door was open so we wandered in.  That's where we met artist Kate Spencer.  She is from England but is now living in St Kitts to paint.  What a life! Her view from her studio was amazing.  We were jealous!  Todd wanted to buy a painting but nothing was in our price range.  Maybe in 20 years.

We also saw some monkeys off the side of the road and a huge pig named Wilbur at the beach we stopped at.

The St Kitts Musical Festival was going on while we were there and they had a reggae night.  Damian Marley was performing so we decided to go.  We soon learned that they do concerts differently.  It was scheduled to start at 8pm.  So we got there a little before 8 and we were the only ones there beside the workers.  So we found a nice seat and finally around 9pm they started with the first artist.  The concert ended up going till 4:30 am! And of course, Damian was the last one to go on.  Todd wanted to stay to hear him.  He finally went on about 2:45am so we listened to a few songs and then headed back to the hotel at 3:30am.  It was definitely a concert we'll remember! Damian was awesome and his dreads were very impressive.  They literally touched the ground.  He was on our flight to Miami so I snuck some pictures of him in the airport!  

We were also able to go to church while we were there.  It was really neat to be back in the Caribbean and see Todd back where he served his mission.  He truly loves these people.

We had a great trip and can't wait to go back to the Caribbean again!