Beaver Creek Trip 2014

Every year for the past 6 or so years, our family has gone up to Beaver Creek, CO during the first weekend of December. Last year, the babies were just 6 weeks old when we went! We all look forward to this trip the entire year. This year, it was a smaller crew than normal because none of the Moore family was able to make it -- hopefully next year they'll be back :)  The smaller (not so small) group included my parents, Brian, Terrisa, Paisley, Parker, Emily, Hannah, Jeremiah, George, Madeline, and me! 

I had an especially great time this year. Last year, I didn't feel like I was able to enjoy it quite as much because, well, I had a 6 week old baby who we were traveling with for the first time! It was also awesome this year because George has become a pretty solid skier so we can ski everything together. 

Here's a look at our trip:

The play room and game room were a new addition to the hotel this year. One of the nights, we ordered pizza and had a game night to celebrate Hannah's 20th birthday. It got pretty competitive! 

 

Paisley, Parker, and Madeline made themselves at home in the game room!

 

There was a new little ski bunny on the slopes this year too -- Miss Paisley tried out skiing for the first time. Grandpa and Daddy did a lesson during one of the mornings. A few more years and she'll be on the mountain with the rest of us!

 

The kids love their Aunt Hannah and Aunt Emily! They're pretty awesome aunts :)

Love my little family -- 

FYI Madeline does not ever look at the camera (seriously...just wait until you get our Christmas card...we couldn't get one picture with her looking at the camera. Haha)

 On Saturday afternoon, we hired a babysitter to watch the three kids so that we could all ski together. Here is a group shot. Check out those mountains! 

The girls...

Dad and Terrisa

From left to right: George, Terrisa, Jeremiah, Emily, Hannah, Dad

Mom and Dad

George, Me, Brian

Paisley and her little snowman!

I'll leave you with these pictures of my cutie pie checking out the big Christmas tree. 

 11 days until Christmas!! :) 

12 Months of Madeline

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! It was so nice to have 4 days off of work to relax, get caught up on stuff, and hang out with family. We are looking forward to another short week this week. We head up to Colorado for 5 days for our annual Beaver Creek ski trip. We all look forward to this trip every year. I will post pictures of it next week. I didn't get too many pictures from Thanksgiving, but I do have some other pictures I've been meaning to post. 

Back when Madeline and Parker were first born, my mom got Terrisa and I iron-ons for each month. It was difficult to get pictures of our squirmy and active girl, but we did manage to get something for each month! 

It is so fun to see how she has changed over the year. Here they are...

One and Two Months

 

Three and Four Months

 Five and Sixth Months

Seven and Eight Months

 Nine and Ten Months

 Eleven and Twelve Months

 We are SO thankful for this little girl :)

Bergie's Coffee House Gig

Last night, George and two of his friends, Derek and Davis, played at a Bergie's Coffee House in downtown Gilbert. They did a great job!! Here are some pics and video from last night!

Parker loved listening to the music! He was even singing along :) 

Yolanda (George's Grandma), Anna (George's mom), and Carla (Anna's friend)

Some of our friends: Kelly (Derek's fiancé), Nick, Jim, and Nik

George and his Grandma

I'm so mad at myself. I was so busy taking video, that I never got a picture of Madeline. She looked so cute in her little jacket and hat! Next time! They are playing at Bergie's again on December 20. 

I hope all of these videos work so that you can hear some of the music! They played all Beatles last night. They normally play a mixture of Beatles and other stuff, but this time they decided to go all Beatles. 

Hope you enjoy :)

Hugs!

On Saturday, Parker came over to hang out with us while Brian, Terrisa, and Paisley went to the ASU game.  It was a great game and ASU won (we watched it on TV)!! We don't get a chance to hang out with Parker as much as we did when Paisley was little so was nice to have him around for the day. He is such a sweet little guy!! He is seriously so smiley -- it is adorable!

We were cracking up because Madeline kept on hugging Parker. Parker reluctantly dealt with her smothering him :) We always ask her for hugs, but this was totally spontaneous and unprompted, which made it even cuter. Here's are a couple of pictures of the hugs.

In addition to the hugs, Madeline enjoyed giving Parker his paci, despite the fact that he already had one in his mouth. George always says that Madeline thinks she is much older than she really is -- on Saturday, she thought that she was the babysitter :) 

We had a full weekend. On Friday night, I volunteered with Anna through her company. We worked a silent auction at a charity event in Scottsdale. It was a fancy dinner event at a resort so it was fun to see everyone dressed up. On Saturday, we had two birthday parties -- one for Madeline's friend from Gwen's house at the Scottsdale train park (Parker came with us) and then Nick's 30th birthday party at our house in the evening. On Sunday, I went to a bridal shower for Emily's best friend, Liza. Madeline and I hit the outlet mall in the afternoon while George had guitar practice. George and Derek are playing at Bergie's Coffee House in Gilbert on November 22 from 6-8PM. Come check them out if you live in the valley!

Havasupai Falls Video

Check out the video of our hike that Kyle Hobson made! You can also check out his Facebook  page: https://www.facebook.com/sharingstoriesgua?pnref=story

Havasupai Falls Hike

We survived our big Grand Canyon hike this past weekend. It was an adventure, that's for sure. It wasn't easy, but I am so happy that I did it -- it was truly a great experience. We have tons of pictures so I tried to pick out some of my favorites from throughout the three days. 

On Thursday night, we all drove up to Seligman, AZ where we stayed in a motel for the night. 

On Friday morning, we loaded up with a warm breakfast in Seligman and then headed to the trailhead, about an hour and a half from Seligman. We started the hike down at about 10AM. With some stops along the way and an hour stop in the Supai village, it took us about 6-7 hours to get down to camp. We set up camp, took a refreshing dip in Havasupai Falls, and ate our first meal at the camp.  Jumping into the (cold) water and swimming around was definitely a highlight. We were all pretty beat from the hike in so we called it an early night. Our tents were right next to a creek which provided relaxing background noise while sleeping. 

On Saturday, we hiked to Mooney Falls and Beaver Falls. The roundtrip was about 6 miles and consisted of all types of terrain from creeks, planks of wood over large ditches, caves, open fields, and cliffs! If we weren't hurting from Friday, we were certainly hurting by Saturday evening! 

And finally, on Sunday, we left camp at 5AM and began our 10 mile journey back. By the end, George and I were moving pretty darn slow, but we all stayed together (thanks, guys!) and made it back in one piece. It was truly an amazing sense of accomplishment to make it to the top. 

Last night, we enjoyed rinsing off, warm water, our comfortable bed, and being home with our little girl! What a great weekend! 

**Photo Credit to Emily and Kyle**

This is our "before" group picture (from left to right: Emily, George, Brian, Heather, Brent, Hannah, Kyle, Jeremiah, Terrisa, Patty, Dad)

George and I -- this is the best we looked all weekend! 

Patty, Hannah, and Jeremiah. Patty is Hannah's good friend from ASU

A bunch of pictures from the hike down...

 

Horses bringing mail to the village. We saw all sorts of things being brought down on horses, from boxes of Lay's potato chips to an HP printer! There's also a couple of helicopters that go to/from the village with deliveries. At one point, we saw a vehicle hanging from a helicopter! 

 

Our home for the weekend!

Our first evening when everyone jumped into the water. Shortly after this picture, everyone convinced Terrisa, Emily, and me to jump in!

Pictures from our day hike on Saturday...

 

And finally, a couple of pictures from our last day. We were all focused on getting out so there weren't as many pictures from Sunday!

We made it!! 

Thanks to Brian who organized the hike and encouraged us all to go!