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! 

1st Birthday!

I can't believe it, my baby is one!! How did that happen so fast?  It has been a wonderful year. On Tuesday night (the day before her bday), I was thinking back to myself a year ago. I had no idea what I was in store for. I was about to feel such an indescribable amount love for the little baby inside of me. I was also about to experience the challenges and worries that go along with being a parent. I remember feeling euphoric for days after I had her -- then, of course, sleep deprivation set-in! :)

Here's a little bit about our big 1 year old: 

-Madeline is an very active little girl. She is always on the move! She actually has been from day one. Even as a newborn, Madeline was extremely squirmy! 

-Loves dancing! She has these little watches that play music and they are her favorite toy. She presses the button and starts to dance. She also likes it when we dance too :)

-First word was Dada. She now says Momma, Duck, Noooo (and shakes her head), and lots of "baby talk"

-Loves her little singing dog named Violet. Violet and some other stuffed animals sleep with her every night. 

-Walks all over the place and soon to be running, I think!

-Recently learned how to give a hug and kiss (Mommy and Daddy ask for a lot of those) 

-Pretty good sleeper -- goes to bed easily at 7:30PM and wakes up around 6AM

-Enjoys bananas, yogurt, and apple sauce (she doesn't seem to be too picky)

-Very loved by her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and more!

We celebrated Madeline's 1st birthday and Parker's 1st birthday this past Sunday with a Hoedown! Here are some pictures...

For lunch, we did a chili bar. We did three types of chili, hotdogs, corn bread, baked potatoes, and a bunch of other yummy stuff. For dessert, we my mom made these adorable sunflower cupcakes!

We had all kinds of western decor. My mom also made this table runner. 

 The kids panned for gold!

Photo opp! 

Some family shots...

 Aunt Emily with the birthday boy and girl! 

Madeline taking a break from the party for a quick bottle // Grandma and Grandpa Warren with the grandkids!

This was the extent of Madeline's cowboy hat wearing...she was not a fan :)

 

The cowboy and cowgirl!

 The western town that we made out of boxes...

Birthday cupcakes...

 

We found out that Madeline does not like the feeling of frosting all over her hands. Parker enjoyed it though! :)

Tomorrow, Parker turns one too!! He's celebrating in Atlanta. Happy Birthday, buddy!! 

More Walking

With the weekend coming to a close, I wanted to show you all a quick video of Madeline walking! At this point, I'd say that she is walking more than she is crawling. After church this morning, she wanted to walk to the car. He's a little video of it...

We are getting ready for Madeline and Parker's birthday next weekend. It is Cowboy and Cowgirl theme. Here's the invitation that we sent out. I'll post a bunch of pictures after the party.

Our friends Sergio and Andi are coming into town next weekend too. I have been needing to organize our two extra bedrooms and company coming into town is a good reason to get the job done. It's been a lot bigger undertaking than I expected, but I'll be so happy when it's done!! Part of the goal of this project is to have a dedicated craft room :) 

Officially Walking!

We've been having a really exciting weekend over here -- Madeline is WALKING!! She dabbled throughout the week and now she is really getting the hang of it. There is definitely some wobbles going on, but she is consistently trying. It's so cute because she is proud of herself when she goes a longer distance....well, George and I do cheer and clap so I'm sure that has something to do with it :)  

Here's a video of the walking. I like this video because you can see Madeline walking and hear George playing piano!

Madeline loves hopping up onto the piano bench with George. She bangs away! 

 Yesterday morning, I went to our garden to do some work. There are some tomato plants from the people who had the plot before us. They are cherry tomatoes and they are coming in nicely! 

We have been working hard to clean up the plot (there were a ton of weeds) and prep it for planting. My goal yesterday was to finish tilling. It might not look like much, but I'll tell ya what, tilling isn't easy!  The next step is to mix in compost and then plant our seeds! Yesterday, there was also a community garden get-together. The community garden council informed us that NBC National News will be doing a special on Agritopia and the community garden. I don't know the details yet, but I'll post them on here once I hear! 

The weather has been shaping up around here. Yesterday we enjoyed lunch outside at Postino in downtown Gilbert.

We spent last night watching the ASU vs. USC game on TV. I normally don't discuss sports on here, but the game was SO good. ASU won in the last few seconds with a Hail Mary after USC was ahead for the entire second half. George and I were screaming and cheering...I still can't believe that Madeline slept through all of our noise :)

This morning, we did the Walk for Hope with General Mills. The walk was at the Phoenix Zoo so along the route, we stopped to look at all of the animals. Afterward, we went downtown to Matt's Big Breakfast and to see Hannah's dorm room. So, yeah...great weekend...and it's not over! :)