Winner, winner, pizza, dinner

Jordan won tickets at work to Organ stop pizza for a free lunch on Saturday.  It was really fun.  We invited some of Jordan's coworkers Ruth, Tim and their son Chris to come with us.  

The organ is an old theater organ, the largest in the world! 

It has over 6000 pipes and percussion's.  

 The organist played all different types of music: Phantom of the Opera, Classical, The little mermaid, Star Wars, Mission Impossible and more.

 

I was talking to Ruth about how lucky Jordan seems to be and how he always wins drawings at work. As we are talking they call Jordan's name saying that he had just won a random drawing for a CD of the organist's most requested songs!  It was hilarious! 

One of the things that I love about all the free events that Jordan wins at work is that it takes us to places that we would have never chosen to go to on our own.  When we think of pizza we would have never thought about Organ stop pizza but now that we have gone and had such a good time we would love to go back.   

Fossil Springs

This weekend we had planned a camping trip to fossil springs with Brad and Lindsey. 

Friday night came around and we decided that camping might be a lot of work for overnight so Jordan and I drove to Brad's house on Friday instead and we all made waffles, french toast and bacon for dinner.  We then helped Lindsey finish a project she was working on for church and watched a movie.

Jordan and I stayed the night at Brad's house and got up early Saturday morning, picked up Lindsey and headed to fossil springs.  We drove two hours to Payson and then on what seemed like a never ending bumpy dirt road to get to the trail head. 

It was a short mile hike in. 

Lindsey and I watched these cute families with their kids hiking in with us and we talked about how fun it will be to hike in together with our kids to fossil springs one day.  I love moments like that, that remind us about how eternal our families and friendships can be.

Fossil Springs

 Brad and Lindsey about to jump off the falls.

 Brad and Lindsey

Brook and Jordan

We only stayed until about noon and then hiked out. 

There were a lot of people there, not a lot of shore to just layout and relax and many of the people there were drinking and smoking.  Which normally would not bother me too much but trying to get pregnant  and being around second hand smoke made me really uncomfortable.  

We still had a lot of fun. Brad and Lindsey are officially engaged!  We spent a lot of time talking about how Brad proposed, their wedding plans and how excited we are for them.  

               Jordan and I drove home exhausted from playing in the sun all day.  We made dinner, watched a movie and went to bed early. 

It was a great day. 

Our Fourth of July weekends

Jordan, his Dad and brother Logan planned a five day trip to the Grand Canyon and Toroweap, a remote area in the north rim with an amazing overlook of the canyon.  A weekend of hiking, photography and camping. 

I originally had to work on the fourth so I decided to stay home and skip the Grand Canyon trip. Then at the last minute they gave us Monday off.  I talked to Jordan, talked to my family and decided to go to Boise!  I booked a last minute flight and was able to go from Friday through Monday.  It was a very quick trip but I loved seeing everyone and getting to meet Maya!        

Ella was adorable.  She would not leave my side and said that her favorite part of the day was when I came to visit.  So cute!

 Maya is such a good baby and really funny.  She doesn't 'talk' a lot but she has the biggest smiles and little giggles. She rolls everywhere and bounces around the room.  Its hilarious.  I secretly tried to teach her how to crawl when Caitlin and Ryan were out of the room.  She is soo close. 

 Kresimir gave me the biggest hug when he saw me and we spent Sunday making sugar cookies together.  He loved cutting out the stars for the fourth of July BBQ and wanted so badly to just sit and eat the dough.

 

 Playing in the dirt.

 Beckham got so big!!  He went from a toddler to a little boy!!  I didn't fully understand how much he loves sports.  It was so funny.  He was constantly kicking, throwing and carrying around every ball he could find. 

Kylee is so cute pregnant and I felt baby girl Sayer kick!!  I cant wait to meet her!

The trip was very short but so worth it!  I had so much fun with my family.  I wanted to stay longer but will see them next month for Maya's sealing.   

I loved my weekend in Boise!!

Golfing

Brad and Lindsey invited us to play a round of golf. 

Jordan and Brad played the entire 18 holes and Lindsey and I played half the course.  The guys were very patient with us and taught us a lot about golfing but it was just too hot.  We started at nine in the morning and it was already close to 100 degrees!   

We had a lot of fun but next time we will start earlier.     

Jordan

Brad

Lindsey

Brook and Jordan

Brad and Lindsey

Friends!

Saturday was a busy but really fun day. 

Jordan and I have wanted to try this farmhouse restaurant that is right down the street from us.  We have been told  they serve amazing breakfast.  We got up early and when we saw the long line (which is always a good sign of a great place to eat) we decided to wait to go another morning and went to Ihop instead.  We were invited by Brad and Lindsey to go rock climbing at an indoor climbing gym in Scottsdale that afternoon so we were on a time restriction.

  After breakfast we headed to Scottsdale for an afternoon of climbing, bouldering and slack lining. 

I made it to the top on the easier climbs but need to work on getting in better shape so that I can do some of the more advanced climbs.  I am always impressed watching Jordan climb.  He is so quick and can easily visualize the next hold.    

Brad and Lindsey

 Jordan

After climbing we drove home for a BBQ Jordan put together with some of the members in our ward who live in our apartment complex.  We ended up having quite a large group that showed up including the sister missionaries.  We had to eat in shifts to accommodate the small grill but everyone had a lot of fun.

  Brad, Lindsey, Brad's sister Chelsey and Lindsey's sister Chantalle also came for the BBQ and while most people went swimming after eating we put together a quick game of kick ball.  It ended up being a pretty competitive and dangerous game.  I tripped and "slid" into first base cutting up both knees and  foot, Lindsey got hit a little too hard by the ball knocking the wind out of her and Jordan twisted his ankle twice and spent the rest of the night with ice on his foot.  

We took that as a sign to call it a night and spent the rest of the night talking and relaxing by the pool before they headed back to Glendale. 

It was such a fun day.     

Trip to Havasupi Falls

Jordan and Brad put together a week long camping trip to Havasupi Falls.  There were twelve people in our group: Jordan and I, Brad and his girlfriend Lindsey, two of Lindsey's coworkers Lisa and Lisa and childhood friends of Brads, Josh, Thommy, Pete, Rhett, his room mate Eric and Eric's girlfriend Shannon.   

The first night we drove to the rim and slept in the parking lot in our sleeping bags.  It was really windy and hard to sleep so Josh, Thommy, Pete and Rhett decided to hike during the night.  The rest of our group woke up at 3:45am to be ready to hike by 4:00am.  It was a ten mile hike downhill to the campsites.  I knew it would be a challenge but I had no idea how hard hiking ten miles would be with a twenty pound pack on.  It was brutal.  We were all exhausted and sore by the time we reached the Supai village.  We only had a moment of rest before hiking in the remaining two miles to our campsite.  At the top of the last hill this is what we saw...

Havasu Falls!!   

It was so incredibly beautiful.  The water was crystal clear and the deeper it got the more teal blue it became.  We found an amazing campsite by the river which was shaded most of the day.  We set up camp, rested and then hiked back to the falls to swim. 

Jordan and Brook

Eric, Pete, Rhett and Josh

Brad and Lindsey

Mooney Falls

Mooney Falls was about a 1/4 of a mile past our camp site. 'It is a towering and breathtaking waterfall of about 200 ft. in height. There is a really nice view of the falls from the top, looking down on the enticing pool into which the waterfall drops. The fun part (and scary part) of this waterfall, though, is getting to its base. From the top of the falls, the trail continues down to a warning sign, indicating to proceed at your own risk, and not to try descending in inclement weather.

 Brad and Lindsey

Lisa 

Brook 

From here, you have to squeeze through two narrow tunnels built into the cliff. When you emerge from the tunnels, you are looking straight down the cliff to the pool at the base of the falls, and wondering if you are crazy enough to proceed.

Brad and Lindsey

It is a steep descent. But it is really not too difficult, unless you are scared of heights. There are sturdy chains to hang onto as you work your way down, and many footholds.

Once at the bottom, there is a lot of exploring to do. There is a great pool at the base of the falls for swimming. If you continue down the trail a bit, you will also come across what we are calling Lower Mooney Falls, a small but interesting 20 ft. waterfall. There are great views of the canyon there as well. The trail continues down to Beaver Falls and the Colorado River (another 6 miles downstream, after a lot of creek crossing and wading). '

Thommy

Brad and Lindsey

Brook and Lindsey

Jordan and Brook

Brad and Lindsey

Back at camp during the evenings we would play on the slack line that Brad had brought, read in the hammock, play skipbo and listen to music.  For food we cooked all our meals on propane stoves and ate a lot of oatmeal, Ramon noodles, and granola bars.  Its amazing how good all food tastes when you are camping.     

One of the most fun days we had was the day that we hiked to rock falls. A new waterfall that was created after the flood of 2008. 

Rock Falls

The hike down to the falls.  (It looks a more traitorous than it actually was)

At the top of the falls, lying in the sun after a long day of cliff jumping, diving and swimming. 

 Pete behind the falls getting ready to jump.

  After spending a really fun week in Havasupi little did we know that the adventure would continue.  The hike out was all uphill and I was really nervous about it.  I am naturally a really really slow hiker and hate holding people up.  Jordan understands this and let me go ahead and hike about a half hour ahead of the rest of the group.  They caught up rather quickly and by the time we reached the village I was already tired and sore.  Jordan told me that Rhett and Thommy had decided to pay the money to helicopter them out and that he was going to send me with them.  We ended up taking most of the bags for those who were hiking out to help them with weight. 

Jordan, Brad, Lindsey, Eric and Shannon headed out and within minutes of hiking Jordan witnessed a guy being bucked off and drug by one of the horses that people can ride out of the canyon on.  Brad and Eric both have some emergency training so they stabilized the guy until the doctor could come.  He was in really bad shape.  He had hit his head when he fell and was unconscious for a while.  They ended up lifeflighting him to Flagstaff.  It was scary and set them back two hours before they could start hiking. 

It ended up working out pretty well time wise.  The helicopters are given to locals first and hikers last so we waited about two hours before they even started flying hikers out.  It was my first time in a helicopter.  I cant say it was my favorite thing but it was so much better then ten miles of hiking up hill.  I ended up getting to the top about forty minutes after the rest of the group. 

We drove back to Phoenix and headed straight to Texas roadhouse for dinner.  It was sooooo good.  We all knew exactly what we wanted to order before they seated us. I am sure we looked and smelled wonderful but we didn't care.  It was one of the best meals I have ever had. 

We loved our trip and are already planning another trip for next year.  It was the perfect group of people, the weather was amazing and we all had the best time.  I cant wait to go back!