Francisco Family | Family Portrait

Meet the Francisco's! I met this fun family two years ago on a trip to Arizona. They were in another city when we initially moved to Arizona, but now live only a few doors down from us and it is so great! I enjoy being around them so much. Their hospitality is awesome (I have so much to learn) and their hearts for God is even greater. They encourage me daily and I'm so thankful that they are near and we've gotten to know them.

We decided to go to Tempe Town Lake; which is a really cool area in Tempe. I've been there a few times. In fact, I think I've done three portraits at this location now! :)

Just a side note...some of Noah's facial expressions are priceless. Make sure you look at them. You'll at least smile. :)

Family squeeze! :)

I love this picture. So cute - Love that Noah is hugging Anaiah willingly, too! :)

LOVE the picture of Danielle on the right. That is probably my favorite of this shoot! :)

Love you guys!

Thanks for taking a look! Leave some comments below! :)

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta | Personal Post

I had the chance to go to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta with friends and it was SO MUCH fun! :) Thank you again Laura for inviting us to go! 

These are just a few pictures that I took of our time there. If you've never been, you have to go at least once in your life. It is so beautiful and amazing how these balloons just take off. It almost is surreal!

So here's the story of our time... :)

It poured raining the night before, but luckily it stopped and it allowed for the morning "mass ascension" as they call it, to happen. But, the rain made some nice puddles, which allowed for some great shots! :)

There was so much color at this Fiesta! So many shapes and sizes of balloons too!

So this was my picture taking buddy that day. Thanks Johanna for hanging out with me. :) It was fun!

Johanna acting all cute. :)

My beloved and I. :) I thank God for Him daily. :)

And jump the next day and we're on our way home! And we decided to stop at a random picnic table (with the goodies that Laura's Mom hooked us up with) in a very random city called "Holbrook". This city had random dinosaurs everywhere. And little alien things. It was...interesting. :)

Anyways, Ronnie, Laura and Johanna are acting like monkey's! :) haha

And not sure what we're doing, but we wanted a banana picture too. :)

And a very beautiful sunset followed us home. It was lovely. :)

Thanks for looking!!

{the Grand Canyon trip} | Part 3

And these are the last pictures from our trip. :)

We crossed many creeks on our way to the next campsite. It was fun hopping on rocks. :)

 On our way to Indian Garden still...

So when we got to Indian Gardens we had a little bit more of daylight left, so we decided to go to Plateau Point, especially since the next day we wouldn't be able to. And I'm SO glad we chose to go, even though we were exhausted from the day (the 4.7 miles we hiked up from the Bright Angel Campground to the Indian Gardens). It was so, so beautiful. :)

This is one of my favorite pictures. It is just so beautiful - God is so good!

And this is Plateau Point. I wish I had a way of showing everything I saw at that moment. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Too bad we got there so late. The sun was almost set; I was lucky to get these pictures.

So we departed from the large group and got back into our smaller group of five and headed back up the Bright Angel Trail to the top of the South Rim. The other group had plans to stay another day.

Our last group shot until we got to the top!

Bye friends we just met! :) hehe

Hello beautiful!

So see those trails? Especially the ones on the right? We just went up them. I was so, so tired. 

This is a switchback, in case you didn't know. I didn't know until I got there what it was. And now it's forever etched in my mind. :) Switchbacks while hiking = pain.

See how muddy it was? Craziness!

So, see that last set of switchbacks at the top mid-center of the picture? This was pretty much the last stretch before making it to the top.

And this is from the top!

We made it! YAY!

And here we are! WE DID IT! :) YAY! It was such a wonderful feeling. :) And our celebratory meal was at Olive Garden. We practically spoke about it all the way up. :) hehe And the meal was glorious, too.

WE DID IT!! We were so excited. :) And some of us glad, that we were finished, even though it was such an amazing experience. I am so thankful that Rene invited us to go along with her. What a fun time. And a blessing!

These are our lovely shoes. :) See how they are all muddy. :) Josh is the muddiest! ha! :)

So, if you haven't made it to the Grand Canyon yet...you need to go now. :) Or at least sometime before you die. 

{the Grand Canyon trip} | Part 2

Here's part two to our expedition in the Grand Canyon!!

So on our third day we met up with Rene's sister, Christine, who had her friends with her and we hiked up to Indian Gardens, which is 4.7 miles (I think--forgetting specifics here) from the bottom of the canyon (Bright Angel Campground).

Crossing the Colorado River! :)

Looking down...looks chilly!

God, again, amazes me with his artwork. :)

The men of our group!

All the siblings together. :) I really like them.

So my shoes are sorta muddy here, but as you look at part three, you'll see how muddy they go. It was insane how muddy the top of the trail was!!

Those trails you see are apart of the "Devil's Corkscrew" - and a nightmare they are! It was pretty intense, but we made it up fine. :)

Part three is coming up next!

{the Grand Canyon trip} | Part 1

I had the most AMAZING opportunity to go to the Grand Canyon to CAMP for 4 DAYS last month!! It was SO SO SO amazing!!! I couldn't have asked for a better time! I went with an old friend from Dallas and her brother, Josh, and our friend Laurie. There were 5 of us and we had a BLAST! So I have WAY too many pictures to show, but I shall do this in "segments". So this is Part 1! ENJOY! :) :)

So my pack was packed, weighed about 40 lbs...which was a lot, but I managed. :) On th way up, it actually snowed. I was so surprised. But it was sooo beautiful!

Our friends that told us about their trip and invited us on (the two to the left). Our Laurie, to the right. We were really excited!

The most youthful of us all. :) 

Here we are, all set and ready to go! :)

And beautiful it was. Seeing this makes me believe even more in a designer God, who made all of this. This just couldn't have 'happened'. It was so beautiful. So beautiful.

Siblings! Yay!

There we are! We agreed that this would be like our 4 year Anniversary (Jan 13 is our anniversary)/Christmas gift. :) Great gift, i think!! :)

My handsome man. :)

So we were very close to being to our campsite by this point. The sun was setting pretty quick though! We made it there by dark. Which explains the next picture. :)

We made it there by dark, we ate in the dark. :) Fun times. Mountain House is pretty good, by the way. I was pretty surprised!

Inside the tent..so nice, warm and cozy. :) As you can see it rained on us that night. Actually, from what I remember it rained on us a lot!

Day hike time! So this day hike to Ribbon Falls, we thought halfway through that it was only 4.6 miles...but it was actually 5.7 miles one way! So...to say the least, we were pretty exhausted that day!

So I am not in too many of these pictures so I asked Josh to take one of me as I was walking. It looks so posed. lol

Robbey, the youthful of us, carried everything (water, food, clothes, etc) for us on our day hike..including Josh's camelback. :) It was fun to see Josh reach over and drink water out of his pack. :)

So this is Ribbon Falls. Unfortunately...this is the only picture that came out. :( I was so exhausted that I just stopped taking pictures. I should have taken more, but I didn't. Oh well. :) I have the memories at least!

And on our way back, we were pretty much consumed by fog. It was insane! While walking through I thought I was on the set of Lord of the Rings. It was very 'epic' as Rene called it.

Okay, proof that we actually did go 5.7 miles there and 5.7 back - look at the sign above! :) 

Part 2 is coming soon!