Brunch and Babies

We were lucky enough to spend this weekend eating brunch and drinking mimosas! On Saturday we spent most of the day with our friends the Youngbloods and the Moersfelders. Eliana and Parker (below) are almost birthday twins. Eliana was born on May 7th and Parker arrived on May 10th. It is really fun to see them together. I couldn't resist adding this series of photos where Eliana maintains this totally stoic look and Parker is full of fun faces. Adorable.

Here's Taylor, Parker's big sister, showing off her dance moves for Greg.

On Sunday we went out to Tanya's house for another binge of brunch. Two more of Eli's friends, Annalise and Kaya, were there. She's a very busy 8 (almost 9) month old!

Next weekend we are going to take a break from brunch and babies and focus on riding a (hopefully) very powdery mountain!

Two more from the snowshoeing adventure...

The sign...by Greg's request. We were on the Snow Bunny trail. 2.5 miles on the trail.

Apres hike Hazel let Eli ride on her sled. She dug it.

Snowshoeing

Last weekend we went up to the mountain to snowshoe with our friend Eryn and her daughter, Hazel. It was snowing a lot and it felt so good to get out and move around. We didn't bring the snowboards. That was a mistake. Our new rule is that we take the boards - always. That way we can stop and take a few runs before heading home.

We only saw two other people on the trail. It was super peaceful - except for a 15 to 20 minute screamfest from Eliana toward the end. We may have pushed our luck a little...

A view of the trail

Eryn and a tired Hazel. Both girls were asleep for the majority of the hike.

Eli and Greg

What a good sport. Getting her ready for a life full of cold weather experiences.

Such a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

¡Manos Arriba!

Eliana is showing us that her language skills are coming along. "Manos arriba" means "hands-up" in Spanish. She has this figured out and it cracks us up.

Salmon River Hike

On the first weekend in December we went for a short hike along the Salmon River Trail in the shadow of Mt. Hood. It was incredible. Winter hikes are great.

There was a light dusting of snow on the trail.

Big old growth Douglas-fir trees lined the trail.

Enjoying the view of the Salmon River.

Eli was thrilled to be in the woods. She was constantly looking around checking everything out. After about 45 minutes on the trail she passed out and enjoyed a nap on my back.

Working our way back to the car.

The Salmon River looked real cold.

Stiles Cousins

This post has been in purgatory for too long. My bad. My cousins from Colorado visited back in August. We fired up the BBQ and hung out on the back deck. Good times.


Adam gets his baby Eli fix.


Jessie's turn to get her baby fix.


Patrick and Adam looking tough.


Sue and baby Eli.


The Stiles Clan.


Best of all Patrick has an awesome Stiles tattoo on his back! This is awesome Patrick. Check out the Stiles family crest on the Stiles Family of America website.

Aspen, Halloween, Floors

It's been busy since our last post: we travelled to Aspen, Halloween happened, we had the wood floors in our house redone, Eliana's two bottom teeth came in and now we are blessed with her first cold.

Team Stiles on the move with the Maroon Bells in the background. Weather was perfect!

Eli and Greg at the Continental Divide (obviously)...

It was cold and sometimes we are bad parents.

Getting ready for Halloween in her outfit from Nana.

Greg cooking up our Halloween lobster dinner.

We moved out to our friend's house for a week so that the floors could be refinished and had to remove furniture from all three of the bedrooms. This is where we slept the night we came back - in the kitchen.

The house is almost put back together and we are so pleased with the results. Jeff at Select Wood Floors did a really good job.

It's been a great fall, but now we are dreaming of powder.