Monthly Archive for August, 2009

Havasupai trip in Pictures! Words can’t describe it!!!

Published
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Caci
on August 31, 2009
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We just got back from Havasupai and oh my goodness, it was indescribable.  Totally breathtaking.  Words can NOT describe how AMAZING it was!!! I don’t have time to give a verbal update, so I will just put up a bunch of pics and write up a post later.   IT WAS AWESOME!!!

Starting the descent from the cliff top to the valley– mile one of the 10 mile hike.

Trevor and his 75 pound load.

Me and my 40 lb  load.  Believe me– it sounds light but after mile 7 I thought I would die.

Jace spent the most of the time like this.  The sun just wears that little dude out.

Seeing Havasupai falls for the first time!  They were UNBELIEVABLE!  We just hiked through death for mile after mile and then out of nowhere these giant, beautiful, blue green falls appear.  Amazing!

Jace loved them and he was sooooo happy to be out of the baby backpack.

Jace was so good the entire time.  He didn’t cry or complain once.  He is such a trooper!

There are tons and tons of falls that come off the main falls.  The water is a unique blue green color because of the high concentrations of lime and travertine.  It is like nothing you have ever seen!

Starting the climb down to Mooney Falls.  This is about a mile south of the campgrounds and it is HUGE!

We hiked down to the falls just as the sun was going down behind the cliffs so we got the last rays of sunlight and the falls all to ourselves!

Getting ready to jump in for the first time.  The air was about 113 degrees and the water about 68 degrees– quite the shock first getting in!

A cool pic courtesy of my awesome photographer husband.

If you look at that little round thing in the spray of the falls, that’s my head!  I swam into the falls and boy oh boy was that exhilarating!  It is pushing you down the whole time and the winds are ferocious and the spray makes it so you can’t breath at all.  IT IS AMAZING!  The sheer power is indescribable!

Right after conquering the falls!  I guess jumping from the top would be more of a conquering, but swimming under them must count for something!

Starting the terrace hike down the canyon from Mooney Falls.

Trevor being a daredevil over the canyon falls.  He is hanging from the tree on the left.  He climbs…

.. and he leaps!

Hiking along the canyon.

This was the natural spring that we got our water from!

We hiked to Havasupai falls again the next morning.  Trevor also hiked to them alone in the middle of the night because it was too hot to sleep.  I, on the other hand, was passed out cold from exhaustion.

After how tough the hike in with our packs was, we decided to have the mules carry out Trevor’s pack and then he would cary Jace.  We woke at 5:30am to make sure we caught them (which is why Jace looks so grumpy).  If we missed them we would have DIED on the way out!

Jace LOVED the mules and made us wait until they had packed everything out before he would let us continue on to the falls.

Jace was playing around on this swing and it came back, hit him in the eye, and gave him a shiner.  Poor guy…

This is how Jace spent 75% of the trip!  He is SUCH a good baby!  He NEVER complained!

Here Trevor is starting the descent down to Mooney Falls.  It was soooo treacherous!  Since this is an Indian reservation, typical American safety laws and codes don’t apply.  We climbed down the steep, slick, cliff face on extremely primitive chains and hooks.  It was seriously so intense.  At the bottom everyone was AMAZED that Trevor packed Jace down on his back.  I think very few babies have been there.

At the head of the canyon at the base of Mooney Falls.

There was this cavern that was completely covered in moss and ferns with water falls cascading over the sides. People call it the green room.  It was so incredibly beautiful!  It is hard to believe that things this beautiful just naturally exist!  It looked like something out of a botanical garden.

We found a rope swing that dropped into a deep pool and played there for the morning.  So fun!

I always seemed to miss the deep pool!  I have zero aim!

Jace would run up and give us a high five after every jump.  He is so precious!

There are caves cut high up into the cliffs that the ancient indians used to store the bones of the elders.  There is nothing in them now, but someone climbed up into this one and drew Krishna.

Jace at the base of Mooney Falls.  He was stunned by them.

Starting the ascent out of Mooney Falls.  Seriously, the pictures can’t convey how extremely treacherous the climb is.

One of my favorite pics!  This is right after we climbed through the first cave and it opens up to a view of the falls.

Climbing out of the second tunnel.  ”Exercise Extreme Caution”.  Indeed!

It was amazing!!!  We are totally going back ASAP and want to have our next family reunion there.  It is seriously indescribable seeing it in person.  We had a blast!

Big Changes for the Suttner Family!

Published
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Caci
on August 27, 2009
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Big changes are happening in my family right now!  After my mom and dad graduated from BYU, they moved to St. George and opened a countertop shop.  Over 15 years they expanded and grew until they had the largest granite countertop chain in America and most likely the world.  Yeah– my parents are butt kickers.  With the turn of the economy it became difficult to keep profit margins up and my dad decided it was time for a change, so, at the age of 50 he decided to go to law school.  Is he ambitious or what?!

About two weeks ago he got accepted to Toledo Law School in Ohio and classes started three days later so my mom called us up to tell us he was leaving.  Trevor, Jace, and I immediately drove to Las Vegas, stayed the night with the Chapmans, and then Trevor drove back to Arizona for work and Mom Chapman drove Jace and I to St. George (thanks!!).  We helped my mom pack everything up for my dad and we had a farewell party, went to the temple grounds where we always used to go when we were younger and got ice cream.  These are all the kids still left at home– Lia is in New Haven, CT and Jini, Kinsi, Davy, and I are at BYU.  Chari is moving during her Junior year (poor girl!), Gabe is in 8th grade, and Boe is in 4th.

When my dad was a teenager, he was a real punk.  So much in fact, that when he came home from highschool graduation, on the doorstep in a box was all his stuff with two bottles of whiskey and a note that said, “Don’t come back.”  That has become a tradition in our family when we leave for college.  The morning we leave, my mom puts our suitcases on the driveway with two bottles of pop and a similar note.  We did the same for my dad.  Is that like a twisted family tradition or what?  hahaha!  I swear my family is usually normal!

The next morning he left!  He is going to be there for this semester and then my family will move out after Christmas.  It is really exciting, and I am so excited for this new chapter in my family’s lives, but I am soooooooooooo sad to not have St. George as “home”.  Jace and I are staying with the family to spend as much time as possible with them before school starts on Monday.  We have been having a blast playing games, shopping like mad, baking, picking fruit, going to the splash pad, watching movies, and just having fun.

Jace and I always go to Boe’s school and have lunch with him when we are down and Jace LOVES being with all the big kids.  We also went to Chari’s soccer game yesterday and she scored a goal– the score was 6-1 against our arch rival, Dixie.  WASSSSSSUP!!!!!

I love shopping in St. George because my mom lets me dress her up and pick out all her outfits so we always spend two or three days shopping so I can restock her wardrobe.  She is the cutest!

I made a quilt for Jace that highlights the coolest things that happened during his second year (he turns three in 2 months!!) He picked out all the fabrics– it is all his favorite things.  I just finished today and it is sooooo cute!  But it is a bummer because the pictures are already rubbing off!

I also made him an owl plush toy and Boe loved it so much that he asked me if I would give it to him, so I let him have it, so he and Jace are constantly fighting over rights to this little owl.  I’m glad such a silly little toy is so loved!

I also died my hair black!  I feel so cool when my hair is black.  This is me being cool.

Oh a terrible thing happened.  When I died my hair, I forgot to buy gloves, so my hands were totally died black.  I soaked my hands in bleach and scrubbed them to death with this acids stuff and it got my hands pretty clean but NOTHING would get the dye off my fingernails.  They were totally black.  So I painted them green and then it was fine.  The next day my mom and I wanted to do an endowment session at the temple, and I did not know what to do about them.  I had to take the green polish off because it was totally not temple appropriate, but underneath was my horrid black nails.  So I painted them with white polish but since they were so black, it just turned out a putrid shade of yellow.  I looked diseased.  It was sooo embarrassing.  The whole time I sat with my hands folded out of sight.  Let me tell ya– of you dye your hair black, wear gloves.

That’s a quick recap of the past week!  Trevor, Jace, my mom, and I go to Havasupai tomorrow!  It’s going to be so fun!  And the biggest news…. It’s our 4 year anniversary today!!!  4 years!!  It is surreal!  And we aren’t even together on it!  He is in Arizona and I am in St. George.  Oh well, we will be together tomorrow! Happy Anniversary, Trevor!!!

**Update** I just posted this and then there was a knock at the door– it was the florist with a BEAUTIFUL arrangement of roses!  It is gorgeous!  Trevor is sooooo sweet!

We FINALLY got reservations! Havasupai, baby!

Published
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Caci
on August 17, 2009
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I have been trying to get us reservations at Havasupai in the Grand Canyon for the past 5 months!  The season fills up almost immediatly, and I can never even get through on the phone.  The summer was drawing to an end and I STILL hadn’t been able to get reservations, so I called them at 6am!  And they answered!!  And they very rudly told me to call back at 9 when they were open.  So I paced around for 2.5 hours and then called again at 8:30 am and I got through again and the guy took my reservation!  And he felt bad for being such a jerk 2.5 hours earlier, so he gave me a half price deal– only $85 for two days!  The only days available were August 28, 29, and 20 so we are going to go and them immediately drive up to BYU to start school the next day.  We are going to be exhausted with the 20 mile, gear laden, rapid hike and immediate drive to Provo– so exciting!

At Havasu you have to hike 10 miles in– there are no roads.  You can get mules or a helicopter to fly in your gear, otherwise, it is all on your back.  I will have Jace in the baby backpack and Trevor will have all our gear– it is going to be sooooo fun!!!  I have been wanting to hike Havasu for almost 4 years and I can never get reservations!  HOW EXCITING!  I doubt there is anyone who doesn’t know what Havasu is, but just in case, here is some info on it.  It is going to be magical!

Oh the endless possibilities!

Published
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Caci
on August 15, 2009
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We have reached a milesstone in parenthood.  Last night we took the plunge and took Jace to a movie theatre.  We have taken him before, but it was to children’s movies, so of course he would behave.  We were still shell shocked from when we were kicked out of Transformers when he was 7 months old (and let me tell you, he was being an angel! We just had GROUCHES sitting next to us).  We took him to see Star Trek last night and we were a little nervous.  We prepped him with proper theatre etiquette before hand, over and over and over.  We stocked up with candy to keep his little mouth busy so it wouldn’t be jabbering the whole time.  We went as late as we could so he would hopefully fall asleep mid-through when he might get restless.  We did all the necessary preperations, and…. He was WONDEFUL!

He sat through the whole thing, completely engrossed in the movie!  haha It was SOOOOO cute!  He was on the edge of his seat the whole time, looking over at me with dropped jaw and wide eyes at appropriate times, and covering his face during the scary parts.  He LOVED it!  This has opened the door to endless possibilities!  We can take him to comedy shows, music productions, heck, we can even try ballet!  We are sooooooo excited!

We’re going to Thailand!!!

Published
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Caci
on August 14, 2009
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Our 4 year anniversary is this month, so we have been trying to decide where to go to celebrate and we decided… Thailand!!!  We are so excited!  We just bought the tickets!  For our three year anniversary we backpacked through Costa Rica and Panama, for our two year we basked at a luxury resort in Jamaica, the year before I was about to pop, being 8 months along with Jace, so we went to San Francisco, and this year…. THAILAND!!

Brooke’s baby is due September 17th, and it could come earlier or later, so we decided we better stick around for September because we wouldn’t miss that for anything.  So we are going to leave October 1 and get back October 10th.  I will celebrate my birthday in Thailand!  How exotic!  We are so excited!

The Mudpie Bakery: Little League Giant Soft Pretzels

Published
by
Caci
on August 11, 2009
in Uncategorized
. 9 Comments

Jace demonstrates a perfect recipe for a day in the dugout!

An update on recent ADVENTURES!

Published
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Caci
on August 10, 2009
in Uncategorized
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Every weekend since we got to AZ we have gone on an adventure but I seem to keep forgetting to blog about them!  So, here they are in pictures.  The first weekend we were in AZ we drove ALL the way back to Provo (a 12 hour drive) because Trevor forgot to say goodbye to his Elders Quorum for the summer.  He is so silly!  But on the way back to Utah, we stopped at these AWESOME caves that Trevor had seen from the road on our way down to AZ.  We climbed up to them and they were SOOOOO cool!  The inside was like 3 feet of pure pink sand, like the pink coral sanddunes, and they opened up everywhere into these huge half dome windows.  SOOOO cool!

The next week we drove 16 hours to Idaho for the family reunion, but I blogged about that already.  The next week we checked out the Apache Trail.  We thought it was a trail that you hike and that it had hardcore water obstacles that you had to traverse.  Low and behold it turned out to be a scenic drive, but it was AWESOME none the less!  Here is a link to what it is, http://www.apachetrail.net/.   Basically it is the trail the Apache Indians used for their trade routes and then Americans took it over to connect Pheonix to Globe.  It is a very cool place but it was also very treacherous.  Every time we got out of the car, we were accosted by nature in some way.  The first time we stopped, we stood by a Prickley Pear to take pics and by the time the pics were taken, an angry swarm of red ants had crawled up all our legs and were biting us!

It was so scary!  Actually, I am the only one who got bit, but they were all over us– we started jumping around trying to get them off, then we jumped into the car and took off.  Soon we heard screams from the back seat– some were still crawling on Jace’s pants and FREAKING him out hahaha it was so funny!  Jace’s lips are blue in this pic because he experienced his first blue raspberry ring pop earlier on the trip.

At the next place we stopped to run around we were accosted by angry hornets– no matter where I ran, they chased me and I was freaking out– we jumped in the car and took off as fast we could.   We had to strategically roll up the windows because they kept coming in the car and we would trap them and they would dart around the car with stinger poised for assault– it was sooo scary!

The last place we scouted for bugs before we got out. When we saw it was safe, we got out and started running around.  There are prickley pear cacti everywhere with blooming pears.  Trevor picked one because they are sooo beautiful and we were going to see if we could eat it.  Well, he picked it and then saw that all his fingers were impaled by 50 or 60 cactus spines.  We spent the next 10 minutes removing them.  The desert is a hostile place indeed!  Jace was asleep when the sun was at its best light, but we got some cool pics.

Aside from all the treacherous encounters, it was sooooo cool!

The next day we tried to go to Montezuma’s Castle National Monument, so we packed up and headed out.  We got going a little later than expected and realized halfway there that we wouldn’t get there with enough time to play around, so we went to a closer park and just played around collecting prickley pears (we were careful this time) and grasshoppers.  I got 30 or so pears and am going to try to make prickly pear jelly– we’ll teach THOSE cacti who to mess with!

Then since I was already in my running clothes for running around at Montezuma’s Castle,  I ran along the trail while Jace and Trevor drove behind.  I LOVE desert running, especially at dusk when the mountains are purple and the sky is pink.

We also had a 24 marathon and did the entire 7th season in 2 days.  That is always a blast because we have been watching 24 ever since Trevor and I first got married!  Crazy!  It is going to be so sad when the final season airs!