Sedona and Grand Canyon. May 15-18

I have always wanted to go the Grand Canyon, but the trip is of little interest to Forest. Therefore, when I learned that his Dad, sister Heather and brother-in-law, Alex were headed out there - I jumped at the chance.

Getting to the Grand Canyon was surprisingly difficult to figure out. I suppose it is a bit of a remote location!! Now that I have seen the Flagstaff Airport, I understand better now (they have a total of 5 flights a day coming in). I had to fly in to Phoenix, take a shuttle for 3 hours to Flagstaff, take a taxi from the shuttle stop to the airport and rent a car to drive from the airport to the Grand Canyon!

A woman at the airport who worked for the rental car company told me that I absolutely MUST drive through Sedona (about an hour in the WRONG direction), so I figured "what the heck" and did it. Boy...am I glad I did. I dare say that Sedona was as impressive as the Grand Canyon itself! ....probably because, in Sedona, you can get right down into the canyon while driving (versus overseeing it from the rim as you do with the GC).

These three pictures are of Sedona - just driving through...AMAZING!!






While at the GC, we camped in tents. I enjoy camping, especially with Forest's family, but it was a bit of a hardship because of being in the early stages of pregnancy. I generally don't sleep very well right now when in my own bed, so sleeping on the hard ground in literally freezing temperatures (weather was 32-40 at night to 65-80 during the day) was tough on me. ...not to mention the fact that I had a head cold so my nose alternated between stuffed up and bleeding (from the dry air).




See Forest - I do know how to wash dishes!!


Every day while there, we went hiking. The first day, we walked the "Rim Trail", which is a paved trail along the top of the Canyon. The second day, we ventured down into the Canyon with the assistance of a guide. The trip down was absolutely spectacular (and very easy). I believe the walk was about a mile and a half (lots of zig zagging), but we only got about 1/5 of the way to the bottom of the Canyon. We stopped for lunch for about an hour, then headed back up (you have to go back up rather early if you hope to have any shade at all on your trip back up). The trip up was a nightmare!! I called it the "perfect storm". Between being out of shape, 10 weeks pregnant, having a head cold and not being used to being 7000 miles above sea level, I was quite the disaster! I could barely walk 50 steps up before needing to take a break. The guide said that a "leisurely" walk up to the top should take about 45 minutes. Well....it took me an hour and 15! Heather and Alex were nice enough to stay behind with me. They were incredibly patient and Alex even carried my pack the 2nd half of the way up.



Despite the problems, I am SO incredibly glad that I did that hike down below the rim. The views are more spectacular as you get down "into it". Also, it's nice to be able to say that I am one of the apparently only 5% of people who visit the Canyon who actually get "below the rim"!

Another highlight of the trip was a fantastic, comedic talk about Ravens (complete with a puppet) by a ranger one night. I think this guy really believes he can talk to Ravens! We also had the privilege to see 5 California Condors fly overhead during a talk about Condors at the Canyon. Wow - those are amazing, almost prehistoric looking, birds! Fantastic! We also went and saw an IMAX movie about the Canyon, which was great in terms of learning about its history and getting more of an idea of what the view is like down at the bottom. Ned had never been to an IMAX before, so it was neat to sit next to him and listen to him ooh and ahhh over how you really felt like you were there at times.

The trip home was long, but largely uneventful. I arrived at 6:45am on Monday morning, just in time to get Sienna dressed and out the door to daycare. It was great to see her and Forest for a few minutes before I headed off to dreamland...for the rest of the day!











This was our ranger guide on our hike on the South Kaibab trail

Ned, Heather and Alex on the hike down

More of the group





The reward at the end of the trail

Mules one their way back up the South Kaibab trail

The train from Williams and the luxory hotel at the South Rim

The Hopi House






The view from Mather Point - near our campsite

Adorable squirrels, eh?

Baby Caveney #2 can wave!!!

Awwwww isn't it cute??? Do you think it looks more like me or Forest?


We had our first Dr. appt and first ultrasound on Tuesday, May 13th. The minute the US was in place, the little peanut waved at us! It was pretty cute (OK, maybe only to the parents). Everything is looking great so far (a relief to us because I haven't been feeling as sick as last time, so was a bit worried). The little bugger was exactly 10 weeks along as of that day, and measured at 10 weeks and 3 days (oh boy...here we go again!!!).

Trip to Gaylord for Mother's Day - May 9-11

Sienna and I drove up to Gaylord to visit for Mother's Day. Cheryl, Sammy, Grandma Seiler, Lisa, Patrick, Madison and Cooper were all up there too. We had a good time and did some interesting things.

Saturday morning, most people went "shroomin'". Sienna, Grandma and I stayed home because of nap time (for all of us).

The biggest mushroom of the hunt!

A grouse nest

Saturday afternoon, we went to the "farm" of this lady who teaches at the University Center. My Mom buys fresh eggs from her. This place was INTERESTING to say the least. We got to see goats and tons of chickens. Sienna got to pet a baby chick(actually she tried to squeeze it's head off). We even got to collect eggs from the chicken coop. We tried raw goat milk (better when chocolate syrup is added). This lady and her husband are very "creative" types and have nearly a self-sustaining farm. The husband even builds unusual musical instruments. They seem very happy.





This is right before she tried to pluck it's head off!

This is the house!








On Sunday, we went to another farm. These are also people my Mom knows from work/gardening. We had a blast on their HUGE rope swing (even grandma got up there!) - and got to pet chickens, baby sheep and a pregnant donkey.









The rest of the visit was spent eating and relaxing. Sienna and I headed home Sunday night. The drive went well. Sienna slept almost the whole time.



Grandma Jeannie spoiling Si

Forest's Bday Party - May 3rd

Princess Sienna

Forest turned the ripe old age of 29 (I honestly cannot believe he is still in his 20's!!) on May 3rd. We joined with a friend from my work (Sara W) who turned 30 and went out to the Chop House for dinner with about 10 people. We then caught up with several others for a "pub crawl" around downtown Ann Arbor.

Forest was treated to MANY MANY drinks and shots through the night (of course, I was the sober driver!). He was pretty entertaining by the end of the night. On the way home the only time he made a whole lot of sense was when he was signing songs that came on the radio! At one point he announced he had the "Oscar DeLaHoya hiccups" - which was really funny because we had been talking about "the fight" earlier that night (Jenny and Tony - big fight fans - were out with us). He kept asking why he would possibly have the Oscar DeLaHoya hiccups since he didn't even care about the fight! Oh brother!! Anyway - I convinced him that the trick was to scare himself to get rid of them. Now THAT was funny!

Sienna stayed home with her fav babysitter, Jenn. We didn't get any pictures of our night out - but Jenn took some of Sienna that same night.

How do I get up here again?


Wow Dad, there are sooo many pretty flowers in our yard!!



The Future??

Whirlwind trip - New Haven - Orlando - Miami (April 27-May 1)

I headed to New Haven to go to CogState's main US office in New Haven for the day (Monday, April 28th). It was worth the trip to see the office and meet people I have worked with for months, but never met. On Tuesday, I headed to Orlando for a site training. I arrived at 11am and flew to Miami at 8pm that same night! In Miami, I stayed in South Beach at the Marriott. I was upgraded to an ocean view room with a (small) balcony. It was absolutely fantastic! I ate nearly every meal in the "open air" right on the ocean.

I also tried something new. I went to a Brazilian Steakhouse (figured that since I was pregnant and eating red meat, this would be one of the only times that doing something like this would be worth it). It was absolutely AMAZING!! The food was incredible - the service was fantastic. Every time I flipped my little card over (to say "bring me food") - the waiters would literally line up at my table to cut off tastes of the different meats. I walked home to try to work some of the "so full you are about to explode" feeling off...

Overall, I felt really great the whole trip. No nausea at all.

No pictures, unfortunately.

Mom's visit - April 19-20th

My Mom had a Master Gardener conference down in our area, so she came to our house for the following weekend. This worked great because we were in desperate need of help around the yard!!! She also watched Sienna while we went out to celebrate a friend's birthday. The concert (Def Leppard, REO Speedwagon and Styx) we were supposed to go to was cancelled, unfortunately, but we caught a GREAT comedy show instead.