Category Archives: Get to know Brett & Liz

Ok, so when Brett met me I had never really been camping before.  I know, even I am kind of shocked by this revelation.  I was never a girl scout and our family vacations were road trips from one bed and breakfast to the next.  Honestly Brett was pretty floored that I was a camping virgin.  It was quite the contrast from his boyscout summers spent backpacking for days, sleeping under the stars and foraging.  Oh wait your not supposed to forage… oops.

He eased me into the campers lifestyle.  On our first trip we car camped and slept on an air mattress in the bed of the truck.  During our second camping trip he had me set up the tent.  I think he spent a lot of time laughing while I tried to figure out where all the polls went and got tangled up in the rain fly.  There was definitely some pouty lip and foot stomping the first couple times I set up the tent, it is so much easier to just blow up an the air mattress in the back of the truck and be done with it.

Brett is our master cooker because my camp cooking skills consist of roasting marshmallows and boiling water.  He is also the official fire starter and he usually has to pick out where the tent is going to go.  The few times he left if up to me we ended up on a hill or somewhere quite lumpy.

Well a year ago today we took our camping skills to the next level and hiked into Havasupai Falls in the Grand Canyon.  To get down to the waterfalls and camp sites it’s a 13 mile, 3000 vertical foot hike down switchbacks, over rocky terrain and through the canyons. Due to the extreme Arizona heat our little group opted to make this hike in at night, beginning our descent at 2:30am.

Brett and I managed to bring all the wrong gear.  Our camp stove was to big, our tent was heavy and leaked when we got a fluke rain storm, and our campers pot set got stuck inside of each other making it impossible to cook.  But we had the time of our lives!  The air was hot on our skin and the water chillingly perfect.  We visited all of the waterfalls and wished we had more time to visit them all again.

When we decided to go with our friends to Havasupai we knew it would be the trip of a lifetime and we probably wouldn’t return.  But I think back on our trip often and I’ll admit that I’m starting to get the itch to go back.

We wanted to post this to share what an amazing time we had.

backpacking in to havasupai village and waterfalls grand canyonWe followed the tradition and placed rocks in the wall.backpacking in to havasupai village and waterfalls grand canyon wild horseswild horses along the trail down to havasupai village grand canyonhavasu tribe villageone of the last working pony express in the united states havasupai tribeThe Pony Express still exists!  We totally should have mailed a letter.havasu tribe villagehiking to the village in havasupai grand canyonHavasu falls havasupai grand canyonOur first look at Havasu Falls
Havasu falls waterfall grand canyonHavasu waterfall havasupai grand canyonHavasu falls waterfall havasupai grand canyonplaying in the water under Havasu falls havasupai grand canyonHavasu falls havasupai grand canyonHavasu falls havasupai grand canyonplaying in the water at havasu fallsromantic moment at Havasu falls havasupai grand canyonjumping off the rocks at Havasu falls havasupai grand canyoncliff jumping off the falls at Havasu falls havasupai grand canyonwild horse on the trail down to Havasu falls in Havasupai Grand CanyonWe saw quite a few wild horses (or somewhat wild) running around.havasupai grand canyonriver running through camp sites in havasupai grand canyonriver running through camp sites in havasupai grand canyonOur camp site across the river.
My green floaty! We found a rock to tie it to.  But after the rain storm we came back to find a tree had fallen on it.campsite in havasupai grand canyonNot our dog…

 He liked hanging out in our camp site though.

The Gang!summer rain storm in havasupai grand canyonAiring out our sheets after the fluke rain storm that flooded our supposedly water proof tent.Havasu falls at night long exposureCome on guys can’t you see i’m trying to take a picture here.
night exposure havasu falls havasupai grand canyonExploring the old mines.  It was a pretty creepy thing to do at night.  But I can’t imagine that it would be much less creepy during the day.Mooney falls havasupai grand canyonMooney FallsMooney falls havasupai grand canyonMooney falls havasupai grand canyoncave down to Mooney falls havasupai grand canyonTake a right down through the dark cave and then scale the cliff holding onto the chains as you go to get down to Mooney Falls
trail down to mooney falls havasupai grand canyonMooney falls havasupai grand canyonMooney falls havasupai grand canyonCan you spot Brett, Ashley and Jenna?
Mooney falls havasupai grand canyonHow about now?Mooney falls havasupai grand canyonMooney falls havasupai grand canyonsmaller waterfalls just down from Mooney falls havasupai grand canyonYep sometimes we take ourselves a little to seriously.Lower Navajo Falls havasupai grand canyonhiking in havasupai grand canyonhavasupai grand canyonLower Navajo Falls havasupai grand canyonLower Navajo Fallslower navajo falls waterfall havasupai grand canyonLower Navajo Falls havasupai grand canyonLower Navajo Falls havasupai grand canyonLower Navajo Falls havasupai grand canyonLower Navajo Falls havasupai grand canyonUpper Navajo falls havasupai waterfalls grand canyonUpper Navajo Falls on our last day.trails to havasu villageLooking down at what we hiked out of.top of the trail down the grand canyon into havasupai villageWe left the camp sites at 1 am to make the hike back out of the canyon and this fella walked with us all night guiding us back to the cars.  When we made it to the top he took a little nap, drank some of our water and then walked back down the trails with a new set of campers.
It would be an understatement to say that we were all tired.havasupai reservation dogsMore cute resi dogshavasupai reservation dog

 

This was some practice time on our scooters before taking the licence test.  We got really good at making circles around planters, using our cute orange blinkers and weaving in and out of cones.

I’m thinking of naming my scooter Eloise and we are still trying to come up with a manly name for Brett’s scooter.

So I discovered recently that Brett has a slight addiction to fab.com.  I arrived home the other day to find this cute little box sitting on our kitchen counter, his most recent purchase, the evivo baby shrimp ecosystem.  I inspected it carefully and noticed the lettering on the side “Shrimp Not Included”.  Now how are we supposed to create a baby shrimp ecosystem without the shrimp?  That’s when Brett clarified for me that the shrimp were in the styrofoam box. We followed all instructions carefully.  It successfully went together in about 20 minutes and now the debate is wether our ecosystem will live at the office or on my desk.  For now they are hanging out in our living room getting some indirect sun.

Now for those of us (myself included) that went the whole baby sea monkey route as kids I have to tell you that this is way better!  I was never particularly successful at growing sea monkeys.  The picture on the box made the sea monkeys look so cool and all I ever saw were specks floating around in the water.

Ok, so does he not look like a little kid putting together a science experiment?

Our 4 baby shrimp are in there!

It’s not really that many ingredients for an ecosystem…. I mean where is the little mini castle? or the scuba guy?

Four little lives depend on the placement of that sticker!!!!

A mad scientist hard at work.

Um seriously I don’t see a castle in there!

Ok shrimp time for your new home!

I don’t think I’d be to stoked if my world got turned upside down like that.  However they all survived the upheaval and seemed happy with their new home.  I guess it is a few steps up from the plastic cup with a sponge they were living in.

You’r witnessing the deep concentration it takes when creating ecosystems.

And there you go, One ecosystem.  Now we just have to 180 their little world once a month and crack the lid for 3 seconds to replace their air.

We were inspired a few months ago to plant some little artichoke plants.  They have grown far larger and faster than we ever anticipated.  Still high on the success from our artichokes we attacked a larger section of abandoned flower bed in our yard.  For fun we decided not to go with the traditional garden boxes but just plant everything together.  This way our vegetables can grow up looking at pretty flowers.  For this season we acquired a variety of tomato plants including my favorite Early Girls.  Brett is pretty excited about our strawberry plants and  made it his personal mission to plant them all, making little mounds for each one.  Now we just have to devise a plan to keep the dogs from snacking on our strawberries before we get the chance to harvest them.  Our pack of little dogs can be such sneaky  little thieves.  Last year we had to fence in our tomato plants because Kita kept eating all the ripe tomatoes off the vines.  At least she was the only one getting caught with tomato all over her face.

Our next gardening mission should we choose to accept it will be growing cucumbers from seed.  Let the green thumb challenge begin!

I can’t wait for our Early Girl tomato  plants to grow up.  We plated some last year and were rewarded with delicious tomatoes for months.

The dogs tried their best to help us in the only way they seem to know how by laying in our way, walking through the newly tilled dirt, and sniffing all the flowers.

Dinosaur Kale

So I thought theses fuzzy white little plants were going to grow into low lying shrubbery, but after planting this one I was informed by experienced gardeners that they turn into rather large bushes.  I may have to rethink where I planted theses little guys  so they don’t overtake the strawberries or even the stone lions.

Maggie kept sleeping in strange places.

Grow little flowers grow!