Kolob Campout

So I decided to start with this video because this basically sums up our trip-FREEZING! We arrived Thursday night to beautiful weather. It was night time so cold weather was to be expected. We set up the tent, pulled out the heater and bunkered down in our comfy double sleeping bag on our foam cot pads. In the middle of the night I half woke up to something that didn't quite sound like rain on our tent, but didn't think much of it. The next morning we discovered the hail/snow that had dumped on us the night before. It quickly melted, but it was freezing. And that was basically what it was like everyday the entire weekend. I wore a beanie and 3-4 layers all weekend long! I don't think I've ever camped and wanted a fire going all day everyday because it was so cold! (I wonder if being climatized to Vegas weather has anything to do with how cold we all were?) The storms rolled in and out, so we did see some blue skies and Travis did get in his float tube and fished in the lake.

Kolob Reservoir

Our friend, Ray McFarland met up with us Friday evening and got in the float tube as well. Between the 2 of them, they caught about 10 fish. Us fishermen on the shore didn't have as much luck. We also had fun on the ATV and went exploring and found a really cool view point over looking Zion National Park. Tyler and Nicole and their daughter Madison came up on Friday and toughed it out with a 2 yr old the entire weekend-very impressive! You have to know this little girl though to really appreciate how impressive this is. She is the most girly 2 yr old I've ever met! She doesn't like to be dirty and made her mom take her PJ's off because they had a spot of dirt on them. She cries when she stumbles because she gets dirty and refused to walk in the mud. We took her into our tent quite a few times and she had a blast brushing her hair and playing games. She is too funny. Nicole's brother and family came up too and we converted his 9 yr old son Austin into an ATV fanatic! Once he learned to drive that thing he could not get off! It was really cute.

Tyler, Nicole & Madison Hammond

There was an exciting event of the weekend...On Friday night we all were in our own tents chatting between the 3 of us. Just as we were starting to drift off we heard a noise at the food tent. We all thought it was someone from one of the other tents out to get a mid-night snack, until Tyler asks if we were out there or if James or Kristy were out there. Since none of us were, we assumed the worst. So Travis jumps up, grabs the flash light, darted out the tent to find a SKUNK getting into our food! Ah!!! He yelled and screamed at it and the next thing we hear is a round of gun shots going off in the direction the poor varmit ran. Thankfully it didn't spray or else that would've been the end of our camping trip! That's the 2nd time a skunk has trespassed our camping teritory. We've got bad luck with skunks.

Kirsti & Brett did make it up Sat night and enjoyed a night around the fire with us as well.

Madison enjoying herself in the tent

Our Camp Site

Hicks Family Vacation: Disneyland!

This last weekend Travis and I went with his family to Disneyland. Travis & I had never been to an amusement park together before and it was a blast! It was really fun going with Brighton too (she's 3 years old). We decided to go to Disneyland on Friday which was a great choice because there really was not that many people. Brighton did great for getting up early and not having a nap. She even toughed it out on the Haunted Mansion! We watched the Princess Parade and the Pixar Parade-both were very good and entertaining. It was an overall great day!


One of the 1st rides we went on was Buzz Light Year. As we were walking out the exit a guy stopped me saying something like I had won one of the Dreams from their "Year of a Million Dreams" give-aways. I had no idea what he was talking about. He was handing me something all secretive like and asked how many people I had in my group and told me to meet him at the end of the exit. So I show Kristin what had just happened and she knew all about it. They do these types of give-aways and we had just won fast passes for everyone for both Disneyland AND California Adventure, which included free admission to California Adventure since we had not purchased the passes! Fast passes allow you to go to the front of the line on all the popular rides! We didn't have to deal with the machines to get fast passes nor worry about strategizing our day. It was great! I think the best part was that we got to go to California Adventure too! They had bigger roller coasters and those free fall rides.



Here's the list of the rides we went on at Disneyland:
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Buzz Light Year
Space Mountain (twice)
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
King Arthur Carrousel
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Pirates of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
Indiana Jones Adventure
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage

And at California Adventure:
California Screamin'
Monsters Inc
Aladdin Musical
Soarin over California
Mulholland Madness
Maliboomer
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

After our full day at Disneyland, we slept in and then went to the beach on Saturday. it was too cold outside and the water was too freezing to get in, but it was still nice to sit at the beach. On Sunday we went to Corona to visit Cheryl and had a nice relaxing visit amongst her rose bushes. It was a great family vacation and was so nice having everyone be together.

Jessica & Thomas in Vegas

We had our first visitors in our new house! Jess and Thomas came down for the weekend between semesters to get away. We went out and rode the ATV and went shooting. Later we ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant-Chapalas and then went down to Fremont street to see Thomas's friend's band play. Sunday morning we had Travis's killer omlets and showed them around the Wet Land Park behind our house. (ok, so it's really Las Vegas Wash, but we like to think of it as a "park") We had a great time and it was so nice having them and having a guest room for them to stay in. If anyone wants to visit, we've got a place for you to stay!

More house adventures

After we got our break going to Zion and spending the weekend with Jessica and Thomas, we decided to embark upon the house adventures once more. The concrete was great and easy since we paid for that to be done, but the painting-WOW-that's a chore! We had to prime the garage walls and ceiling first since it was pure drywall. We started around 9am and finished at 10:30pm! The priming took forever! We had to put so much on to get it preped for the paint. Travis so wonderfully did the ceilings which were hard; it doesn't sound that bad, but you try and paint for over 12 hours! We were so sore when we were done. But what an accomplishment. :) What do you think?

Zion National Park

So I couldn't take all of the house stuff anymore. If I had to go shopping one more weekend for stuff for the house, I think I was going to go crazy! So although we plan on getting our projects done before Travis starts school, Travis so wonderfully agreed that we needed to get away for the weekend. So we headed out to Zion National Park. It was beautiful! It was the perfect day trip. We hiked Angels Landing, which I love because it takes you to the top in the middle of the canyon. We also hiked to one of the Emerald pools and down to the Virgin river. Dustin met up with us for the afternoon and it was nice catching up with him. On Sunday we drove through the other part of the park, which of course was gorgeous, but what was also amazing was the tunnel you have to drive through. It was built in 1930, I think, and it's pitch black in there! After that we headed down to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes to see if it'd be worth our while to bring the ATV's out and spend a day there. It's a pretty cool place too with 5 miles of sand dunes to ride on. So now we'd like add that to the list of things to do as well as a biking day at Gooseberry. I love to get out and play!

Settling In

Well the last few weeks have been interesting. The move went very well. We had help from the family and a few friends, which was perfect. Too many people would've meant a few more dings in things. Then came the boxes and boxes. In general moving into a new place takes awhile to get adjusted to. It has it's own noises and quirks about it and different things to get use to, but overall it's all about making it a home. So we've been working hard at getting pictures on the walls, decorations here and there, hanging ceiling fans and light fixtures, and putting everything in it's right spot. It's also taking awhile filling it completely with furniture. I do have to say that I'm surprised at how well we fill the rooms, but the living room needs some work. We bought a sectional that just looks so small and decided a coffee table and recliner are needed to help fill it up. Of course there are many more things we would like, but wrote those off to a Christmas list for the end of the year (rugs, cabinet knobs, tools, etc). Now we're onto the projects-paint, garage floor epoxy, and landscaping. I'm so ready to get the back yard done, but pretty hesitant to jump right into it just because we've never done anything like it before. It's a pretty small back yard so we're just going to pour a patio, lay down some turf and add rocks and plants. It sounds easy, but there's a lot that goes into it! So we'll see how it goes. It's an adventure for sure owning your own house and learning all the things that come with it. Working for a builder has definitely come in handy! Just seems like I know a lot more then I would if I hadn't been working in new home building for the last 2 1/2 yrs. Amazing...Well, this adventure isn't the type we usually go on or do, but it has been an adventure in its own way.