Grand Canyon

Since Travis and I have the week after Christmas off work/school, we had to take a mini-trip out of town. I've been wanting to go to the Grand Canyon for a long while now, especially since it's only a 3 1/2 hour trip from home. I'd never been before and it was such an amazing sight to see in person! It was so neat seeing it with snow everywhere and hiking the narrow trails in the snow. Because it was so cold, we stayed in a cute hotel in Williams where you could even stay the night in a caboose. Very cute. Here are a few pictures of our adventure:

He's really not too far from me on the trail, but since the trail is so steep he's pretty far down below me.

The caboose that we could've stayed in. A little too pricey for us, but still cool.

Yea, we just hiked down that whole cliff side. South Kaibab Trail

Bright Angel Trail

Christmas in Vegas

We had a great Christmas this year with Travis' family! We spent the night at his parents house on Christmas Eve, which I think is a great tradition we've started since we never spend the night at their house any other time of year. Travis' Aunt Cheryl and Bob came as well with their dog Murphy, a cockier spaniel mix of some sort, so it was a full house. Christmas Eve Dinner was shared with Uncle Darren's family so in total we had a nice turkey and ham dinner for 14 and leftovers for 4 dogs. :) Brighton was able to join us on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, a very generous gesture from her father. It was so fun having an excited kid in the bunch for Christmas.


At 5:30am I was woken up with a phone call from my family to join them online on the webcam Jess & I bought for mom for Christmas. I got to watch most of the present opening and it really felt like I was there. It was so nice to be a part of their Christmas as well.

The gifts this year were so generous from both friends and family. Travis & I were most impressed with our home-made crocheted beanies and scarfs from Grandma Hayman. They are so comfy and we love them! She also included a very nice personalized note for each of us, very touching. Travis so wonderfully got me my own iphone and a massage at a spa among other things. We had a great time opening gifts for about 5 hours with Travis' family (unheard of at my parent's house) and enjoyed another nice meal of prime rib for Christmas dinner. It was a wonderful Christmas!

Lily got a few gifts too. She really liked her cheez bonz- stuck her nose in the box and pulled out a bone all on her own.

Aunt Cheryl loves tea parties so we had one of our own. She got Brighton her very own porcelain Mrs. Potts and Chip tea set. We had some delicious lemonade at our very own tea party.

Hicks Family Christmas Card

Make a Smilebox greeting

Lickin the Spoon

I made cookies recently and couldn't resist taking this picture. Yep, she's licking the cookie dough spoon! Oh Lil... :)

All decorated

After all the Thanksgiving festivities, I took a weekend to relax and chill for awhile. Which meant that Christmas decorations had to wait. So I worked on the getting decorations up little by little after work during the week. After 3 hours on Friday, my day off, I finished the outside lights and we are now enjoying our Christmas-y house.

Turkey Shoot

Here are a few pics of our annual ward campout, turkey fry and shooting competition. Travis, Nick & I went hunting that morning with no luck. Then we met up with the ward for the competition where Travis shot 10 out of 10 and won a$100 Albertsons gift card! What an amazing bread-winner I've got. :)

Travis & Nick

Laura Heffner & I eating licorice and staying out of the wind

Like the ear plugs?