Not A Good Year For Santa

This year was a little rough for Santa Claus. Lucas loves to talk about Santa, but when we went to see him he cried.  He did a little better the second time because we didn't have him sit on his lap, but he still was scared.  Poor little guy! Maybe next year?

 Every year, we join Phil and Cathy and their kids on St. Nick's Day to celebrate Sarah's Baptism Day.  We go to Bass Pro to see Santa.

 Playing in the trucks with his cousins was a lot more fun :)

 Still not too sure, but at least there is a little bit of a smile!

There is my happy guy - loving the snowman.

Hale Cousins!

While moving from New Mexico to DC, Ben's brother Matt and his wife Carly (along with their 4 kids) were able to stop in town.  It happened to be the littlest Hale's baptism day.  We were able to get a snapshot of the all cousins!

 My little man - loves rockin the bow-tie!

8 Little Hales :)

Zion National Park

While we were in Las Vegas, we rented a car and drove to Zion National Park in Utah.  It was beautiful.  The weather was really nice too.  We got to take a shorter hike the first day we were there before it got dark.  And then the second day, we got up when the sun came up (which at that time it was really cold - 13 degrees!) and started hiking.  We went up a trail called Angels Landing.  Well, I should say we went most of the way.  The last half mile of the hike really isn't on a trail.  You have to walk on the mountain side and they have a chain that you could hold on to.  We did this for a quarter of a mile (which felt like 5 miles to me) and thought we had made it.  We then saw we had about a quarter of a mile to go and this was even steeper.  I am terrified of heights and was already extremely outside of my comfort zone, so we didn't go any further.  Here are some pictures of the beautiful park.

 We stopped for a drink at a pub right outside of the park.  Here we learned that it was a Utah State Law that you could not order alcohol unless you ordered food as well.  So we also had some soft pretzels.  They had a really yummy pumpkin beer!

From the first day's hike

 Here is what we thought was the top of Angel's Landing, but it wasn't :(

Viva Las Vegas

In Mid-November, Ben and I were lucky enough to take a small getaway!  Both of our parents were super helpful and watched Lucas for us.  Neither of us had been to Las Vegas, so we thought we would give it a whirl.  It's definitely a lot different from the life we are used to, but we had a blast. Everything really is larger than life and boy did we get some good people watching!

 

 We made it!

 While there, we walked  everywhere.  My phone automatically tracks your steps, so we found out that each day we walked about 10-11 miles!

 The Wynn hotel was for sure my favorite.  It was so beautiful inside.

 Inside the Venetian, feels just like Italy.

 We stayed at The Linq.  It was nice, but they were still doing some renovations.  I'm sure once they are complete it will be even nicer.

 Lava show at the Mirage.  This was really neat.

 Breakfast at Serendipity.

 The Bellagio was really awesome too!

 Ben and The Blue Man Group sign :)

 New York, New York!  We ate at a crepes places in here and it was DELICIOUS.

 At a Piano Bar inside the Paris hotel.  It was a lot of fun!

 Waiting for the Bellagio fountains at night.

 Not as cool as the real Eiffel Tour, but still super pretty to see

 Here they go!

Cesar's Palace

 We made it to "Old Vegas"