Grand Canyon in December

The first week of December we drove to the Grand Canyon to meet my parents for a holiday visit. Course, living in North Hollywood with 70 degree weather we didn't think about cold weather. Luckily the Friday before we left we checked the weather channel. It called for snow. We hurriedly ran out and bought heavy coats and some scarves & gloves. It started snowing on the drive to the Grand Canyon. It got really bad the closer we got. My parents actually got stuck in Sedona because they shut down the interstate. Ryan and I made it to the hotel that night & luckily they had a restaurant and a bar in the hotel. When we woke up the next day our car was covered in a foot & a half of snow. The only thing we had to dig our car out was a travel litter box we had for Loki. My parents finally arrived that afternoon. Before they got there though, Ryan and I drove in to the state park and took some pictures.

It was freezing!!! It was 16 degrees at this point.














It was even colder on the edge of the Canyon and very windy. I also wish I had bought some snow shoes. Converse just soaked the wetness right up.



























We even found the mules rubbing faces together to try to stay warm.







So after Mom & Dad arrived we just hung out for the night and went back to the park the next day.




I was actually glad it had ended up snowing while we were there. It was just so beautiful.

When we left to head back home it was 2 degrees outside. Luckily the roads were cleared out. It was nice to get back to warm 70 degree weather, though.

Las Vegas for Thanksgiving

Ryan & I went to Las Vegas two days before Thanksgiving and drove home on Thanksgiving day. We stayed at the Flamingo and saw Penn & Teller. It was a lot of fun as always; just not the same without Dwayne & Norma. You were missed greatly!

We got whole crawfish & shrimp for dinner. Ryan actually got me to eat shrimp where I had to rip the entire head off. It was a lot of fun though.



































We saw Big Elvis again at Bills' Gamblin' Hall & Saloon. If you're ever there you should stop in and see him. He's really good.

I also suggest going to see Penn & Teller. I never really cared for magic shows but they are amazing and have a lot of humor in their show. And they actually came out into the halls after their show to give autographs and have their pictures taken with everyone.








OMG Penn is a giant!!! If you see the show, check out whose playing the bass for the pre-show music. It's Penn in disguise.
















Love the flower balls at the Wynn.









They also had really cool mosaic tile flooring. Course that didn't help us find our way out of their casino. We got lost for quite awhile in the Wynn and were very happy when we found the exit out.





We returned back to North Hollywood on Thanksgiving day. We ended up going to a diner down the street to get a Thanksgiving dinner. It really didn't live up to any home cooked holiday dinner at all. And of course we missed all our family once again on another holiday.

Fresno Fair & Sequoias

We went to the Fresno County Fair to see Barenaked Ladies perform and then the next day we went to the Sequoia National Park. The fair was actually a little scary but the concert was good. Would were shocked to find out the main singer from Barenaked Ladies actually quit the band to pursue his own things.

Thought of my Mom when we saw all these quilts from their quilt show.

Ryan liked the Mario Brothers quilt.

























Cute little pygmy goat!










Caitlin Crosby opened up for Barenaked Ladies. Liked her sound and hope she does some more stuff.

We were really excited to go to the Sequoia National Park. We really wanted to see the big trees and go to the caves they have. Unfortunately, they didn't tell you until after you paid a lot of money to get into the park that they were doing construction on the roads. In fact, we found out when we were stopped in the middle of the road and were told we had to just wait there an hour before we could continue down the road. Luckily we had some books, drinks & snacks. We got down to the visitor center to buy the tickets to the caves only to find out that they wouldn't let us leave the visitor center for another hour due to the construction. Which of course made us miss the last cave tour.

The big trees were really amazing, but we were kind of down because of all the delays we ran into. Luckily it made us show up at the right time & right spot to see several bears. This one was just wandering around near our trail we were walking.

What's up little squirrel?