Becca and Caleb Hicks

CHALLOSH: Posterity

2009-11-16T19:50:00.000-08:00

I don't think I have laughed as hard as I did while looking at this picture, in a long time. Thanks for that. :)

2009-11-11T20:47:00.000-08:00

We've Moved!
www.somehicks.com
Check us out, and if you follow this blog, change it in your information. Have a lovely day.

The MOUSE HUNT!

2009-10-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

I seem to have forgotten a very interesting part of our trip. Something that will probably haunt me the rest of my life.

I will just start from the beginning.

Wednesday night we pulled in to Caleb's Aunt and Uncle's house in Irvine, California. It is a beautiful house in a really nice neighborhood. Caleb and I, and Aaron and Rachel and Johnny were all sleeping in the bonus room. We were all getting settled in and ready for bed when all of a sudden Johnny comes running up the stairs, a terrified look on his face. "I just saw a rat in the kitchen" He told us. To which we all laughed. "You did not see a rat in the kitchen. Do you know what a rat is? Rats do not live in Suburban California." Caleb and I gave him the hardest time, we thought it was particularly funny.

So Caleb and I make our bed. It is on a bed frame in the bonus room and we climb on top of 3 mattresses and settle into bed. At one point in the night Caleb sits up really quickly and at the same time he sits up quickly I feel something on my arm. Being as graceful as I am, I flail my arm, partly because Caleb jumping scared me, and partly because I am just so freaked out. (Background: Where we live currently we have been battling spiders, If I feel something creepy crawly a natural reaction of mine is to flail)

Anyway, after I flung my arm, I saw Caleb kick his feet. I turned to him and said, "What was that??" He looked over at me very quietly and said, "You don't want to know." Once again, my mind went straight to, REALLY LARGE SPIDER.. But no, it was much worse than a really large spider. After some prodding he told me that it was a mouse, and that he had woken up to the mouse running across his face. After I had flicked it off me, it hit his feet where he kicked it off the bed.

We sat still for a moment, not wanting to wake anyone else up, terrified to go back to sleep, and not sure what to do. At three o'clock in the morning we weren't sure where we would find mouse traps, but were determined to go look. Only, we couldn't find the keys. We had to wake up Rachel to find the keys. Rachel couldn't find them, so she went and told Pam, who was in the other room, what happened. Pam was so freaked out and wanted to know where to go get traps so she went and woke Kris and Ed up.

While we were waiting to find the keys, I saw a little shadow running along the bottom of the door. We knew it wasn't in the room anymore. We had scared it downstairs.

Ed, Caleb and I were downstairs looking when all of a sudden Pam spotted it running across the room. I got freaked out, and woke up Aaron to help with the hunt.

They trapped the thing in the office after a few minutes struggle. It was hilarious to sit far away and hear them arguing and laughing and even screaming like girls. Apparently, Aaron had caught the mouse in a garbage can, and as he was lifting the can the mouse JUMPED out! On the second try they finally caught the stupid thing. They went outside to let it go, not before Ed had shaken it up a little in the can.

At 5 o'clock in the morning the Mouse Hunt had ended and we all were able to return to our beds and go back to sleep, in theory. There really was no sleeping after a traumatic incident like that.

California Vacation

2009-10-19T15:16:00.000-07:00

We took another trip to California to go to Disneyland. I had never been for Halloween time, and I think it may be my favorite time of year to go. We had a lot of fun being with family.

A couple of months ago Rachel and Julia saw advertisements for Mickey's Halloween Trick or Treat Party. We got tickets for this past Friday. There were 7 "kids" and Pam. We decided to be the seven dwarfs and the wicked witch.
I think Caleb makes a really good Dopey! It was funny to see how well the different characters matched our own personality. I really am always Sleepy!

Jacob was the cutest in his outfit. He was the newest addition to the Dwarfs. "Hungry"

We waited in line to take a picture with Snow White. We all felt like such young children but I think the picture is fun. Dopey was loving Caleb. He kept wrapping his arms around Caleb and covering his face and stuff.

It was such a fun trip, as always. We are so lucky to have such a fun family to go on trips with and want to thank Pam for a wonderful vacation.

Happy Fourth of July 2009!

2009-07-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

We spent the Fourth of July in Provo this year and had fun, as always. We opted out of the fireworks show and created our own.

We had a nail biting game of croquet. Aaron won, of course.

Sweet sunglasses. This is Caleb's fierce look.
We went to the Freedom Festival for a few minutes to walk around. I got in this contraption to take a picture, and shortly after this photo was snapped, the top piece slid off and started to crush my head and neck.

Johnny has this recurring bet with Aaron and Caleb that he can beat them in basketball. On this day, Johnny beat Aaron, and everyone is sitting in the lawn watching the spectacle.

We had a great day and were glad we could spend it with great friends and family. What a great Holiday. Look forward to next year!

Third of July Family Party

2009-07-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

Basically my family is hilarious. We went to Matt and Zanna's house in North Salt Lake for a Fourth of July Barbeque and to watch fireworks. Someone came across a clown wig, and well, we had some fun. Take a look at our mini photo shoot. (Caleb thought I was absolutely ridiculous for taking these pictures, but it was fun!)
Isaac had a hard time being serious, but we got him at just the right moment.
Tanner was loving every minute of this. He was great at the poses and at the serious stuff, but this photo was the cutest of him.
Please notice Brock's face. He had some other great photos too, but check out those eyes.
This is Jace and he is a ham.
Kade was the first one to be coerced into wearing the wig. He was a good sport, but thought we were absolutely nuts.
My seesters!
This was our senior portrait photo shoot. We were going for "Olsen Twins." I think we nailed it.

Beautiful Kylee.
Beautiful Savannah and Rylee.

KORY!
The Finale of the photo shoot. If you happened to notice, Caleb is in none of these pictures. He would have no part in the photo taking mania. There are, however, more photos coming from the actual Fourth of July festivities.

Fiery Furnace, Devils Mouth, Satan's Lair?

2009-07-01T16:44:00.000-07:00

We had a Bodell family reunion in Moab this June, and it was very fun to be able to get together with family and enjoy ourselves. We decided to go on the Fiery Furnace hike. It was one that everyone was a little intimidated by this hike, and maybe that is because no one could remember the name, and it ended up having something to do with the devil.
This was a guided hike, which, for those of you who have ever done canyons or something, I thought the guide would solely be there to assist with scary parts. She did assist with motivating some people over the scary parts, but mostly her job was to keep us from getting lost in the turns of the canyons, and to educate our group on the wildlife and rock formations. It was very interesting, but at points we wanted her to just keep hiking and not stop so much.

There were 25 people in the group for the hike, and 12 of the people were Bodell's. We all wore matching Bodell reunion shirts. It was fun to be able to spot everyone we were with. At some points I would see a blue shirt out of the corner of my eye and turn to ask Caleb something, only to realize it was actually his Uncle..
Ha ha I just noticed the picture above. I think it is the cutest picture of Caleb. But I guess Caleb's uncle is getting a little fresh with his wife. Haha. AWKWARD. My husband looks super cute though.
I looked like quite the tourist the whole hike with our camera around my neck. Every time we turned the corner there was another breath taking view. It was so gorgeous, its a shame our camera couldn't quite capture exactly how beautiful the scenery was.
I don't remember what this was called, but the lady showed us the arch and said anyone was welcome to go through. I didn't hesitate.

Me, Pam (Caleb's mom) and Rachel (Caleb's sister) at the beginning of the hike.
This is everyone that went on the hike. The day before we went we did the arches hike and my knee was aching a little, and I was going to back out, especially after hearing how rough the hike would be. We decided to go anyway and were so glad that we did. It was a pretty amazing experience.

Feeding the ducks with Olivia

2009-06-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

My Aunt Zanna and I have been taking an online class this summer to fulfill our last science credit. We both have been quite the procrastinators, putting off the work until the very last moment. Our third test was open at the testing center from Friday morning till Monday evening, and Monday afternoon I started preparing for it. Zanna and I were texting and she asked me when I was going to take it, and told me of her predicament that she had no one to watch Olivia while she took hers (other than her sons...) I volunteered. There is a pond in front of Weber State where birds, ducks and geese all gather. I happened to have a lot of bread that was just about to go bad, and I decided we could feed the ducks.
Olivia LOVED every minute of it. Crows and tiny little song birds would come by and she would want to feed them as well. I had to explain that those kinds of birds wouldn't like bread as much as the ducks would.
These particular ducks followed her around like crazy. They would try to come and grab it out of her hands while she wasn't paying attention. I would walk behind her and shoo the birds away. It was funny, the scary thing hissed at her, I would be terrified at 3 years old, but she hissed right back. Brave little girl.

Olivia made friends. She handed me some bread to go share with the kids nearby. She was too shy to give them some, but she wanted them to have fun too.
She's the baby cousin in our family, and she is pretty special to me. I just love this girl and we always have fun together.

Honeymoon

2009-06-15T20:48:00.000-07:00

I know that I definitely blog at random times about things that have clearly been months away. Our honeymoon was so fun, and I wanted to write a little bit about what we did. It was low key, and just absolutely perfect for the two of us.

The first night we stayed at a little hotel in Ogden Canyon, called the Alaskan Inn. It was a beautiful hotel set in the canyon. The next day we headed to Park City to stay for a few nights at a Marriot right on Main St.

We walked along the street going into the little shops and finding cute stores and cafe's. We had to walk through a really small, sparsely lit alley way. This is supposed to be our scared face.

We went to the Olympic ski jumping place. We got to tour the building and see all the interesting things that had in town for the Salt Lake Olympics. The ski jumpers would go down huge jumps and dive into the water. It was very fun and entertaining to watch.
We took a ski lift to the top of one of the ski slopes and hiked around for awhile. We had such a gorgeous view from where we were.
Next we headed down to Southern Utah to stay at Dixie's motel and go to various places. Our first stop was the Grand Canyon. Caleb had never been, and I definitely think it is one place you have to visit, at least once in your life. I just love it there.

We were so perplexed by this sign. Pump may not automatically WHAT?
We wanted to do the Subway Hike in Zion. We got a permit, but, unfortunately, I had gotten the stomach flu and so we got a late start. I wanted to go despite being sick, since I had never done it before. We started at 2. When you get to the parking you are supposed to car pool so you have one car at the end of the hike, and one at the beginning. We only had one car, so we hitchhiked up with a very nice couple.

The Subway is a hike that you are supposed to follow the pile-ons until you reach the canyon. We must have missed a few pile ons, because after a few hours we were lost. At one point we were on the top of a ledge and had to slide on our bums down. I slipped and just about broke my shoulders and scratched up my arms. It was so funny now that I think about it, but while we were on the hike I remember being SO scared that we were going to die in back country Zion.

We decided that we might have figured out where we were going, so we started on down a path again. After walking for twenty minutes we got to a 100 foot ridge. I started crying and Caleb felt so bad. He then decided that even if we were to find the canyon we wouldn't be able to find our way through it in the dark. We started back the way we came, hoping we would be able to find the trailhead and get back to where we started.

When we made it back to the parking lot we remembered that our car was parked 7 miles away. Tired and sore we started our hike down the road. Eventually we saw some headlights. I immediately got so scared. It was just like the scene from a scary movie.

He pulled over and knew exactly what had happened. He gave us a lift back to our car and we were so grateful. It was such a funny day. By the time we got back to our hotel room we were so pooped.

It was such a fun trip and we really enjoyed ourselves. It was a great way to start off our marriage. We have had many more fun adventures and look forward to having many more in our life together.

Memorial Day

2009-05-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring! It seemed like such a long winter. Every day we would look out the window to another 3 feet of snow, at least that is how it felt, anyway. I love flowers, I am glad it is finally time for them. This last weekend was Memorial Day weekend. We started it off right by having a birthday party for Kory, Cate's husband.
This is the gorgeous cake Cate made. It was such a temptation all through dinner. If you look close there are little finger marks where someone must have swiped some frosting. Happy Birthday KORY. :)
Memorial Day was always a holiday I didn't really understand. I found it a little strange to go hang out at people's graves and give them flowers. However, this year I found more meaning in it, and really enjoyed it.
The only cemetery I went to was the one my grandpa is buried in. It still is hard to think that he isn't here with us anymore, and all of us get a little teary eyed when we see his beautiful headstone. It is a very unique headstone and shows a little bit about him and how he and my grandma were married in the Logan temple, and how he worked for the FBI. What an amazing man. I miss him a lot.
The Diet Coke was not litter. We like to bring his favorite things. Last year Anne brought a 2 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper.
The memorial grounds were hosting the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall, and it was so busy there with so many visitors coming to pay respect to their families buried in the cemetery as well as pay tribute to those who fell in the war. The cemetery provided a shuttle to and from the wall, which all of the cousins just got on and wouldn't get off, a free activity all day long.

This is the moving wall. I have honestly never felt so touched and deeply humbled as I looked at this wall. It only shows half of all the people who died in Vietnam, and it was so long. I have never felt so proud to be American. What a great country we have. There are so many people who are willing to die to protect the freedoms we have here. Very, very touching experience.
In Ogden, right near the mountains. What a beautiful place to live and to honor those that have passed on. What a beautiful day.

Lava Hot Springs, part 2

2009-04-09T21:22:00.000-07:00

I love having Iphoto, and being able to see the pictures we have taken, and actually see when they were. I know I already posted a few pictures from our trip to lava, but I didn't include the gems. It was a really fun weekend that we spent out of town for Caleb's birthday. The big 22. What an old fart.

In case you haven't been, Lava Hot Springs has the very best pizza place out there. It is not unusual for me to crave the pizza from the Royal Inn Pizza place (I think thats what its called). So we went there twice in the 3 days we were there. While we were waiting for our pizza we saw a little kid sitting at the bar with his mug of milk. It looked so solemn, as if he had just experienced the hardest day at work. We had to take his picture.
When it is just the two of you, your pictures tend to turn out just like the one of us above. We like pictures though, and this is proof that we were there. It was November, and it was REALLY cold. Perfect for soaking in the hot pots.
I am always very aware when people spell words wrong, although I occasionally am guilty, however, when companies display writing in their windows with the wrong spelling I just die. What exactly is a Photograp?
Fat Jacks Burgers.
We had a really scary hotel room. The manager said that we got one of the remodeled ones, and he gave us a special deal. When we walked in and saw the scariest bedspread on the bed, and the stained carpet, we were positive he had lied to us.

Caleb loved this blanket, so much, that he quickly removed it from the bed and put it in the closet.

This is sort of random, but it was a picture of my ring that we took while in the Pizza place waiting for our pizza. I hadn't had a good picture of my ring for people to see, so here it is. It's beautiful, I love it.

Last but not least, a sign specifying that the staff keep the door closed and locked at all times, opened all the way, and clearly not locked. Oh the things you see on vacation. Gotta love Lava Hot Springs.

This one time, We got Engaged. May 17, 2008

2009-03-25T21:16:00.000-07:00

I love LOVE, I love being in love. I don't care what it does to me.

On May 17, 2009 Caleb picked me up to go on a date. I was very excited because hanging out with Caleb is fun no matter what. I didn't know what was in store for that date.

He took me to Thanksgiving Point to walk around the gardens. It was a beautiful day with perfect weather. As we were walking and talking I noticed something further up the path that looked out of place. Tied to the arm of a bench was a blue paper blowing in the breeze.

I wandered over and looked at the paper. It was a note that Caleb had written when we went on our first date. It was a journal entry of our date, and how he instantly liked me. I felt exactly the same way. It was so adorable. I still was puzzled. Was he asking me to a school dance? We graduated awhile ago, so that couldn't have been it...

(This is not us... We thought it was a cute picture, so we were going to pretend like it was us.)

We continued walking through the gardens. I was so immersed in the treasure hunt, that I almost didn't stop to really look at how beautiful the scenery was.

So, Caleb and Courtney had come to the gardens a few days before to map out the setting and to get a feel for where they were going to place the notes. Then the morning of our date, Caleb drove to Ogden to ask my mom if he could marry me knowing full well that she couldn't keep it from me if he asked her any earlier.

While he was asking, Courtney and her friend Dave placed all of the notes around the park.

At some point we lost one. I think someone must have taken them down, regardless, I got the point. We made a full circle and came back to an amazing waterfall (apparently largest man made in all of N. America). As we walked I was looking all around for a blue piece of paper. I finally spotted one, and when I picked it up it had that days date on it, but it was empty.

Caleb then grabbed a rose from the flowers that had a beautiful ring attached to it, and got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him.

And my response? "Shut up! Shut up!?"

He finally had to ask, "So, is that a yes?"

Absolutely it was a yes.

Spring Break, 2009

2009-03-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

Spring Break was so anticipated for both of us. It was nice to get away from work and school and leave the cold and go to the happiest place on Earth. We have been a few times this year, but haven't really taken any pictures to show for it. We took off Wednesday, after Caleb got done with work, and met Rachel and Aaron and Johnny in Provo and took off from there. The car ride is definitely not my favorite part, it takes 9 hours, but it is worth it. We have so much fun every time we go.

We had to get our classic, In front of the castle picture. So, here it is, proof that we were at disneyland.

Background for this picture. Some how awhile back, Caleb said he was hungry. We were sitting in our apartment and I turned to him and asked him if he was a "Hungy Bear." So whenever either of us are hungry, it ends up coming out as being a hungy bear.

When we were on the train at disneyland we passed the HUNGRY bear restaurant and decided that we HAD to eat there.

At some point we all went our separate ways, and Caleb and I rode the Indiana Jones ride by ourselves. Later when everyone got together they wanted to go on that ride, and we were more than happy to take Julia's baby, Jacob. I hadn't been on any of the rides in Fantasy Land at all yet, so we decided to take the baby and go on some rides with the baby. We picked Snow White and he was so good the whole time. I didn't realize how scary of a ride that one is, and he looked so nervous! It was so funny.

Checkers was the hit of the trip. Whenever we were stuck in a line, Caleb would pull out his phone, and they would play checkers on it, wherever they were. It was so captivating for them.
Johnny, me, and Caleb all rode together on Mr. Toads Wild Ride. I think we were the biggest people that ever tried to cram three people into one little cart. It was pretty squishy.
Overall we had a wonderful time. DisneyLand has become one of my very favorite places to vacation. What a fun Spring Break we had. It was great to see Julia and Steven and baby Jacob, and to be able to play at the beach house and hang out in the warm sun.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T19:56:00.000-08:00

I've come to realize that posting blogs with mostly all pictures gives a much better representation of what has been going on. I can't possibly explain any better then my pictures can...

All of these photos are from December 29, 2008 at the Bodell Christmas party. The Bodell's are Calebs family and its a big family.
This was from the Chicken Dance... Yes, the chicken dance, like the one you do in Elementary school and stuff. It was fun.
This was the Chipmunk dance, or squirrel dance.. I never can remember. But I wanted Aaron do to this dance at my wedding reception so bad.
Aaron got volunteered to teach me the dance.. This is how excited he was about it.
James and Maydene Bodell.
Cute Bodell cousins. They were so cute, all night. Sweet little girls.
Caleb's fierce look. I love this picture.. His eyes look so blue.
This is Dylan. He was so funny. He was in the corner for something, and was so sad. I kept trying to get a picture of him being sad, but every time I was about to take a picture, he looked up and smiled.

These aren't in the right order, but this is Christmas Eve. Everyone got BYU pajama pants, and the baby was in BYU apparel too.
This is the baby. This is Jacob Douglas Davis. He's Julia and Steve's baby. Mine and Caleb's first nephew. Very exciting, and we couldn't ask for a cuter little baby.

Anyway, I should be caught up now. We start school on Monday, and we are pretty excited to be getting closer to the end. I have 3 semesters and Caleb has four. So the end is in near! Wish us luck!!

Christmas Eve Sledding

2009-01-03T15:49:00.000-08:00

This was my first Christmas away from my family, so it was interesting, but Caleb's family was really great, and we had a blast. On Christmas eve after we got back from our drive, we all searched the house and found any warm clothing we could.. While we waited for everyone to get ready we took pictures in front with the snowman that was built a few days before.

Caleb and I kept finding interesting places for the pipe to go...

Can't take a normal picture..

This sled was pretty scary.. It was like a bike thing, and it went super fast. The snow there was also pure ice.

This is Julia, and this picture is pretty cool. She was going so dang fast.

Our first Christmas Eve. Very cute. :)

Last, but not least, the triple chin picture. It was getting dark and our camera wasn't working, so the picture of us going down together didn't turn out, so Caleb and I posed to make it look like we were going down. Obviously it just looks creepy and weird.

Christmas Eve Odds and Ends...

2009-01-03T15:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve..

Caleb and I went on a drive on Christmas eve for his work, while we were in Provo. Any chance I get to pull out the camera and play is a great time. So this is from Christmas eve... Before the festivities started.

I've always been pretty mesmerized by icicles.. I don't know what it is about them...

This is somewhere on the road from Provo to Payson, on Christmas Eve.

Caleb took this picture Christmas Eve morning. Very cool.

Lava Hot Springs

2009-01-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

Lava Hot Springs

The day after Thanksgiving I rolled out of bed at 5:00 in the morning, and headed to work. After work Caleb and I headed to Lava Hot Springs for his birthday weekend.

We spent two days there, it was a lot of fun. The town isn't real big, and there wasn't a lot to do other than hit the hot pots which we did twice a day.

The pizza place on the corner has been a favorite of mine since I was little and I was really excited to share it with Caleb, and I had been craving it for months. It was a really fun weekend.

There are a lot more pictures of the cute little Lava town, but they are on my little camera, and I will have to upload some of those pictures later.

2009-01-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

Our Very First Thanksgiving- November 27, 2008

Wow, I can't believe its already January. Over Christmas Julia, Caleb's sister informed me that I needed to update my blog. So, here goes, so this may be a holiday overload for those reading this.

Thanksgiving was a little different this year than I've had before. For starters, my brothers were at my dads. Which isn't unusual, that happens every other year. The unusual part, is that it was at my uncle Matt's house, weird because it has always been at Grandma Frosts. Also, my two sisters were at their in-law's houses, and my mom was sick. So I was the only Cotton there. It was fun though, it was smaller than we are used to, but it was interesting.

I love hanging out with my cousins. They always make me laugh so dang hard. Its cool that they are all growing up now.

This is a photo of Savannah, Mckenzie, and Shantia.

Little Tommy. Matt's son.

I tried to get some pictures while everyone was eating, but those never work... And I was really hungry.

Thought I would throw this gem in here. This was right after we ate. Savannah usually

is a very beautiful girl. She looks possessed..

Halloween!

2008-10-31T09:23:00.000-07:00

Halloween has always been one of my very favorite Holidays. Getting together with family, eating food, and getting ready for the craziness that was soon to follow that evening. My family moved to Utah shortly after I graduated, and after one semester at ISU I transfered to Weber State to be with them. My first Halloween here was spent in North Salt Lake at my aunt and uncles house. They had just adopted Olivia, and she was just perfect. The cousins dressed up and the older boys took the younger ones out in the neighborhoods.
It was this Halloween that was so special to me and one that I will remember forever. Earlier that month my Grandpa had found out that he was going to need another operation on his heart, or else he would die within a few months. So, he was torn. He had already had two or three major operations on his heart and didn't know if he would have the strength to do it again. This day, spent with his newest grandbaby, I think he decided he would go through with it.
Once the older boys had scarfed their food and ran outside with the little ones, the house was quiet. My grandpa held Olivia and very quietly, while smiling at the baby, said, "It's good to be alive."
We knew that he didn't have much time, and I couldn't hold back the tears as the man that had taught me so much in my life said those words. He had so much pain, yet he was so happy. I was overcome with gratitude for being able to have this man as not just my Grandpa, but truly my dad.
He had the operation in February and it went smoothly. He recovered slowly, as heart surgeries require, and by June was ready to go out and Golf again. He laughed, and went to his grandkids events, basketball, baseball, choir, dance, you name it, he was there. He loved to live.
In August he had a stroke. It was very scary, but four days later he was out of the hospital and at church. He recovered so well from everything. Grandpa is invincible!
It wasn't until mid-September that we heard the news. He went into the hospital after ignoring the pain in his side for months, thinking it was just from the heart surgery. The doctors found pancreatic cancer that was at stage four. The doctors said there was nothing they could do, except to hurry up and wait. They said he had 6 months. He left the hospital a little over three weeks later, not coherent, in so much pain. Our hearts ached for our grandpa. He died a little over three weeks after he went into the hospital.
My grandpa was the strongest man I've ever known and also the happiest man I've ever known. I will never forget when he turned to me that Halloween and said those simple words, "It's good to be alive."
It is good to be alive. My life is beautiful, my family is wonderful, and there are so many adventures left in store. We'll sure miss him, but he taught us everything we needed to know.
Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving Date Night :)

2008-10-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

Our first Halloween together. We wanted to have a date and carve pumpkins together. The problem was, I had already promised my sisters that we would have a pumpkin carving competition on Saturday, this was Wednesday, so we had our trial run on the mini pumpkin pie pumpkins.
We went all out. We bought the DELUXE pumpkin carving set which included like four carvers, little detailers and big detailers. It included a goop scoop and patterns.

Caleb didn't like the dirty pumpkins. He promptly took them to the kitchen to wash before any carving could commence.

Our camera is huge. The battery in the little camera died, unfortunately, so for these purposes we had to use the big one. It's hard to take a self portrait with a large camera.

hahahahaha. Uhmm... Weird!

My little baby pumpkin! It was so dang cute.

These were hard little boogers to cut and to clean out. They aren't the kind you are supposed to carve, so it made it that much trickier. Plus, we both didn't want it to get on our hands. So that made it a little more difficult.

Anyway, this is the final product. We are going to be working on big ones tonight! Hopefully those are a little easier and a little more fun! Although we did have a blast. :)

Feeding the Ducks at Beus Pond

2008-10-16T13:47:00.001-07:00

Fall is my very favorite time of year.. Besides Winter. :) I love seeing the leaves changing and get rid of the blasted heat. I don't love being hot. Anyway, over Conference Weekend, Caleb and I decided to go out after the last session of Sunday's conference and go feed the ducks at Beus Pond here in Ogden so we could see the leaves and mostly get our of our dungeon basement apartment.
I've fed the ducks in Idaho Falls at the Snake River, and they were never very aggressive.. just walked semi-near you, without getting too close. Well Beus pond is incredibly different.
We took pictures.. so the only way to describe these beasts is with a photo.

It started out relatively calm, with just a few ducks coming our way. You can see the few in the back just chilling..

The real reason for our generosity towards the ducks was us being unsure what to do with our leftover bread.. Hate to waste. (Side note: this was done the 4th of October. The bread we were using was from August 9-16.. we bought the bread on our honeymoon, and it hadn't gotten moldy.. What do you suppose they put in that bread? YUCK) So. Caleb was doing the tossing and I was taking pictures. Slowly a few more ducks got word that there was bread being shared and so lots more ducks started coming.

Then They started attacking each other when they got some bread. This is a photo of one duck running away with the bread while others were attacking his feet and body.

I started noticing some scary big ducks in the background with large bumps on their faces. They kept getting closer and closer and the numbers starting increasing.

This is a bumpy faced duck. You would not believe the sounds they make. It's incredibly frightening.

Caleb Started out pretty close to the waters edge when it was just the little guys he was feeding.. Then one by one the big guys started showing up and scaring the other ones away with their roars.. Caleb starting getting scared away too.. By the end he was completely on the other side of the path as far as he could get from the ducks, however, they followed him.

Then they noticed me. Unfortunately, I did not have any bread, so they were just coming toward me for no reason.

I love his face.

This is what they did when they started making their scary noises. Think: car horn mixed with a raptor.

So, eventually we ran away from the sand where we were standing. The honking ducks were too much and too scary. We found a little dock that went out into the pond aways. We stood on there and started feeding the little ones again. This one slowly made it over to where we were standing. His face kills me. He got more and more curious about what we were doing. So we laid some bread on the edge of the dock and waited for him to see..

We got brave. :)

Anyway, We had fun and got some funny pictures. Wanted to share. Caleb has nightmares now about those ducks...

Update

2008-09-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

So, life is pretty wonderful. I think that is all that I really need to say to capture how amazing and good life is. I am so happy. I can't think of a time in my life ever that I have been happier. Blogging isn't obviously something that I keep up with, but I do think it is fun, and I have now added Caleb as a blogger, so we'll see if he ever wants to use this.
I know I'm a little late at posting, but we did get Married, almost a whole month ago. Time sure flies. It still is so weird to write my name as Becca Hicks, or to say: "my husband." It almost catches me off guard sometimes and I have to really stop and think. I do like it though, even though sometimes the thought of having children that will be known as "redheaded Hicks" isn't the most comforting thought. Poor little guys. :) (and no, we aren't have kids right away.)
We live in a cute little basement apartment about five blocks from campus. School started two weeks ago for me, and while I had good intentions to walk every day, I love to sleep in, and almost always have to have Caleb drive me to class, or else I am late. I am working on it though. I love Ogden. I think it is starting to grow on Caleb too, a little bit. There are some times where we worry about getting robbed, but we live right near the mountains and it's always a gorgeous view.
We have started to attend our new ward, and I still sometimes forget to respond when someone addresses me as "Sister Hicks." I actually look around for Pam, Caleb's mom. Anyway, I like the ward a lot. There are some quirks, but every good ward has a little bit of oddities. It is what keeps church interesting.
Caleb and I bought a camera, as a wedding present, and we are both getting pretty interested in photography. The camera travels everywhere Caleb goes, and he is fascinated with learning photographic techniques. I'm sure you will be seeing more of his lovely pictures in the future. I do not, however, have any pictures to post for the world to see just yet. You can see some pictures from the wedding on Rachel's blog. :)
That's all I have time for today, but I wanted to update everyone a little and let you know that we haven't died, although we are in Ogden, we are just busy, busy, busy!
Oh and thanks again for all the support with the wedding! We had a truly perfect day. Except, Aaron... You didn't do the dance... SO mad. :)

Bridal Pictures!

2008-07-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

Rachel Barth, Caleb's sister took my bridal pictures on Friday evening at Memory Grove in Salt Lake. It was a beautiful evening, not too hot. We pulled up to the park and had to change on the side of the road, while Julia, Rachel, and Brandy held up a sheet while Pam pulled my dress over my head for me. It was quite entertaining, and I imagine that if any of the people who owned the homes we were in front of were in their living room they would have gotten quite a sight. We walked into the park and there were brides all over the park. Seriously, it looked like a bad romantic comedy. It was really funny watching brides because you could see different types of personalities as you waited in line for a spot. There were the brides that were just so excited and following around their photographer and there was the bride who was very demanding and ordering where to hold the sun reflector.

Anyway, when we got their, I was a little bit skeptical because I'm not crazy about cheesy poses and things of that nature. The first place we went was to a stair case where I sat down and I was quickly shown how to pose correctly.

We walked around for awhile longer and took pictures wherever we went. It was kind of a fun experience. We finished right as the sun was setting and headed back to Provo, but not before going to The Old Spaghetti Factory. It was a fun evening.

Wedding!

2008-07-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

Caleb and I are getting married in a little less than four weeks! August 9th to be exact and we couldn't be more excited. Things are coming along very nicely, even though I am currently unemployed, long story. We sent out our announcements yesterday, which is a huge relief to get those out of the way.

I'm pretty excited to be married to Caleb. He really is everything that I've ever wanted in a best friend, and husband. He understands me and has more patience than I could ever possibly hope for. He's perfect for me.

It seems that everyone keeps in touch through blogs, and soon we will be moving to Ogden, which is close to my family, but a little further from Caleb's, so even if he refuses to join the blogging circuit, I'll keep it going for us, just so that we can keep everyone up to date.

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time at Pam and Michael's house, one reason because I am unemployed and the other because I don't really know my roommates very well, and it gets kind of awkward sometimes. It has worked out quite nicely recently because sadly, a beloved cousin, James Bodell, passed away so I have been able to be here to do whatever I can to help.

Pam and Caleb are going to be flying out to attend the funeral and I am going to stay here and take care of Grandma Bodell for the weekend while everyone is away. I sure enjoy being able to help anywhere I can. I never got to meet James, but my heart aches for my new family.

I wish I had a funny story or something to leave everyone with, but I do not, I'm kind of a boring person lately. However, I do have to say, since I have been lame I have had a lot of time to read, and I've been reading "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer, the same girl who wrote the Twilight Series. Anyway, for anyone curious, it's weird at first, but I am obsessed. Everyone should read it. :)

Life is pretty amazing.

2008-05-20T21:58:00.001-07:00

I decided that I should join the Blog-Fest. It seems like the best way to keep people updated on everything in life. Life has taken some pretty crazy turns in the past little six months that it is worth letting people know about.
In early January I decided to give up for awhile on the whole dating scene. It was just incredibly frustrating, and I called my friend Courtney from the Ponderosa who I had grown quite attached to and vented to her about the stupidity of the male gender. She understood completely. I told her about how I would be swearing off men for awhile. She told me that I couldn't do that completely until I had a chance to see her cousin.
She told me that she had pictures of him on her facebook and that I should check him out and then maybe go on a date. He definitely was cute. I told her that she should tell him to take me out. I sounded a little desperate, but let's face it, it is ridiculously hard to find a good looking boy who has morals and treats people with respect. So.. She set me up.
On Monday evening after a long day of class my phone rang. I usually make it a rule to not answer phone calls from numbers I do not know, this comes from multiple times of answering unknown numbers and then having to speak in church the following Sunday, lesson learned.
For some reason I picked up the phone and there was a deep voice asking if I was Becca. Indeed, I was!
We talked for awhile and joked and got to know each other. It was pretty fantastic, meeting this new friend Caleb and learning about him. He said that he had tickets for a Jazz game on Friday and wanted me to go with him. I had to work, of course, but I instantly rationalized getting fired by calling in sick so that I could go to the game. I love the Jazz!
He joked and said that he was sure that I would have to "Pencil him in" and I said, "No way! I will Permanent Marker You in!" and that is exactly what I did!
We texted that whole week with sporadic phone calls in between and each message that said "Caleb" in the inbox gave me butterflies. When Friday came around I was SO nervous. I kept telling my mom that I was going to freak out. I didn't know what to wear, I was nervous, my hair was ugly, all the standard girl things that can always go wrong.
We met at Barnes and Noble in the Gateway and I paced around while I waited for him to show up. LATE! He was late.. Strike number one. (Although, he wouldn't be making any other strikes, ever) We had some time before the game and we went to temple square. I heard the sister missionaries saying how cute we were together and I wanted to hold his hand and I wanted to date this boy. I grabbed Caleb's hand first. It felt normal.
I don't remember the Jazz game, I vaguely remember even going. I just remember sitting with this amazing blonde boy and knowing that he was stealing my heart.
That was only the first date.
We went our seperate ways, back to Ogden for me, and back to Provo for him and it was hard for us to be apart. I met his whole family on Sunday where I braved the drive and had dinner with his family. It was nice. That night, when he was walking me out he gave me a sweet kiss, and I didn't want to leave. I loved hugging him, and it was just perfect. :)
The rest is history.
May 17, 2008 he took me to Thanksgiving Point and asked me to marry him. (More details to come, or see Courtney's blog! HA) I said yes of course, after freaking out and saying, "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! (Out of excitement of course) and now we are getting married August 20,2008 in the Timpanogos Temple.

We couldn't be more excited..
Courtney sure did a fantastic job.