Our First Christmas

I love the holiday season...I mean, who doesn't? It is such a special time of year when we get to spend lots of time with family and focus on Christ and his birth. I love the holiday cheer and spirit of Christmas all around. And even better, I love that I get 2 weeks off to enjoy it all. And to top it all off, this year was our very first Christmas together. It's crazy to think that just a year ago, we were both single. Lucky for me, Ryan took the last 2 weeks of the year off of work too, so we had a lot of time to spend together. 

We started it off with a visit to temple square for Jeff's birthday with the fam. It's always fun to see the beautiful lights and feel the Christmas spirit. We spent Christmas Eve with my family playing games and eating..of course. I am trying to start some of our own traditions, so we did open our fun Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve and read Luke 2. Being away from my parent's house on Christmas Eve for the first time was a big adjustment, but it was fun to be with my new amazing husband. On Christmas we got up and opened presents, and then went visiting the rest of the day. It was a good, fun, busy day!

At my house, the fun doesn't end with the end of Christmas Day. Christmas night is also my birthday eve. I did try to prepare Ryan for birthday week, but it's just something you have to experience for yourself. I turned the BIG 28. HOLY CRAP! It feels weird to say I'm 28, but what the heck, age is just a number. It was fun spending my birthday with my handsome husband and family and friends!

We went to good 'ole Sterling, Utah for a couple days before New Years to get some R&R and see the fam. It was nice and relaxing, and tons of fun to see my crazy family, as always.

During the whole 2 weeks we had off we had some adventures at the hospital and doctor's offices as well. Thanks to my awesome genes, I was blessed with a faulty gallbladder. I was the next female in line in the family to have to get it out. I was pretty miserable. But they took that dumb thing out last week and I am already feeling a lot better! Lucky for me, I have an amazing husband and family that took great care of me. And even though I missed out on most of the yummy holiday food and treats, I am happy to say I didn't gain any holiday weight this year.

So anyhoo, that's the rundown. Now for some pics...

I love to see the temple

Temple Square with the Hinton's

Jenn & Krissa Baby came to visit

We did our fair share of Christmas movie watching

Hinton Family Christmas Pyramid

Ryan and his presents Christmas morning

Our First Christmas

Jame and I rollerblading for my birthday

We cheered on our Packers!

And ended the holiday break at the hospital

Home Sweet Home

It's been a lot of fun the past few months making Ryan's bachelor pad our family home. After months of us dating and spending time at Ryan's house, it was an adjustment for me to think of it as mine. But, it didn't take me too long to dive in and start making it OUR home that we share together. The basketball hoop over the fireplace and the light saber over the bed didn't stay up long once I moved in. Ryan has been great to let me do whatever I want with the house. I have tried not to make it too girly, I mean, there are no pink walls (so far).

I've had a lot of fun making crafts and doing little projects to spice up the house without breaking the bank. Ryan and I have quickly learned how expensive decorating a home is. Luckily, Ryan had already purchased all the furniture and major things when he moved into our home a year ago, so I was able to use some of the money we got from our wedding on kitchen ware and decorations. We have done a lot of painting and re-arranging, and it's coming a long great.
We also have a list of some projects we'd like to get done this next year. I love having a home, it's so nice to have a place to call ours. It's also so nice to have the space to host our friends and family. The Hinton Hotel is open whenever you'd like to visit!

So, here's what we've done so far....

The family room...all decorated up for Christmas

The Master Bath

Our Master Bedroom 

The entryway area

The Half Bath

So, that's our home. We really love it and are so very grateful for it.
XOXO. Amanda

Our Trip to the South

Ryan and I love to travel whenever possible. I love seeing new places and experiencing new cultures. In fact, I don't think I've ever felt the feeling of being homesick while on a vacation. I love trips, even if it's just for the weekend.

Ryan has a good friend named Keith and he and his wife Liz live in Mississippi. We have been wanting to visit them and see the beautiful South. So, we planned our quick weekend trip and made the very most of the 3 days we were there. Keith and Liz hosted us at their beautiful home in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. We arrived in Gulfport, Mississippi Friday evening where we got to see the beautiful white sand beach and we stopped by the Hard Rock Casino. Then on the way to Hattiesburg, we stopped at The Shed. When you think of a barbeque shack down in the bayou...yep, that's exactly what The Shed is. The food was delicious and the cultural experience was fun!

Saturday we spent most of the day sightseeing! Keith and Liz took us to lots of cool places. We got to see some beautiful Southern homes, a train station, downtown Hattiesburg, my favorite place- Treasure Hunt (a retail clearance store), antique shops, and of course, we ate lots of delicious food! One thing about the South is they sure know how to eat well. All of the food that we had was delicious. 

On Sunday morning we got up early to head down to New Orleans. After a 2 hour drive in the beautiful forest, we got there to do some sightseeing before the big game. We walked around New Orleans for a couple of hours and were sure to see Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. One of my favorite places was the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. It was the creepiest cemetery ever, with above ground tombs and Voodoo witches. It was so fun to experience the Southern culture there. The only thing that wasn't awesome was the humidity..yeah, we could have done without that. 

The highlight of the trip was the New Orleans Saints vs. San Francisco 49ers game. Yep, we went! We were decked out in Saints apparel (Ryan surprised me with a shirt when we got there) because we had to have a true Saints fan experience. The game was so much fun! The whole experience of being at the Superdome with the crazy loud fans was pretty awesome for my first (and hopefully not my last) NFL game. The fans kept chanting something the whole game and it wasn't until after the game when we were stuck in the hallway with a million people chanting it that I could finally understand what they were saying: 

 "Who Dat Say'n They Gonna Beat Dem Saints"

Translation: Who's that saying they are going to beat the Saints?
That topped off our awesome day in New Orleans and then we headed back to Hattiesburg late that night. On Monday morning, we got up, packed our stuff and went to breakfast before heading back to the airport in Gulfport. We got to see a little bit of the town of Gulfport, and I was amazed that there is still a lot of devastation from Hurricane Katrina (almost 10 years ago). There are a lot of areas that people weren't able to rebuild. It was very sad to see. 

We had a great time on our first official trip as husband and wife (aside from our honeymoon of course). It was great to spend some time with Keith and Liz in their beautiful state. The South is beautiful, and I would love to visit there again. Here's to more traveling that Ryan and I hope to do together in the years to come. I sure love spending time with him.

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

The Shed...it really was just a shed. But sooo good.

The Guys

The Gals

The awesome bathrooms at the Shed. 

Hattiesburg Train Station

Of course..Star Wars at an antique store

Dr. Radley at his office

Our tour of Southern Miss

Enjoying the Beignets from Cafe Du Monde

The Mississippi River

The French Market

Proof we went to Bourbon Street

The Food was so Delicious

At the Saints Game

"Who Dat Say'n They Gonna Beat Dem Saints"

Keith gave us a tour of Gulfport before our last stop at the airport

Honeymoonin'

7 Days of Mexico, Sunshine, Beautiful (warm) blue ocean, My best friend (and brand new husband), an All-inclusive resort, and All-you-can-drink Strawberry Pina Coladas (virgin of course)

Sounds pretty amazing, right?

Well, it was.

Our wedding and honeymoon was possibly the best week of my life to this point. After celebrating our big day with all of our family and friends, we headed off to sunny Mexico. I couldn't believe how beautiful the water was. The view from our balcony could have been on a postcard. 

We stayed at the Live Aqua Resort in Cancun. Wow...I had never stayed at an all-inclusive resort before. It's awesome. Even though it was hurricane season, we really lucked out and had great weather all but one day. We ate so much, and just chilled and enjoyed the beautiful weather the whole time. The beach and pool-side waiters made it easy to sit at the pool or beach the ENTIRE day without moving a muscle. We got a lot of relaxing in, which was so nice after the stress of planning a wedding. My favorite was the day we rented a cabana and just chilled all day watching the ocean. 

One day we did an adventure tour where we visited Tulum, the ancient Mayan ruins. We spent a couple of hours there and got to see the ruins and the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. Ever. Then the bus dropped us off at XelHa the rest of the day to play. Xelha is a natural adventure park--kinda. It was so neat and I really wish we could have taken more pics there, but we were in the water the whole time. We biked up to the entrance of a natural lazy river that we rode a big inner tube down. Along the way there was cliff jumping, a rope swing, and lots and lots of snorkeling spots. We loved it, it was so beautiful and would love to go back someday and spend more time snorkeling and exploring. 

We got to go para sailing over the ocean, which was neat, but made us both a little sick. The highlight for me was the night we got to release baby turtles into the ocean. I guess sea turtles lay their eggs in the sand and the resorts are responsible for digging them up and releasing them into the ocean when they hatch. We just happened to be there one night when they hatched, and we got to release teeny itty bitty sea turtles onto the sand and watch them run into the ocean. It was the cutest thing. I was so sad we couldn't take pictures because it would distract them and they'd follow the light from the flash. It felt like a scene from some romantic movie. haha.

The day before we left, a tropical storm came and practically flooded the resort. Tropical rain storms are really different from rain at home because its really warm rain and there's no lightning or anything. Just a lot of rain and wind. We thought we'd make the best of it and we went out and played in it. It was actually a nice break from the scorching sun and humidity.

It was so fun that I got to spend my first time visiting another country with my hot new husband. We enjoyed every minute of it, and even got to message back home to our family a few times thanks to Wi-Fi and iMessage. We broke a record and gained our Newlywed Weight within the first 7 days of being married. 

So, there ya go. Our honeymoon adventure in the beautiful Cancun, Mexico. Hope to go again someday with my handsome man.