Playing Catch Up...Part 2 of 3

The end of October was simply splendid. We had a fabulous Halloween party hosted by the Jaynes' Family, which I got no pictures of.
(if anyone has any they want to send us, that would be really great...). 

Jill had games for us to play, and treats to eat, and Steve told his traditional story of Ed--with his paper-bagged brains, and fingers, and eyeballs, and scalped hair...(shudder). 

The next day we, along with Matt's parents, traveled to Cedar City  to see Les Miserables at the Shakespearean Festival. 

Enjoying the kinda long drive down to Cedar City

Steve and Jill had never seen Les Mis before, and I was so excited to share this experience with them! 

(Thank Heavens they loved it, or there would have been a confrontation)(I kid, I kid.)
(But seriously.)

We stopped at a lovely little restaurant, The Depot Grill, for dinner before the show. Matt swears it's the best steak he's ever had, so if you find yourself in Ceder City, it comes highly recommended by Matt. 

I've never been to a bad production put on by the Shakespearean Festival, so I was extremely giddy to see how they did Les Miserables.

We had pretty incredible seats, smack dab in the middle. The set was beautiful, and the cast was awesome.

(I liked Enjolras--even if he did forget that he was supposed to be singing his lines, not speaking them)

As everyone knows Les Mis is my absolute favorite, and they did not disappoint. So fantastic! 

Yes, I was a little nit-picky about how they decided to do some things 

(I still don't understand why they stopped using the rotating stage)

but overall I give it a solid A. 

Good work Shakespearean Festival.

Playing Catch Up...Part 1 of 3...

Holy Moly. It's Almost Christmas. How did that happen??

I guess you'll be wanting an update on our lives--we are kind of a big deal, and we are highly entertaining, and do highly entertaining things...so i don't blame you for wanting to know all the details of our highly entertaining life. And I won't leave you you hanging any longer...We've had a fabulous couple months that I think we should talk about.

Shall we?

Let's =)

I had a birthday on October 17th. The big 2-2. (okay, really 28, but whose counting). I wasn't looking forward to it at all, and had planned on spending my day at work, pretending to not be getting older. But my super awesome hubby had secret plans of his own. I got home from work the night before my birthday and Matt says "I need you to pack a small bag and be ready in 20 minutes." Giddy with excitement (thinking I was going to Disneyland) I threw together some belongings and we headed south.

Not Disneyland, but the next best thing--Matt had made reservations at The Marriot, downtown at City Creek.

When we got to our room, I opened the door to see this...

Matt had come down during work to let his sisters, Jessica and Holly (thank you so much for helping out!), in to decorate the room. The Jaynes' have the awesome tradition of creating signs for the birthday girl/boy...so I was excited to have my very own Jaynes' made signs...So cute!

Matt then gave me a card with a pretty generous wad of cash and said this was my birthday--a shopping spree. We could go that night, and again in the morning. And he would accompany me the whole time, without complaining, and with a smile on his face
(quite the feat for a shopping Matthew). 

We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, and Kneaders the next morning.

(Our camera died at this point, so I have no pictures of our awesome time, but trust me...it was fabulous).

We spent all morning at City Creek buying me awesome clothes, then went antiquing to a couple antique stores in downtown Salt Lake City--found the cutest chair that we're going to refinish and re-upholster
(more on that in a different post.)

It was the most lovely birthday I've ever had. I was completely spoiled, and couldn't have been happier

Later that week, my family celebrated my birthday in style...

Every year I make my family throw me a Halloween themed birthday party--costumes aren't optional. I don't know if everyone else looks forward to it as much as me...but I seriously love this party. And I love coming up with costumes...

Exhibit A, B, and C...

This Halloween we didn't have as much time to throw our costume together, but I still think it turned out pretty cute...

 And I have to show off the rest of my family, cuz they really went all out this year.

  

Cute, right?

All and all, turning twenty-two, ahem, twenty-eight wasn't so bad. 

When you have people like this loving you, what is there to complain about?