Les AWESOME Mis

Last night me and Matt were able to go on, what we like to call, a "Savannah" date.  Meaning: we go into historic Savannah downtown, eat in a truly established Savannah restaurant, and be entertained with an original Savannah experience.

Last night we were able to go and see a full, live stage production of Les Mis.  Holy awesome.  I truly love the novel (read it twice) and I truly love music from the musical (listened to it thousands of times), but this was the first time I have been able to actually see it!  (Matt had gone once before when he was in his early-ish teens.  Lucky duck.)

A friend of mine had mentioned that the Savannah Theater was running a production of Les Mis for just this week.  Yesterday I got on the site just to see how much it'd be, what times it was playing.  To my surprise the site said "Military:  Free Admission."  I was like, "Yeah, we're going!!"  We got a sitter pretty easy, and two hours after making our plans we were in our seats in at (I believe) the oldest theater house in the USA.

It was a small theater, and a small production, but still pretty good.  I weld up like 5 or 6 times, though Matt is the one that let real tear flow at least once :)
I LOVE DATE NIGHTS WITH MY HUSBAND!

Again: Matt and a Camera, Shannon and an Illness, Isaac and an Obsession, Eli and Preschool, Titus and a Head Wound

Matt decided that he deserved a new camera--mainly for surviving a deployment to Afghanistan, but also because the DSLR model we have is 8 years old.  Out with the old, in with the new! (AGAIN.)  We've switched now from a Nikon D80 DSLR to a Canon 6D Full Frame.  It's pretty amaze-balls, to tell the truth.  So in the end, I'm all for his decision.  Hopefully some sa-weet pictures to be shown on the blog. (Instead of the lame-o camera ones that seemed to full the blog the last year.  Lame.  O.)

Shannon, myself, contracted a cough and congestion this last week.  So I've been battling illness. (AGAIN.)  A fever never set in, thank goodness, but with all the coughing I did feel like a was creating a new abdominal muscle.  It's starting to dissipate.

Isaac has got an obsession (AGAIN).  This time it's Harry Potter and the movies (which we're all watching together at night, and the boys are all really into actually).  We went to Orlando Universal Studies and Island of Adventure after Christmas and Isaac got his own wand.  Big deal.  And now there's an obsession to needing to understand the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Hey, I'm not complaining.

Eli started a new preschool this week (AGAIN).  So that's technically his 3rd preschool this school year.  First the Methodist Church preschool--which lasted 6 weeks.  Then our "Friends Preschool" that more or less 3 months.  Now he's enrolled in a preschool which is free (Georgia Lottery funded) and is at a pretty amazing school.  BUT he's gone from 8 in the morning till 2:30 in the afternoon, 5 days a week.  It's a bit overwhelming, but he was ready to go…

Titus once again banged open his head (AGAIN).   This was a very big adventure at Universal Studios, which included an ambulance ride--but that's another post in it's self.  He got his stitches out this week, and everything is healing well.

Christmas Day, 2013! (and the Day After)

Woot!  Woot!  It came!  It finally came!  Me and the boy had been counting down to Christmas since before Thanksgiving--cause we knew for sure that Daddy would be home by then.  

(We were so lucky to have Marcie and Tyson and 2 yr old Jaxson with us this year.  We had a fabulous time hanging out with them for those Christmas days.) 

Of course the boys woke up at like 6:30am, and of course we had a great time opening up Christmas presents.  Then eating our hearts out (Matt made crepes, and I did a lot of the extra stuff--like a breakfast casserole, etc.), and it was all super delicious! 

After we got everything cleaned up, and some food in our bellies, we got a knock on the door.  "Oh yeah!  Missionaries are here to use our internet to talk to their families."  

Matt and I set everything up, and me and Tyson took the boys to a park so the Elders could talk to their families in peace.  (So happy that our internet wasn't screwy that day!)

That evening we did a bigger feast, one involving a fried Turkey.  

Throughout the day we were able to talk and Skype with lots of our family.  All were in Idaho (including my family!), so it was really weird not to be with them.  But it worked out.  Matt and Marcie were even able to Skype a little bit with their sister Caitlin, who is on a mission in eastern Canada (Spanish speaking!).  

We took some more pictures of the evening.  Wrestling happened.  It happens a lot at this house. 

The day after Christmas (the 26th) we went into Savannah.  Marcie took some family photos (which we'll receive in a little while), and we ate at J. Christopher's.  Really good.  

We then came home and us adults went to a movie!  I had set up a babysitter for us, and it was fun to go out as adults.  

We came home and FaceTimed with Matt's family and played Yahtzee together from different locations.  A bit to get used to, but was pretty fun!  

We then got a good night's sleep, since the next day (the 27th) we were heading down to Florida!  

To be continued… 

Christmas Eve : Charleston and Home

This year we had Christmas to our home, but we had some special visitors come in and celebrate with us:  Matt's sister and brother-in-law, Marcie and Tyson (plus their 2 year old son).   So fun!  They flew into Charleston SC on the 23rd (from west TX) and we drove up and picked them up.  Since none of us had ever been to Charleston, Matt and I decided to use some of our Marriott points and stay the night in the historic city so that we could explore it a bit on the 24th.  

On the 23rd we went into Charleston a bit, but it was dark and rainy so we didn't see much.  Just ate at a local hot spot called Taco Boy and tried to enjoy that food, hahaha. (I think we just ordered the wrong things, to be honest.)  

We all piled in a hotel room on the 23rd, got up the 24th and went into town with sunshine on our shoulders.  Wow!  What a beautiful historic city.  We explored the pier, ate a yummy fish restaurant, and then headed back to Coastal Georgia… 

Look!  Fort Sumter!  The location where the Civil War started. 

Scared the poop out of the boys trying to "throw them into the bay."
Then freaked them out when I was "throwing myself into the bay."  Fun times, I tell ya. 

Matt and I split a meal.  Holy yum!  

… Two hour drive later we made it back to our home.  We made a big burrito meal for us and our church missionaries.  We had a cute little Christmas devotional, reading the Christmas story and acting out the nativity with our own set.   The missionaries then left, and the boys got down to Christmas PJ present opening.  One Ninja Turtle set from Matt and Marcie's parents (Nana and Mume) and another Cambodia clothing-set from Matt and Marcie's Grandparents (Great-Grandma and Grandpa). 

Ninja!! 

The boys then went off to bed, anxiously awaiting for the special Christmas morning.