Thanksgiving Surprise

Matt had a whole week off for Thanksgiving (woohoo!) and we were deciding what to do for that week.  We settled on going to Nashville to celebrate because it is only 3 hours away and I have family there.  A little over a week before we were planning to go Matt talked to his dad on the phone in Austin about their plans for thanksgiving.  They weren't going out of town or doing anything super exciting (I was listening to the conversation from the other room).  When Matt got off the phone with his dad we both said to each other, "We need to go to Austin for Thanksgiving!" Matt's dad had not met Yvonne yet and because we had a week off for Thanksgiving we decided to go for it!  I think it was really what we were supposed to do for Thanksgiving because the trip had no hiccups.  Finally a trip that went well for Matt Bonner!  And even better-it was a total surprise for the whole family.  We told no one that we were coming! I love surprises!

We left on Tuesday morning and drove through Jackson, Shreveport and then once we got to Texas it was just a diagonal shot to Austin.  We drove on country roads that went through all of these tiny towns.  Each town had a gas station and a donut shop and that was about it.  It was a pretty drive but Texas is HUGE and kind of painful to get through.  It took us about 13 hours total.  Yvonne did really good until the last hour, when we were all going a bit crazy.

We knocked on the Bonner's door at about 7:30 pm and it was a great surprise!!!!

While we were there we celebrated a birthday, went bowling and played pool, played Frisbee (Matt and his dad's special bonding activity), ate Thanksgiving dinner and of course let Yvonne be snuggled by everyone.

Matt broke the Frisbee he gave to his dad a few years ago.  Now it is a best friend token.

Yvonne hanging out in the hammock.  Thanksgiving break in a warm place is the best!

Aunt Ingrid, Grandpa Bonner and Yvonne relaxing after Thanksgiving dinner

The whole family! And yes that mountain man in the back is a senior in high school:)

We drove home on Friday so that Matt could have time to get some of his school work done before his last week of school! I know we just got back from Thanksgiving break, but I want more! It was so nice to spend time with Family.

Merry Christmas! Er..I mean Happy Holidays! (33 Christians and one Jew).  So much awkward in this class photo including my freakishly tall husband. And UAB's mascot is not a reindeer in case you are wondering.

Date Night

The last couple weeks have been filled with rain and sickness.  Poor Yvonne came down with her first cold! It has been breaking her parents hearts! She had a low-grade fever, snot coming out of her eyes and nose, a cough and a couple of spouts of barfing.  Yvonne and I have basically not left the house in the last week. We have both gone through a lot of laundry though. I think in one day I changed my outfit 5 times due to throw-up or the snot on my shirt that looked like snail tracks from Yvonne wiping her face on me.

True Love! My arm was dead, but I didn't want to wake her:)

We are now seeing the tail end of this fiasco.  Hopefully!!Praying!!

You have to pay to live in a really green area.  It has rained for the last two weeks.  There was a tiny break last Wednesday when it was still pretty cloudy but no rain.  I took advantage and headed to Red Mountain State Park with my friend and her baby.  We did a hike to one of the many tree houses they have in the Park.  It was a cool view of the Birmingham area.  That was the most recent enjoyable memory I have.  It was such a nice time.  Then, more rain!! Matt said it is like we are vegetables in the grocery store...constantly being misted.  Yesterday afternoon the sun all of a sudden shone through our living room window. I jumped off the couch and just basked in it.  It was so wonderful!

The weather forecast predicts sunshine for the next week.  Woohooo!  

Today on my run I did see the swim team practicing in the OUTDOOR recreation center pool.  The rain will pay off in very green summers:)

It is still warm here but I miss the desert sunshine too!

Rewind to Halloween weekend.  Matt and I had the best date ever! It was our first time (since being here) having somebody watch Yvonne while we went on a date and it was the BEST! We left for our date after 7 pm, so we had already put Yvonne down for the night.  The babysitters just had to watch TV and listen for Yvonne-it worked out great! 

Matt's couch-surfing friend, Don, got us symphony tickets to the movie Psycho.  It was really cool what they did.  The symphony played the score of the movie (all the music in the background) live while the movie was playing on a big-screen behind them.  It looked like a lot of work for the conductor!  We could see that he had 3 TV screens in front of him with the music, the script and the movie playing.  He had to keep time the whole length of the movie so all the climaxes were played at just the right part.  I had never seen psycho and I thought I would get scared watching it after my sister told me about the time she saw it.  She actually watched it with Matt and got so scared at one point she dove across the room and mauled Matt.  Matt said. "Yeah she wasn't even sitting by me....and she gave me scratch marks."  Sorry Kim, but that movie: not scary! It is a classic though.  You can't go wrong with Alfred Hitchcock!  It was at the Alabama Theatre-similar to Capital Theatre in SLC. Not too many pictures this post:( But gotta keep y'all updated!xxoo