The Thirteenth Year

This year Carter and I celebrated the start of our thirteenth year of marriage (aka, Our Twelfth Anniversary) in a familiar spot.  But we brought a whole new batch of newbies to take in the delights of the Utah Shakespeare Festival (and the Cedar City area in general).

Yep, that's right.  Carter managed to convince my siblings, who refer to intermissions during theatrical performances as "half time," to accompany us.  We challenged them further by selecting a musical this year (again, NOT their cup of tea).  We couldn't resist checking out USF's version of Les Miserables, especially considering that was the first play we ever saw together when we were dating (we actually bought the tickets together with a group of friends before our first date!).  While it felt very different from the Broadway/West End version (in that there was no rotating stage piece), it was still very enjoyable.  In the lectures we attended, the "experts" explained it was done on purpose to focus on the characters of the story rather than the spectacle (also, practically speaking, it just wouldn't have worked for the Adams Theater).  While it wasn't a perfect production, I really enjoyed it.  The Thenardiers were fabulous--I don't remember enjoying them at all before. (Maybe I was enchanted by the fact that they were the same actors that played Bottom and Titania in last year's A Midsummer Night's Dream?) Jean Val Jean was great, and a Utah boy at that!  I was also fascinated by the fact that the Javert and the Fantine were actually married in real life.  It was very moving and it made me so excited for the movie to come out in December.  Anyway, it's definitely worth the trip if you manage to score a ticket to the sold-out production!

 My yearly photo op with the Bard

In addition to the play (yes, you have that right--no Shakespeare production for us this year.  The ones this year aren't exactly my favorite!), we went to Cedar Breaks for a "hike" and had lots of fun playing in the pool.

 Group Stretch

 Les Freres

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 Everyone made fun of me for calling this a hike.

We also went to a fancy dinner on the night of our anniversary.  And I don't think I've laughed so hard as I did later that evening (after dinner and the play) when we played games.  Good times.

We ate here on our honeymoon!

It was such a nice trip.  I badly needed a break this year.  So much fun.  Special thanks to Lisa, Laura, and Becky.  Without their fabulous childcare, we wouldn't have gotten to do this!