Summer Activities

We have had a lot of fun so far this summer. Blake & Kaleena came to visit with their two little girls, Addy & Arya. Hailee loved having her cousin here to play with! We had a swimming party in our backyard the first day they were here.

We have completely worn Hailee out lately with all our summer activities and this picture proves it. She falls asleep instantly upon hitting the pillow.



We took Hailee and Addy to the Dinosaur Park. I didn't think about "prepping" Hailee ahead of time, I just told her we were going to the "Dinosaur Park". Hailee started screaming when we tried to get her out of her stroller to get a drink of water and when we asked her what was wrong, she said "the dinosaurs are going to get me!". My bad...we had to explain they were all just pretend and she eventually warmed up and even walked over to touch some of them.



We threw a shower for Bryce's fiance, Jen, at my house (more pictures of that later), but I just had to post this one. Hailee was thoroughly enjoying the shower cake that Kaleena made.

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (* * * *)

Well I was finally able to get out and see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last night. I haven’t done a formal review on a movie in a while, so I thought this would be a good way to get back into the swing of things. I will spoil the movie if you haven’t seen it so, as always, beware. (Although there isn’t much to spoil, you can probably guess most of the movie from the title and trailer)

I gave Crystal Skull a 4 star rating. Had it not been because I am an Indiana Jones fan it probably would have only received 3 stars. A lot of people who loved the original films, as I do, would have probably graded this movie more harshly, but it actually made me want to like it more and probably because of that, I did. Now I do have to say that compared to the original films, this movie would rank at the bottom, but I tend to look at it completely separate and independent much like the way I separate the Harry Potter films and books, it’s just two completely different things. That being said, there is plenty of good and bad in this film.

As mentioned in the title the story revolves around the mysterious Crystal Skull. In this film, Indy is being chased by Russians as he attempts to help Mutt Williams find his Mother Marion who has been captured along with an old friend Professor Oxley. “Ox” as well as Indy have been searching for the Crystal Skull for years and are both intrigued by it. The Russians, who are interested in using the Crystal Skull for psychological warfare, are using Indy and his friend Mac to try and locate it. Mac makes a few changes of loyalty and eventually ends up on the team of the bad guys. But of course Indy and Mutt locate the Crystal Skull, Marion, and Ox and then spend the rest of the film being chased by the Russians in an attempt to return the skull to it’s intended resting place, a lost city of gold. There are a few twists and turns but they are mostly predictable (although not necessarily a bad thing). They eventually return the skull and save the day. You probably have already guessed that Marion happens to be the same Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark (The Ark itself actually makes a cameo) and Mutt is Indy’s son. At the end of the film, Marion and Indy finally get married. I think this was supposed to surprise people both the son revelation and the wedding, but I doubt anyone was surprised by it. There are a few double crosses by Mac and some puzzles and clues to figure out, but it’s really a basic story with a lot of fun action sequences which is the heart of any Indiana Jones movie anyway.

Of course the music in the film is on par with the other films, it’s that familiar sound that everyone is used to, the sound effects are great (I just love the sound of the punches in the Indiana Jones movies) and the movie is really fun to watch. There is a lot of comic moments and just Spielbergian type sequences.

The acting is good, and to answer everyone’s question, yes Harrison Ford pulls it off. Indy is considerably and noticeably older, but they don’t try to hide it and it works out just fine. In fact it’s played up quite a bit, Mutt hassles Indy for being old and Indy himself makes mention of his age, it’s a little Lethal Weapon (I’m to old for this), but it’s funny. I thought that Shia Labouf was good in the film and played his role well. He is believable for the character in the settings that they are in. I think if he were to take over the franchise and do a few similar movies that he would be a good leading character. I know a lot of people don’t like him, but I think he’s a good young actor (check out Holes) and I haven’t seen a film of his that I haven’t enjoyed. Karen Allen returning as Marion Ravenwood was good and brought back the nostalgia of the old films. Cate Blanchett as the villain was a nice addition; she’s a good actress and plays the part well.

The action sequences are really fun and over the top. I would have expected nothing less for an Indiana Jones film with Spielberg at the helm. In fact there were a few times where I thought to myself that some of the scenes were just too much (Mutt swinging on vines like Tarzan) but then I remembered it was an Indiana Jones movie and everything was ok. The look of the film is really good as well; I believe that most of the stunts were real instead of CG, although there is a fair share of CG elements in the film. There are of course plenty of supernatural elements in the film and the first time that Indy has dealt with aliens. I think the sets and locations were really good and a lot of the traditional Indy elements were included, so it followed the formula pretty well.

The Bottom Line…I liked Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. With a 4 star rating I would recommend that anyone go and check it out. The movie was really fun to watch and had a ton of the traditional Indy elements; the action was cool and funny. The story was a little bit weak and my biggest complaint is that if comparing to the older films it didn’t quite have the same feel, of course I recommend that you view this independent from the others. The film is rated PG-13 for some action sequences with a little violence but there is absolutely no bad language or sex. There are some scary images, but nothing that would cause nightmares. It’s probably the most “family friendly” of all the Indy movies. If you like the Indy movies, give this one a chance, but go prepared for a different experience, if you find yourself comparing it to the older films, you will be let down. If you don’t like the originals, or haven’t seen them, it’s still a good stand alone movie from a great franchise. (And why haven’t you seen the originals?) Go check it out and let me know what you think in the comments.

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Moab

We got back from our vacation to Moab on Tuesday and I wanted to post some pictures of the things that we did. I have a hard time narrowing down the pictures, so this is a long post, but here is a bunch of pictures from our trip. (Click on each picture for a bigger version)

Hailee was actually excited to get in the car for the 5 hour drive, she knew that it was Grandpa's car that we borrowed and she thought it would be fun. Plus she does a "Full Body Cheese" every time she sees the camera.

She actually did excellent on the drives to and from Moab, throw in a movie and she is good to go. We bought two new movies for her, Lilo and Stitch and Chicken Little, she watched each of them several times and didn't want to watch anything else.

One of the first places we went was Dead Horse Point, it's just outside of Moab and offers spectacular views. Hailee had fun climbing around on all of the rocks, she did take quite a spill and scraped herself up pretty good. From that point on she kept saying "The Point hurt me" or "The Point gave me an owie" It was pretty funny.

Brooke and Hailee at "The Point"

We also ventured to Canyonlands National Park, it was raining a little bit but we didn't let it stop us. We went on a little hike even in the rain. We found that Hailee really loves to hike.

We hiked up to Mesa Arch, it's just a little walk really, but Hailee hated being in her backpack. She just loved to walk around and play on all the rocks. Of course due to the many thousand foot cliff that's on the other side of the arch we forced her to get in the backpack so she wouldn't go running off.

Hailee was really excited to see any sort of wildlife, she chased some lizards and thought this crow in the background was pretty cool.

Because she liked hiking so much, she thought it was fun to try on my hiking boots. Of course she is already very into shoes and tries on shoes anywhere she goes. No matter the size.

We went to the Moab Arts Festival at the park over the weekend and one of the highlights was being able to play on the blow up toys at the park. Brooke enjoyed the roasted corn on the cob and we had fun just hanging out at the park.

Hailee was very excited because at the park they had a "Teeter Tot", she has one at her day care and loves to play on it. She thought it was pretty cool to also make Mom and Dad play on it with her and make sure to sit on each of the 4 different animals.

I did get a few minutes to take a bike ride, I was in Moab it's a sin not to ride a bike. I road the Bar M trail and the Circle O loop in the middle of it. It's an easy trail and worked out perfect to ride during Hailee's nap.

We went to Arches National Park and took a minute to check out Balanced Rock. Of course Hailee loved running around but has proven to be quite a clutz, even walking around on a paved trail she had quite an amazing trip onto her stomach and somehow had enough force to flip her body over.

We took the hike up to Delicate Arch and it proved to be quite challenging. There is a lot of steep parts of the trail and it rises quite a bit in a short time. It's a long 1.5 miles to the top. Hailee didn't want to be in her backpack again and walked most of the trail herself. She also thought it was fun to drink out of the camelback.

Brooke and I had a hard time keeping up with Hailee's little legs. She just kept going up and up the trail, she did great and took so many steps she almost wore out a pair of shoes on this hike alone.

Of course I had to carry the empty backpack that she refused to ride in.

We eventually made it to the top and had lunch at the arch. There were tons of people up there and it was really difficult to get a picture without anyone else in it. But here is proof, we made it.

Hailee showing off some of the injuries she sustained on the hikes we went on. She is pretty tough, she falls and gets lots of scrapes and bruises but it doesn't seem to slow her down for more than a few seconds.

Moab has a nice little trail through town, so we took a leisurely bike ride to...

The ice cream shop of course. Cleverly named Kaleidescoops.

Hailee has so much energy it's amazing. She just ran everywhere we went, I think she had fun being in so many new places.

We drove almost 300 miles and of course one of Hailee's favorite activities was to go to the park and play on the slides.

In Moab they have this weird Hippie park with all sorts of musical instruments built out of used and recycled stuff. It's actually kind of cool and you can hear the sounds all over the park. It's not usually a lot of real music because it's a lot of kids Hailee's age that just love to bang on the pipes randomly. She had fun though.

And as we were packing to go home, Hailee occupied herself by making a train of matchbox cars. We packed up and headed home. It was a fun trip and I think we all had a good time, we were plagued with some bad weather and some weird bad luck but all in all things turned out really good.

Movies, Music, Video Games

Well I have been quite a slacker on the blog lately, especially with my posts regarding entertainment.  So here is a run down of what's going on lately in that area.

Movies:
I really haven't seen a lot of movies lately.  But I have seen a few that I wanted to mention.

21 (* * * *)

I went a couple of weekends ago to see 21 and I really liked the movie.  It's a story about a group of students from MIT that figure out a system counting cards, then head to Vegas to make some money.  It was a really good movie, it was stylish and interesting, it was really fun to watch.  It's based on a true story, I am not quite sure how accurate the movie is.  There was a documentary about it that I have seen, but it's been several years and I don't remember the details.  But I really do recommend the movie, the plot was good and there was a few twists here and there that I wasn't expecting. 

October Sky (* * * 1/2)

I know this movie is old, but it was on TV the other day and I remember liking it when it came out so Brooke and I caught it.  They have been playing it on the weekends on USA or something, so if you catch it, check it out it's a good movie.  It's the story of Homer Hickam, about when he was a boy and he experimented with rockets. 

I Am Legend (* * *)

Brooke and I checked this out on PPV a few weekends back.  I thought it was a pretty good movie, it was intense and pretty scary.  The visuals of the city sort of rotting away were cool, although I think the time line for that was way off.  It was a fun movie to watch, if you like those kind of movies,  but there were tons of plot holes.  I think it's a cool idea and it was probably a good time to revisit and older movie, The Omega Man (which I haven't seen, but now want to).  It's worth seeing but don't have too high of expectations.

Dan In Real Life (* *)

I thought this movie was really boring.  Brooke and I got this on PPV a week or so ago.  We both thought pretty much the same thing, the movie was super slow and the casting was way off.  I guess we really didn't know what we were getting into, but you see Steve Carrell's name and you expect funny.  There were a few laughs here and there, but the movie just drags on and nothing happens, the plot hardly moves forward.  I think the casting of Juliette Binoche as the love interest of this movie was a huge mistake.  She has no charisma on screen and you really wonder why these guys are even interested in her. 


Music:

I am in a huge music slump right now, so anyone out there that wants to recommend something good, post it in the comments.  I was really disappointed that the Jack's Mannequin CD got delayed I was looking forward to that.  I do listen to an immense amount of music every day, so I can get burned out very easily.  I listen to morning radio on the way to work, but then I listen to my iPod a few hours a day at work while I am drawing and the entire commute home, afternoon radio is awful.  So I generally average the equivalent of several CD's a day.  That's a lot of music and I need a lot of variety, but my taste is pretty specific.  But I have found a few good things.

Joshua Radin:  We Were Here
Josh F. hooked me up with this and it's mellow, but it's really good.  It's a lot of acoustic guitar and stuff, it's relaxing. 

Ashes Divide:  Keep Telling Myself It's Alright
This is essentially A Perfect Circle, without Maynard from Tool.  So if you like A Perfect Circle, you will like this album.  It's a good mix of some heavy and some mellow stuff.  It doesn't have the longevity that I wish it had, but it's good.

Mae: Singularity
I have actually had this CD for quite a while, but I haven't really listened to it much until now.  It's pretty good and it's much better than Mae's earlier efforts, the production value especially.  If you like the whole pop-punk thing, check out Mae.

Video Games:

Well I have been playing video games a decent amount lately.  Brooke has continued to go to bed quite early every night, although she is doing much better and stays up much later on some nights.

Grand Theft Auto IV
I wasn't even planning on getting GTA IV, I have played most of the other games in the series and nothing has been good since GTA III.  But the game got such stellar reviews that I had to check it out.  It is a good game, it's fun and the open world environment has never been better.  It's the best GTA that they have put out.  Having said that, I wish it was cleaner, I really do.  I know they were trying to push it as far as they could, but they went too far.  Luckily most of that stuff is optional. 

Rock Band
I really love this game, it's so much fun.  When I got Guitar Hero 3 I wasn't really interested in Rock Band, I thought that Guitar Hero was fun and I didn't really want a bunch of huge instruments around the house.  I was wrong, in fact unless they drastically change Guitar Hero, I won't buy another version of it.  Rock Band is so much better right now, it's a blast especially with a big group of people.  If you have a console that supports it, go get it. 

Call of Duty 4
Still one of the best games I have ever played and for sure the best game I have played online.  It's so much fun and it's got great game play.  Again, if you have a console that has COD 4, go get it and play it online, it's a blast.  Be aware, it's addicting.

So that's what's been going on lately, well the past 2 months or so.  It's actually more than I thought I would have to write about.  Make some comments and let me know about good movies to check out and especially some good music, I am in need.