My new favorite picture of Griffin :-D

On our way to swimming, Griffin gets my attention from the back seat and says, "look Dad!" And this is what I saw. Funny kid. :-D

UP!

Griff and I and the Gang went to see UP!


This is the latest animated movie from Disney/Pixar and it was REALLY good. I laughed so hard a few times a little pee might have escaped! It's kind of interesting that the first 10 minutes of the movie seriously have about 3 speaking lines. It was an interesting way to do an animated film. Griffin was having too much fun with the other kids and eating popcorn to notice I think. The story and the characters...SQUIRREL!!!...are both really good. I think everyone really enjoyed this one. I need to see it again because I was laughing so hard at parts I'm pretty sure I missed some good one-liners. This is a 4 out of 5, kids will love it, adults will love it. It's going in the DVD collection when it comes out. Nice job Disney/Pixar!

live from the alpine slide 2009!

Reece, Rylee, Ryder and Payton driving to the Slides :-D

The Gang in Park City

Me and Griff getting ready to go "medium" fast.

Post Park City, waiting for the BBQ!

Memorial Day in Park City was SOOOO nice! The weather was mostly beautiful (it got breezy for a few minutes on the ski lift, but after that it was perfect - I even got a bit sunburned), all the kids behaved very well for the most part, the Slide was a blast as always - Griffin wanted to go again and again of course - and he talked me into taking him again sometime this summer, so looking forward to that.

I think the thing I like the most about the weekend, and I know Mom is going to flip when she gets home and sees this, is all the cousins running around, playing nice (usually) and enjoying being together. Everyone loved baby Blake and Baby Payton (Kaja could not get enough of Payton!) and it was just a really nice family weekend. Obviously we missed Sean, Stacy, Quincy, Payce, Gwen, and Dave but really that would have just meant less of Paul's famous BBQ tri-tip for me, so it's all good!

Griff' and Ryd' having eggs and toast!

We got to spend some time with Reece, Rylee, Ryder and CUTE baby Payton over the Memorial Day weekend. Griff and Ryder pretty much loved it and played practically non-stop. Fortunately they did take some time to have a delicious breakfast of eggs, toast, yogurt and milk. I need to spend more time with families that have kids because, for some reason, Griffin eats a lot better with other kids around! And when this kid gets hungry - look out! He can wreck a pantry and fridge in no time - it's no wonder he's getting so big!

Movie Review - Valkyrie

Well, I remember the previews for this movie making it appear very suspenseful and interesting. They did a great job on the previews, but the movie couldn't deliver. It was Sooooooo slow. I realize it was based on a true story, and that's probably the problem - you can't embellish a true story about trying to kill Hitler without certain groups of people getting very upset I'm sure. Kind of like not being true to Harry Potter books (or Angels and Demons, see below). So, the movie had potential to be interesting I guess, but ended up being very boring. It was kind of funny that they didn't even try to fake German accents after about 2 minutes into the movie. I guess a German accent is too hard to fake.

Anyway, the story is about an assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler. You'd think that would be very tense and suspenseful! Maybe Tom Cruise just couldn't deliver? Anyway, I'd give this a 2 out of 5 - Red Box rental if there is nothing else that looks even remotely better (even Griffin's Kirby movie was better than this!!!)

As always, if you disagree, feel free to let me know.

Movie Reviews

I'm shocked that I missed a movie review the other day! and I went last night to see another one, so here you go - 2 movies in 1 review!

I'll start with the older viewing first:

X-Men Origins: Wolverine!

Regardless of how bad the X-men movies have been for the most part, I still like them. And this one was actually really good. I learned some things about Wolverine that I didn't know, but frankly - who cares - he's a character in a movie. However, I didn't know that he was already indestructible and had the claws before he got the metal bones! Anyway, you all know I'm not going to ruin the story for anyone but it's actually pretty cool. It's also cool seeing the origin of some of the other mutants. The effects are really cool, the fights are awesome, it's pretty much jam-packed with action. I enjoyed it almost start to finish. There is one scene that is not so enjoyable, if you go and see it, you'll know which one. :-D

This is a solid 4 out of 5 - if you're not a X-men fan, wait for Red-Box, but if you want to see a cool film in the theatre, you can do a lot worse than this one!
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Like this one!



Saw Angels and Demons in the theater last night. I've decided, I'm never reading another book that might be made into a movie. I like the movie experience much more than reading books usually, but this book was SO good, I don't think there was any way the movie was going to live up to expectations. I KNEW they would change things up, but they changed too much. It just didn't have the captivating suspense that the book did. I'll admit that part of this is more than likely because I already knew who the antagonist was, and basically what was going to happen, but the movie just didn't develop the characters like the book did and they completely removed one of the main protagonists - the whole battle between science and religion gets very glossed over and it was the driving force of the book. I imagine it's hard to get all the characters in a book developed in the time limit most people are willing to sit through a movie, but I think they could have done better. I think Ron Howard phoned this one in. SO, I'll give this a 3, and that might be kind. HOWEVER, it gets the 3 because I THINK if you'd never read the book you'll like this movie. But I can't gauge my reaction on what others might think. So, if you've never read the book and you go see this, be sure to let me know what you think. Since I fully believe that most of you will see this on Red Box, I'm fully prepared to wait for responses. :-)

the boys out playing baseball!

We seriously were out playing baseball for about 2 hours! Griff did get a bit bored and went to play with some of the other kids who were there. But he did come back for some more batting practice and the kid can HIT! He got a new bat at Target and proceeded to smack that baseball around the park no problem! His catching is getting a lot better too, and he's starting to enjoy catch more, so that's good.

I like this picture because his A&F clothes actually fit (which means the kid is a size 8!!!!) and he looks super good :-)

live from t-ball!

Again, the video quality is terrible, but that's Griff at the pitcher's position and though you can't see it, the ball gets hit directly to him pretty fast and he scoops the grounder turns and fires to first base. He did perfectly but the first baseman was daydreaming (VERY common in this game across both teams - REALLY funny!)

I can't even tell you how awesome this was. Not only did Griff play really well, but it was so much fun watching him have fun! He scooped grounders, he threw, he hit, he ran, and he goofed off when he lost interest in the game :-D I loved every second of it - SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Here are the pictures (click to make bigger):

Look at that "Ready" stance - awesome! As you'll see, it doesn't last :-D

Waiting to hit. He hit really well all 3 times!

Looking awesome in his Cardinals uniform!!!

Playing center field. It ended up being more like shortstop as everyone kind of packed it into the infield to pounce on grounders. But he did throw out a runner at 3rd from here! Actually his throw was SO on the money that is bounced once and hit the 3rd baseban in the chest (He was daydreaming) and he bent over, picked it up and the runner was out because the 3rd baseman was standing on the base, luckily. In this league apparently, no one is out, everyone hits, and with any hit all the runners only advance one base at a time. Kind of annoying, but the kids had a lot of fun and it was a blast for me too!!!

That's Griff on second base knocking the hat off an opposing player, and the opposing player returning the favor - this became the game within the game - it was pretty funny. The opposing coach didn't appreciate it, but what do you do - they're 6! :-D

The requisite batting stance picture - Slap the stats on the back of that card and put a piece of bubble gum in with it!

Griff at the Draper Temple

Griff and I went out to shoot some new pics of the boy in his church clothes, cuz he looks so darn sharp! Grandma H, I thought you'd like these! Here you go... (click to make bigger!)

Not sure what this pose is, but he did it on his own :-D

Taken

Watched "Taken" on Red Box.


This movie was AWESOME! I'm not a Liam Neeson fan usually, but he is great in this flick. The show is practically non-stop action once it gets into the real story and it just goes! The story is pretty cool, they don't mess around with a lot of fluff - just getting down to business and some serious butt-kicking. I must have said, "this guy is a bad-a**" at least 5 times :-D

For complete entertainment from an action/drama I give this show a 4 out of 5 (I'm not exactly sure what it'll take to get a 5, when it happens, I guess we'll know!) Highly recommended and and excellent value on Red Box, of course!

Griff and Kamas

Griff has become good buds with Kamas! They roam the hills and neighborhoods of Lindon like crazy boys should. They have a lot of fun together and even manage to get in a little trouble. Sounds about right to me! Last night they mostly rode their bikes around and apparently, according to Griffin, were doing HUGE jumps.

Also, Griffin and I were playing catch last night and he caught a TON of balls! He was doing so well, I was really proud of him for practicing so hard and sticking with it (even if I had to prod him a little to keep going). I think he'll do well at T-ball next week, I'm So excited to see him play! Should be fun!!!

Hundred Pushups!

I've gotten really bored with my workout lately. So, I'm going to do the http://hundredpushups.com/ program! Lance told me about this and it sounds like a good challenge. One of my Facebook friends is doing it too, so Greg, if you read this, you're on man!

Readers, as you decide to do this too, let me know and we can run a challenge. I'll tell you right now, I'm not starting anywhere near stage 1, so you better bring your A-game!

My personal goal is 100 pushups by June 1. Any takers? Bring it!!! B-)

There's an iPhone app for it too, for "you" people.

May 2, 2009:

UPDATE! Just did the week 3 day 1 row 3 workout. Way harder than I thought to knock out the last 20 but I did it and realized this is going to be a real challenge, but I'm pretty excited about it. It's actually pretty fun. Who knew!?!?!?

May 4, 2009

Update - week 3 day 2 column 3 - 20, 25, 15, 15, 27 max. Count those up kids - 102 pushups! Resting 90 seconds between set, and I could do 2 extra before I fell on my face. So, I'm feeling very confident about 100 non-stop pushups by June 1!

May 6, 2009

22, 30, 20, 20, 28. I BARELY got the 28 in! That's 120 pushups! I even went after another set and knocked out 10 and fell on my face. Definitely burned out today.

May 9, 2009
Week 4, day 1, column 3: 21,25,21,21,32 - not too bad today. I did these first thing in the morning to see if there was any difference in time of day and stamina to complete the sets and there was no difference.

May 11, 2009
Week 4, Day 2, column 3: 25, 29, 25, 25, 36 - was BRUTAL. Actually, I think the problem is working the triceps and pectorals every other day. I'm going to take a few extra days off and max once to see where I am and continue with week 4, day 3, column 3. Otherwise, I think I'm doing more damage than good. No, I'm not giving up - I'm still shooting for 100 pushups by June 1!

May 18,2009
Tried to max today and my shoulders really hurt! I think Jill may have passed down some gimpy shoulders. I only managed 65 pushups, so not too happy about that but I'm undeterred! The goal will probably have to be pushed a few weeks.