Monday, June 29, 2009

Hangin' at the Jeffs' cabin!

Andrea's family was nice enough to invite Griff and me up to their cabin in Midway. We've been before (ask me about the Mountain Lion story if you haven't heard it, it's pretty funny) and we have a great time.

Here are the pics:



That's a good lookin' kid! Ready for Transformers too!



SUPER SWING! You've never heard kids laugh so loud as when they...



...get SUPER high in the air! The big kids (read: adults) can get up above the roof to the entry way.



Blowing past the cousins and Uncle Paul.



Griff, Jax and Kaja waiting for another turn on the super swing!!!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen


Yes, I chose the movie poster with Megan Fox on it - BIG surprise huh? :-D

This is obviously the blockbuster that a lot of people were waiting for this summer. No, not gay vampires, no not mini-wizards or even frozen mammoths, sloths and sabre-tooth tigers (though I am seeing that one!) but Alien Robots that turn into GM cars and Megan Fox (oh, and Josh Duhamel for the ladies.)

As you are all well-aware of the "Romantic Comedy formula" there is also a blockbuster sequel formula - "Bigger = Better" (though it's debatable, that's the formula) and Michael Bay is a master of the HUGE summer blockbuster formula as well as the sequel formula, and this one does not disappoint!

More alien robots turning into vehicles (and they used the prototype Corvette in this one, which is SICK!!!), more explosions, more Megan Fox and a new hottie that plays a decepticon babe trying to get to Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), killer fight scenes, killer explosions, the biggest decepticon ever and special effects that are downright amazing. I was a little ticked that the Audi R8 was a decepticon AND got killed by the corvette, but GM is desperate to get out of bankruptcy and so they're trying to trash Audi to get more Americans to buy American. We'll see if their plan works, I tend to think going negative doesn't work - focus on your own features and benefits GM, don't disparage others.

Some will say the story is lacking in this sequel. I have to say...SO WHAT? The story in the first movie was so compelling? No, the story is the same - good vs. evil and attractive people beating the odds and somehow surviving giant aliens trying to step on them or blow them up. It begs the question, are attractive people impervious to explosions? Are they able to dodge giant alien feet more easily than less attractive people? Frankly, I have no problem with that, it's just darwinism helped along by alien robots disquised as construction equipment (by the way, shouldn't the bad buy construction vehicles be called destructicons instead of constructicons? I mean they come together to be called Devastator! Just a thought).

Overall I'll give this movie a 3.5 out of 5. If you're not a big Transformers fan, or a big summer blockbuster fan in general, then wait for Red Box. The rest of the world will be there this week and Michael Bay will make an obscene amount of money - it's the payoff for the formula, and this one definitely fits the bill and it is pretty cool.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Griff & Mark playing after a huge storm!

I wish I could have backed this pic up a little more without making the boys look too small, but the rainbow was so tight (and I don't mean like "cool", though it was that too) in that it looked like it started and ended in this neighborhood, it was the clearest,brightest rainbow I think I've ever seen! The boys just wanted to soak each other with squirt guns and other water toys. Pretty standard.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Movie Review


Went and saw the proposal with a group of friends. I'm truly not sure why we saw this movie, but it turned out to be pretty good.

I'm a fan of both Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock, so it worked out well. It's actually pretty funny. I've always thought Ryan Reynolds was funny, ever since his stint on "Two guys a girl and a Pizza place". In fact, I'm going to go see if I can find it on DVD, it was hilarious.

So this movie follows the romantic comedy formula, and does it well - kudos to the guy who read "Romantic Comedies for Dummies" and created a fine example.

If you've seen the commercials for this movie, you know what's up - Sandra Bullock is Canadian and is going to be deported and lose her job, so she ropes her assistant, Ryan Reynolds, into marrying her. They go to visit his family, hilarity ensues. Of course, there is an old love interest back home for Ryan, so there is the requisite tension there, and Betty White is the crazy grandma and she is really funny. Good times.

So, if you have 2 hours to kill and $6 for a matinee, go see it. If you're on a date and it's too cold to go to Boondocks, go to this movie. If you're with a cute girl (or boy, depending on your preference), hold her hand. I'll give it a 3.5 out of 5 and a solid gold star for sticking to the formula.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Cardinals find a bug.

Yes this is in the middle of the game and the kids found a bug of some sort that was interesting enough to delay the action. Of course, Griffin is right there inthe middle of the kids checking out the bug. Pure comedy.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Live from the Bees game!




Weird pic but it's the only one of the two of us from the game.

Griff and I went to the Bee's game with some friends and Griff had a great time as usual with his buddies! They decided they wanted to be human bowling balls and rolled down the hill toward the fence. They were having a great time! Rain cut the night short but it was still really fun while we were there!

Griff "lawn bowling" (Sydney jumping over the boys as they roll, pretty funny!)

Griff with his buddies Gavin and Bailey


Dealing cards for the kids during the game. The kids had great poker faces! :-D

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Kids at play!

311 concert post

COMING UP, YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS ONE!!! B-)

The parade

Griff at the Orem Days Parade


Griff had a blast at the Orem Days Parade. He claimed he had never been to a parade, which I find hard to believe, but he had a great time with Kamas and Winny and their cousins! Thanks Lance and Jodi for inviting us!


Here's how the parade ended: (with the picture in the above post that I can't get to copy over - stupid blogspot) I'll edit it later...

Anyway, the weather got nasty fast and the roads had several inches of water flowing down them! It was craziness. We got to see most of the parade and Griff even saw his Tae Kwon Do teacher in the parade, he was pretty happy about that. Good times...I guess.

Movie Review

We went and saw "Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian"

(pics won't work right now for some reason, so I'll add it later)

This one is the continuation of the Ben Stiller Character's evolution. Where in the first movie he was a struggling inventor having to take a job to survive, he is now a successful entrepreneur and gets sucked back into the night watchman gig to save the museum artifacts (his friends fromthe first movie) from being put into deep storage in the National Archives in DC.

Hilarity ensues.

Actually, I like the first one way better than this one. Though Hank Azaria as the bad guy is pretty funny. General Custer makes an appearance in this film and he too is very comical. He's the guy from SNL, that I don't want to take the time to look up his name.

Griff liked this film, as did the other kids, but he didn't LOVE it I don't think. He paid attention to his buddies and the popcorn more than the film. I had just run through a torrential downpour and some old guy decided to sit RIGHT next to us, despite the theatre being half-empty, so, I'll give it a 3, it's not bad but probably wait for Red Box.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

South Fork 2009

This seems to be becoming an annual trip to South Fork for a picnic of Ernie's sandwiches (YUM!!!!!) and frisbee with Paul and Andrea's family. The weather was SO perfect, it was amazing! Here are the pics:


Kaja started us of on pictures be saying we should all lay down and smile for a picture, so she did.



Look at that backdrop! Just an amazing day to play some frisbee!


Kaja jogging back to the picnic site for a drink after playing hard for a while!




Big Griff taking a break from throwing rocks in the river with Jaxon.

Big Jax giving us his surprised face!


This pic took 10 tries, no joke and the last 3 tries Griff was rolling his eyes at me, thus the laughter...

Monday, June 1, 2009

Movie Reviews

I've seen WAY too many movies lately! It's getting a bit ridiculous, but I like movies and some good ones have been coming out. I can't wait to see Land of the Lost, looks HILARIOUS!

Anyway, here are the reviews for today - Star Trek 2009 and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Let's start with Star Trek.



To start and to be totally fair, some of the guys at the office hyped this movie SO hard, I don't know if any movie could have lived up to it. But, I did like it. I've heard people say it's this year's Ironman, and for my take, it's nowhere near as good. It was cool - and I know I'm waffling back and forth here, and here's why: The movie does a killer job as an homage to the original TV series. All the characters get really good background build-ups and that was pretty cool. I'm not sure if you would like this movie as much if you didn't know some of the things about the TV show. I did know a lot of what was being referenced, so it was cool in that respect. The story gets a touch crazy because JJ Abrams of "LOST" fame is the director and the time-travel thing plays a huge part in this and it gets almost as ridiculous as LOST trying to figure out who's from where and how he got there, etc. etc. etc. And that drove me crazy! But the action was excellent, the story was OK, and the acting was pretty good. I really liked the Scotty character, really funny. And Uhura is in love with the LAST person I would have expected in this movie, and that was kind of funny.

SO, overall I'll give the movie a 3.5. I wish I'd waited for Red Box, but it was a good movie. If you're a HUGE Trekkie, you'll love it 100%. If not, your opinions will vary.
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the story of a boy/man (Brad Pitt) who ages backwards. He's born looking like an old man and as he ages chronologically he gets younger physically. It's definitely a different film from any I've watched recently and despit the length, it was actually pretty good. I even managed to stay awake watching it late at night. Julia Ormond is also in this movie, so I immediately had flashbacks to "Legend of the Fall" and how boring it was. :-D I didn't think this movie was as boring. There is the predictable relationship with Cate Blanchett's character - Daisy (this part actually reminded me of Forrest Gump - But Brad Pitt has Tom Hanks beat for the ladies' interest all day I'm sure) but they both give a pretty good performance. I was curious that no one ever took a scientific interest in Benjamin. I would have expected doctors and scientists to want to check him out and learn about his condition, but it never happened. The movie is set in New Orleans and they have plenty of freaks there, so maybe no one really noticed :-D

Anyway, I'll give this movie a 3 out of 5. I'm glad I saw it on Red Box, but I didn't hate it. It actually had a few parts I really liked and there are some good messages in it. So if you like dramas with little to no action and some good acting, this is a good choice for you.

Some of my favorite Griff pics - pre-blog