Cussin' Fantastic

I borrowed the tag line from Ryan - it is just so appropriate. If you want to see a great movie, then this is it. Run, don't walk to the nearest theater and see for yourself. We LOVED this movie and will be seeing it again in the near future.

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Is it just me

... or am I the only one who thinks Lady Gaga is completely ridiculous and WAY over-rated? I've seen her in a couple interviews and on some shows and have never been taken by her look or music, but after watching the AMA awards last night (yes, this is what I did while Ryan watched the RSL soccer game last night on the laptop) all I can say is she is one of the worst performers / singers I've seen in a while. Definitely not a fan.

But I did love watching JLo fall on her butt. That was awesome. Especially when she got all ticked behind the scene when it was over. Nice to see and know that divas are human.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDhrLij7RJo&feature=player_embedded

As for the AMA awards, it was a reminder of how out-of-touch I am with "popular" music today. And I don't even feel bad about it. If the performances from last night were any indication of popular music, I'm not missing much.

Fall Break slideshow

We took the kids down to California this past week to visit my parents, 2 sisters, and of course Disneyland. Instead of driving down we used the credit we had on Frontier airlines from when we cancelled our trip to Baltimore last October after Ryan's father passed away. It was nice not driving, but what is usually a 1 1/2 hour flight on Delta (our preferred airline of choice) took us 5 hours of air time plus a long layover in Denver both ways. So it wasn't any faster than driving. Though we won't be flying Frontier airlines again, I will give props to the flight attendant who invited the kids to sit in the cockpit on our Denver to LAX leg. They got to push whatever buttons they wanted, sit in the chairs, pull levers. They LOVED it!

My mom and sister watched the kids while Ryan and I went to Disneyland sans kids. It has been years since I've been able to ride the big kid rides and I'd never ridden any of the big kid rides at California Adventure. So it was fun to be able to hang out with my hubby on a day-long date without Thing 1 & Thing 2. Ryan and I are roller-coaster people. We loved California Screamin' and rode it more than a few times. I re-discovered that Ryan is a roller-coaster giggler. It reminded me of our honeymoon when we hit Magic Mountain for a day, and I learned then that he was a giggler. I like to scream, but you can't help but giggle along with him. It was awesome.

Then we headed down to San Diego to visit my sister and her family for the weekend. We spent the afternoon/evening climbing aboard a Russian Submarine, a pirate ship, the Star of India, and some other little boats. It was fun and the kids had a blast. And of course we ate some good old fish fry at Anthony's for dinner. We love that place.

Sunday we went to Coronado Island. It was the perfect day for relaxing on the beach. We played, relaxed, chased seagulls, ate yummy salads at Village Pizzeria, then went back to the beach and hunted up some sand dollars and large sea shells. The kids were completely exhausted and didn't want to leave.

Monday and Tuesday we took the kids to Disneyland. We ate lunch with the princesses and fought Darth Vader & the dark side, chatted up Alice, and scowled at Mickey. By the end of it all, we were exhausted and ready to come home. The only bad part about coming back ... the winter weather that greeted us as we got off the plane. I really REALLY miss California weather. Mother Nature spoiled us while we were down there with 70-80 degree weather.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

is a favorite movie of ours - not just at Halloween, but year round. When Ryan found this white pumpkin from Cornbelly's, he knew exactly what he wanted to carve. It was a pretty fun pumpkin - green on the inside and it smelled like a honey-dew melon.

Here are the before and after carving pics (most are courtesy of Finn, our resident photog, who amazingly takes pretty darn good pics for a 4 1/2 year old).

 

  

Here the kids are ready to go trick-or-treating. Berlin was the sassy and cute Alice and Finley was a glow in the dark skeleton.

    

  

 After 2 hours of trick-or-treating, we came home with plenty of loot and two very tired kids. Needless to say we were all very GLAD to have that extra hour of sleep-time Sunday morning.