The Lazy "S" Ranch

This past week has been pretty hectic.  With Christina leaving for her mission on Monday, everyone has been busy trying to get things ready.  With all the commotion going on at the house, Christina and I decided to take the girls to the Lazy 5 Ranch for a bit of fun.  We left right when the babes normally nap, so I was a bit worried that they wouldn't be able to hold it together and enjoy our outing, but they both did so well....even without napping in the car!! In other words, we lucked out...

We decided to go on a wagon ride. I wasn’t sure how the girls would do on it, but now, I can’t imagine doing it any other way!  They both had fun looking at all the animals, and being on the wagon gave them a perfect vantage point!

     

Serenity was pretty apprehensive at first, but towards the end found her courage and she too tried to feed the litter ones with us. 

    

We pet the llamas, and the water buffalo.  The water buffalo were HUGE! They had the longest craziest tongues.  They were honestly kind of like gigantic cuddly puppies!  

We also fed the giraffes (well watched other people feed them.)  The best part was probably seeing all the little baby animals though.  There was a baby lemur, piglets, giraffe, goats, kangaroos, camel, and zebra. 

  

     

   

One of the more memorable moments was seeing the peacock ruffle it’s feather at the females.  (K so, I was sitting here trying to remember these birds were called peacocks for probably 5 minutes, I had to google “pretty birds” to help me remember ha).

Just a little video of the peacock showing off lol

  

It was fun just watching the girls explore the ranch, and see their reactions to all the different animals.  My little Scarlette really seems to enjoy being outside.  I've never been much of an outdoors lover, BUT she seems to find peace in nature.  

  

All in all it was a really fun day ending in dinner at a yummy hibachi place! They both LOVED the noodles!

  

The girls will miss you “tina”!

             Jess

Movie Monday-Transcendence

Transcendence. WOW. Part of me wants to say “WHAT THE CRAP did I just watch,” and the other part of me liked it.  I will warn you though, there are definitely spoilers below!

From the beginning of the movie when Max (Paul Bettany) is walking through this dry, desert-like town, where keyboards are used as door stops, and all sorts of technological devices are strewn about the ground, you kind of get an idea of what will happen in the show.  But then, he walks into one of the many buildings that appear to be crumbling to the dry earth. Inside there is a little patch of green grass with sunflowers growing and dripping with dew. Somehow, in this world where life seems to be struggling to hold on, here, something is different.  Now it seems this is not just a show about “controlling technology or it will control you.”  The point of this movie isn’t, in my opinion, saying that technology will take over and destroy everything because we don’t understand it. Instead I feel this movie, asks us to question what it is we really are hoping to gain from technology, and to open our minds to the possibilities.

I definitely expected a little more entertainment, considering the director was the cinematographer for Inception, but it did have some interesting visuals.  The movie did a good job of helping you understand that Will (the brain of the worlds leading specialist in AI that was uploaded to a computer, and then to the internet, and then to everything else) really was EVERYWHERE, but I don’t think the movie did a good job of explaining how the science came to be, and therefore I felt a huge disconnect between our reality, and the films reality.  The movie did a good job at conveying it's different messages, but a less than mediocre job at creating a world that made the film believable or even something I could merely pretend was believable. 

The acting, well, Johnny Depp as Will, was kind of an odd choice in my opinion.  Depp is such a good physical actor, and to be playing a role with virtually no physicality was kind of distracting to me.  Rebecca Hall’s portrayal of Evelyn Caster, Will’s wife, and the person who uploads Will to the internet, and helps facilitate his growth, fell sort of flat for me.  She was pretty much just a one-note character, just like pretty much every other character in the movie if I’m to be honest. Paul Bettany as Max however, was the saving grace for me.  He showed dimension, personal conflict, and helps to keep you in the poorly constructed “world” of the movie, when so many other elements threaten to throw you out of it.  With so many “big name” actors (Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy also in the mix) it seemed like there was so little content, and that there were too many characters to carry on such a simple and boring storyline.

Some people it seems, are really caught up in the whole, “love beyond the grave” thing as an overwhelming message in the film, which I can see, but I don’t really understand it.  I don’t think the point is merely that.  Evelyn, after uploading Will to the computer, really does believe it is him, and instead of just being with him, she goes on to continue their work together of trying to change and heal the world. If all she cared about was keeping him alive, the story could have ended 20 minutes into it.  The real conflict comes in when we realize, Will being omnipresent and omniscient, is something that humans, and their very narrow view of reality, cannot understand.  And since there is nothing more scary than the “unknown,” not being able to fully comprehend Will’s motives, causes many to want to destroy him.  An anti AI group along with the government works to take down Will because their fear is he is trying to control and run the earth.  Evelyn gets scared and begins to doubt that this computer ever was her husband, and so she begins to work with them to help take him down. 

I’ve read that some people who watched the film don’t like that Will isn’t more villainous, but I really like this choice for the story.  Will isn’t the villain.  Not really.  Maybe he is getting uncomfortably powerful, but his intentions are good, from what we ultimately can gather.  Honestly it’s hard to pin-point what the antagonist actually is in the film.  In the end, we learn Will was truly trying to help “heal the world” like Evelyn had always hoped, this really isn’t the work of a villain.  It begs the question whether or not Will, as the computer, is able to feel, as the Anti-AI group believes to be impossible.  When given the choice to save himself and Evelyn, or to sacrifice himself to let Max, his good friend, live, he ultimately chooses Max, which to me, isn’t a choice made of pure logical deductions, and therefore proves even more, that he wasn’t just an out of control computer trying to take over the world, but a being with good intentions and possible feelings.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie despite having many components that didn’t seem to work all that well.  It had interesting moments, nice visual effects, and provided an interesting twist to a pretty common storyline. I’m not certain I’ll rush out and purchase the movie, but I definitely don’t wish I could get my money back.   

            Jess

Happy Easter

Easter.  What an awesome holiday.  Everything about the Easter season is so fresh and beautiful.  I love how Easter is in the spring.  The whole earth is just radiant.  The flowers are in bloom, the days are longer, and little baby animals are all around.  It seems I can’t escape the vivid images of re-birth and the beautiful symbols of being given a fresh start that are all around me.  What a sweet reminder of what Christ has given all of us. 

This year I decided to get outside with the girls more, and let them enjoy the beauty of Spring.  It’s been hard with the crazy cold weather we’ve been having, but the warmer days have been incredible!  I was lucky enough to get the most ADORABLE Easter pictures of the girls with flowers and bunnies in their little Easter dresses.  It was a nice way to embrace the reverence of the season, while still doing something fun and memorable.  I was even able to send out Easter cards to our families for the first time ever!  I will definitely need to make these things traditions for our family.

      

Serenity couldn't keep her hands off the bunnies!

 Instead of going all out and crazy on Easter morning, we did a little Easter egg hunt with Serenity. We also gave the girls a bunch of new Spanish books (so that I can practice with the girls when Tanner isn’t home…), a Spanish sing along movie, and a puzzle for Reni.

   

Serenity loved looking for eggs, and Scarlette was just the sweetest thing looking in her little Easter basket. 

   

Playing together after breakfast... Serenity was so patient

We had a nice day at church, Serenity really enjoyed looking at all the pictures of Jesus all over the church building.  She kept asking me "who's that" just so I could tell her Jesus over and over again.  It's almost like she understood the meaning behind the day.  

Everyone at church got a kick out of the girls cute little gloves and headbands. I wish I had thought about taking picture earlier, but the after church wrinkled dress style is good enough for me!

   

The sun was so bright but the girls suffered through it

My cute husband and our girls

 After a few days of cold and rainy weather, today was just gorgeous.  It really was the perfect day to celebrate and remember the sacrifices that Christ has made for us, and how truly blessed we are #BecauseofHim.
   

             Jess