Merry Christmas Tree

Two other Christmases have taught me and Paul that fake trees are the way to go.  The most awesome thing about this tree is that it's the first tree we've had that hasn't been leaning on a wall for support.  It's just hanging out in our front room by the awesome curtains that I made and stenciled (woohoo!), strategically placed so you can see the (mismatched) lights from outside, and standing straight up even with the weight of all of the new hand-me-down ornaments we got from my mom (thank you mom!).

Merry Christmas!

Songs

Pretty sure this is most depressing Christmas song ever, but it has been stuck in my head ever since I heard it on the radio and then made Paul listen to it.  He likes to put it on repeat when we're in the computer room together.  Isn't it so depressing, and hilarious?  But I like ballads, even when they're so ridiculous, and also love/hate the saxophone at the end.

This is the other song Paul likes to put on repeat when we're in the computer room together.  But this video is like the opposite of depression.  We've danced the dance a few times already and even taped ourselves . . . you wish you had as much fun as we do.  ;)

PS Christmas is awesome.

mlovies

Winter is the best time to watch movies.

Crazy, Stupid, Love.  I saw this over Thanksgiving break at the dollar theater in Boise.  Dollar theater, I miss you.  It was funny, I think Emma Stone is so cute and Ryan Gosling is fun to look at, but the movie overall wasn't my favorite.

Contagion.  Dollar theater again, and I actually liked this one!  There were some disturbing parts where I'm sure everyone in the theater was thinking, "was that necessary?", and it made me feel like I shouldn't touch anything and needed to wash my hands ASAP, but I got over that after a few hours.  It definitely wasn't a feel-good movie: more of a thinker/attention-grabber.  And Matt Damon was in it so . . .

The Next 3 Days.  I only caught the last half of this movie, but if the whole thing is twice as good as the last half then I should probably try to watch it all sometime.  It was thrilling.

Limitless.  Maybe I should have payed more attention to this movie instead of working on a puzzle, but I wasn't a fan.  I thought the constant narration was a little weird, and I have to disagree about the "sexiest man alive" thing.  Sorry Bradley.

Thor.  Umm, this one is difficult to assess. I typically don't love super hero movies, but I think they are starting to grow on me.  It was okay.

Captain America.  And another super hero movie.  It was okay too.  Better than Thor, I thought.

X-Men.  SUPER HEROES!  Maybe I'm actually looking forward to the avengers movie.  Ya know?  All of the marvel comics in one movie?  That's happening right?  Well, whatever.  This movie was okay too.

Winnie the Pooh.  KIDS MOVIE!  This movie was a welcomed change of pace from all of the other movies I've seen lately.  It was super short (I mean really short, as in not long enough!) but I guess that's good for kids movies.  It was simple, and cute, and funny, and made me feel happy. 

Cars 2.  I'm still wondering how any child could follow the plot of this movie.  I thought it was WAY too complex and equally un-thrilling.  Kind of a dud of a Pixar movie, if you ask me.

and in case you were wondering about the title of this post and why there is an "l" in "movies" . . . let's just slay I've bleen doing that to a lot of words lately.  Just for flun.  Or to ble annoying.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens

We enjoyed another weekend adventure with our friend Tyler and his girlfriend Kendra down in Charleston.  We took our bikes and went on a little ride through the Magnolia Plantation along the Ashley River.  The plantation was founded in 1676 and boasts an intense history having survived through the Revolutionary War and the Civil War and is still owned by the same family: The Drayton's.  The nature trail was fun to ride and the day we went was the most beautiful day; even the alligators thought so!  And yes!  They are wild!

That night we had dinner with Kendra and Tyler at a local burger joint called Sesame Burgers and Beer.  We didn't have beer, and I actually ordered chicken, but even so I thought it was great.  The best part was the dessert, which we had as an appetizer (a Carr family tradition).  It was the absolute best brownie sundae anyone has ever tasted!  You must get it!

The next day we went back to the plantation and walked through the Audubon Swamp Garden.  We saw more alligators as well as a crane, otters, fish, and birds.  Swamps are just pretty cool, but they are kind of . . . icky . . . and green and kind of smelly too . . . but also awesome and nature-y.

After the swamp we wandered the garden paths, around the old house, over bridges and through the woods.  We climbed the wildlife observation tower and found our way through a rather difficult horticultural maze.  More pretty pictures:

 Doesn't it make you want to come to South Carolina?  It really is beautiful!

Biking in Poinsett State Park

Last weekend, we went to Poinsett State Park to do a little mountain biking.  The fall colors were beautiful and the weather was gorgeous.

 

The trail we rode was a "multi-use equestrian trail" (thankfully we only saw one "pie").  It was also pretty sandy with many fallen trees so it is definitely more suited for horses.  But we had a blast.

We'll be on the lookout for more trails to ride and are planning a few trips to other SC State Parks in the near future.  Ride on!

Happy Halloween

It's Dollars to Donuts

Well, we went to yet another state fair.  We just can't resist.

As we had plans to scour the Sumter County Flea Market in the morning and barbeque with some friends in the afternoon, we didn't get out to the fair until around 6:30, just in time to snag tickets ($10!) to see Styx.  STYX!

Paul and I have never actually been to a legitimate concert together; this is about as close as we've gotten.  Of course, none of the band members were the originals (well there was maybe one, maybe) but it was still pretty rockin'.

We chose seats at the top of the bleachers so we could dance and sing like crazies and no one could bug us about it.  Also because the seats that we were assigned were in an awful spot on the side.  yuck.

Please watch the first 5 seconds of the first video and watch for the dancer behind Paul.  He was into it!  And watch the second video of "Come Sail Away", if you want. :)

For the encore we ran down to the front to get a better look.

After the concert we roamed the midway taking in all of the lights and sounds.  And smells.  We saw this intricate sand sculpture (yet to be finished) of the capitol building, and got our hands on some deep fried Reese's which were dangerously delicious.

And we plan on returning to the fair before it shuts down on Halloween so we can see the exhibits, and the animals, and any other shows they might be having, and also to maybe try deep fried cookie dough, maybe, because, well, fairs are awesome.

Myrtle Beach, SC

Last weekend we drove to Myrtle beach.  Both Paul and I were still a little sick with colds so we thought it would be nice to just relax on the beach and soak up the sun. 

We got an awesome parking spot on 79th street (a little north of where the parties happen) and picked a spot on the sand.  Then, because the beach is sooooo long, we decided to walk along it, to see what we could see. 

The beach is lined with hotels and vacation homes; the sand is busy near the hotels and quiet near the homes.  We got a kick out of people-watching, got a little wet in the unexpectedly chilly water, and mostly just kept walking and talking.  We picked up some shells then we walked some more.  And some more.  And then we stopped to watch a sand volleyball tournament.  And then we sat down because we were tired and then we walked some more. 

We ended up walking 40 blocks down the beach and then 40 blocks back up.  80 blocks?  Yes.  It was awesome.  By the time we got back to our spot we were too thirsty to just sit and relax so we got back in the car and drove down the boulevard to see what we could see.  More hotels, lots of shops, tons of people, restaurants, and some live concert.  Looks like loads of fun!

We will definitely be going back to Myrtle beach sometime to check out all the places we missed but it was fun to explore a good length of the beach on foot.

Waxhaw, NC

Paul and I spent the weekend in Waxhaw with Paul's aunt Karla and her family.  It's so nice to have some family within driving distance and we had a lot of fun visiting.

On Saturday we went to this place called Aw Shucks.  There was a pumpkin patch, hay ride, corn maze, petting zoo, games, and all kinds of wonderful fall things.

We pretended that Paul was stationed "Fort Shucks".  He doesn't look too happy about it either!  (Better than Kyrgyzstan, I say, which, by the way, was a real threat that we luckily deflected, thank goodness).  We petted the ponies and goats and wandered through the far too easy corn maze.  We also went on a hay ride.  Yee Haw!

The proud owners of Aw Shucks would put your name in a drawing to win $100 if you could get a football through a tire 3-times in a row.  Here's Paul trying it out.  He got the first one in but you'll have to watch to see if he got the rest.  (Don't turn your sound up too high; I'm cheering quite enthusiastically).

We all had a grand time, even though we didn't get $100.  On the way back we stopped to take some pictures in someone's cotton.

Next we went to a friend of Karla's place to have authentic Chinese food.  It was very delicious, and I even recognized a few dishes, but there was so. much. food.  To give you an idea here's half of it:

We started eating at 4:00 and kept eating until we left at 10:30.  !!!  We counted 18 dishes, but I am sure we missed a couple.  There were dumplings, pork, duck, coca-cola chicken, pan-fried potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, stuffed eggplant, tomato and egg, sweet and sour pork, dragon-fruit chicken dish (in the picture), tofu, more pork, more chicken, fried rice, pudding, and cake, and I know I'm still forgetting some.  Alex and Dimitri even when to a soccer game and came back and we were still eating. and eating. and eating!  It was crazy.

The rest of the weekend was very relaxing.  We watched some conference and then drove home.  Thank you Karla and Alex for putting us up!  It was a lot of fun, and great to see them.

Mevois

It has been a while since I posted about movies.  Here's the thing though, who is that?  No, that was a Parks and Rec quote, sorry.  Here's the thing though, we canceled our Netflix account before we moved (and before all of the re-workings and price upages (that's a new word, did you know?)), so we haven't been watching as many movies.  "As many" is a vague term though because we still watch a lot of movies, just now we buy them and own them, or rent them from RedBox.  

Movies we have bought since we moved to South Carolina.

1. Alfred Hitchcock Classics
2. She's the Man
3. The Pelican Brief
4. 27 Dresses
5. Groundhog Day
6. What About Bob?
7. The Holiday
8. Runaway Bride
9. Young Frankenstein

Don't worry, I've apologized to Paul for the excessive amount of chick flicks on that list.  At $5.00 each that's $45.00, which is about $15.00 more than we would have paid for 3 months of Netflix, but now we OWN them.  Worth it?  Discuss.  Oh wait, also consider the following lists (and my one-word recommendations, because I'm lazy).

Movies that we have rented from Redbox (at $1.00 a piece).

1. Source Code (no)
2. Gnomeo and Juliet (meh)
3. Something Borrowed (meh)
4. True Grit (yes)
5. Rio (yes)
6. Just Go With It (no)
7. The Way Back (yes)

Movies that we have seen in theatres (at, we'll say, $15.00 a piece).

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II (yes)
2. The Help (yes)

Television shows that we have bought.  You don't need to know how much these cost because the comedy is priceless.

1. Parks and Recreation Seasons 1-3
2. Modern Family Season 1

Overall I would say that I like not having Netflix.  Now we can start adding to our personal movie collection so that we can watch the movies we really like whenever we want to.  It is also just as easy to go to a RedBox to rent a movie as it is to wait 3 days (or more) for one to come in the mail.  And it makes it sort of like a date to rent a movie, ya know?  What I really like is that we don't waste time on our instant queue anymore.  We've been attempting to unplug a little (Paul's doing better than me, he even deleted his Facebook) and not having that instant queue really helps.  BUT since we don't have Netflix anymore we've been considering signing up for Amazon Prime.  Yes?  No?  Would that be missing the point?

What about you?

Dave + Jess

So, my big brother got married on September the 23rd at McMenamin's Cornelius Pass Roadhouse in Hillsboro, Oregon.  Here are some pictures of the big day:

I didn't take very many pictures of the bride and groom, but the wedding was beautiful, David's vows were precious, and the dancing was crazy fun.

The next day we took a family trip to the coast, ate at Mo's, played on the beach, and successfully wore out Mckenna.

I love home.

Camping Kinda

Well it was raining last weekend so instead of going to the state park like we had planned, we camped in our backyard!  I set up the tent all by myself while Paul set up the BBQ.  Hot dogs and marshmallows and smores.  mmm.  I am a master mallow-roaster and I'm teaching Paul all I know.  Happy Camping!