this is the perfect light.

...for Halloween time.

My friend, Brooke, got me this crazy awesome light from IKEA for my birthday. Obviously because it's orange.

Before:

After:

No need to carve a pumpkin this year.

fall time.

Also known as the post that will depress my sister who lives in Florida. Sorry sis.

Mom and I went to the pumpkin patch so mom could set the house up for the Fall time and for Halloween. It was threatening to rain the whole time but we got done just in time before it rained for the rest of the day. I'm personally not a sun/summer person/fan so this is definitely my favorite time of the year. I burn like no one's business in the sun so when it's in hiding then it's a lot safer for me, haha.

Plus this time of year everything is ORANGE.

And that's always ok with me.

flashback friday: the lion king.

I remember going to see The Lion King in the theaters four times.

Yeah, I was one of those devoted childhood fans that made it the most successful animated movie of all time. I think if you ask anyone my age they would say that The Lion King is one of the eventful memories of their childhood.

I remember the first time I saw it was in Arizona. I was 9 years old and my brother Jamie, and 2nd cousin Josh VanVleet, took all of us younger siblings to see it. I even remember leaving the movie theater and having to squint my eyes shut because the Arizona sun was so bright and hot after being in the dark theater for 90 minutes. Yes, I remember weird things...but was on a cinematic high because I had just seen

THE.

LION.

KING.

and who doesn't love The Lion King?

The music!?

(Oscar winning, of course.)

The murder!?

(In a Disney flick? whoah!)

The meerkat!?

(Timon is a personal favorite Disney character of mine.)

The soundtrack is eternally frozen in everyone's minds so that if I were to say:

"I can see what's happenin..."

Someone would always reply in the "Pumbaa" voice:

"WHAT?"

You know you just did it...

In New York City when I went with my parents in summer 2001, my mom and I got to go see the broadway show. We only had to pay around $15 each for "standing only" tickets. So basically all we did was lean against the wall and sit on the floor at the back of the aisle with a perfect view. It was awesome!

And so recently they just re-released The Lion King in 3D for a special engagement. My friends and I had been talking about going to see it for months ever since we saw the posters all summer long.

26 year olds excited to see The Lion King again?? Don't judge.

So the way things turned out is this:

Last Friday afternoon I went to the Maya Theater to see it by myself...

only...

the theater was jam-packed with kids. Now I'm normally fine with this at a 2 pm showing of a kid movie. But these kids were annnnoooooying. Running, and screaming, and mom's yelling, "Lucy! LUCY! Get back here!" These kids weren't respecting my childhood! On top of that the screen was fuzzy and tinted dark and the music wasn't loud. I don't know how to explain it without sounding like a complete movie snob...but....the epic "circle of life" opening wasn't that epic. It just wasn't the same and you just don't mess with The Lion King.

But anyways..."HAKUNA MATATA" right? WRONG!

The theater experience was ruining my childhood memories!

So I got up ten minutes into the movie and got my money back.

The next day I got a friend to go with me to the other theater in town and it looked %100 better.

The music was loud.

"IT'S THE CIIIIIIRCLE OF LIIIIIFE"

The murder still happened.

sad.

The meerkat was still funny.

"Let me get this straight. You know her. She knows you. But she wants to eat him? Aaaand everybody's okay with this? DID I MISS SOMETHING?"

It was a complete flashback to when I saw it as a kid. On top of all that, there were ironically more adults in the theater than children. It's been #1 at the box office the last 2 weekends in a row and has banked another $70 million so far.

Odd, and kinda sad, that the best movie in theaters and only one worth seeing is the one that came out 17 years ago.

efy: year two. week eight.

I forgot to post my last week of efy this summer.

Mainly because one of my boys dropped my camera after taking the last photo of efy of my with a group of kids. Literally on Friday night, end of the week, end of the summer, he drops it!

The entire internal structure was demolished. Luckily it was still under warranty so I took it back to Best Buy who had it for 4 weeks to fix it. So my camera's in Utah and I'm in California so I had some ppl email me pictures.

The above photo is what I would have looked like at 14 had I a different body shape. But I gave him my nametag, glasses, and sweat band to rock this photo.

I miss efy.

here it is.

Here it is!

Thank you Scott & Kiana (and a few friends here and there) for helping me out.

www.craigtylershipley.webstarts.com

Click above.