Movie Review: Zootopia!

This week Jared and I went out to see Zootopia! It's been on our list for a while. But if you know me, I can barely stand going to see a movie when I know it's nice outside. Low and behold a rainy day came and we made our way out to our local movie theatre for an afternoon showing.

Now, to give a review without a spoiler...

The premise of the movie is that Judy Hopps wants to be a police officer. Thing is, bunnies don't become cops. So her whole career is mostly trying to prove everyone wrong.

Judy unsuccessfully trying to make friends.

On the other hand, there is Nick who is a sly fox and lives up to societies standards that no one can trust a fox.

The two end up working together when Judy is assigned a case that her career as a police officer rides on. 

The great message of this movie is that society tries to bunch us together. Bunnies do this, foxes do that, zebras do this, etc. But for much of the movie animals wrestle with this. Do they go for it and break out of the stereotype and chase their dreams? Or do they concede and become who society tells them to be? 

In a day and age where many of us are grouped and labeled and those labels are used to divide us, this movie couldn't be more timely. Whether we group ourselves by race, faith or political views, many loud platforms try to then take these differing groups and pit us against each other. Why? Political gain, news ratings, who knows what goes on in our hearts to motivate this. However, it is so interesting that we can take a "kids movie" to gain perspective on what's going on in our society. We have gotten to a point where we are so divided we don't talk to anyone of an "opposite label" because we want to avoid the confrontation we are told we are supposed to have.

While life has kinda beat me into a realist, I can't help but hold on to a little bit of idealist that still lives inside of me. I know not everyone is going to believe the same things that I do. But I do believe we can still respect each other not despite, but because of our differing views. 

So as the title song goes for this movie, "I won't give up and I won't give in." "I wanna try even though I could fail."

Trying even though you may fail and make mistakes, is one of the purest forms of courage. 

Geocaching: Road to 600

So in case you didn't read all my other posts, Jared and I are big geocachers! Many of our trips camping or otherwise include geocaching. We find it enhances our trips and makes things fun. We not only see beautiful views but we learn a ton historically and educationally.

I've been trying to complete my "Finds in on a day" calendar. Basically, find a geocache for every date of the year, including Leap Year. Here's how I stand to date.

Only 163 more to go!

Naturally, trying to achieve this makes my geocaching find rate go up from 0.3425 caches/day in 2015 to 1.0849 caches/day. You then quickly rack up the numbers. So while it seemed like only yesterday we were celebrating 500 geocaches, 600 was coming up really soon.

Thing was, we had also started a Lord of the Rings themed series while this was all going on. We had found about half of the needed geocaches over subsequent trips. So when Jared came around and asked me if we wanted to not only grab all the rest of them, but to make the Puzzle final my 600th, I was game. There was only one catch...I needed 16 more caches and we only had 10 left in the LOTR series. So we had to make up the extra as we went along. 

But why read about it when you can watch the adventure! Check out the video below to see what the fuss was all about! (Keep in mind, it took us much longer to find the final geocache than 4 minutes, but I clipped most of the stuff out so you won't have to watch 22 minutes of dark screen haha). 

Day 5 Recap: Jared's Birthday!

Jared's birthday was just a few days before we left for Disney! So I planned a whole day for us to explore Disney outside the normal park stuff just for us to have fun and spend some time together!

First on the scavenger hunt...Mini Golf!

Jared's lining up...

We did the Fantasia Gardens Mini Golf course and had a blast! Then we went over to Tri-Circle-D ranch to check out the Disney horses!

They were huge!

In the barn!

Pictures of the horses at Disney over the years.

That was a really special place to go and visit!

We then made our way back to the monorail loop and checked out the five legged goat at the Contemporary before making our way to the Polynesian!

Yes, that's a five legged goat and it wasn't on accident!

Got my first Dole Whip ever!

We then got to go into Trader Sams! We loved how interactive the space was and the waiters were a hoot!

We sat right under the goddess "Uh-Oha!"

So much fun!

We then grabbed a quick nap back at the hotel before heading out to Disney Springs!

Beautiful view of the lake behind the hotel!

Disney Springs has so many new things! Since Jared is a pilot, we of course had to check out the adventure and aviation themed Jock Lindsay Hanger!

Sat on the lake and could see the amphicars taking off at the Boathouse!

Story of how Jock Linsday found Disney Springs!

The pilot...the hanger. *Swoon*

We then checked out a bunch of stuff in the shops!

Yay sugar scrubs!

Love the candied apple designs!

Jared's looking for hidden Mickey's in the paintings!

Because Mickey's on it, we need it!

This day was so much fun and definitely a memorable one for us. Jared achieved equal status with Indi...worthy of his own stunt show!

The next morning we had to head home from the magic. It was one of the best weekends and I can't wait to go back!

Here's us in full shenanigan mode!

Pumpkin Patch Date!

Every year Jared and I like to visit a pumpkin patch. It's something I did as a kid and we always have fun visiting and searching for the perfect pumpkin!

In addition to the pumpkin patch, there was a corn maze that we got to do!

Corn! I am in love with my new phone and the pictures it takes!

We love pumpkin patches!

Obligatory selfie.

Jared was just a little bit too tall for this photo set up!

Cute little pumpkins!

We loved that they had pumpkins of every kind!

Cheesin!

Well, we shouldn't get lost!

We had a ton of fun looking for ur pumpkin. Plus, we were able to just talk and decompress from some of the stuff we both have going on at work. But what's really awesome is we had more fun in the corn maze...which we actually got lost in!



Just another fun idea for you and your loved one to spend some time together!

Date: Day Trip to Waco!

Jared got an unexpected week off of work last month. We took advantage of the time together and we decided to make a day trip to Waco!

We started off by visiting the Magnolia Farms store. We were wandering around looking at some of the stuff, but honestly, were a little disappointed. Maybe it's just us having ridiculous expectations. Maybe it's just because many of the decorations were not our style. But we enjoyed our time non-the-less.

We then moved on to lunch followed by the Dr. Pepper museum!

Cheesin'

Jared picked up the "scavenger hunt" of things to look for while we were going around the small museum. It was so cool to check out the history of this place, not to mention the Dr. Pepper float that we got to share at the end!

They used to make deliveries in this thing!

Another highlight of the trip was getting to do some geocaching! We picked some of the most favorited caches in Waco and got our smiley faces all over the city!

Looking over the Brazos.

My Captain America :)

It was a nice day trip we got to share together. We are finding it hard these days to naturally spend quality time together and we are making an effort to make it it happen! Highly suggest you go visit Waco if you get a chance!

Date Ideas: The Vintage Flying Museum!

Jared and I have been in a slump on the dates over the summer. But now that it's fall we have had a resurgence to try to be intentional about spending time together. We found a really great place to visit on a recent date...the Vintage Flying Museum!

vintageflyingmuseum.org

This museum was so cool with the old planes that they are preserving and restoring right in the hangar at Meacham Airport. We got to talk to a Vietnam Vet at the desk and his "young lackey" that ended up giving us a personal tour of the hanger. He was a walking encyclopedia of plane history that we throughly enjoyed talking to.

We got to see the A26 "Special Kay" being restored up close! It was so awesome to see all the hard work and amazing engineering that goes into these incredible aircraft!

Did I mention that we got to see the other A-26 Invader based at Meacham in action?

This was such a fun date PLUS we got to learn so much more about something we both love!

Camping at Dinosaur Valley!

Every year for my birthday we go on a camping trip. There is something about getting out in nature and disconnecting for a while that makes me happy! So we packed up the car and headed out to Glenrose, TX and Dinosaur Valley!

Nothing like some dinosaur models to greet you as you enter the park!

In 1908 there was a massive flooding in the Paluxy river where old fossilized tracks were uncovered by years of heavy sediment. A year later, a man named George Adams found large, three-toed tracks. We now know these to be theropod tracks. But it wasn't until 20 years later that a team of archeologists came to study the riverbed and study the tracks. That team found tons of tracks, which then allowed us to understand the hight, gait, migration patterns and, yes, even what hunted other dinosaurs! In the 1970's, the state park was made to help preserve these tracks.

One of the many river bed spots where you can view the tracks. 

These tracks were awesome!

What's also awesome about Dinosaur Valley is they offer primitive camping! We were really excited as we hiked over the river and through the woods, literally, to our camping spot! Part of the trail actually goes along the bottom of a river bed!

All packed up and ready to head out!

I title this one, Mobile-Maddie

Once we got there is was time to make camp. We set up all our gear, ate dinner and watched the stars before we headed to bed. 

Next morning it was time to get up and go geocaching! I was really close to my 400th geocache and so we had a really ambitious goal of getting over 15 caches in two days.

Our little camp!

I am so in love with my little coffee maker!

Hiking along the river bottom

We set off and looked at the dino tracks before hiking up the hill. We found some of the caches on the way!

Spectacular view of the entire park!

Loving the view, weather and company!

Went to this really cool spot as a virtual cache where we had to hike down a gully to get to the water fall!

We hiked all the way over to the other side of the park and found a cache placed way back in 2001! These are really rare and it was cool to read all the old logs. We then found a nice shady spot and ate lunch!

The backpacker's way of preparing lunch!

Feeling pretty proud of ourselves so far!

We helped our fellow cachers out by adding new logsheets where the originals were getting full.

We then hiked our way back over to our campsite, finding a couple of really fun natural pools of water (where we happily spashed around for a while), and some wildlife!

Duchess sniffed this guy out and we relocated him away from the trail a bit.
He had covered himself in mud to cool himself off!

We hiked over nine miles day one. But then we realized we were going to have to find some geocaches outside the park to make my goal. So we got in the car quick and found some really cool old cemeteries...and even drove across a river crossing (safely, of course)! It was really cool to see other aspects of the little town and the surrounding countryside.

 We then made it back to our campsite for dinner. We have some pretty fantastic gear that I thought I would share. We found gluten free MRE's from Alpine Aire and they were tasty! Our bugaboo camping pack was perfect and I loved our new sporks that we found at Cabella's. Multifunctional, they didn't sacrifice on the primary function of getting food to my mouth!

Love our little sporks!

Dinner!

Of course, what is camping without S'mores! No ground fires were allowed at our campsite, so we had to opt for gas roasted marshmallows. Also, it's hard to find the gluten free graham crackers we had in Houston. But, we substituted gluten free snickerdoodle cookies and HOLY COW! Incredible!

Roast little marshmallow!

Perfection

Everyone was tired after our day of play, including the geodog. We called for some "In-tents" stretching so we wouldn't be sore the next day!

Tired geodog

"In-tents" stretching!

Next morning we headed out to find two more geocaches on the other side of the park.

We found my 399th geocache!

Then, we sadly had to say goodbye and pack up our campsite.

Butterfly came to say goodbye!

I'm all packed up!

So is Jared!

Now it was just a matter of hiking out! Easier said than done!

River crossing...again!

Putting my balance to the test!

My final geocache of the trip, my 400th, was the Dinosaur Valley Earthcache! So awesome to learn all about the different types of dinosaurs that used to live in Texas!

We loved this camping trip and had so much fun exploring. We see us coming back and enjoying the hiking trails and little rivers all throughout the park as a way to unwind and relax. Super awesome experience. Hope you get to so someday too!