A Short Review of Star Wars...

Return of the Jedi is the first movie I ever saw in a theater. I was three years old. Although I fell asleep part way through the movie, I saw enough to determine several things:

*I loved Princess Leia. I wanted my hair to be done like hers. I was going to be Leia. I think I developed her attitude pretty well.

*Han Solo was irritating, and it would be OK if he was written out of the script.

*I was going to marry Luke Skywalker.

*Darth Vader was purely evil and terrifying.

It was actually a serious blow to my three year old mind that Leia and Luke were brother and sister. To this day, that makes “the kiss” turn my stomach… just a little… I finally did come to grips with the new reality, and as a toddler sized, only child decided that it would still be pretty neat to have a Jedi Knight for a brother. OK… let’s face it. Even at 31, if my long lost Jedi Knight brother showed up at the front door, that would be cool (“illusions of grandeur”)…

I am certain, that like most kids who grew up in the 80s, I saw the entire trilogy at least once, but probably on multiple occasions. I can’t really claim to have “grown up on Star Wars” like many others (including my husband) did. I did, however, always have an affinity for the franchise. (And on the off chance that anyone from my high school graduating class is reading this; it was OK with me when the Imperial March was going to be our class song… why we had to re-vote will always be a mystery)…

So why bring up a 30+ year old franchise at this point?

Well… I asked for the Star Wars trilogies (both of them) for Christmas, and to my delight (and a little bit of surprise), they actually emerged from a nicely wrapped package under the tree. Five months later, I still hadn’t watched them. It was time to watch them.

Now, I should mention that I did see Episode I shortly after it made its way to video… and I think I re-watched it when I also borrowed Episodes II and III from Phil’s mom, probably 5-6 years ago. The originals I had not seen in at least 20 years… When I first watched Episodes I-III, I was highly impressed at the depth of background information they offered. When you put all VI together in a short period of time, however, there is much more to it than just background…

I can’t say that I really had over 12 hours to commit to re-watching the entire Star Wars saga, but I did it. And might I add that this is a lot to process in a couple of weeks… At the expense of sounding somewhat freakish, Star Wars is not exactly just a collection of entertaining movies. There is something there that is far deeper than pure entertainment. I actually had to think about what I was watching.

I originally thought that Star Wars was the story of Luke Skywalker. Come on now, we all originally thought this, right? In actuality, though, Star Wars is the story of Anakin Skywalker… start to finish. For this reason, I do not think a third trilogy would serve the franchise well. It’s not that we wouldn’t like to learn more, but the story really is complete.

And now, my adult perspective…

The prequel trilogy changes some things.

*Yoda and Obi-Wan actually take on much greater significance after having watched the first III Episodes. Although they are central characters, to an extent, in Episodes IV-VI (well, actually that is only partly true… Yoda doesn’t even appear in Episode IV), it is really in the first three films where their characters are developed. After watching Episodes I-III, you will undoubtedly be more endeared to them. The light saber battle between Obi-Wan and Vader takes on much greater significance, as well.

*Darth Vader no longer strikes me as purely evil or terrifying. When I watched him enter in the opening scenes of Episode IV, I thought to myself, “Oh… there’s Anakin”. Close observation reveals that in every instance his desire is for Luke to join him and that he has no inclination, whatsoever, to kill Luke. This is a far cry from how I viewed Vader as a child. Somehow, I think the Emperor knows all of this. Perhaps the most revealing quote is when Vader says, “Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.” It must be remembered that most of the destruction Anakin (and later, Vader) caused happened in a series of misdirected decisions as a result of his desire to save or avenge the people he loved. The dark side is deceptive. And as Obi-Wan might say, “Only a Sith deals in absolutes” (Probably the most controversial line of the entire franchise… More commentary to come on this in future posts).

*I still love Leia. However, I’ve given up on becoming a Jedi, myself, at this point, and I will refrain from styling my hair like hers… and going out in public… at least most of the time. The attitude stays. I forgot that she kills Jabba the Hut. If anyone ever forced me to wear a metal bikini, I think I’d get kinda violent, too. I would like to draw some parallels between Padme and Leia. Inasmuch as Luke is clearly Anakin’s son, Leia is also clearly Padme’s daughter. I liked Padme, but there were also things about her character that got under my skin. She seduced Anakin. She knew that a Jedi was forbidden to make attachments. Her decisions aided greatly in his eventual undoing. Of course, I guess their love brought balance to the force, as well, because without it there would be no Luke or Leia. The other thing that bothers me is that Padme gives birth to two babies sand then gives up her will to live. What kind of mother does that? But then again, I guess we would have no story without this… Except… In Episode VI Leia tells Luke that she remembers her mother, who died when she was very young. The best explanation I have been able to come up with is a combination of The Force already being strong within Leia at birth and therefore allowing her to memorize every detail and also providing visions of Padme that could have been construed as memories. Personally, I think they just didn’t transition this part of the storyline very well. Leia seems to possess all of the grit Padme had, plus some…

Other things, the prequel trilogy does not change.

*I still don’t like Han Solo. He grew on me a little bit, and I admit is was cool when he sliced open the Tauntaun and spilled its guts all over the place in order to shove Luke inside to keep him warm… Wait… Did I just write that? Nevermind. That was gross. I tried. I guess, though, that we can keep Han in the script, after all, because he does have some pretty entertaining banter with Leia. “I love you.” “I know.”

It’s funny, but as I sat down to write this review I actually had to google about 700 different things, just to make sure I got them right. I will actually be watching all of the movies again, in short order, and in extended edition form, because I want to create a series of Star Wars “teachable moments”, and I really just watched them for entertainment and to get some technical details out of the way, this time around.

Whenever I review a movie, I try to clearly identify violence, sexual innuendo, profanity, and unsettling themes for any of my readers. This isn’t actually going to be a very thorough review in that respect. If you’re going to watch Star Wars, just be aware that there is going to be violence (the word “wars” in the title ought to clue you in on that one). In my opinion, Episode III is, by far, the most graphically violent, but even much off what is included there is off screen. Would I sit my 4 year old in front of it? Nope. But I know most of his little friends have seen much worse. The whole premise of the Star Wars movies deals with religion… The Force… good vs. evil… When I go back over the films for usable content, I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say on this, but it really depends on how you interpret it. If you’re looking to sit your elementary school aged kids in front of the TV for hours on end of mindless activity, perhaps you should invest in some Disney Channel originals. But if you want a good story that has the potential to develop into some deep life conversations, Star Wars might be right up your alley. I can definitely see my daughter getting stressed out about the many references to Sith “Lords”, Jedi “Masters”, and even Han’s recurring name for Leia, “Your Worship”. These are things that simply have to be talked about and worked through if you have children who care deeply about the appropriate use of words. Sexual references exist but are mild. Costuming is mostly modest, although there are a few questionable scenes. Profanity of any kind is non-existent in Episodes I, II, III, and VI. Episode V contains one H*** that I have construed to be contextual. Episode IV contains two D***s and two H***s. I found that frustrating, because they really are completely unnecessary.

If you’ve made it this far, you must be as big a dork (ahem… I mean… Star Wars fan) as I. May the Force be with you!

Lisa

So How Smart Is It…

…to take a trip to a waterpark on a cloudy, less than 70 degree, good chance of thunderstorms day?

Because this family loves waterparks… and because it was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend (leaving us without a whole lot of otherwise “productive” options)… and because we found a way to get into the park for 1/3 the normal price… It was worth finding out…

So we left the house just a little after 7:00 and made the trek to Merrillville, where Deep River Waterpark is located. Our first mistake was that we forgot Merrillville is on central time. So we arrived about 2 hours before the park opened…

That’s OK… we took a little detour to Wal-Mart, where we picked up swim diapers for Miah, among other things, and then we sat in the Deep River parking lot for an hour where the kids played their DSs, Phil played with his Kindle, and I watched the Deep River employees arrive at work for the day…

When the ticket booth finally opened, we discovered that we were the first customers of the season. It was at this point that we were glad we didn’t go yesterday. There were no other customers in sight, and this gave credibility to my earlier declaration that we would have the whole park to ourselves. I was kidding when I said it, but I guess it was prophetic… or something…

We proceeded to play in Mayor Byrdovich's Courthouse, where Seth enjoyed dumping buckets of water on us, Grace and Caleb zipped down the slides over and over again, Ian climbed a couple of rope nets, and Miah looked at us like we were crazy…

Grabbed some life jackets after that and took a spin… or 2… or 3… or even 4 in some cases on Mid-America's Great River Ride. It took me a long time to convince Ian that he should get into the tube. As a thrill seeker, myself, it was rather disconcerting to have this much trouble getting a 4 year old on a lazy river. I need to get that kid to an amusement park, soon, where I can strap him in to every ride he’s big enough for until he loves riding. It simply will not do to have non-riders in this family! Miah also hated the lazy river, but considering she is only a year old and it was freezing, I can work with that.

Seth, who has a tendency to turn blue when cold, was pretty much done with our adventure after this point. I think the lifeguard was afraid she was going to have hypothermia on her hands, but I am just so used to this color change thing that I threw a couple of towels on him and we moved along to the next ride, Double Dueling CannonBowl. I actually find funnel rides to be a little overrated, but Ian wanted to ride, so I climbed the stairs with him and Grace (who was going solo). Upon reaching the top, Ian decided that he actually didn’t want to ride. Now… I sort of have this ride policy. It goes like this: If you force Mommy to climb several sets of stairs or to stand in line for any amount of time, you ride. Period. This is a completely unfair standard, because as a kid (and even as a teenager) I did my share of double takes at the ride platform that resulted in exiting without riding. However, I do not want my children to be scared of things like I was, and in the vast majority of cases they have come off the rides screaming, “I loved it! Can we do it again?” I thought for a moment about what to do, when I remembered the time that Ian tried to climb over the side of a family raft slide when he was just under 2 years old. Realizing that he would have to hang onto the tube in order to remain safe on Double Dueling CannonBowl, I relented and walked him halfway down the stairs, where I called for Caleb to hurry up to me so that we could ride, instead. Grace took another trip down the slide, and Phil took Caleb for a second ride, as well. I actually got a couple of video clips of some of the action, from the stairs, while Seth sat with Ian and Miah.

At this point, we had been in the park for about 2 hours, and we took a short break and got “warm” (OK, we never really got warm all day) before moving on to the Rip Tide Wave Pool. I am not a real wave pool fan, so I was not all that disappointed that the water was freezing! I sat with Ian (who wouldn’t go near the wave pool, either) and Miah (whom I took this opportunity to nurse), and we watched Phil, Seth, Grace, and Caleb jumping over the waves… all by themselves… I should probably mention that a few other park guests had arrived at this point, but no so many that we had to share any attractions…

After being unsuccessful at getting Ian to play in the smaller children’s play area, Paddles PlayZone (in his defense, the water there was icy… I wouldn’t have gone in…) and also discovering that the second lazy river, BAYOU River Ride, was frigid; we decided to break (again) for lunch.

I went out to the van and gathered our “picnic”, we got dry and a little bit warmer, and then we headed back out into the park to hit the Body & Tube Slides. I went down the tube slide with Caleb, and Seth and Grace went down together, as well. Then Caleb and Grace went twice more, and I think Grace went alone another time or two. Although I enjoy waterslides of all kinds, body slides tend to be my least favorite, because I always suck water up my nose and end up coughing it out for quite some time. However, it occurred to me, as I was sitting there watching Grace slide over and over again, that neither Seth nor Grace had ever experienced a body slide, and for this reason, I have not allowed them to ride some of the bigger slides when we have been at larger parks. Looking at the Deep River body slide, I decided that it appeared to be rather calm and that they should probably try it if they ever want to get on anything more intense. Seth did not want to try, but Grace did, so the two of us climbed up, and I went down first, showing her how to do it. It was a little rougher and faster than I expected, and per normal I ended up with a nose full of water to choke out. The lifeguard let me stay in the pool when I told him Grace was coming down, but it actually turned out to be quite unnecessary, as the child hit the water and swam for the side on auto pilot… No worries about Grace on body slides, I guess… She loved it!

After this, we decided to go check out, The STORM Tube Ride, which actually turned out to be 3 distinctly different tube slides: Vortex, Abyss, and Cyclone. They were black, enclosed tubes, so Grace and I rode double. We chose Cyclone first, and it was definitely a good ride. Upon exiting, I dropped Grace with Phil, Seth, Ian, and Miah and picked up Caleb for Abyss. It also was a good ride, but extremely short. Grace’s turn again, for Vortex this time… and at this point I realized that there was no way my legs were going to make it up the stairs three more times so that each of them could experience each slide with me! I looked at Grace and said, “just grab a single tube,” to which she replied, “are you serious?” Caleb and I took a trip down Vortex, and well… there’s nothing like sending your nine year old fearless daughter, alone, into a pitch black hole called Abyss…

We had to call it a day after this, because it mercifully started raining. This made it possible for me to escape with my dignity, because the truth is, I couldn’t have climbed another flight of stairs if I tried…

All in all, it was a really fun day. We did lose one water shoe, but with our family; that’s to be expected…

Some shopping ensued after this. Grace is now the proud owner of two new pairs of flip flops, and it wasn’t even her water shoe we lost… hers just finally broke after years of wear…

We went to Cracker Barrel for dinner, using a gift card that we got for Christmas, and we had enough left on it after our meal that everyone was able to choose some candy from the Cracker barrel store for dessert.

A cherry Pepsi and a couple of hours on the road, and we were home…

What a day!

Here are a few pics:



Lisa

Phil’s Graduation Trip, Day 6…

We’re home. I cannot believe I woke up, this morning, in Nampa, ID, and now I am sitting here typing in my house (specifically, I am in the closet in the Master Bedroom… long story)…

I could bore you with flight stories that aren’t that spectacular… airport pizza that is bigger than your head… planes that are so full you actually consider taking a voucher and waiting three more hours… babies that squirm all flight long and fall asleep right before touch down… security measures that “test” the juice in your sippy cups… TSA employees that go through your bags and break mirrors… and gigantic bottles of purple Gatorade… but I won’t. Let’s re-cap, instead…

God is a God of redemption…

“Home” might find you in a Freudian slip at “FBI Fridays”, if you’re not careful…

When you’re seven, you can experience the “best day of your life” on consecutive days, over and over again…

When you’re 31, you can, too…

We had hoped…

Jesus is hope…

Leaving Nampa was harder than I ever dreamed it would be…

I loved this trip…

Lisa

Phil’s Graduation Trip, Day 5…

This was supposed to be our “down day”…

We started the morning by going to Early Church at Nampa First Church of the Nazarene. I was so pleased with the child care staff, who managed to keep Miah for the whole service even though she was unhappy at times. This provided me with an opportunity to participate in a corporate worship gathering from start to finish for the first time in a very long time. I was not disappointed in the least. We had the privileged of seeing Pete become a member of Nampa First, and we experienced Holy Spirit moving in a way that was so amazingly powerful. It was a very, very good start to another wonderfully made day.

As it it Mother’s Day, Phil wanted to take me out for lunch, even though we have enough leftovers in the mini-fridge for a small feast. We headed for Boise Town Square, where we got a buzzer for The Cheesecake Factory and did a little shopping at Borders while we waited for a table. All I can really say is, “Wow!” I have experienced The Cheesecake Factory once before in my life, and it is not that great of a memory, to be honest. This time was much, much better, primarily because of the company I had, but the food was delicious, as well! Miah was a real stinker, but we survived!

When we arrived back in Nampa, we took some pictures on campus. We actually took a lot of pictures, but here is my favorite one:

Then we made our way back to the hotel, did some packing, swam for an hour (Marco Polo is a riot with Caleb), and took a dip in the hot tub. This is all understated. It was an incredible day. There are just no words.

Lisa

PS Some things are meant to be cherished and remembered in our hearts…

Phil’s Graduation Trip, Day 4…

Graduation Day… Finally!

Our morning began with breakfast at the HIE again and then a trip to the Idaho Center for the first event of the day, the baccalaureate. We got there in plenty of time for Phil to line up and for me and the kids to have our choice of seats. We picked something on the front row, relatively close to the door. The problem with being early, though, is that children get antsy when they have to wait. Caleb patiently saved our seats while I let Miah pace back and forth for awhile. When we finally sat down (and the baccalaureate began), I nursed Miah and thought I might actually get her to sleep. At any rate, she wasn’t screaming, so that seemed like a pretty good sign. Unfortunately, as soon as the University president got up to give the main address, Caleb realized that he needed to use the restroom. It was all downhill (or rather up many steps) from there, because once Miah realized we weren’t hopelessly stuck in our seats, she wanted nothing to do with sitting down, at all. In the end I managed to catch about half of the address (which was very good, from what I heard), and I spent the rest of the time chasing and shushing a noisy baby. It wasn’t the highlight of my trip. I did manage to keep Miah quiet enough to see Phil receive his hood, which was a plus. In addition, may I add at this point, that I knew there was a reason I hate shoes. Although my new shoes are cute, I am not sure it is worth making my feet bleed… ouch!

After the baccalaureate, we made a quick trip to campus to take a few pictures and to make purchases at the bookstore. We are now the proud owners of a completely new wardrobe that advertises NNU… Well, maybe that’s a stretch, but we did pick up a few things…

With plenty of time for lunch, we debated whether to sit down or fast food it… In the end, we chose the A&W/KFC and did pretty well except for forgetting to order food for Miah. It was just slightly embarrassing to go back through the line for a second purchase totaling $1.59!

A quick stop at the hotel, a little bit of driving to get Miah to sleep, and we were on our way back to the Idaho Center for graduation! Except we ended up in a serious traffic jam… with no alternative route. I have to admit that I found this humorous. Phil did not. At all. And I totally understood that. But it’s just one of those things that seemed almost appropriate in light of everything he went through to make it this far. I do think it became slightly funny, even to Phil, once we started counting the number of people we were passing who were wearing their caps and gowns… I guess it’s not something that could only happen to us!

In the end, we got to the Idaho Center, parked illegally, Phil ran inside with Caleb who was desperate for a restroom again, I found the elevator and managed to get settled in with the kids, up high but with a great view of the stage, and Phil would have made it to the line up by the skin of his teeth, but they ended up postponing the start of the ceremony for 15 minutes, so he really didn’t have to run!

Of course, after all of the excitement, Miah was wide awake again, but she really did a good job and mostly screamed at appropriate moments…

Ironically, graduation, itself, seemed almost a bit anti-climatic, because so much emotion had already gone into the events of the week. The graduation address was very good, and we enjoyed cheering as Phil crossed the stage, but watching the seemingly endless number of undergrads just about did us in! By the end of the ceremony, we were ready to go after Caleb grabbed a complimentary cookie and Phil turned in his gown and hood (and with that, let me say that I think it’s a shame the graduates had to turn in their hoods… I mean, charge the extra hundred bucks, for goodness sake, and let them keep ‘em)!

We went to TGIFridays for dinner (which Caleb keeps calling FBIFridays… cute), and after some more driving around, we made it back to the hotel, where I was too tired to even open my laptop, but I have backblogged this appropriately!

Because I am so far behind at this point, I am just going to post a few favorite pics. from the day:

Lisa