Remember what it was like to…

This week’s guest blogger, Christina Lynn, challenges us to be young at heart–and, most, importantly, to have fun.

It’s funny how as kids we refuse to let go of certain things—books our mom or dad read to us every night or cassette tapes we listened to nonstop in a Fisher-Price tape player. But as adults, the way we look at those things often changes. After reading classic literature, we notice how the words of those bedtime stories sound so simple. After listening to classical music, we realize how unsophisticated those sing-along songs are.

When you’re a child, you can find enjoyment from almost anything. But is that necessarily a bad thing? As adults, we’re often taught to analyze and criticize. Yet if we stop and think about what made us love those books or tapes in the first place, we’ll realize that Goodnight Moon does have pretty pictures, and “Old MacDonald” is quite catchy. 

Maybe we should watch crazy cartoons or listen to silly songs every once in a while. They might not be very educational or thought-provoking, but they remind us what it’s like to be young – and, most, importantly, how to have fun.

Travel Plans, Anyone?

If you’re planning a trip this spring or summer, this week’s post from guest blogger Ellen Howard is worth the read!

Ellen writes: Traveling with friends is fun, but it’s not easy, and things almost never go perfectly. So, here is my amateur’s guide to planning last minute trips.

First, get the hotel, stat. Hotels, especially in prime vacation areas, tend to fill up in advance, and the deals go first. If you’re on a tight budget, getting the hotel as quickly as possible is vital. Also, keep your reservation number as well as your confirmation number in case you later realize that you accidentally booked for the wrong month and have to go back and cancel.

Next, raid your friends’ family trees. One of the best possible money savers is to grandmother hop. Recently, my friends and I stayed with two different grandmothers on our trip to Florida, and it saved us a ton of money. Not only is the housing free, but there is hardly a grandmother alive who will let anyone pass through her house unfed. We went days without spending a dime on either food or lodging. Admittedly, the ham in someone’s grandma’s fridge isn’t quite the same as a gourmet French restaurant in Epcot, but if you save on the meals en route, then you can actually afford more than a single baguette when you get to Epcot.

Third, take a physical map with you. I rely on my GPS as much as the next person. When people start giving me directions, I hear Charlie Brown’s mom, so my Garmin, named Johnson, is my best friend when I drive. But, on a road trip you need a backup for your GPS. My ever faithful Johnson tried to take us to the wrong state at one point, and the girls not driving had to scramble to figure out where we were and where we were going.

Next, if you’re going to a theme park, get your tickets online ahead of time, get the wait time apps, and go in with a plan. Even on a busy day, you can conquer a lot of theme park ground if you’re smart about it. Talk to your friends ahead of time about what you want to do and move with purpose. You can twist the plan as necessary once you’re there, but do not go in blind. 

Finally, go with people you love. Getting lost in Alabama (when you’re supposed to be in Georgia), having to wait after a ride breaks down for the third time since you’ve been in line, and discovering that you forgot one of the air mattresses would not normally be considered the highlights of your trip. But you’d be amazed at how much fun even the most annoying things can be when you’re with the right people. Ultimately, it’s not the sights on a travel brochure that will make the trip. It’s the people you travel with.

To See or Not to See?

This week, guest blogger Shauna McCauley is talking about the latest Disney film Zootopia. Read her review to get her take on the new movie now in theaters. 

Shauna writes:  I’ve been a lifelong fan of Disney films, and the warm critical reception that Zootopia had already met with made me hopeful.  What I found in Zootopia was a complex story about dreams, growing up, and prejudice.  In a world where animals have evolved to the point that their society looks a lot like ours, a rabbit, Judy Hopps, abandons small town farm life to be a cop in the big city, and gets a bit more than she bargained for.  The stellar voice cast led by Ginnifer Goodwin (Once Upon a Time) as Judy, Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) as fast-talking fox, Nick Wilde, and Idris Elba (Luther) as the tough and gruff water buffalo Police Chief, Bogo, brings this diverse group of characters to life, and brings the overflowing abundance of heart to this film.

But, the character’s voice is only part of their essence; this is an animated film after all.  Artistically, the digital animation is relatively similar to what we’ve seen from Disney in recent years with films like Tangled and Wreck-It-Ralph, with clean lines and vivid colors.  One point where the animation in this film really stands out, though, is the variety of environments created, from farm town, to rain forest, to arctic tundra.  All these are viewed as the characters race through an entertaining script peppered with saucy one-liners, and references to The Godfather and Frozen, among other things, which, along with a bubblegum pop soundtrack, keeps what could have been a much darker film light and energetic just like its main character.

Zootopia shows how people cope with challenges to personal dreams, and confronts prejudicial stereotyping in a way that is easily identifiable to adult audiences, and non-confrontational to child audiences.  By presenting these big issues in this format as a sort of dialog between characters, maybe we can start to have serious and loving conversations about this in our own lives.