Movie Review: Tangled

Over the long Thanksgiving break, I was invited by Nicki and Skyler to head out to the movies. It's been forever since I've actually been to the movies and even longer since I've seen an animated film.

I could not have been happier with either. I absolutely loved "Tangled". This is Disney's take on the old fairytale of Rapunzel. Mandy Moore does a fantastic job bringing Rapunzel to life.

Here's the storyline:

After receiving the healing powers from a magical flower, the baby Princess Rapunzel is kidnapped from the palace in the middle of the night by Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel knows that the flower's magical powers are now growing within the golden hair of Rapunzel, and to stay young, she must lock Rapunzel in her hidden tower. Rapunzel is now a teenager and her hair has grown to a length of 70-feet. The beautiful Rapunzel has been in the tower her entire life, and she is curious of the outside world. One day, the bandit Flynn Ryder scales the tower and is taken captive by Rapunzel. Rapunzel strikes a deal with the charming thief to act as her guide to travel to the place where the floating lights come from that she has seen every year on her birthday. Rapunzel is about to have the most exciting and magnificent journey of her life.

I definitely recommend this movie to anyone who has kids and even adults who fondly remember movies like "Beauty and the Beast" and "Snow White".

Click here to watch the trailer!

'Tis the Season!

Hooray, hooray, hooray! It's finally here... Christmas Season! This last weekend I busted out the iPod Christmas mix, the decorations and the two Christmas trees! Oh, the beauty of combining two entire households... now there's a tree for upstairs and a tree for downstairs! The only thing I really have left to decorate is the outside. I'm debating on whether I put lights up or not this year. We'll see if I can convince the Grinch to help me hang them!

There's something so magical about the Christmas Season. For me, it goes beyond presents. There's something about the cold (now snow! I get snow sometimes!), the shopping, the lights and the music. Something about a good Christmas song just puts a smile on my face!

I thought I'd share some of my favorite Christmas albums with you faithful blog readers:

• Boys II Men: Christmas Interpretations. Their a capella version of "Silent Night" will make you weep!
• Straight No Chaser: Christmas Cheers. If you haven't heard me rave about them, you haven't been listening! "The 12 Days of Christmas" is absolutely hilarious!
• Mannheim Steamroller: Fresh Aire. I absolutely love their "Carol of the Bells". You can't go wrong with any of their Christmas albums, but this one is my favorite.
• Singles
  • The Brian Setzer Orchestra: "Gettin' In the Mood (For Christmas). It's a fun twist on a great jazz song!
  • 'N Sync: "O Holy Night". Absolutely stunning.

Dog Rescue

Tell me how cool this is... a 13 year old yellow lab named Homer fell down a hole today that was dug to prep for a sewer line in Sacramento.

Sacramento Metro Fire sent their confined space rescue team out to work on saving the dog - and from the latest news reports, it looks like they got him out safely! In fact, if you look at the link below, you can see where Homer is out and on oxygen. What a cool group of people that were willing to risk their lives for someone's pet!

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2010/11/26/dog-falls-30ft-into-septic-tank-rescue-team-dispatched/

Ironman 2010

I am beyond proud of Mike and Sean. This last weekend we all travelled to Tempe, Arizona for the 2010 Ironman competition. For those of you who don't know what a feat this is, the Ironman consists of three parts: a 2.4 mile open water swim, a 112 mile bike ride and finally a 26.2 mile run. That's a total of 140.6 miles and the contestants are given a cutoff time of 17 hours. The pros that won the race did it in 8 hours and 7 minutes, but for me it was way cooler to watch the "average Joes" finish. There's something about seeing a normal person push themselves to do something so amazing that was just fantastic to watch.

Mike and Sean both finished before the midnight cutoff and I honestly couldn't be prouder of both of them!

Here's Erin, Sarah and I saying goodbye (and good luck) to the boys just before the race:

The swim start... that's seriously a lot of people:

Our cheering squad - we had some bright shirts made so that the boys could see us when they passed on the course:

Here's Mike on the bike:

And on the run:

And, finally, at the finish - I was incredibly happy he was still alive and judging by the look on his face in the picture, he was happy to have pizza:

Like I said (and can't say enough!) I'm so proud of both Mike and Sean... what they did this weekend was such a huge accomplishment and is utterly amazing to me. Here are both of the boys at the finish line with their medals:

This was a fantastic trip and it was so much fun for the cheering crew to run around for 17 hours screaming at the top of our lungs! Our families and friends back home got to track Mike and Sean on the internet (Ironman has a great website) and were following along the whole way!

The Grace Foundation

One of my favorite things about working at Intel is that they really try to do good in the community. This week, my team is doing a volunteer work team builder. This means instead of spending money to go out and have drinks or a lunch or mini-golf, we go as a team and volunteer our time. I've been planning the one that we're doing this quarter and am so amazed by the organization that we're going to help.

I was told by one of my coworkers that there was a place near Folsom called The Grace Foundation. They rescue horses in the Northern California area that have been neglected or abused. The stories on their website are heartbreaking... I can't even imagine how people manage to be so horrible to animals.

But they don't stop there. The Grace Foundation realized that children and at-risk teens are often subjected to the same abuse and neglect that these beautiful animals are. So they've created programs to get children involved in the care and rehabilitation of the horses. They have all sorts of programs that teach children to ride, care for the horses, and about what it takes to be a veterinarian. They also offer equine therapy programs for people with special needs.

I am so incredibly excited to head over there on Thursday... I can't wait to do my little part in helping these horses out!

It's Almost Here!

Wow, I can't believe it... what started out as a crazy idea between two friends is now upon us! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it's almost Ironman time! No, I'm not doing one... Mike and Sean are! We're headed to Arizona this weekend for festivities and I can't wait! I swear, I think I get more nervous than the two of them do! Once he gets going, Mike is totally fine... I, on the other hand, am nervous and fidgety the entire time... only this time, it's a roughly 14 hour race!!!

We're going to hang out for an extra day in AZ and then head back home. I'm so super excited because on the way home, we're stopping to see my college (and after college) roommate Joanna and her husband Chris. They just had a sweet little baby girl that I absolutely can't wait to meet!

Let The Planning Begin!

I started looking at a lot of the bridal magazines that Kati gave me (thanks Kate!) as well as the Knot. There are just so many decisions to make... it's starting to feel a little overwhelming! There's venues and dresses and food and colors and favors and all sorts of other things. I started to look at all of the different checklists out there and there's tons of stuff that we should already be doing! We're thinking about a Fall 2011 wedding, which means that we're already under a year! I had wanted a few weeks to bask in the glow of being engaged... I guess it's time to kick it into gear!

We've been talking through venues and reception sites... we know a ton of people, so we're going to need to make sure we find one that has plenty of room! I feel like once we get those two big things nailed down (and actually have a date) things might become a little less overwhelming. I think we're getting close!

In other news, our neighbor sent a picture to us yesterday that says "Meet our new neighbor":

Yup, it's a bear. Our neighbor has a game camera mounted on one of the trees near where our properties meet... this little fella was caught on film around 5pm on Wednesday. I'm definitely not living in the city anymore! I'm less worried about the bear than I am the mountain lions, but I'm definitely going to be on my toes! My main worry is that we take Shadow out at night to do his business and accidentally surprise one of these big old critters!

Engaged!

The long awaited post... in case you didn't see Facebook... I'M ENGAGED!!!!

Mike and I took a trip up to Seattle and Vancouver last week. We spent the first day on a whale watching tour that was absolutely amazing. We were out for 6 hours before they found whales, but we finally got to see a whole pod of killer whales:

They were absolutely spectacular! We were totally frozen and exhausted by the time we got back, but it was well worth it!

On the second day, we did just about every touristy thing we could possibly do in Seattle. We bought these city passes that let us get into all sorts of places. We started with the Space Needle, which had a wonderful view of most of downtown Seattle. Then we went to the Science Fiction Museum and the Experience the Music Project. They had a whole section of Jimi Hendrix guitars, costumes and other stuff (he's from Seattle) which was really awesome to see. After that, we headed over to Pike Market to see the original Starbucks, the fish throwers and, of course, the legendary golden pig! Then we went to the Seattle Aquarium (I told you we did a lot that day!).

After the aquarium, we headed out to have a yummy steak dinner. I took some chocolate cake back to the hotel for dessert later. We decided to go back up to the top of the Space Needle that night (our city passes let us do one trip during the day and one at night). When we got up to the top, there was a crazy storm and they had 30 mile an hour winds. I guess Mike had planned on proposing up there, but made the last minute decision that 30 mile an hour winds were not entirely romantic:

We headed back to our hotel (the Mediterranean Inn) where Mike suggested that we check out the rooftop viewing deck. We wandered up there and I started taking pictures of the Key Arena and Space Needle. That's when Mike told me that he had something for me. In typical Anna style, I asked if it was better than chocolate cake. He said yes and asked me to pick a hand and then held out the little box that every girl loves to see. That's right, he proposed! :) I am beyond excited and so incredibly happy. Here's our official engagement picture, taking right after:

It was definitely still a little windy, but it was absolutely perfect!

The next day we drove up to Canada, after stopping to visit with my college roommate, Jennifer. I haven't seen her since we graduated, so it was so great to spend a few minutes catching up! We drove into Vancouver where we spent a couple days hanging out at the Vancouver Aquarium, Stanley Park and Grouse Mountain. They had a spectacular grizzly bear habitat at the top of the mountain that was absolutely amazing to see:

This was the most amazing vacation... I'm beyond excited and completely happy! Now we've got a wedding to plan!

I've got the rest of the pictures on Facebook... if you haven't already, check them out!