Brendan rides without training wheels

Movie review - Voyage of the Dawn Treader

One of my birthday presents my family gave me was to take me to see the newest Narnia movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

I became a fan of this series as a young boy and have been thrilled with the undertaking of turning the books into big-budget movies. Of course as a life-long fan I have tried to adjust my expectations of the story-telling of these books. The first one was fabulous and Walden Media and Disney did an amazing job with putting the story to film. I knew the next two in the series would be harder to bring to the big screen because the stories do not follow as straight of a story line, so I had a bit of "realistic" look at how the movies were going to come out.

That said I was happier with the way they treated the story line of the Dawn Treader than they did Prince Caspian. The only objection I had was that each island felt rushed and quick, but in the end I suspect a two or two and half hour movie would have put it way over budget. As it is the making of the fourth book, the Silver Chair, is in doubt due to budget concerns and the monetary performance of the Dawn Treader. So as fans we have to put up with small parts for interesting characters in the book because this is Hollywood after all and big budget entertainment is the goal, not minor character development. Still, a little more of the Dufflepuds would have given the film some more comic relief, in my humble opinion.

I really appreciated the makers of the movie brought out the Christian themes that were in the book. In fact they were more direct than the subtle CS Lewis put in the book. I especially loved the pointed lessons Lucy learned on appreciating who God made you to be, and not envying others and who God made them to be.

All in all I encourage you to

go and see this movie and to take your kids (our four year old was great with the movie). The more people who go an

d see the movie, the more likely they will bring the fourth one unto the big screen!!

Happy birthday Patsy!

So today is my lovely wife's birthday. Let me just say that I have a wonderful and amazing wife! Generally speaking she is the cautious and careful one, while I am the adventurous and cavalier one in our marriage. Yet she still prayerfully goes along with my ideas for our life, which are sometimes harebrained! I will say that she has taught me to plan, pray and consider much more than I am naturally inclined to. She also has a wonder for life that adds such a dimension to our non-conformist way of living! God knew what He was doing when He brought us together.

We have so many wonderful experiences in life as we have blended our strengths together. Celebrating her birthday in an RV is our newest one! What fun this will be as we party in Howard! No I am not baking her cake, I am buying her one. But this is no different than I have ever done. The one thing I wish I could give her this year that I can't - a nice hot and quiet bath all to herself. You know "Calgon take me away." I guess she'll have to enjoy the hot, quiet shower this year.

This picture we took yesterday at the Fort Worth Water Gardens. She is pretty amazing girl, more beautiful with every passing day.

The 39 Clues book series review

This year we started reading the 39 Clues series and recently finished the 10th and last book. We actually got the 2nd book first on CD and listened to it on the Christmas trip from Ontario to Rockford. We liked the CD so much we went back and read the first book and the rest is history.

Hope our reviews help you decide whether to read the books or not. Once again the review is based on a 5 star rating system.

Marty - 4.5 stars - These books are not only interesting and captivating, but they will also help teach your kids geography, history, chemistry, science, archeology, literature, world cultures and a bunch of other good things. These are not written from a Christian perspective, but they do offer some good lessons in morality.

Tanner - 4.5 stars - Basically these books are great. I didn't like the love story with Ian and Amy. The best thing about the books are Dan and his ridiculous jokes.

Patsy - 5 stars - Not only is there a lot of history in it, but by the end of the series it teaches forgiveness and the importance of family relationships.

Blake - 5 stars - This was a very entertaining series. It was full of mystery, action and I liked the characters.

Brendan's dedication

Fish gone wild

Crazy Koi at the Niabi Zoo

the final end battle.wmv

This is another one of Blake's stop motion videos. He is getting pretty good at this, when he takes his time and slows down. Try to overlook his spelling though.

Go Fish concert

Our family had a blast at this free outdoor Go Fish concert in Shannon, Illinois!

Forester Sunseeker tour inside

The inside of Howard our RV. Howard is a derivative of the acronym HOW (Home On Wheels)! We named it Saturday.

Forester Sunseeker tour outside

This is our new RV - can't believe we finally have it! Be sure to check out the inside tour.