Movie Monday 7/2

Don't worry - I haven't been badly crashed nor have we entered the witness protection program!  I have been silent for over 3 weeks because we were off on our annual vacation, traveling cross-country with our camper.  This year, we headed to one of our all-time favorite places, the Black Hills region of South Dakota, and made lots of fun stops along the way.  If you are interested, you can check out photos at our trip blog. 

Overall, we had a great time.  Jamie and I both did fairly well, with only a few rough days for each of us.  We both managed lots of active fun, hiking and climbing on the cool rock formations, and even a long day at an amusement park on the way home!  I will tell you more about the ups and downs of traveling with CFS once I get caught up - I still have over 950 unread e-mails to get through!!

For now, I thought I'd jump back into the blogging world with a quick Movie Monday post.  We got home late Friday night, and relaxed and recovered this weekend with some DVDs:

• When Craig went to the movies with his friends and Jamie went to bed early, Ken and I decided we only had energy for something light, so we watched No Strings Attached, starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman.  It was a very light - fluffy even! - romantic comedy, somewhat predictable but still fun.  Portman plays a commitment-phobic, very busy doctor-in-training who has neither the time nor inclination for a serious relationship.  She proposes an irresistible deal to Kutcher's character: get together for sex and have fun, with no strings attached.  Of course, Kutcher eventually falls in love with her and breaks all the rules she established, and...well, I think you can guess what happens next.  There's not a lot of emotional depth to this movie (it bothered me that Portman's emotional problems didn't seem to have any cause), but it's good for a couple of hours of light escapism...which was just what we wanted!
• After visiting South Dakota, we realized the kids had never seen Dances with Wolves (which was filmed in Custer State Park, one of our favorite places), so I ran to the library as soon as we got home to borrow it.  We all watched it last night.  The kids loved it (and I had forgotten most of it!).  In case you never saw it when it was released in 1990 (and won 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture), it is the story of a Civil War hero who, at his own request, is relocated to the army's most remote post, a deserted and primitive outpost in South Dakota.  There, he encounters a local Sioux tribe and is gradually accepted and welcomed by them.  It's a fabulous, epic movie with amazing scenery - we especially enjoyed the scenes with the huge herd of bison that we recently saw ourselves at Custer.  Highly recommended.

 Have you seen any good movies lately?

Close Encounters with Custer State Park's Bison Herd