A Weekend of Hockey in Denver

I absolutely love watching the Colorado Avalanche play at the Pepsi Center!  My dad and I try to go to at least one game every year (last year I went to three; two with my Dad and one with my cousins).  A couple of weeks ago we chose to go the game against the Calgary Flames (we try to pick a Canadian team so we can hear "O Canada" at the beginning of the game) on Saturday night and we invited my cousin Blaine, who lives in Denver, to go with us.  I counted down the days because I was so excited.  We drove to Denver (about an eight hour drive) and met my cousin Blaine downtown for dinner.  He picked a great place called My Brother's Bar and I ate one of the best burgers I have ever had!  Then we went straight to the Pepsi Center.  I like to get there early because I like to smell the ice (Blaine thought I was weird at first but then he said that you actually could smell the ice) and watch the practice skate.  That gets me really amped up for the game!

It was an incredible game!  The Avalanche are still in the hunt for a playoff spot so they started the game very aggressively!  They got a lot of shots on goal and it was so fun to watch!  At the end of the first period, the Flames really tightened things up and started shooting more.  During the second period, the Avalanche went on a power play and Alex Tanguay got a nice goal.  Just a few minutes later Ryan O'Reilly got a goal which electrified the Pepsi Center.  In the third period, the Flames scored two goals but John Mitchell (with an assist from my favorite player, Matt Duchene) got one of the prettiest goals I've ever seen and, luckily, the play that led to the goal happened right in front of us.  My dad always gets the good seats!  The last five minutes of the game were really tense but Semyon Varlamov (who stopped 29 shots) had an amazing save which got the crowd chanting, "Varly, Varly, Varly!"  I loved it!  The Avalanche won the game 3-2, which was thrilling for me because they lost the last two games I attended.  I loved every minute of this weekend!

Colorado Avalanche road trips are the best!

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2009

Mamma Mia

Friday night I had the opportunity to see the Broadway touring company perform Mamma Mia at Kingsbury Hall.  It was just as good as the first time I saw it in London twelve years ago!  Sophie Sheridan is getting married and wants her father to walk her down the aisle but she has a problem:  she doesn't know who he is and there are three possibilities!  She invites all three candidates to her wedding without her mother's knowledge and chaos ensues!  Add the music of Abba and you have more fun than should be allowed in a theatre!  I really loved the entire cast of this production, especially Georgia Kate Haege as Donna, Jeff Drushal as Sam, and Chelsea Williams as Sophie.  The highlights of the evening for me were Haege's rendition of "The Winner Takes It All" and Drushal's performance of "Knowing Me, Knowing You."  Both of them gave me goosebumps!  I also really enjoyed "Dancing Queen" performed by Donna and the Dynamos (Haege, Bailey Purvis as Tanya and Sarah Smith as Rosie).  It is hilarious when they try performing some of their old dance moves and hurt themselves.  All of the choreography is really fun, particularly in "Voulez Vous," "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!," "Under Attack," and "Lay All Your Love On Me" (I loved the fins).  However, the best part of the show just may be the encore after the bows.  The cast comes out in spandex jumpsuits and platform boots to sing "Mamma Mia," "Dancing Queen," and "Waterloo."  The audience usually sings along and dances in the aisles and it is so much fun!  This is definitely a show that I can see over and over and still enjoy!  I highly recommend getting a ticket if you have the opportunity.  It closes tonight at Kingsbury Hall but you can still get tickets here.

Cinderella

Last night was Girls Night Out with my mom and sister for the first screening of Cinderella.  Kenneth Branagh's lovely film is a live action version of the classic fairy tale and it is very much informed by the 1950 Disney animated version.  If you are at all offended by the someday-my-prince-will-come notion that a girl needs to be rescued from an unpleasant situation by a man, then this might not be the movie for you.  But if you are open to it, this film is absolutely enchanting and there is such a great message about having courage and being kind.  I loved everything about it:  the performances, the costumes, the set and art direction, the special effects, and even the choreography in the ball scenes.  Lily James (from Downton Abbey) and Richard Madden (from Game of Thrones) are perfect as Cinderella and Prince Charming and I especially love the fact that he falls in love with her when he first sees her as she really is (a common farm girl) rather than at the ball.  I also really enjoyed all of James' interactions with the mice (including Gus-Gus).   Cate Blanchett is delightfully wicked as the stepmother.  She is, without question, a villain but I liked Blanchett's vulnerability in the role.  The audience certainly understands her motivation for treating Cinderella so badly. My favorite performance was definitely Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother.  This role was tailor-made for the quirky Bonham Carter and I may or may not have giggled out loud when she said, "Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo."  The costumes are beautiful, especially Cinderella's dress at the ball, and those glass slippers (made of Swarovski crystal) are spectacular!  I also loved all of the over-the-top dresses worn by the stepmother and the stepsisters.  Branagh's aesthetic in this movie is so beautiful.  Cinderella's house, the surrounding forests, and the palace all conspire to transport the audience to a magical time and place while the ball is everything that a young girl could ever dream of and more.  The special effects are incredible.  Again, I was literally giggling (so was my mom) when the Fairy Godmother turned a pumpkin into a coach and the mice into horses.  It is just as impressive, if not more so, when the spell is broken at midnight and the coach is turned back into a pumpkin.  I would recommend this movie for the first dance at the ball alone!  I was spellbound by the choreography and the camera angles when Cinderella and the prince dance together.  It looks like James is floating on a cloud of blue silk and organza.  It is so incredibly romantic and it almost makes you believe in magic!  The whole time I was watching this movie, I felt like I did when I was a little girl watching the animated version.  Cinderella is so much fun and I especially enjoyed watching it with my mom and sister.

Note:  Stay through the credits so you can hear Helena Bonham Carter sing "Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo."  It is worth it! 

Weekend Camping Trip

The mild winter we have been having in Utah has given me a serious case of spring fever!  I have been itching to go camping so Marilyn and I planned this little weekend getaway to our favorite KOA in Fillmore (ironically we had the biggest snowstorm of the year last week).

We left in the afternoon on Friday but we hit some massive traffic on the way out of town so we didn't arrive until late in the evening (Fillmore is about 150 miles south of SLC).  The wonderful people who run this KOA know us personally because we camp here so often!  They told us they were getting worried about us!  They asked us why we weren't in the motor home, if our parents were with us, and if we brought the dogs!  I guess we do camp here a lot!

We love staying in the KOA cabins!  They are so comfortable with heating, air conditioning, and mini refrigerators.  They have nice beds (you bring your own linens or sleeping bags), a desk, and some chairs.  They don't have their own bathroom but there is a communal one nearby with really nice showers.  Friday night felt like a sleepover because we watched movies and ate treats all night!

Some views of our cute cabin. I especially love the porch because it is really relaxing to sit out there and read.  The weather was a little bit chilly but I still sat out there for quite some time!

Saturday was absolutely perfect because we literally did nothing but relax!  We read and sat around the firepit for most of the day.  Sunday was basically a repeat of Saturday. There was nothing that I had to do and that felt so good (especially after a few stressful weeks at school).  Camping (even in a cabin) definitely recharges my batteries and I hope I get to do a lot more of it this spring and summer!

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Leviathan

Last night I went to see the Russian film Leviathan which won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globe Awards, and was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards.  I thought it was absolutely brilliant!  I am fascinated by Russia; I've been there twice and I am obsessed with Russian music and literature.  There is something so uncompromisingly beautiful and yet, at the same time, so harsh and forbidding about the landscape, people, and history that holds me enthralled.  Several weeks ago I began seeing previews of Leviathan at my favorite art house theatre and I have been wanting to see it ever since because of the beautiful cinematography and the quintessentially Russian story.  The setting is the northern coastal town of Pribrezhny where a corrupt mayor tries to illegally repossess the property of an out-of-work mechanic using his self-serving police force and an unscrupulous judicial system.  He also seeks the advice of a Russian Orthodox priest who ambiguously sanctions his use of force to acquire the property.  Events unravel tragically for the mechanic and his family until his house is ultimately bulldozed and a major plot twist is revealed in the final scenes.  It is an incredible narrative about the dark side of human nature and the powerful instinct of self-preservation in an inhospitable environment.  It is also a scathing critique of Russian corruption, in politics and religion, juxtaposed with the stark beauty of Russia itself.  The tension builds slowly, very slowly, but eventually reaches a climax that I didn't see coming.  It is a haunting film that I recommend if you have the opportunity to see it!