Movies, oh how I love you.

I love movies.

Yes I do.

Probably more than I should.

But who wouldn't love the idea of escaping for just those short 2-3 hours and being part of a whole other world?

I love all kinds of movies.

Romance

Action

Thriller

Drama

They're all so great.

I love it when a movie makes me cry, because that movie did more for me than just entertain for a short time. It moved me. It made me feel something more.

Extreme happiness.

Sadness

Perhaps it brought back memories of a situation I've been in.

Maybe it inspired me.

Movies like this are always put close to the top, if not at the top, of my list of favorites. Movies such as

Braveheart (my all time favorite)

Gladiator

The Last Samurai

La Vita É Bella

La Vie En Rose

The Secret Life of Bees

Hotel Rwanda

And then there are those films that just make you want to fall in love and smile or just get up and dance. Movies such as

Pride and Prejudice

The Notebook

Return to Me

Singin' in the Rain

Calamity Jane

And then there are those that you may not cry in, or you may not get that warm fuzzy feeling, but they are just plain great. Such as

Forrest Gump

Charlotte Gray

Man From Snowy River

V for Vendetta

Blood Diamond

Get Smart

My Fair Lady

In honor of all the great movies out there (because there are so many more than just those that I have listed) I have written this post. And with it (because I think that a huge reason that movies can be so great is because of the music in them), have found songs and quotes from as many great movies as I could find.

The Magic of Movies.

Let's hope they stay magic, inspiring, uplifting, and just plain awesome, and hope they don't sink along with the values of those that tend to make them! :)

My Movie Greats Playlist that you are now hearing:

1. "The Braveheart Theme"

2. The Freedom Speech from Braveheart

3. "Now We are Free" from Gladiator

4. Music from the "Honor Him" scene in Gladiator (I cry every time...)

5. "My name is Gladiator" from Gladiator

6. "Main Title" from The Notebook

7. "I'll Be Seeing You" by Billie Holiday. From the road dancing scene in The Notebook

8. "Top of the World" from Pride and Prejudice

9. "Darcy's Letter" from Pride and Prejudice

10. "Mrs. Darcy" from Pride and Prejudice

11. The theme song of La Vita É Bella

12. Music from The Last Samurai

13. "Singin' in the Rain" by Gene Kelly

14. "Secret Love" by Doris Day in Calamity Jane

15. "Black Hills of Dakota" from Calamity Jane

16. "The Power of Ideas" quote from V for Vendetta

17. "Jessica's Theme" from Man From Snowy River

18. "Non, Je ne Regrette Rien" from La Vie en Rose

19. "Forrest Gump Theme"

Part two of two: The Wedding

The wedding of my brother and Ashley was so great. It was such a great day. I love my sisters! And it is so great to have another one! Colin and Ashley are one of the cutest couples ever and they go perfectly together. Aren't weddings just great! My pictures are a little out of order, but here are all my best ones of the marvelous day!

Me and Chloe at the end of the reception. She loved having her own special dress. :)

Nat and Niah (AKA Nat and her "mini-me") at the luncheon. :)

Too bad you can't see their faces. I don't know how to work that setting on my camera. ha. But here is the bride and groom at the luncheon.

Kaitie Bug and Preslee waitin' outside the temple. It was quite windy up there.

The Cantafio family! It was awesome to have them in town from California.

The girls hangin' out outside the temple. Preslee posed very well for this picture. :) I think they had a lot of fun with Kaitie and Melissa while waiting for the ceremony. Meanwhile, I was pushing the cute baby Jones around so he'd go to sleep. It was such a beautiful day. :)

The three girlies playing in the backyard.

My lovely, beautiful sister Tam. :)

Another one of my beautiful, lovely sisters Nat! We all played outside forever the night before the wedding.

I absolutely loved having all of my family here! It's hard when it becomes a rare occurrence like it has. When we all get together we have the time of our lives, and this day was no exception. :) Congrats to the newlyweds Col and Ash! Can't wait til you guys get home!

Part one of two: Cali

I know, I know, it's been a while.

And I have a lot to blog about.

Hence, these next two posts.

I decided to do them separately because they are both big events in the life and times of

McKell.

So now for part one:

I went to Newport Beach, CA and stayed in a beach house.

and it was just FABulous!

I love the beach. I wish I lived near a beach. We played on the beach just about every day. It was great.

I love California. I wish I lived in California (sometimes). The things California has to offer!:

Theme Parks.

Shopping.

The Beach.

Sunshine...

It is a great place to be.

Among our activities that we participated in:

Beach lounging.

Bike riding.

Walking on the boardwalk.

Breakfast at Ruby's on the pier.

Angel's game!!!

More beach lounging.

Watching dolphins play off the shore.

Watching So You Think You Can Dance.

Playing pool.

Playing foosball.

Playing whiffle ball on the beach.

Even more beach lounging.

Swimming in the ocean (The water was quite cold so this was a slightly rare occurrence)

Playing with Aunt Jen and her kids.

Knott's Berry Farm.

Shopping at Downtown Disney.

Shopping at Huntington Beach.

Shopping everywhere.

Even MORE beach lounging.

And much much more!

It was a very relaxing, invigorating vacay. I enjoyed it quite a bit! I can't wait to go back when I get engaged! (since it has become a Forbes family tradition to take the engaged couple to stay at a beach house in Newport. Awesome.) Ha!

:)

Some pictures:

Me, Melissa, and Bug on Huntington Beach Pier after breakfast at Ruby's

Some of the beach lounging that was happening

Dad ridin' his bike on the boardwalk

Me and pops eatin' breakfast at the Stuft Surfer.

Kait and Melissa

Col and Ash

Dad (right) and our awesome beach house (center)

They buried Col pretty good.

Some sunset pics...

At Knott's Berry Farm

At the Angels' game!!!

I heart baseball.

Mom and Bug at the Angels' game.

In front of Angel stadium
Playin' whiffle ball on the beach.
Just makin' weird faces...

Part two to come soon!

For all you Twilight fans:

Saw this, loved it, had to post it. This one looks SO much better than the first! BAAM!
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON trailer in HD

I am forever more a die-hard fan

Of TAYLOR SWIFT!

So Tuesday morning, dad reminds me that I'm going to the Taylor Swift concert that night.

Oh, almost forgot.

You all know me, I'm not the biggest country fan.

And I had only listened to Taylor Swift on the rare occasion that someone showed me one of her new songs that I liked.

So to be honest, I was mediocrely (is that a word?) excited for the concert, not expecting it to be anything fabulous.

BIG MISTAKE

THE BEST CONCERT OF MY LIFE!!!

Can I just say, I love Taylor Swift!

Seriously, I loved everything about that concert.

The set design, her outfits, every one of the songs, the things she said, how she actually walked down the aisle hugging people that were there and just being cute.

Who else does that?!

Pretty sure no one.

I loved it because you could just tell she loved what she was doing. It wasn't just another show for her, it was a party.

And she was pretty funny too. Here are some of the funny things she said:

(while introducing "White Horse):

"As a kid, I read fairytales a lot. And the thing about fairytales is you can always tell who the villain is. They're usually wearing a black cape or something. But then you grow up, and it's not so easy to spot the villain. Like sometimes, he's really nice and he makes you laugh and he has great hair."

(while introducing "Should've Said No"):

"This song is about choices. There are good choices... and there are bad choices. For example, I dated a guy that cheated on me, and he shouldn't have because I write songs."

(And while introducing "Teardrops on My Guitar"):

"There was this guy in one of my classes that sat next to me. And I had a crush on this guy. And this guy would always talk to me...about his girlfriend. He never knew I liked him. Actually he probably knows now..."

Haha! She was funny. Basically, the whole show was kind of a guy-bashing fest and it was so great. Which reminds me of one other thing she said:

"Since this is my first headliner tour, this may be a first impression for many of you. And I just want to clarify, in general, I try to be a nice person! But if you break my heart, or mess with my friends, or do bad things... you may get a song written about you."

Loved it. It kind of made me want to become a songwriter. ha.

I don't know what else to say besides it was THE best concert I have ever been too. And that's being compared to The Fray, John Mayer and Colbie Caillat, Tim and Faith, Reba McEntire even! And oh yeah, Hannah Montana. haha!

Loved every minute of it.

Here are some pictures and a slide show! Unfortunately, my camera is a pile and all the pictures are blurry and crappy. But you get the idea. :)

Aw, My Life is Complete. (or at least for the summer)

Two things this week have started that will keep me happy for the rest of the summer. And I'm sure they'll give me a surplus happiness as well to last a few months thereafter.

ONE:

I started my new job this week!!! I absolutely love it.

My duties consist of:

-Registers at the front desk

-Gift shop

-Putting price tags on gift shop merchandise

-MCU (mobile cleaning unit)

-Asking for donations for the Penguin exhibit we are hoping to get soon! [YOU can donate too!!! Go here to help out! :)]

I seriously am having so much fun. Yesterday while I was the designated MCU, I was cleaning the shark tank and a shark swam by, and I was like, "This is cool! Who else gets to clean shark tanks for their job?!" BE jealous.

The people I work with are awesome. I never get bored. One of the ongoing jokes they've got going when it's quiet to stay entertained is someone always yells "Guys!!! Why does it smell like fish?!" I, along with the 4 other new people, about died of laughter the first time one of the kids said that. And we still laugh. It never gets old. ha!

So, in short, I love my job. It's great. The end.

TWO:

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DAAAAANNNNCCCCEEEEE!!!!!!!!

My favorite time of the year. Who wouldn't love a show where all they do is DANCE?!

I LOVE SYTYCD.

Watch it. Love it. As I do.

Here's to another season of some FABULOUS dancing!!!

A bit of this and a bit of that

First off, I went to the midnight premiere of Angels & Demons last night. I must admit, I was slightly disappointed. It was very different from the book and in my opinion, they left out some of the most important stuff. Such as the important link between science and religion that was very very prominent in the book. And a lot of the characters were way different, and things surprised me because they were so different from the book. But overall, I think they did a pretty good job. Everyone should still go see it, despite my slight disappointment. But be sure to read the book because, of course, it is WAY better than the movie.

Second, I'm way excited to go to the Taylor Swift concert in two weeks. She is one of the few country singers I like. And Bug showed me this music video the other day and I thought it was so great, so I'm sharing with you all. :) (bad news is that the column in my blog is not wide enough for this video, to see it at full size go here)

Third, I love summer. 'nuf said.

I got a job!!!

I got a job finally! And I will be working at....

I'm quite excited. It will be a way fun place to work! And Nat and Tam, if you want to spend a day at the aquarium with the kiddies, I can get free passes. Boom! haha. I'll be a Guest Services Host. I'm real excited. Now I'll have money to spare! :)

As a side note, if you click on any of the ads at the top of my side bar, I could earn some money! So click on it. Please. And thank you. :)