"This is the moment where both of you became a possibility," Matt Damon tells his children. "This is the story before the story. This is where you begin."
Matt Damon was playing the character of Benjamin Mee and talking to his fictional kids played by adorable actors in the movie "We Bought A Zoo." He was telling his kids the story of how he met their mother.
I cried. I thought about my/our story.
This past weekend I sat down with my family to watch a movie to review for Mommy Bear Media--a great place for family friendly movies. (I was invited to write reviews of some movies this summer. Movies we get to choose, so it's a really fun assignment.)
Last month I wrote a review and made quite an event of our family movie night. This past weekend though, it wasn't about the props or even the popcorn. It was about finding a place on the couch, snuggling and being together.
I didn't know much about We Bought A Zoo except that it had a great cast including Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, and that it was a Cameron Crowe movie. I love a lot of Cameron Crowe movies (Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire) except I have never seen Vanilla Sky (Tom Cruise was starting to bother me and frankly it looked too weird to me).
This particular movie was enjoyed by my whole family. Well, there were a few moments when my two littlest ones (ages 6 and 2) were getting restless. But they enjoyed the animals. My tween enjoyed the teenager angst. My 8-year-old daughter enjoyed all of it. My husband teared up, which is saying a lot because that just never happens. Ever.
It's well written, the music is amazing(as in all Cameron Crowe movies) and the acting is really good. It's the story of a family going through stuff, major stuff. It's about a parent not shying away from handling the major stuff. It's about taking risks to really live life full of joy, because "why not?"
"You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it."
It's about living your story and telling your story.
I cried. I thought about my/our story.
Twelve years ago I had no idea what I was getting into. All I knew was that I was madly in love with a man and I wanted to spend my life with him. We both thought we knew so much. We knew we wanted kids. We knew we wanted four kids to be exact.
On our first wedding anniversary, I was seven months pregnant. I've spent almost 40% of our married years pregnant. Calculate all the fun postpartum months (which I count as almost the whole first year after a baby is born) and that's more than 50% of my married years pregnant or postpartum-y. That's a whole lot of hormones people.
The funny thing is, that I hate being pregnant. No lie. But I love the babies. My babies. Our babies. Our family.
Unless something crazy happens, there will be no more babies. And that is strange. But it's good. It's scary.
"Ten years of toddlers" was a dream of ours. I know you are reading this thinking we are crazy, but this is our story. And you are right, we are a little crazy.
I feel a little like the characters in the movie (yes I am Scarlett Johansson and Tim is Matt Damon, I think it's good casting right?) about to embark on the next scary adventure. Because let's face it, 10 years of toddlers is one thing but 10 years of teenagers is a whole other beast. It's kind of like buying a zoo.
"It's not about where an adventure ends, cause that's not what an adventure's about. So anything that happens from here on out is a bonus."
It's an adventure, my/our adventure.
We are living our story.
Oh, one more thing about the movie, there are a few sensitive topics covered and a handful of bad words. Be prepared to talk about death, the Easter Bunny and what an asshole is. But trust me it's worth it.
Take a look at Mommy Bear Media--they have a wide variety of older movies and the best new movies on dvd for the whole family. And they offer free 2-5 day shipping on all orders. In addition to their website, you can follow up with them on Facebook and Twitter as well.
Ch-ch-check it out, the We Bought A Zoo trailer:
Matt Damon was playing the character of Benjamin Mee and talking to his fictional kids played by adorable actors in the movie "We Bought A Zoo." He was telling his kids the story of how he met their mother.
I cried. I thought about my/our story.
This past weekend I sat down with my family to watch a movie to review for Mommy Bear Media--a great place for family friendly movies. (I was invited to write reviews of some movies this summer. Movies we get to choose, so it's a really fun assignment.)
Last month I wrote a review and made quite an event of our family movie night. This past weekend though, it wasn't about the props or even the popcorn. It was about finding a place on the couch, snuggling and being together.
I didn't know much about We Bought A Zoo except that it had a great cast including Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, and that it was a Cameron Crowe movie. I love a lot of Cameron Crowe movies (Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire) except I have never seen Vanilla Sky (Tom Cruise was starting to bother me and frankly it looked too weird to me).
This particular movie was enjoyed by my whole family. Well, there were a few moments when my two littlest ones (ages 6 and 2) were getting restless. But they enjoyed the animals. My tween enjoyed the teenager angst. My 8-year-old daughter enjoyed all of it. My husband teared up, which is saying a lot because that just never happens. Ever.
It's well written, the music is amazing(as in all Cameron Crowe movies) and the acting is really good. It's the story of a family going through stuff, major stuff. It's about a parent not shying away from handling the major stuff. It's about taking risks to really live life full of joy, because "why not?"
"You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it."
It's about living your story and telling your story.
I cried. I thought about my/our story.
Twelve years ago I had no idea what I was getting into. All I knew was that I was madly in love with a man and I wanted to spend my life with him. We both thought we knew so much. We knew we wanted kids. We knew we wanted four kids to be exact.
On our first wedding anniversary, I was seven months pregnant. I've spent almost 40% of our married years pregnant. Calculate all the fun postpartum months (which I count as almost the whole first year after a baby is born) and that's more than 50% of my married years pregnant or postpartum-y. That's a whole lot of hormones people.
The funny thing is, that I hate being pregnant. No lie. But I love the babies. My babies. Our babies. Our family.
Unless something crazy happens, there will be no more babies. And that is strange. But it's good. It's scary.
"Ten years of toddlers" was a dream of ours. I know you are reading this thinking we are crazy, but this is our story. And you are right, we are a little crazy.
I feel a little like the characters in the movie (yes I am Scarlett Johansson and Tim is Matt Damon, I think it's good casting right?) about to embark on the next scary adventure. Because let's face it, 10 years of toddlers is one thing but 10 years of teenagers is a whole other beast. It's kind of like buying a zoo.
"It's not about where an adventure ends, cause that's not what an adventure's about. So anything that happens from here on out is a bonus."
It's an adventure, my/our adventure.
We are living our story.
Oh, one more thing about the movie, there are a few sensitive topics covered and a handful of bad words. Be prepared to talk about death, the Easter Bunny and what an asshole is. But trust me it's worth it.
Take a look at Mommy Bear Media--they have a wide variety of older movies and the best new movies on dvd for the whole family. And they offer free 2-5 day shipping on all orders. In addition to their website, you can follow up with them on Facebook and Twitter as well.
Ch-ch-check it out, the We Bought A Zoo trailer:
Thanks for the great post and movie review!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you liked the post!
DeleteLove this post! I am one of the crazy people (like you) that thinks 10 years of toddlers sounds amazing.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Glad I'm not alone in that crazy toddler/kid love. :)
Delete