Movies, Morning Sickness, and More!

Let’s do a quick run-through of all the things going on in our lives lately, even though you probably already know most of this:

HOJO Anaheim Contest
We won the contest! Here’s their “Announcement Video” :


We showed the video to the kids to get their reaction, and as usual, they were excited, but not screaming wild excited kids (which is probably a good thing, right?) So even though I filmed their reaction, it’s not really worth showing you all. However, for the rest of the night, it was funny to see Joel walking around the house going, “I can’t believe we won the contest! I can’t believe we won!”
So the plan is to go in October (8th through 10th) so that we can see the Halloween Decorations they put up in the parks, go to the Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat Party, and celebrate Amanda and Abe’s Birthday there. If you didn’t already know, this year they’re doing a promotion where you get in FREE on your birthday—and who can pass up TWO free passes to Disneyland?!!
Of course, going in October is dependent upon me having a steady enough job to let us pay for the other expenses of the trip (gas, food, etc).

Chico
Speaking of a job, I’m still working on the “Chico” video. It’s coming along really well, and is finally starting to take shape and look cool. Here’s a behind-the-scenes video of the production so far:

CHICO - Behind the Scenes -Animation EP1 from Toby and Cody McClure on Vimeo.

Pregnancy
Amanda’s pregnancy is going about as well as can be expected, which means she’s nauseated all day and night, is throwing up several times a day, and cannot swallow her spit. We’ll probably be taking her in to get “rehydrated” in the next day or so, since she currently throws up everything she eats/drinks (mostly drinks). We’re really hoping this phase doesn’t last much longer. Yesterday, Abe said “In 2 weeks, mom will be feeling better.” So we’ll go with that.
Of course everyone’s favorite part of this is that Amanda can’t swallow her spit, which means she lets it collect in her mouth for a while before spitting into a tissue-filled garbage can. That means if she needs to say something, it’s a closed-mouthed “Mrmmmfmrmrrrrmr.” We wisely decided to give her the kids’ Magnadoodle to write us messages on instead of subjecting us to the mumbling…
…Just 30 more weeks to go…

End of school
The kids are out of school now, and couldn’t be happier about it. I have to say, for me it’s a toss-up. Although it’s nice not to have to get the kids up and ready for school every morning, they’re already driving me nuts with the “I’m bored. I don’t have anything to do” stuff.
Movie Nights
We’ve started having movie nights, with the intention of going through all our DVD’s/Blu-Rays this summer (well, the ones the kids would like, at least). For instance, we watched “Napoleon Dynamite” a few nights ago, and they all loved it. Abe STILL goes around saying, “Hey Napoleon Dynamite, give me some of your tots!!” (OK, so he doesn’t quote it quite right, but his version sounds funnier!) In addition, I’ve added a bunch of family movies to our Netflix queue. So far, it’s been hit-or-miss. The kids have been loving “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” and Maddy’s started watching the old “Addams Family” TV show on Netflix Instant, but we ALL found “Pete’s Dragon” to be REALLY, REALLY BORING.

Summer movies
Of course we’ve also been waiting for the Summer Movie Season, and are glad it’s finally arrived.
Joel and I went to see “Star Trek” (I’d seen it a few days before taking Joel to see it to make sure it was OK for him). We really liked it, and frankly, I’m ready to see it again, although I’ve never been a “Star Trek” fan.
I saw “Angels and Demons” which was really lame. I enjoyed “Da Vinci Code,” but this was really bland. They kept trying to make me think I should be excited (using action-packed music and editing) but I just wasn’t. Then when Ewan MacGregor (as a Catholic priest guy of some sort) parachuted out of the helicopter down to the Vatican, I lost all respect for the film.
I took the kids to see “Night at the Museum 2,” which was also not as good as the original, though the kids enjoyed it. Amy Adams did a great job in the movie, however, giving the movie enough energy to keep it from boring me to tears.
This past weekend we saw “Up” in 3-D. It was really good, and I’ll have to go see it again, though this time I’ll probably see it in 2-D. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the 3-D, especially in some of the action sequences, but my impression was that the 3-D didn’t really ADD to the film very much. I also want to see it without Abe whining about wanting to go home for the whole movie, and without Joel whining about wanting to get candy at the movie…But seriously, the movie was funny, exciting, and emotional (yes, I got choked up a couple times during the film).
I’m still planning on seeing “Terminator: Salvation,” despite the bad reviews. And I may go see “Land of the Lost next weekend. Then of course Joel and I have got “Transformers 2” coming the end of this month and we’re ALL counting down the days until “Harry Potter 6” comes out (July 15th)!

Boom Blox Bash Party
One other way we’ve been bonding as a family is by playing our newest Wii game: “Boom Blox Bash Party.” This is a sequel to the original “Boom Blox” game, which we also love. It’s a great game for the whole family, and satisfies our intense need to throw stuff and knock things down (but without the mess!). Here’s a commercial for it, featuring Steven Spielberg (who helped create the game, and also wears a funny hat):



Well, that about sums up our lives right now. Have a great summer!

Photos and Videos and Such Nonsense

What? Another new blog post ALREADY?!?! It hasn’t been a month yet, what’s the deali-o?
I dunno. I just had stuff to write about so I decided to do a blog. Isn’t that what this blogging thing is all about? But I’m going to keep the text to a minimum (with the exception of my video annotations at the end) and focus on the pictures and video.

First of all, Amanda's still pregnant. The all-day morning sickness will be kicking in any day now, and she's been getting a little queasy already.

Here’s a photo update of our food storage:



We’ve been buying a little extra every week, and have planned out meals that use almost exclusively storable items. We’ve also been writing the expiration/freshness date in permanent marker on each of the items so we can easily see when they need to be used by and can rotate through them easier.
When Amanda was at work the other day, they found out one of the towels had a misprint on it. Before they got shipped off to some discount store, Amanda and I decided to buy one of them. I present to you, the BOZZ Lightyear towel:




Next, as I mentioned before, I’ve been working with a client on some items for some music videos. Here’s the first of the videos. I did the opening animation for it: Think Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets in a Wizard of Oz environment with a little bit of Guitar Hero thrown in for good measure:

The Adventures of CHICO Episode ONE from Toby and Cody McClure on Vimeo.

Finally, here’s our family’s entry intro the Howard Johnson Anaheim “What Do you Love About the Anaheim Resort?” Contest. Now, most of you have already seen this via Facebook or me sending you the link on Messenger, but here, I’ve also added some annotations and factoids (read them below the video) to give some fun trivia regarding the video.



0:00: The opening “Andy Face” and red, bumpy background texture were originally created for videos I was going to make as part of the Disney CMO Contest. They are inspired by the opening title cards of the old Mickey Mouse cartoons.
0:00: The music that opens the video is the music from the Roger Rabbit/Baby Herman cartoons.
0:09: This family photo is from our March 2007 trip to Disneyland. Joel is wearing his Spider-man pajama shirt underneath his t-shirt. This was either to keep warm or because he secretly IS Spider-man…
0:15 and 0:32: These maps were scanned out of the Rand McNally Atlas we bought at Wal-Mart in Riverside, CA when we were stuck there due to snow. It was very useful during our long detour over to Needles, Kingman, Hoover Dam, and up to Vegas.
0:30: In case you’re not familiar with it, the big white and red thermometer is the “World’s Largest Thermometer,” found in Baker, CA.
0:40: The video footage is from our April 2008 Trip; music is by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
0:53: While seeing the Tower of Terror building is an exciting highlight for us when we finally arrive at the Anaheim Resort, we haven’t ridden it during our last 2 trips. In April 2008, I was going to ride it but had an upset stomach from the greasy Monte Cristo sandwich at the Blue Bayou. In December, we got Fastpasses for it, but chickened out…
1:01: We’re each holding a Disney park map from either a different year or from California Adventure instead of Disneyland. Notice that Abe watches me to see when to look at his map.
1:05: This is from our April 2008 trip, right before Maddy got glasses. It’s weird to see her without them.
1:11: I tied clear thread to each of the hats, then stood off to the left holding all the strings. I told them to scream, then pulled the strings. I guess I had the string lengths wrong, because they came off back to front—oh well.
1:13: Note Abe looking back to see me.
1:20: Just ignore the Christmas Story Leg Lamp clock—that’s not found inside the Star Tours vehicles…and did I mention it’s difficult to get 3 kids to all move in the same directions at the same time?
1:30: Obviously, I used a split-screen “Parent Trap” effect for this. We set up the camera on the table, started rolling, had Abe do his Jack Sparrow part, kept the camera rolling (making sure no one touched/bumped it or the table) quickly changed Abe’s clothes to Buzz, then filmed that part. Then in After Effects, I combined the 2 videos and added the animation elements. Notice that both Jack and Buzz are making shooting noises with their mouths.
1:36: This picture is from way back in 2004.
1:39: My wife is such a good sport. Don’t ask why her hair isn’t falling in the upside-down California Screamin’ shot…maybe she used a lot of hairspray. Those are Abe’s sunglasses in the CA Screamin’ shot.
1:45: The leather jacket is a “Kick Start” TV show jacket, given to me by the folks at Maverik. The hat is an Indiana Jones hat that I got in 1989.
1:45: This shot was filmed by Joel—nice camerawork, son!
1:52: OK, a lot of things to spot here. First of all, the Churros were bought fresh on Friday from Costco. We put them in a Ziploc bag in the fridge. This video was filmed Sunday night. Although we warmed up the churros, they were rubbery and tasted terrible.
*The reason Maddy and Joel are laughing is because they’re recovering from the previous take, in which we all took a bite of our churros and all got grossed out.
*You’ll notice that Joel only PRETENDS to take a bite. Madison still has the previous bite in her mouth, and also only pretends to eat this one. Abe loved the leftover churros and had no problems eating it.
*Abe tries to lipsync my dialogue (I think that’s what he’s doing). He also LOVES wearing sunglasses.
*The music playing is the beginning portion of the Disneyland Closing Announcement. “Ladies and gentlemen, Disneyland has now ended its normal operating day.”