UP

Finally took the girls to see UP.

I'm not going to lie - I sobbed through the entire first 10 to 15 minutes... and then intermittently choked up throughout the rest of the movie. (Seriously, I spent the first 15 minutes thinking, "This is a DISNEY movie?" Bambi has NOTHING on this one in the realm of lump in the throat and unabashed tears.) The animation was crazy cool, and the story was touching, funny, sad, clever, magical, happy, and beautiful. The characters were amazingly "real". Doug was endearing, trying so hard and he was so genuinely loving. I've had dogs like that, and would love for my dogs to have a collar like that. How much fun! Plus, the old man was hilarious, in part because he reminded me of my dad in a way. My dad? Would totally send that kid out snipe hunting.

It was a great movie, but I think the old man losing his wife before he was ready hit a little too close to home for me. Every time he crossed his heart I cried. DD2 kept leaning over to pat me on the arm, and DD1 would whisper in my ear while giving me a squeeze, "It'll get better mom, just hang in there." How funny, that now they can comfort me instead of it always being the other way around. Sometimes I get to see a side of them that surprises me, and I'll always remember UP being one of those experiences.

P.S. My SMA post back in May that featured the SMA and his wife? Has been hit 39 times in the last 13 hours - mostly from Europe. All over Europe, not one little clumping of a specific country. Why??