Playing at the zoo!

Saturday, we had a blast!

We started by going to Jack's karate class, where I got to take pictures of the dojo gardens, and in the process recorded my own "perfect garden". I'll use those photos later.

Then we went to the zoo with John. We all had a great time, and I haven't seen John smile so much in a very long time. We'll be going again and again and again this summer!

Then John took us out for dinner at O'Mara's, where I had Salmon Nicoise ... so good I HAD to have the recipe!

Sunday was fun, too.

Rod and I had our 8th wedding anniversary, and to celebrate we went to see the new Karate Kid movie with.

I can't quite say I enjoyed it. There were things I did enjoy about it -- it was refreshing to see a movie in which the token character was a white kid . I enjoyed seeing a film made in China -- it's not a place I know a lot about, and I still don't but I felt I had gotten a bit of a taste. Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan played very enjoyable characters and I think they did a superb job! I really enjoyed the emphasis Chan's character placed on respect and the fact that Smith's character clearly learned a great deal about respect over te course of the movie. That's a subject I think gets short shrift in our modern culture. But I found the film's unflinching focus on violence and bullying brutal and I was traumatized emotionally by the end of the film, as was Jack. We recovered, and I'm not unhappy that we went to see it, but I won't ever be seeing it again unless a less brutal version is released at some point. (Not likely.) I think, in retrospect, it would have been a good idea to wait until Jack was older to see this one...