Twilight

Today me and the kids and my nephew Bryson went to see the long awaited, highly anticipated movie Twilight. It was received with mixed reviews from our little fam. I myself LOVED it! Kylie loved it too but wished there could have been more of this, less of that, gotten into a bit of that, etc. (She knows the books inside and out and remembers EVERYTHING word for word, so the movie really had to be incredibly good to meet her expectations) Taylir thought it was good, Colton thought it was good, and Carson didn't care for it (but then he never read the books anyway and this wasn't his style of movie to begin with) Even Bryson who is 23 liked it!! You go Brycee!!!!

Part of the excitement in seeing the movie, was seeing the scenes where me and the girls actually got to watch the filming of the movie when we went to Oregon for Spring Break. We found out where the filming was to take place and hoped that we would be able to get slightly close to the action, but didn't plan for much. When we got there I marched the girls up to the barricades and happened to spark up a conversation with the security guards who were the local police of the town. In talking to one policeman, he found out we were LDS and told us he was a member too. In fact, he was a member of the ward that Mark's brother was the bishop for. When he learned this, he told us he was going to try to get us on the set. OH MY GOSH!!! NO WAY!!! Kylie and Taylir were literally freaking out at this point. He told us to follow him past the barricades and he walked us right up onto the set. We were literally feet away from the filming and saw the actors up close and got to hear the director yell, "Ready, set, ACTION! Kylie literally brushed shoulders with Kristin Stewart (Bella) as she walked by! We got to see the filming of the Port Angeles scene where Bella gets ganged up on by the Frat Boys and Edward comes to her rescue in his Volvo. We stayed on the set from about 10 pm that evening until 6 am the next morning. Unfortunately there was to be no picture taking on the set, but Kylie managed to sneak a few in with her camera phone from the non-acting scenes where just the Volvo was involved.

It was absolutely FREEZING cold and drizzling a bit that evening but it was so exciting to see first-hand the actual filming of the movie! We never got to meet any of the actors personally, but Robert (Edward) and Kristin (Bella) smiled at us when they drove by us time after time after time during the scene where the Volvo screeches away down the street after Edward rescues Bella. This scene took about 15 takes to finally get it right. We were deemed "The Blanket Brigade" by the director and crew because we watched on the sidelines all wrapped up in blankets trying to keep warm. At one point, the director came over to talk to us because he heard about the crazy dedicated mom (that would be me) that came all the way from Utah so her Twilight crazy daughters (that would be Kylie and Taylir) could get to see where the movie was being filmed. He told us he would see what he could do to get Robert and Kristin to come over and talk to us after filming, but that never happened, DANG! Oh well, the girls still thought the whole evening was amazing anyway.

Kylie and Taylir standing in front of Charlie and Bellas house

Edward (Robert) and Bella (Kristin) are actually inside the Volvo as it is being filmed driving away after Edward rescues Bella from the Frat Boys in Port Angeles. The actors aren't allowed to drive for real, so the Volvo is pulled on a trailer very slowly while they film it. Good thing for good editing!

This is the scene where the Volvo actually peels out and screetches away. The Volvo is being driven by Edward's (Robert's) stunt double.

This is Forks High School (for the movie) but really isn't even in Forks Washington. This high school is actually in Oregon but I can't remember the name of it.

This is the parking lot of the high school where the famous scene was shot of Edward saving Bella from the out of control van

This is the alley Bella walks down when the Frat Boys gang up on her

I highly recommend this movie to EVERYBODY! I would see it again and again and again. I think the teenager in me is still alive and trapped somewhere in this aged 41-year old body. I'm so glad I'm not alone though. From what I heard on the movie set, the worst groupies didn't happen to be the teenage girls, but were the middle age moms, called "Twilight Moms". I know I'm crazy, but hopefully I don't fall into that category. After all, I WAS NOT at the midnight showing last night. I was patient enough to wait until this afternoon, unlike some crazy mom's out there......I won't name any names but you know who you are!! :)