Monday, May 10, 2010

Fabulous Friday Night

Last Friday we had a BLAST!! A couple years ago, a drive-in theater opened up in Tyler. We have thought about going several times but it never worked out when Jayme was on weekend shifts. Since he started working Tuesday through Friday, it has been possible to go, but there hasn't been a double feature that really interested us. Until last week!
You see, since Pattie was born, anytime we have gone to the movies it has been like this: Either Jayme and I go alone while someone watches the clones, or Jayme takes one boy, then I take another at a later time. Pattie is too young to sit through a movie in a theater and she doesn't really let anyone else babysit her, so we have been stuck. Then there's the cost of a movie these days. Even a matinee ends up costing at least $20 for the four of us to go, and you have to buy some kind of snack so add another $10 to that. We have a very small entertainment budget and that completely wipes it out so it has to be a pretty special movie. We had wanted very much to go see Clash of the Titans but we weren't sure if it would be something Clay would enjoy. But we knew we would HAVE to go see Iron Man 2.
Last Friday, I noticed that the drive-in was playing Iron Man 2 followed by Clash of the Titans**. This was the double feature we had been waiting for! The drive-in opens at 7 pm and the first movie starts at 8:30, so we knew it would be a late night, but we were ready. We all put on Iron Man t-shirts, and I brought a few DVDs for Pattie to watch if she got bored. As we got ready to leave the house we saw our neighbor's were loading up too and were delighted to find out that they were heading to the drive-in. We pulled in and paid the fee to get in (which by the way was $21.35 for the whole family to see 2 movies!!). We had eaten dinner before leaving the house but I brought snacks and drinks from home. There is a concession stand but we didn't get anything from there. On top of the concession stand were several big speakers so we could hear the movies just fine, even without tuning in to the radio frequency that carries the dialogue.
The best part was when we removed the third row seat from the Suburban and put it on the ground for Jayme and I to sit on while the clones had the whole back of the 'burban to spread out in. Our neighbors parked right next to us and the kids were running around and dancing before the show started. The movies were great!! But we did learn a few things for next time.
#1-Bring a blanket. It got a little cool and I retreated into the 'burban during the second movie.
#2-Bring bug spray. The mosquitoes weren't bad, but they were there.
#3-Either don't leave Pattie's DVD player going for the 4 hours we are there, or bring jumper cables. Luckily the drive-in had some at the concession stand and our neighbors were able to give us a jump so we could go home.
Clay didn't make it to Clash of the Titans but thanks to a very late nap, Pattie was going strong to the end. we had so much fun and as summer approaches we hope some of the flicks we want to see will be featured at the drive-in.
**A little personal history, the only movie I can remember going to see at a drive-in when I was a kid was the original Clash of the Titans. I thought it was fitting that the remake of that classic was one of the features that drew me back.

Here we are with our clones plus two (our neighbor's little boy and his buddy)

4 comments:

  1. Drive-ins are rare up here. I've never actually been.

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  2. That looks like fun. There is actually a great drive-in near us. Matt and I have gone several times. We've never taken Zachariah. We didn't know if he would be able to handle staying up that late, but you know he probably would. He does good at movie theaters, so I don't know why not. I would love to find a good movie this summer to take him to. Ours doesn't open until Memorial Day weekend (or later) I believe.

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  3. I remember going to drive in's as a real little kid all the time. I also slept through a lot of the movies, but it was nice for the rest of the family because they could watch and not to have to worry about me being bored. Of course I missed a lot of the movie that way. My sister always laughs because I'll say I never saw that movie and she'll say well we went and you were there.

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