Sunday, July 12, 2009

Night at the Drive-In movies

Last Sunday night, after a fun day of church in the park and playing at the splash pad, we were invited to join the Boxell's and the Langley's for a night at the movies... the Drive-In! There is one Drive-In theater we know of in the Portland area, it's in Newburg about 45mins to an hour from our house. The shows sell out pretty quickly on Friday and Saturday nights, so we made our way out there early to ensure a good view of the screen for our Sunday night showing just in case. The kids were all cozy in their pajamas, we popped microwave popcorn at home, and brought our own water, juice, and milk for the evening. We pulled a couple of the seats out of the van to make more room and brought along some comfy chairs for the kids to sit in and of course, their favorite blankets. The hardest part was the almost 2 hour wait between when we arrived and the movie actually began (around 9:45pm). We didn't bring jackets for the kids and it was a bit chilly out, so they were confined to the van, but did pretty well considering.

The movies for the night were Up and The Proposal. The kids stayed awake for the entire showing of Up and even stayed in their chairs for most of it, occasionally asking for more popcorn. The last half hour of the movie, they joined Rick and I in the front seats of the van. During intermission, Rick replaced their carseats and got them all settled, they were out almost before The Proposal started at midnight. Rick and I were able to enjoy a little bit of a date night... while trying to keep our eyes open for the movie! It ended around 2am, we made the drive home, and crashed in bed around 3:30am!! What a fun adventure and I would love to do it again sometime, maybe without the kids so we could back up the van, lay down the back seats, open the hatch, and enjoy the movie... on a warmer night, of course! I am disappointed in myself for not taking any photos of the movie screen and other parts of the drive-in itself, what kind of blogger am I? Maybe next time I get a few. A little added fun for the night came when the kids (teenagers to early twenties maybe) pulled up and got out of their cars dressed like they were from the 50's! It was awesome- totally reminded me of Grease! or something- which by the way they will be showing at the drive-in on a special night in September. I think that would be so fun!

Cooper was really enjoying his free time to crawl around in the van and exploring! He pretty much slept through both movies, which was perfect.

Tyson "driving" the car!
(You can see the cars in the background that are all backed in, they watched the movies from the back of their cars, which looked really fun!)

The kids had a pretty sweet setup in the back seat. Comfy chairs, blankets, milk, popcorn, and a great view of the screen. I think they really enjoyed the experience!

Up next: Marathon Training review for the past 2 weeks!

4 comments:

Lisa said...

How fun! There's a drive in outside Athens, at least there used to be, I don't know if it's still running. That's where I saw Lion King. How did the kids like Up? I'm toying with taking Natalie to see it as her first theatre movie. =)

Lisa Joy said...

That looks awesome! I've always wanted to do the drive-in thing!

We had a late night on Saturday...drove to Seattle & back for a Mariner's game with friends & got home around 2am. I'm still recovering! :-)

Heidi D said...

We saw movies at the drive in when I was little. I love those memories of us in the station wagon. :)

I wish we had one here.

David said...

i've only been to a drive in once, when i was little. we saw Spies Like Us.

you saw a double feature? that's a lot of movie watching for one night!