The Annual Drive-In Movie Adventure

It's July.  That means is crazy-fun month - filled with Independence Day, our birthday (the big Four-Oh....I keep thinking of writing a post about my thoughts on that, but disregard the idea as it's just too depressing...), "Sons of Thunder" for the guys, and all sorts of other TRADITIONS that make this my favorite time of year (well, tied with December....).  

One of these traditions is going to the Dallas Motor-Vu Drive In with Amy and her kids and Lisa and her kids.  We've been doing this for the last 7 years or so.  Invariably, we've had unsuccessful adventures - whether its folks who can't make it, really bad movies ("Land of the Lost" - UGH!!!), or killing the battery from turning it on the wrong way to play the movie sound through the radio.  

Last night was all about viewing the double feature of "Brave" and "The Amazing Spiderman".  We certainly weren't going to strike out in that department ("Brave" was entertaining, but certainly not my favorite Disney/Pixar movie...).  However, we did stumble with some other issues.  Of most significance was the fact that Amy's Suburban still had the Yakima car top carrier on its top.  This meant she was forced to park a long ways back due to it blocking the view of cars behind it.  It required a key that Amy did not have to take it off, so there was nothing that could be done.  Jackson's eye sight is not good so this was upsetting to him as he wouldn't be able to see the movie as well as he was hoping to.  Therefore, we tried to find a way to fit all seven kids in our vehicle (the boys sat in lawn chairs along with us in front of the car).  Poor Amy was so distraught over this situation that she was in tears (partly in recognition of the condition of Jackson's eyes - which has been a sad revealing over the last couple of years of how little one of his eyes is actually working).  She had prepared abundantly for the adventure packing all that she needed, cleaning out her rig, and blowing up an air mattress inside - only to have it abandoned in the back of the drive in parking area.  =( 

It all turned out as we made the best of it.  Once the movies started Jackson, Christina, and Erica decided to opt for comfort over vision and ended up retreating to the Suburban while Ellie, Nati, and Adam shared my car.  Mikayla came out to crawl on the chair with me.  (Good bonding, but not so comfy).

Before the viewing began, we did our best to capture the fun we did manage to have despite our adversity through these pictures: 

 

One of the previews for "Brave" was for "Monsters University" - a sequel to the beloved Pixar movie we loved from ten or so years ago.  It's supposed to be released next summer - so I looked over to the other gals and said, "Same time, same place - that'll be the movie next year!".  Because, even with a few hiccups, this is a tradition we just don't want to miss out on.