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.

Sunday on the Lake

Upon looking at our calendar and realizing the weekend was empty, we gave Heather a call and asked if she was free to come out.  Heather is on a rigid training schedule with her running, so during her short time period when she's not racing, she wanted to take advantage of the time off by doing a few of the "riskier" things - like getting on a wakeboard.

The weather was SO MUCH BETTER than it was when we went out with Kenjon, Michael, and Kaela - in fact about 40 degrees warmer.  Enough to give Heather some pretty crispy legs by the time we were done. Ouch!  

We ended up having Heather determine who she wanted to go with her and she brought along Elisa - a sweet gal we know through church and the community of 20-somethings Kaela and Heather "do life" with.

This is the first time I've been on the tube in a while - my neck/head has been really good lately, so I was willing to take a few risks to "play".  I'm so glad I did.  We did a lot of laughing as we hit the bumps, took a little air and got whipped around.  While my back has been a bit achy since our adventure, praise God that my neck was not in anyway negatively affected by the experience!

We still had Traig with us after counseling at Harlow - I love how big all three of their smiles were throughout the multiple runs we took with them.

Heather - on the board!  The water was pretty cruddy for wakeboarding.  I took a run, but opted to hang on for the exercise element as it sure wasn't a thrilling experience with that much turbulence.

Elisa's turn on the board.

Elisa lives full time in one of the residence cabins at Harlow as she is a year-round office worker/hospitality specialist.  So, she knows the ins and outs of Harlow and was eager to do some hand motion songs with the kids in the back, as well as pull out her "inner kid" during the time we twisted the boat around in 360's.

Great day - super low key and relaxing, just the way a boat run ought to be!

Michael and Emily's Magical Engagement

Last week, we were invited in secret to join over 50 other folks in creating a breathtaking experience that would make most any proposal effort hang its head in shame.  We were asked to caravan to the nearest Eugene lake and, at the right moment, simultaneously launch Chinese floating lanterns into the air.  If you've ever seen the Disney movie, "Tangled", you know exactly what I mean and what the effect was supposed to look like.  Hence the word "magical" in the title - I'm not talking sorcery here, I'm talking "straight from a Disney fairy tale movie"...

I have to admit, John and I were beat by the time Friday arrived.  It had been a busy, but wonderful week with the Fourth of July festivities.  Our boys had done their jobs at Harlow (post still to come), and we kind of desperately wished we could just relax at home and be couch potatoes.  We did actually let the boys do that, for which I'm thankful - they weren't quite at the level of stealth and patience required to make the activity a success.  

We did bring Mikayla, though - who loves these sorts of things and was my buddy all evening.  

Sure enough, upon arriving at the rendezvous location (the shared home of the guy doing the proposing) - there were tons of people - all testifying to the fact of how many people ADORE Michael and Emily.  That's the ultimate reason we left the comfy house Friday night, how could we not?  We both adore them too.  We've known them ever since starting CCF and while they've only been a couple for the last year, they are both stand alone incredible people - but, together, they light up a room.  

Here's the special picture that John doctored to tell the story when he put the pics he took up on Facebook:

Here's their boat.  We waited a LONG time for them to get their act together to launch their lantern.

This is their single lantern lighting attempt.  Emily is so in love with these (and "Tangled") that she was positively giddy that Michael had purchased one and they'd light it together on their fun date on his sailboat.  She had NO IDEA a proposal was in the works or all the folks were behind the scenes which is purely a GOD thing as nothing gets pulled over Emily. 

Unfortunately, their lighting attempt didn't go well - it sunk in the water.  =(

But, then, what is that in the distance?  Can you imagine the chills she must have got?  And, guess who's lantern started floating up first?   Mikayla's and I's.... SO PROUD!  We did have the advantage of being right near Heather who had the binoculars and walky talky waiting for the sign to begin.

More lanterns...

Until the night sky was lit up with them.  It was an extraordinary sight to witness - I can't wait to see the video.

I will say, though - it wasn't an easy task - nor was it all that safe.  You folks on the eastern half of the United States would never be able to do this at this point in the summer with the drought conditions being so bad.  As it was, I was pretty darn nervous lofting that first lantern, hoping it would go up and not off to the grassy field below and set it on fire!

 

This was one of the scariest incidents - being launched by none other than Heather (one of Emily's bestest friends).  John was dying taking these pictures laughing so hard!

These two gals both received proposals this spring.  Jenny (left) is getting married in August, while Christine will marry in September.

A final shot of Mikayla and I waiting for the fire to heat up the interior of the balloon enough to be able to set it free and let it rise.

As more folks put up their pictures of the event, I'll add a few more - particularly of the smile on Michael and Emily's face when they returned to his home after the experience and greeted all of us who participated as well as dozens more folks who showed up to celebrate their engagement.  (The first picture is of us with a couple we met there, John & Julie - hanging out and getting to know each other while waiting for the newly engaged couple to arrive.  And thanks Kaela for these extra pics!)

I'm so glad we said "yes" to helping out in this fairy tale scene, but even happier that she said "yes" to a married life with Michael!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!

About ten years ago, I was at a friend of Brayden's birthday party and one of the moms there was telling us all that the Fourth of July was her favorite holiday.   I remember thinking, "hmm, I never would have said that for myself".  We grew up with quite a bit of randomness for the Fourth.  It was always a fun day, but we didn't really create traditions around it.  Since that mom said something, I think it's been my mission to appreciate the holiday that much more and create traditions that stick.  I can't say that we've yet nailed down the ideal perfection to the evening of the Fourth, but we've had a lot of fun over the years making some valiant attempts at that ideal.

Yesterday was no exception.  We have often found that going to a new-release potential blockbuster movie is a good idea during the day, so we took all of our pre-purchased tickets* to Cinemark and watched the 11:25 showing of "The Amazing Spiderman".

I've been a fan of all of the previous Spiderman movies and wondered why another remake was that big of a deal - but gotta admit: IT WAS GREAT!!!  Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone nailed their roles and the chemistry was fun to watch knowing they actually fell in love with each other during the making of the movie.

Following the movie, the Schillings parted ways with us and set off for their annual tradition at Michael's brother's, Brian's, house.  It's his birthday on the Fourth and as long as Michele's known Michael, that's where they've gone to his beautiful property, gathering all of the extended family and friends and culminating the evening with spectacular fireworks courtesy of Brian's pyrotech permit.  They even light floating lanterns like you see in "Tangled".  Now, that's the kind of tradition I'm talking about!

We, on the other hand, lounged for a while then went to Yo My My for fro yo and to see Michael Chase who works there, and then off to pick up the Whites to go to the Emerald's baseball game.  The Emerald's are our local minor league team - and I haven't been a game of theirs in maybe ten years?  Certainly not since they moved to the new PK Park adjacent to Autzen Stadium where the Ducks also play their baseball games.  It is a great venue and it felt very "All-Americana" to be at a baseball game on the Fourth of July with fireworks following.

The fireworks were great, especially cool to be able to lay a blanket out on the field to watch them.  Honestly though, I would have gladly traded the second half of the very long baseball game for more time of pretty fireworks.  The Em's did win though!

 Big gorgeous yellow full moon on the Fourth!

All in all, a very well spent Fourth of July!

* This next little segment is of absolutely no interest to any of you readers unless you dig the whole idea of amazing deals/extreme couponing.  This June, our local Safeway supermarket ran a program where you could score a pass for two movie tickets for every $40 spent on participating dairy products.  Knowing what kind of summer movie viewers we are - I went for it, and carefully picked out at least $50 worth of useful and on-sale dairy products.  However, when I went to cash out, the "Catalina Machine" that spits out these kind of coupons wasn't working.  So, I was directed to the customer service counter.  Not a problem, I didn't have any pressing plans for the day, so I had plenty of patience and time to wait.  The kind lady helping me ran my products through three times in attempt to get to the $40 "bingo price" to get my coupon, but no luck.  I let other customers go ahead while we waited for a manager to give it a try.  With no luck, they offered the next best thing - a gift card.  Because the maximum value for the deal was $26 for the two tickets, they bumped it up to a $25 Fandango gift card and a $5 Safeway card just to let me know they were thankful for my patience and apologetic for the hassle.  Seriously?  What a deal!  Most of the time, we go to matinee movies and at Cinemark, they only cost $4 each.  This way, I can get more than 6 admissions (not just the two offered by the "Dairy Deal") - plus money for snacks!

I left the store feeling smug.  You can only imagine how that giddy "oh what a deal" elation continued, when, on the next three visits to Safeway, the Catalina Machine at check out spit out the coupon deal!  (With little or no dairy purchases in my cart).  So, 6 ticket admission passes - and $25 Fandango bucks, and $5 Safeway money - all for buying dairy products I'd use anyway.  (Not to mention all this money spent going to gas rewards, saving us over $50 in the last six weeks at the gas station....).

You'd think this would be it, but on Monday, I went to Cinemark to purchase the advance tickets for 11 of us to see "Spiderman".  I had passes for 7 tickets, but the gal opted to give me the full value of the "Dairy Deal", so I walked away with 11 tickets for free....as well as one of my "Dairy Deal" passes back as she didn't even have to use it.  Are you kidding me?  Needless to say, we made it clear to the whole family that this movie was on us!

That's it....not quite TLC channel worthy, but very cool for me!