I mentioned in my previous post that we had another memorable experience during our vacation week at the land. We discovered there was a drive-in movie theater about an hour from our land. That became our memorable, in a positive way, experience. I realize in our life that I need to clarify that memorable isn't always a good thing.
Now we've attempted a family movie once before, when it was sponsored by Variety as a sensory-friendly family show. We knew we wouldn't be judged if we had to walk Teddy in and out of the theater or if he was loud or otherwise disruptive. It was an OK experience, although Dave spent the vast majority of the movie walking through the lobby with Teddy as he had no interest in staying in the theater. That's similar to other movies he's attended for school field trips. We typically see 5-10 minutes total of the movie (broken up into very small segments).
The gates for the drive-in opened at 7, and we arrived at 7:15 or so. There was already a number of vehicles there, so we claimed our parking spot. That's when Dave looked up the theater on Facebook and realized that shows start at dusk, around 9 p.m. Now, that's obvious in hindsight, but it's been a long time since I've been to a drive-in theater (like a couple decades), and Dave has never been. So we had nearly 2 hours of time to entertain Teddy before the movie even started.
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| This was how Teddy enjoyed part of the wait ... and the movie. |
However, we were able to do that easily between playing in the Tahoe, literally running around the field/parking lot and taking multiple stroller rides to check out everyone else. There were, of course, a few moments I looked like a crazy person when Teddy was pushing his own chair and then abandoned it to sprint in a different direction. But, all in all, the wait was enjoyable.
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| Mother Nature gave us a beautiful show before Peter Rabbit 2. |
We were very fortunate to attend during a community event night where not only was the show free, but we also got a voucher for concessions. So we had a plethora of food, which was also a good form of entertainment.
Teddy watched most of the movie from his chair while munching on popcorn. He even chose to sit on the blanket by me for about 5 minutes before he decided to move to a different spot. He spent part of the movie watching from the Tahoe, sticking his head out the top. And we spent just a bit walking in his chair while listening to Peter Rabbit 2.
This was the first time our entire family actually watched the majority of a movie together at any sort of theater event. It was the perfect way to watch a movie with Teddy, as we all enjoyed ourselves. Even though the movie ended at nearly 10:30, Teddy spent the first 10 minutes of the drive back to our land giggling and bouncing because he had such a great time. Then he fell asleep without a peep and slept until we got back at 11:30 p.m. Dave carried him inside, we gave him his final medicine and he slept through until 5:48 a.m. So, I mean, he slept in about 5 minutes for staying up so late.
It was such a good experience that Dave has already scoped out drive-in theaters near our house. There's two of them, so we'll likely try another family movie this summer near home. Dave's already joked that we'd ask our adopted daughters to join us. (And Dave's folks for the drive-in that's between our houses. The more the merrier to wrangle Teddy if needed.)
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