a night at the Drive In

July tends to be my "stir crazy" month and I usually come up with a random thing to do in the dead heat of the month. 2 years ago it was a bonfire. Yes, a bonfire, in Mississippi, in July. I must have been insane..... Last year we took a day trip to Dunns Falls. Which was about as lame as you could get. We all died of heat and Lee still teases me about that miserable trip.

I was trying to redeem myself and while searching for things to do around here, I found a local drive-in. I'd never been to a drive-in, but always wanted to. Lee had been as a kid and remembered loving it. It was only 30 minutes away and the kids admission was free (ages 5 and under are free). It was also a double feature. They showed Zookeeper and Cars 2. What a great family night activity! Everyone got in their pajamas, we loaded pillows and blankets and took off.

We laughed as we drove there because if we didn't have directions and a GPS we would've been sure we were lost. It was certainly "out there!" But it was easy to find. What a neat place!

We loaded up on snacks from the concession stand. Lee got ice cream (of course), I got a funnel cake (it wasn't very good) and Amy got cotton candy.

Will enjoyed the snack I brought for him.... he was so cute "reading" the box

Thank goodness we have the van! We let them crawl all over and play in the back. They loved this! Will kept putting things in all the cup holders.

Just being goofy....

I didn't think she would, but she ate this entire thing of cotton candy. Afterwards, she was WIRED.

Lee was outside, making faces at them.

It was a lot of fun. Since the movie doesn't start until it's dark, Zookeeper didn't start until 8:30pm. Both kids are usually in bed by then, so I wasn't sure if they would last. Will fell asleep towards the end, but Amy watched the whole thing. At one point, she exclaimed, "This is SO cool!!" It was cute. The sound was piped through a local radio station, so you could hear it really well through the car speakers. Cars 2 started around 11, but we only made it until 11:30. By now Amy was overly exhausted, but wouldn't stop watching. She fell asleep about 5 minutes down the road!

It really was a lot of fun! It's open year round, so we'll be excited to go when it gets darker a little sooner. We sat with the a/c on the entire time, but most people were sitting outside in the hot, muggy weather. How miserable that would be! But it was such a deal! WAAAAY cheaper than the regular movies, including buying snacks! (Which we wanted to support since that's how they make their money to stay open).

We are loving all this fun stuff in Tennessee!!