Hunger Game Sunday

Like many people this weekend, with or without teenagers, we went to see the Hunger Games.  We waited until Sunday to do so because we weren't supper excited about staying up 'til the wee hours on Friday morning and because we wanted to take Lena with us, which ended up meaning Sunday, particularly if we wanted to make a day of it, which we did.  It was a fun day, too.

We started off picking Lena up at 10:30 and going to Sky High for a couple of hours.

The girls jumped lots, of course, but they also took a break to rest their backs.

It wasn't overly busy, but there was a pack of teenage girls running laps around the trampolines, making it kind of difficult for Davan and Lena to do their long tumbling runs.  They still managed to have fun, though, and need tons of water.

We then went to Red Robin for lunch.  Lena hasn't been to one and we all need that American bottomless fries experience, no?  The girls were impressed with the fancy napkin Red Robin had.

It was a hit, although Lena thought there was a little too much salad with the Keep it Simple burger with a bocca patty that the girls both got.  She ended up pulling it out and eating it separately.  :)  A couple extra baskets of fries were requested.  It seemed to be a hit.

We took Ranger with us because we had times where we could walk her and it would have been a long day home alone for her.  Anthony and I each took her out for a walk while the girls jumped at Sky High, but she was still anxious to go out again after lunch.

We got to the theater with time to spare and there was no line, so we traded in our printout (we'd bought in advance just in case) for tickets then took Ranger for short walk.

Meanwhile, the girls found ways to entertain themselves.

We went in about a half an hour early to make sure we got seats.

It was a good think we did, too, because, while it didn't sell out, it was pretty packed by the time the movie started and late comers had to make due with not overly great seats.

We very rarely go to the theater for movies, so it was an experience for us.  Actually, we used to go all the time.  Before Davan was born, going to the movies was a regular weekend activity for Anthony and I.  Then we got out of the habit.  And then we found we were getting more and more picky about what movies we wanted to see.  Not to mention the fact that free from the library or cheap rentals with the ability to pause the movie sounded better and better and you end up with the reality that the last time we were at a movie theater was just over a year ago and I think it'd been an even longer stretch before the time previous to that.

So, did we enjoy our theater experience?  Yes, yes we did, but we won't be making it a habit.  It was fun to be in a crowd of people who were all excited to watch the movie.  It was interesting to see how many people needed to have electronic entertainment while waiting for the movie to start.  Most were playing games or maybe texting, but there was one teen girl who was actually watching a movie on her small device with ear buds in while waiting.

And we enjoyed it because we did like the movie.  There was some camera work particularly in the beginning that made both Anthony and I worry about how it would go, but, after that, I really only noticed the odd camera work during the fight scenes, when it was used to disguise a bit what what happening.  All four of us thought it was a pretty good interpretation of the book.  We heard someone say before the movie started that it was better than the book, but I would not agree with that, even though I thought it was good.

What we didn't like?  Well, it does add up to pay for four people to go when we are used to free movies.  I'd rather spend my entertainment money on live entertainment for the most part.  And, not surprisingly for me, I did need to use the bathroom in the middle of the two and a half hour movie, so I missed a bit for that.

Over all, we had a fun day, particularly for the girls who got to jump rather than watch people jump.  :)