Faith's Monumental Visit to South Dakota

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When I received my niece, Sydnee's graduation announcement in the mail, I thought it might be the perfect opportunity to visit my brother and his family for the first time at their home in Spearfish. I also thought it would be the perfect opportunity to see Mount Rushmore, which I had never seen before!  My nephew in Nebraska was graduating that same weekend, and my sister Dawn and I tried to put together a plan where we could go to both of their graduation receptions. I knew though, that Faith would feel left out and would want to go, too. I also knew it was going to be difficult to find someone to look after Faith over Memorial Day weekend.  Our finalized plan involved Dawn traveling to South Dakota with me and Faith and then her flying to Nebraska by herself. Faith and I would then drive back to Bismarck by ourselves.  3 adventurous travelers  I must admit, as the trip got closer, I started to get a little anxious about how Faith was going to do with so much drivi...
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Faith's First Night at the Movies

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When I heard that both Toy Story movies were going to be showing at a theater near us, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for Faith to make her movie theater debut. The reason we have not attempted to take her to a movie is because she is very sensitive to loudness and sudden noises cause her to startle. 

When she startles, she is not able to contain herself and her muscles tighten, she jumps, and her arms curl up toward her chest. Sometimes when she startles too much she gets upset and starts to cry. I figured, though, that since she has seen Toy Story 1 and 2 endless amounts of times at home, there wouldn't be any surprises to cause her to startle since she would know what was coming next.

Faith with some of her toys, including Woody and Buzz. (Photo taken in 2008)

We got to the movie theater fairly early thinking it would be a good idea for Faith to get used to her surroundings. When we got into the right show room, there was music playing over the speakers and immediately Faith told us she wanted to go home. Rob and I were not about to give up that easily. As we walked her around the theater we tried to tell her we were here to see Woody and Buzz Lightyear on the big, big, big screen. She seemed excited about that but not so excited about the loudness or the darkness.

Eventually, Rob went in and sat down so he could save our seats. I heard the previews to the movie start, so I wheeled Faith inside right next to Rob. She said, or rather yelled, "I want to go home!"

We were still not ready to give up. I took Faith back out and waited and waited and waited for the previews to finally be over. As soon as I heard Woody's voice, I asked Faith who that was. She knew immediately. I asked her if she wanted to go in and see Woody on the big, big, big screen and she excitedly yelled, "YES!"

I had been somewhat prepared for her to want to go home. I had also been prepared to have to do a feeding at the movie. The one thing I was not prepared for, however, was how loud Faith would become when she got excited during certain parts of the movie. 

She screamed along with Woody when he tried to tell Buzz Lightyear, "YOU ARE A TOY!" She was also yelling, "WHOOHOOO!" when Woody and Buzz were trying to make it onto the moving van. Both Rob and I tried to calm her down but really to no avail. No one around us seemed to mind, thank goodness. There was also another moment that surprised us when Al from Al's Toy Barn came on and Faith asked, "Who's that stupid man?" Rob and I just looked at each other like, where did that come from?

All in all it was a great experience for us to have a family outing at the movie theater. We hope that because of the success of this adventure, there will be more to come.

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