Summer Fun ~ A Two Dollar Date with Movie and Ice Cream ~ For the momma's and dad's!

GUEST POST :)
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                                                   (image via bentnorthrop.org)

One thing my wife and I have learned since having a baby is that going on dates becomes much more difficult with a child.  That said, there was a very enjoyable date we went on about a week ago that I thought I'd share with you.

Ice cream at Macey's, movie at BYU

To sum up our date, we basically walked down to Macey's (a grocery store in Provo) and bought some soft serve ice cream and then walked to BYU to watch a movie in their viewing rooms (basically private theaters you can rent for free).  

Going to Macey's for ice cream

The cool thing about Maceys is they give you huge cones for a great price.  For example, for about 50 cents you can get a normal sized ice cream cone and for about 2 dollars you can get an enormous soft serve ice cream/frozen yogurt cone (about 2 feet tall). If Maceys isn't in your neighborhood, you may be able to buy inexpensive ice cream at your local grocery store.

After getting the ice cream we walked to the BYU library (maybe half a mile from Maceys).  

We both got baby cones, which lasted us most of the walk to campus.   We've found that dates that including walking or jogging with our baby in our jogging stroller are much more enjoyable for our baby boy and often put him to sleep.  Conversely, our son often complains when we drive to places in a vehicle. Walking's a great way to save money, have time to talk and keep little children happy.

Watching a movie at BYU

For those not familiar with BYU- Provo, there is a media lab up one floor (on the 4th floor) where students and faculty can rent movies for free and watch them in free viewing rooms (small rooms with comfortable seating and enormous flat screen TVs.  

A tip for people who are not currently in college: Even those who are not BYU students can rent movies and watch them for free by becoming a "Friend of the Harold B. Lee Library."  I assume other college libraries offer similar services to the public. To become a friend of the library all it requires is an annual donation of $50 or more.  This not only gives you access to free movies and personal theaters  but books, computers, video cameras/equipment and a recording studio.

 

Don't forget to check out your local public libraries!

 

All in all this date cost us about two dollars.  

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This is a guest post by Alex Balinski.  Alex is from Concord, NH and is finishing his Communications degree at BYU.  He is currently working to create an online resource with 1,000s of educational travel and mission prep videos for future LDS missionaries at www.preparetoserve.com(hyperlink).  If you know anyone with a mission call, feel free to contact Alex through the contact page on Prepare to Serve and he'll try to put up more videos about the place they're called to serve in.