We have had one amazingly exciting weekend! I thought about catching up on posts in order of importance, but then I decided to do them chronologically. So…Thursday, September 25, we were able to attend the premiere of “Forever Strong.” You may remember from previous posts that Ryan has been waiting on pins and needles for this day. Marc was able to get us four tickets to the premiere. Ryan thought it was SO cool that we actually got to walk down the red carpet into the theater!
Allow me to “name drop” for a moment. Coach Larry Gelwix and Gary Cole who played him, were in the lobby being interviewed as we entered, as were the director, producer, composer, etc. Marc grabbed whoever he could find to introduce us. He had previously given Ryan a mini rugby ball which was signed by several players and actors from the film. We had everyone we met sign it. Marc also gave Ryan a full-size rugby ball with “Forever Strong” on it. He toted both of them around all night. And, yes, he even slept with them.
We walked into the theater with Elder Russell M. Nelson and his family. There were only about a dozen people in the theater when we went in, and the Nelsons were about five rows behind us. After we all got settled, Ryan wanted to go up and talk with him. Elder Nelson was so cute with Ryan, asking him his name and a little bit about himself. Ryan was proud to tell him that we were there because his uncle had worked on the film.A few minutes later, Sheri Dew came in and sat a few rows behind the Nelsons. By this time, the theater was really filling up. She had a crowd of people around her, as did the Nelsons by this point.
The movie was great, but you all already know how much we love it. Interestingly, we’ve noticed that it has received great reviews in Utah, but marginal reviews in the rest of the country. We decided that Utah must appreciate good “moral of the story” films more. It would be a great film for older kids and teenagers to see. We didn’t realize until we were sitting in the theater that it was PG-13. Oh well. Ryan has already seen it enough that he can almost recite it word for word. And we’ve talked about a lot of the elements that made it PG-13.
As we were leaving the theater, we were near Carole Mikita. I have to tell you the significance of that. When we first moved back to Utah, Ryan was 3 months old. Whenever Carole came on the news, Ryan would go, “OOOOOO!” and sit mesmerized in front of the TV watching her. That continued for YEARS! No kidding…whatever he was doing, when she came on, the world stopped for him to watch her. Now it has become kind of a joke. (“Oh, look Ry! Carole’s on!”) Well, as we passed her, that little star-struck baby returned. He poked me and pointed. I asked if he wanted to go over and talk with her. He just nodded. We walked over to her, and I introduced him. I told her that he had been a fan since he was a baby, telling her how he was mesmerized whenever she came on. She thought that was great. She told him that he was welcome to come to the studio any time to watch her in a newscast. I thought he was going to faint!
As we were leaving, they had a big, long table set up with Larry Gelwix, Gary Cole, and others that had worked on the film signing posters. Ryan wanted one, but there was a line, and we were already past his bedtime. Thanks to his wonderful uncle, Ryan got signed posters without having to wait in the line.
It was such a fun evening! We were glad that Marc was able to get us in to such an amazing event!
No comments:
Post a Comment