The One with The Host Book Signing with Stephenie Meyer + Actors

I've read the Twilight books. I've read The Host. I've been to a couple of Twilight-themed midnight book releases, movie watchings, and movie premiers. I'm not quite the avid fan that I used to be, but when I saw on Stephenie Meyer's blog (yup, I read her blog...) that she'd be in town for a book signing along with some of the actors from the upcoming The Host movie, I reeeeeaaalllly wanted to go! It didn't seem very feasible though because I'd have to take Fox and Jane with me and I knew it'd be a looooong day. But, I coaxed my friend Veronica into going with me, her two kids, and sister, not to mention she's 7 months pregnant, so I hoped for the best and off we went!

I hardly slept last night (see previous post... I still can't believe we're moving to Germany in 4 months!) and then my chinchilla woke me up at 5:40am. Yes, the chinchilla! She was bouncing around because one of her shelves had fallen down. So random. I was going to wake up at 6am anyway, so I just started getting ready, and was actually glad for the extra 20 minutes. 

The Grove Mall is only 15 miles away, but with LA morning traffic I was counting on it taking at least 45 minutes to an hour to get there. We (me, Fox, and Jane) left at 7am and got there at 7:30 - not too shabby! The line was already about 75 people long. Some people drove all the way from Arizona last night and camped out. We met a group of flight stewardesses that flew from HAWAII to go to this event. I sure hope they came all the way over to the mainland to do other things besides just this book signing because that's a little intense!

While waiting outside for nearly two hours, Fox needed to run around and get out some of his pent up energy (if only I could bottle an ounce of his enthusiasm!) so I snapped some pictures of pretty flowers while he ran around.

Barnes & Noble opened up at 9am and they started letting groups of about 20 people in at a time. We took advantage of the Special Events sign photo op as we inched our way towards the doors. Fox looks thrilled. We made it! This was a wristbanded event and in order to get a wristband you had to buy a The Host book. I don't own a copy, so I was happy to get one! This is the line to buy said book:

Once we had our books in hand and wristbands we headed up to the third floor where the kids area, bathroom, and cafe were - all the essentials! AND, the book signing took place on the third floor so it was a win win all around! The downtime between 9am and 2pm was what I was most worried about with Fox and Jane. What was I gonna do with them? There was this train track toy in the kids area and I KID YOU NOT Fox stayed right here and played for FOUR HOURS! He must have walked three miles running around and around and around it! Why oh why don't we have one of these at home??? Every time I went to check on him he'd say, "No! Have fun! Bye Mommy!" Whatever floats his boat! The time passed by quickly and I was in good company so it was just a fantastic time hanging out. I need not have worried all along :)

Looking down below outside, they set up for a taping of EXTRA - the girl in the blue dress is Maria Menounos (I think?)

Later Stephenie Meyer and actors Max Irons, Jake Abel, and Diane Kruger showed up. Saoirse Ronan was SUPPOSED to be there (and I'll be honest, she's what put me over the edge for actually getting the guts to go) but she missed her flight (or did she?), gosh dern it. You can kind of see them all standing under the white tent.

Zoomed in a wee bit closer. Diane Kruger is in the red skirt, Stephenie Meyer is on her right, and the boys are on her left.

Setting up for the book signing.

Jane had to take both of her naps in the Bjorn. She didn't seem to mind and woke up happy and refreshed!

At 12:30pm we lined up for the book signing. Those with gold wristbands got to go first, followed by those with blue wristbands, and then we were some of the very first ones with white wristbands.

Somehow, someway, after 7 hours of waiting, this girl still had a smile on her face. Fox was happy too. Wow!

Here they are at last!

Stephenie looked so pretty!

We weren't allowed to take pictures once we passed a certain point, so this is the best I got of Max Irons, Jake Abel, and Diane Kruger.

Here I am showing off my kids - everyone's looking at them, Stephenie included! I told her Jane is her youngest fan :) PS - I'm wearing the free The Host t-shirt that we got for being amongst the first in line.

And, at the end of the day, I have a signed The Host book by Stephenie Meyer herself and a wonderful day of memories!
I can't wait to go see the movie in two weeks!