In which I meet Shannon Hale

Last Saturday the little boys and I embarked on a five day trip to Utah to visit Chuck's Grandma Thomas and stay with Sam and Terri. We were sad to have to leave Chuck home, but someone had to work to fund the adventure! We had lots of fun (and I took like three hundred pictures) so this is merely the first post about the trip.

After I planned what dates we would be there, the heavens smiled upon me and I read about a book signing by my current favorite author, Shannon Hale, on Saturday evening in Salt Lake. Her newest book for adults, The Actor and the Housewife, was recently released and to celebrate she spoke and signed books at a local bookstore.

Jana and Shannon, yay!
The theme of the party was 'aprons and pies' so I decided to create an apron to wear. It took all of my craftiness (which is not that much) and some paint, letter stamps, and hot glue - here's the finished product:

The boys and I drove down that day and met Sam and Terri just in time to accompany them on their last stop of the Parade of Homes Tour - see Sam's take on that here. We then headed back to Salt Lake to the bookstore. We got there at the end of her address, which meant just in time to wait an hour and a half to get my book signed. Luckily they had plenty of pie (Sam was delighted!) and Sam and Terri did a fabulous job keeping my children entertained.

Sam was in charge of the double stroller, and tried several times to test its limits.
Luckily Terri was there to ensure the boys' safety.
Then Sam found a snail, which provided almost an hour's worth of entertainment (and not only to my children, note the extra boy and girl).

We kept nonchalantly returning to the gallery next to the bookstore where they had the pie so Sam could sneak another piece (or two), and I took the opportunity to take some cute pictures of Sam, Terri, and the little boys. At one point I noticed an official sort of man behind me trying to take the same picture, so I stepped to the side. Then he said he actually wanted to take a picture of me taking a picture of them, so naturally I obliged.

(Photo courtesy of Andy Hall)
After he took the picture I decided to be brave and ask him to e-mail it to me, which he obviously did. I talked to him for a few minutes and it turns out that he's Shannon Hale's brother-in-law!

Here I am talking to him. This is also the best picture I have of me actually wearing the apron.

Finally, here is my lovely copy of the book- thanks to my mom for funding the purchase! I also picked up a copy for my sister-in-law Melissa as an early birthday present since she loves Shannon Hale as much as I do.

And here's the inscription! She liked my apron :)

So, it was definitely worth the long wait (at least for me, I won't speak for Sam and Terri since Clyde and Will got rapidly more grumpy and needy as we waited) to meet Shannon and get my book signed. She was really sweet and nice and now I love her books even more!