What I did in church today

Kimberly and I doodled during all 3 hours of church today. While paying attention to the talks and lessons, of course. Rusty contributed a few drawings during Sunday School. We traded the program back and forth until the back was covered and we couldn't squeeze any more doodles in.

Our Masterpiece:

Breaking Dawn Midnight Release Party

The long awaited day finally was here. We'd been making preparations for it like it was the end of the world. We found the best party in Northern California. We scoped out the bookstore and restaurants in the area. We designed t-shirts like we were on Project Runway. We told everyone we knew who had read the books to clear their schedules. We told everyone else to read the books by August 2nd and come with us to the party. We reserved over a dozen copies of the book for ourselves and friends. We counted down the days with quotes from the book.

BREAKING DAWN WAS FINALLY HERE!!!

Kimberly, Desirae, Eric L., Kyle, Paige, Cathy, Elizabeth, Adam, Krystal, Dana, Sam, Eric G., Justine and I all went to the Borders Bookstore in Roseville for the Breaking Dawn Midnight Release Party on August 1st because the book was going on sale at 12:01am on August 2nd. The Twilight Moms in the area put on the fabulous event. Below are a ton of pictures of our great night leading up to the purchase of Breaking Dawn. Before we left from my house several of us modeled our t-shirts we made for the t-shirt contest being held at the party.

I also just want to mention that our group included 5 guys (between the ages of 20 and 25) who have read all of the Twilight Series thus far. I'm pretty proud of that fact. It is fun talking to them and getting a guys' perspective of the whole series. A couple of them are Bella Haters. Haha!

:::click on any photo to view it larger:::

My sister Lori designed my shirt. It says: "Waiting For My Prince Charming Sexy Vampire"


Lori also designed Kimberly's shirt. It is a quote from the book Twilight. "What is tempting you more, my blood or my body?"


Desirae is a Jacob/Werewolf-lover and so her shirt says "Team Jacob" on the front, "I Want To Have Your Puppies" on the back and "108 degrees of pure hotness" on the sleeve.



Krystal's shirt has a picture of a couple penguins and a quote from the book Eclipse "Penguins. Lovely."


Kyle came up with his own saying: "I Am The Best Of Both Worlds"


Elizabeth


Adam


Dana's shirt says "Future Mrs. Cullen" on the front and "Team Edward" on the back.


Eric took a saying from the book Eclipse that says: "Take care of my heart-I've left it with you."



Paige didn't make a t-shirt but Eric was trying to make her a vampire.


Before we went to Borders for the night we ate at Costa Vida. My family loves Costa Vida's dessert ice cream bars called Longboards so much that Kimberly, Desirae and I brought a cooler with dry ice so we could buy a bunch of Longboards to take home for future enjoyment. If you ever get the opportunity to eat at Costa Vida you HAVE TO get a Longboard! You will not be disappointed!
Kimberly, Justine, Desirae, Dana and Elizabeth


Elizabeth, Me, Eric G. and Sam


The group in front of the bookstore.


On the inside of the front windows they had white poster paper hung up and supplied with black sharpie pens so fans could write a little message to Stephenie Meyer. The posters were then going to be mailed to Stephenie. Most people wrote generic and cheesy little things like "you've changed my life" and "you're amazing." I wanted to be different (like usual) so I wrote "I'm Mormon too!"


The Twilight Moms put on the event with the theme being Edward and Bella's wedding. They even had a guest book and favors.


And a wedding cake with gifts. The gifts were actually the prizes for the raffle.


Here is me posing with Robert Pattinson. I look pretty tan standing next to a vampire!


There were lots of tables piled with Twilight paraphernalia for sale. Jewelry, plaques, notebooks, greeting cards, boxes, pens, bookmarks, paintings, magnets, and much more.


There was a trivia contest where you competed against one other person and were asked either a question or given a quote from any of the first 3 books, then the first person to answer the question or say who said the quote won a either a Breaking Dawn pin or stickers and a raffle ticket.


Desirae beat me and won a pin. Lucky!


Des and I played "Bella Bingo" for a half hour but we never won. We got real close several times. We really wanted to shout "BELLA" if we got 5 in a row.


Eric L. and his mom Cathy tried the trivia contest but both of them got it wrong. Darn!


We were at Borders for 4 hours so we had a lot of time to kill. Dana and Krystal spent some of it reading a funny book.


Elizabeth, Kimberly and Justine also found an empty aisle and pumped themselves up for Breaking Dawn by reading the first chapter included in the Special Edition of Eclipse.


Everyone buying a copy of Breaking Dawn had to have a wristband. I reserved a bunch of copies for my group weeks before so we had pretty low numbers on our wristbands. (Yeah, 220 was a low number!)


Desirae and I modeling "Bella's Bracelet" that Kelsey made and gave us and a bunch of the other girls in our group who are obsessed with Twilight. We bought the cooper wolf charms online, but are probably going to get wooden wolf charms.


Me, Desirae and Kyle


Close ups of our shirts



Detail of the red ribbons laced down the sides of my shirt. Thanks to Kimberly for making that happen!


Desirae and I got in good with one of the Twilight Moms who was helping run the party. She had the coolest shirt with a collage of photos of herself and the actors from the Twilight movie. She met them down in L.A. Included are Kristen Stewart who plays Bella Swan, Robert Pattinson who plays Edward Cullen, Peter Facinelli who plays Carlisle Cullen, Nikki Reed who plays Rosalie Hale, Kellan Lutz who plays Emmett Cullen, Sarah Clarke who plays Renee, Matt Bushell who plays Phil and Director Catherine Hardwicke. That is Kellan/Emmett who is biting her neck. I am super jealous!!!


There was a box of "Alice's Predictions" where you just stuck in your hand and pulled out a slip of paper, similar to a fortune cookie. Desirae's said "Do not mistake temptation for opportunity."


Mine said "Your flair for the creative takes an important place in your life." Alice totally knows us!!!


Because Desirae is a werewolf vampires are kinda stinky to her.


Some of the group hanging out.


Desirae modeling her t-shirt for the t-shirt contest.


Eric's turn.


Kyle was really embarrassed to go up and model his t-shirt so I had to convince him everyone would love him and his shirt. They did, of course, but he wasn't happy doing it.


Kimberly working the crowd.


The five finalists chosen by the Twilight Moms. We were so excited that Eric and Desirae were in the finals! The other people's shirts were really cute too. The boy in black's shirt says "Forget Those Two Freaks Bella" on the front and "Choose Me" on the back. The boy in white's shirt says "Alice Has Seen My Future And You're In It." The girl's shirt says "I'm Hot For Jacob" on the front and "But My Heart Stops For Edward" on the back. The winners were chosen by the audience cheering for their favorites. The other 3 kids had a lot of cheers from their friends and family that were there with them, but the whole store went nuts for Eric and Desirae! You can see Des plugging her ears because it was so loud.


There was a three-way win for Eric, Desirae and the kid in black. Their prize was that they got to get in a special line for just the Twilight Moms when Breaking Dawn went on sale, therefore getting their books first.


Eric and Des showing off their award winning t-shirts.


Throughout the night everyone received raffle tickets for various things like for being there, participating in the games and activities, winning "Bella Bingo" or the trivia contests, being in the right place at the right time (that was near a particularly generous Twilight Mom). Desirae and I got a bunch from the one with the cool t-shirt because we kept talking to her and she liked us. Then at the end of the night they had a raffle with the "wedding presents." Eric won one of the 2 signed copies of Eclipse. He was super excited! I don't think his mouth can get any bigger!


Krystal won a GIANT t-shirt.


Elizabeth won her very own copy of The Host.


Desirae's copy of Breaking Dawn that she got to purchase with the Twilight Moms was all decorated up with ribbons and a rose.


Everyone with their copies of Breaking Dawn!!!


Everyone in the van reading on the way home.


I didn't read because I kept Kimberly company on the long drive home. Desirae is a very animated reader though so I had to set limitations for her and everyone else while they were reading and others weren't. They could make noises but no words. It was funny to listen to everyone (especially Desirae) comply.


I didn't start reading the book until the next day because I was too tired to stay up reading. Our YSA region had a beach trip the next day that we had to be up early for. I started reading it on the beach when we got there. A bunch of the people who went with us to the Midnight Release Party were there at the beach reading Breaking Dawn also. We got made fun of a lot by others who just don't understand.



***At the time of this post I have finished reading Breaking Dawn and am half way through it for the second time. I would encourage everyone to read the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer and would love to talk to anyone who has already read them!***