This year, the whole family got to go on Thursday! We headed down around 7:30 and parked in our spot at Liberty Station. Hopped on the shuttle, got there a little after the doors had opened. Jer and the kids headed up to get a seat in Room 6BCD. I took Brody to the Sails Pavillion to get his badge. Luckily, the room didn't fill up and we got great seats. Then we sat through a boring Bladerunner video game panel. But I did go to the bathroom and got this cool toilet seat cover-
After the Bladerunner panel, it was time for the 10th Anniversary Star Wars the Clone Wars Panel.
It was so fun to see the gang back together and to re-visit the series we love so much!
Then they dropped a huge bomb on us at the end with a trailer for the continuation of the series!!! We lost our minds! So excited! The Clone Wars Saved!!!
We got these cool posters as a special gift for attending the panel...
So our day started off awesome! After the Clone Wars panel, we headed out to the steps to enjoy the sun, fresh air and lunch. Then we headed in to the Exhibit Hall...
Luke & Brody had a successful visit to the Lego Shop...
The Star Wars Pavillion was packed as usual and I wanted to buy everything in site! But I settled on a new Clone Wars sweatshirt.
Thursday is such a better day to get through the hall. Way less crowded.
This year, I signed up for some exclusives. We got to stop at Toddland and pick them up!
Gav was stoked about his Superman comic find...
Jeremy and Cali loved their Toddland exclusive prizes! Bob's uniform and Louise's bunny ears! Finally!
Brody showing off his lego purchase...
After seeing all we wanted to in the Exhibit Hall, we walked down to the Hyatt to get in line for the Her Universe Fashion Show. Once we had our spot in line, I ran to Seaport Village and got everyone dinner. We ate a yummy dinner while waiting and Cali won case for her camera!
Then we got to see the show!
As always, it was amazing to see all the creative outfits. And Ashley was wearing a Nightmare Before Christmas Dress made out of Jack Funko Pops!
These were some of my favorite ones...
And this "Shape of Water" dress was the winner!
The kids got to say hi to Ashley after the show...
She couldn't believe how big they have gotten...
And Gav couldn't wait to tell her that he works at Hot Topic now.
She is so sweet and I love how she takes the time to make us feel special!
It was 9:00 PM and we were pooped! I love watching my kids hang out together. And seeing these 2 hold hands, melts my heart.
We were beat, but we loved having this family day! Day 1 was a success!
Friday - Day 2!
Just me and the boys! Friday was kind of nerve racking! We had to get up early, which was hard, because we were so tired from the day before. But it had to be done. After last year's wristband fiasco, there was no way Gavin was going to miss the Saturday morning WB/DC Hall H panel. He wanted to be in line by 7:30 AM at the latest. So, we did. I got us to the convention center by 7:30. We walked Gavin to the "next day" Hall H line and got him settled. Then Luke and Brody joined me on the walk to the front of the convention center. We really wanted to make it into The Teen Titans Movie screening, but it was a drawing. We had never done one of those before, but we knew we needed to get in line early. Only problem was, they did not want to let us in the building before 9. There was a huge line to get in and we did not want to be in that line. So, I cheated. Yep! I hate to break rules, but I felt this was needed. They were only letting in those people who needed to pick up their badges. I took Brody's child badge, put it in my backpack, told the door monitors that we needed to pick up a child badge for him, and they let us in! We went right up to the Sails Pavillion, bypassed the badge pick up line, and got in line for the drawing! It worked! I felt bad, but only a little. So then, we waited for almost 2 hours before getting to the drawing.
These drawings are crazy! When you finally get up to the drawing spot, you reach in and pull out a ticket. If it has a stamp on it, you get 2 tickets to the screening. If no stamp, you don't get anything, but you can get back in the line at the back, and keep trying until you win! So, we were a little worried. Brody drew first and got a ticket with a stamp! So he was able to get tickets for him and Luke. Both Luke and I drew blank tickets. So, we decided to head to the back of the line and draw again to see if I could win. The line had gone way down, and we got back up to the drawing point pretty quickly. Luke drew, but it was blank. I drew and got a stamp, but it was only for 2 standby tickets. Because they had given away all the tickets for the showing. But they were giving away standbys in case someone didn't show up. When I went to get my standby tickets, I told the lady I only needed one. She told me that they had an extra regular ticket and that I could have it! I was stoked! It wasn't in the same row as them, but we all got to go together! We were pumped!
The screening was held at the Horton Grand Theater in the Gaslamp. The whole cast came out, as well as, the Director of Animation for WB and the creators to introduce the movie...
The movie was hilarious! We loved it! After the movie, they took us all next door the the Horton Grand Hotel for a Party!!!!
It was awesome! We got popcorn and ice cream. We got some fun photo ops and even got to chat with the creators for a bit.
We felt so VIP! As we were leaving, this guy showed up! Greg Cipes! The voice of Beast Boy! He came right up to us and asked us how we liked the movie and then gave us goodie bags! Well, the boys got goodie bags, I got a little action figure...
We had such a fun experience and the boys loved their swag! Such a great morning at the Con!
After our fun outing, we went to check on Gavin in the Hall H line. He had made friends with his line neighbors and was doing just fine. We told him all about our morning so far and sat and ate lunch with him. Then he ran to do some stuff tha the wanted to do, while Luke, Brody and I held our spot. Here was our view...not bad...
When Gav came back, I told him to take his bros and try to get into the Sony & Venom panels in Hall H. So he did and they got in! They had a blast in the Transformers and Venom Panels! They came back wearing their Venom swag and showing off the cool posters they got from the Transformers and Spiderman panels. I enjoyed the afternoon chatting it up with our line buddies and just relaxing.
We got dinner from our favorite bait shop and settled in for the stressful night of hoping to get wristbands...
Wristband distribution went so smooth this year! It started at 7:00 and we had ours by 8:30. It took another couple of hours before we were pushed up to the spot where we would be sleeping. We ended up on the sidewalk outside the Hilton Bayfront. Our spot was right under a street lamp and in the culdesac where the shuttles turn around...all night.
I did not sleep. I got the boys all comfy and they slept well. I guess I was so busy making sure I had everything for them, I forgot about me. I had no blanket or pillow. I tried snuggling up to Brody, but it didn't work. It was pretty awful. Plus, the shuttles turning around all night didn't help. But, then at 6:30 AM, Security came and woke us up. We got ourselves up, emptied our bladders, brushed our teeth and put deoderant on. By 8:00 AM, we were moved up to the tents! So worth it!
Day 3 - Saturday
So, by 8, we were in the tents. I ran our overnight bags to bag check and we settled in for another little wait. Our cute line buddy was pretty stoked too!
Brody did great all night and could not wait for his first Saturday Hall H panel!!!
We made it in around 9:30 and got our seats...
When we walked in, they gave us all these clear wristbands and told us to put them on. When WB started the panel, they all lit up! The curtains opened and I had chills and tears!!!
First up-
The whole cast was there and everyone was so excited to hear from "Hot Dumbledore"-
Then the lights went out! Our wristbands started to glow again and then Grindelwald himself appeared! (Johnny Depp)
It was so cool!
Next up -
Then-
And then DC!
Shazam Baby!
And we finished off with-
OH MY GOSH!
It was INCREDIBLE! All of it! The panels were so fun and the footage we got made the all night sleepover worth it! Kind of (I did tell the boys that I'm never staying over again.)
And then we were pooped! I tried getting them to want to do more, but they were done. We did wall over to the Marriott and tried to get into the Nintendo Gaming Lounge, but it was packed. So we got a little cool treat and headed home.
It was such a great Con! So great, that I think if it happens to be our last one, that's ok.
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