Thursday, May 21, 2015

Book signing

I love going to book signings and meeting authors. 
Maggie Steifvater has been to Utah a few times but every time there was a reason I couldn't get to the signing. So when I found out she would be here with Jackson Pearce for their new book "Pip Bartlett's  Guide to Magical Creatures" I knew that I wanted to go and to take the girls with me. 
We had a lot of fun. 
There were crafts set up in the back of the room so they were able to make unicorn horns and various other beasties while we waited for it to start.


Then the two authors came out. 
If you ever have a chance to go to an event with these two ladies... do it. 
They were both hilarious. 
It was highly entertaining and really fun. 


They talked a bit about themselves, their books, and then how they met. 
They talked about the book they worked on together and then they told the kids that they were going to help come up with a mythical animal. 
Then they asked the kids for ideas and Maggie drew the animal as everyone shouted out things that it needed to have. 




The final product was the Provo Sock Hop. A beastie that eats socks. 


Afterward they went into another room to sign books. Abi and Maddy wanted to dance in the ballroom for a few minutes. 


We bought their new book there to have them sign. 
But we also brought along two of Maggie's books. 
I let Abi give her the 2nd in the Spirit Animals series.



I handed Maggie Raven Boys. 
They were both so nice and the girls really had a good experience. 




We had such a great time. 
Our drive home was another matter. 
It was raining quite hard. 
We were driving around an area on the freeway that was under construction and is always quite busy. There were other cars and semi's everywhere and with how hard the rain was coming down I already felt anxious. 
Then my windshield wiper broke. 
In half. 
It was the wiper on the driver's side but when it broke it blocked the other one too so I was without wipers. 
And within seconds I could not see out the window at all. 
I knew there was construction to my right and a semi to my left and all I could do was try to look out the bottom of the window to see the lines and try to stay in them. I slowed down as much as I could without someone running in to me. 
I told Abi to pray and she started praying like crazy. 
I rolled down my window to try to use my arm to wipe it but since we were in the van it was too far away for me to reach. 
Then all of a sudden there was a loud creaking noise and the wipers started going again. 
I still couldn't see out of my side but I could lean over as far as I could to the passenger side and see out. 
I got off the first exit that I could and took the back roads the rest of the way home since it was pretty hard to drive that way. 
But we made it home safe. 

5 comments:

Holly said...

The book signing sounds like fun! I'm so glad you made it home okay in the rain. That's the worst. I've been in several rain storms that were strong enough that even at the fastest setting the wipers couldn't keep up. I thought it was hard to drive then, but at least the wipers did what they could. I can't imagine having them gone too! Scary!

The Kings said...

So glad you had fun with the girls at the signing...and soooooo glad you got home safely!!

Cheryl said...

It was SO scary Holly. But thank goodness it turned out okay!
It was a lot of fun to go to the signing so I am glad we went.

Donna said...

That's one of my big fears, of getting stuck in a storm like that and having the wipers stop working! It happened to me once in high-school and it was scary. It makes you realize how important a simple thing like windshield wipers is. At least the book signing was totally worth it, right?

Cheryl said...

Exactly. I definitely appreciate those wipers more now!
And the book signing was so worth it.