The weekend of September 20th hubby and I attended a convention for our favorite show: Supernatural! I know I’ve blogged about how amazing this show is multiple times, so it should be no surprise that we finally decided to go to a con.
The convention was in Dallas, which is about a 4 hour drive from Houston. We drove up Friday evening and I only bought us general admission for Saturday and Sunday. The con really started on Friday, and there were plenty of people who shelled out all the money to get the Gold seats. Sure, the Gold package sounds awesome – great seats, extra autographs, and a special more intimate panel. What I really wanted was a photo with the boys, especially with my boyfriend Jensen Ackles. I mean seriously, that man is gorgeous, and is my #1 celeb crush. So way back when I first found out about these conventions put on by Creation Entertainment and learned of the scheduled dates for the con in Dallas, I went ahead and bought a duo photo opp with Jared and Jensen (Sam and Dean from the show). I bought this while hubby was still on deployment, ages ago it seems now. This was before we moved, before I got pregnant, before everything got a little more complicated. So as the timing worked out, I got to take the photo while 7 months pregnant. No big deal, just a little extra bump in the photo heh. I bought the general admission passes when they started selling them and reserved our hotel rooms at the Westin, but this was at a much later time than when the photo opp first started selling. I wasn’t about to let the photo sell out and miss our chance. Much much later Creation added a Houston stop on the convention tour, for the first time in 10 years! I had already bought the Dallas con, and we decided it still made more sense to go up to Dallas in September while 7 months pregnant, than to try to sell our tickets and buy the Houston ones instead for January, when we had a 2 month old.
So we had a little Dallas weekend adventure. This was actually our very first time in Dallas, but we didn’t really explore any sights there. Another time Dallas, sorry. We got up there Friday evening, and while I really wanted to check out the Karaoke Kings since everyone says how fun it is, this prego girl just needed to go to sleep. Maybe if I wasn’t pregnant and didn’t have to work that day and then have a 4 hour drive I would have been up for it, but I could barely keep my eyes open.
We bought a few souvenirs in the vendor room prior to the panels starting. I bought a book (which I’m holding in the photo with the cardboard cut out Sam and Dean) with lots and lots of photos and tidbits about the show and the making of. Hubby bought a coffee thermos that says “Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole.” Yea, pretty awesome. Saturday panels included some fun from the host Richard Speight, Jr. (Gabriel/Trickster) who ran up and down the audience and I got to high five him since I was sitting in an aisle seat at the time. There was a panel with Jim Beaver (Bobby) and Kim Rhodes (Sheriff Jody Mills). Osric Chau (Kevin Tran) had a panel where he was dressed normally (apparently he likes to cosplay at every convention – and he did dress up later). Then Mark Sheppard (Crowley) took the stage, and really, he didn’t stay up on the stage. His panel was probably my favorite (you know, not counting J&J) because he walked around the audience and joked and poked fun at people, especially those dressed up as Castiel. Gil McKinney (Henry Winchester) was another favorite because I didn’t realize how talented this man is. He is a great singer and even sang a song from Les Miserables, in the middle of his panel, because someone asked about it. He sang “Empty chairs at empty tables”. I’m sure if I had attended the Karaoke Kings I would have known of his singing ability, but alas, I did not. Also, this was my first con and a lot of people go every year it seems and know all about these guys. Later there was a panel with the goofy Richard Speight, Jr. (Trickster), Matt Cohen (Young John Winchester) and Rob Benedict (Chuck Shurley/Carver Edlund. That was followed by the last panel of the day, Misha Collins (Castiel). Another important character had an appearance on Saturday as well – the Impala! Yep, I took some photos with it. Sunday they actually opened up the trunk so I had to take another pic. That was awesome. Saturday was a full and fun day for sure.
This funny sign was outside the theater/panel room. Creation has a fun sense of humor. Also the stars kept commenting on how long the panel room was. I’m starting to think Dallas is their biggest turnout on this tour. Go Texas! We love to bring the boys home.
Sunday was the (THE) day. The day I finally got to (for like 15 seconds) meet the boys for our photo opp. The photo opp was first for us, then their panel was later in the day. There were private meet and greets going on too, but I didn’t shell out the bucks for those. Kinda wish I had though heh. I need a bigger budget for these things. Anyway, the line for the photo was moving so fast that it was obvious we’d only get seconds with Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. When it was our turn I quickly went and hugged them both (!!! Yes I hugged them OMG!) and hubby shook their hands, then we took the fastest photo ever and it was over. $250 for 15 seconds with them. With each photo you’re allowed an additional family member with you, so this turned into a really nice family photo, bump and all. The helper in line commented on my fan in training. 🙂 I was nice and decided to allow hubby to take the photo with me lol. I had originally considered getting my sandwich photo with them hehe. Either way I told hubby to stand next to Moose (Jared, and his 6 foot infinity) and I of course stood next to Jensen – he’s mine, after all. I mean, look at that amazing photo. First of all, the photographer is amazing. One click and he captured me looking my very best and hubby too. No one blinked, smiles were awesome, and Jensen even leaned down into me. Squeeee! He’s the same height as hubby so if he stood up straight I’d be a midget in that photo with all these men over 6 foot tall. I considered asking for a chair to stand on lol. Anyway, I got my snuggle with Jensen and all is well in the world.
Then the afternoon panels got going. First we saw Tahmoh Penikett (Gadreel) and he was really cool to get to hear. I didn’t realize he played the FBI agent on Dollhouse too. Very cool. Then the headliners Jensen Ackles (Dean) and Jared Padalecki (Sam) took the stage, and that was just the most awesome thing ever. I loved hearing them joke with each other and entertain silly fan questions. At one point someone asked them what their favorite monster was and what their favorite way to kill them was – and Jared just had to be crazy sweet and said he married his favorite monster (Ruby) and his favorite way to kill was to give her children. OMG! Then he mentioned she was backstage and we all went nuts chanting her name and so she came out for like two seconds to say hi and gave Jared a kiss. So sweet. Jensen answered a question by giving a slight spoiler about the duration of Demon Dean in this upcoming season, so that was kind of cool too. The season starts Oct 7 and I can’t wait to start watching it again. Jensen and Jared must have mentioned in their special Gold panel earlier that they moved to Austin and bought neighboring houses, so now they don’t need a phone. Yes, they have become bffs because of this awesome show and their wives and babies hang out. Guess maybe I need to make more trips to Austin… and be on the lookout for sightings hehe. Jensen was asked what his first car was, since Dean has “baby” the Impala. He said it was his mom’s Nissan Pathfinder, and that is the car he packed up when he moved from Dallas to Hollywood. [And as an aside, I had to get some car repairs done and I had to get a rental. Well they were out of smaller cars that day so they gave me a Nissan Pathfinder, and for a moment I felt a special connection to Jensen.] Anyway, when the band was transitioning the end of the panel, Jensen got up and sang with the band for a moment. OMG I love his voice. Seriously, that man is perfection. Later there was a panel with Jim Beaver (Bobby Singer), Misha Collins (Castiel) & Mark Sheppard (Crowley), but at that point everyone was just being silly and goofy and Mark just walked around the audience and ignored Misha and so Jim and Misha were answering fan questions while Mark antagonized them from the crowd. Silly guys. Right after that panel the photos were available (which was awesome, because we were told they wouldn’t be ready until 9pm, and this was only 7pm – we were prepared to wait, and get back to Houston at a ridiculous hour and then have to go to work the next day). The photo turned out amazing. Just amazing, and we paid for a JPG to be emailed to us and got on the road back home. We got in around 11pm, so not too late, but Monday morning was sleepy. What an amazing weekend though!
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Shelly Aristizabal says
Sounds like you really enjoyed yourself!!
Deborah from Mommy Crusader says
I love the cute baby bump in your photo op! What a fun adventure to have just before the baby came. I found your blog through your 2014 best posts post. 🙂
Julie says
Thanks 🙂 I liked having the fan in training in the photo.
Angel says
Sounds like you had a great time!! Thanks for joining #throwbackthursday !
Tanya @ Mom's Small Victories says
Yes, Jensen is very celeb-crush-worthy. I haven’t seen Supernatural and I can’t even remember now what show I have seen him on before that. Maybe Smallville? I’m getting too old, bad memory 🙂
Thanks for sharing with our #throwbackthursdaylinkup! Hope you join us again this week.
Julie says
I never actually watched Smallville but yea he was on that for a season. Did you watch Dark Angel? He was on that too.
J @ Bless Her Heart Y'all says
That sounds like so much fun! It must have been a BIIIIG turnout! I love that you had a fan in training! That’s so cute. I don’t blame you for not shelling out major $ for everything. Now that you know more about the convention, you can feel better about spending more $ on it if you want in the future. I love the thermos your hubby picked up. Super cool. Thanks so much for stopping in and linking up with Celebrate Southern link up today. I hope to see you back there next week dear!
Julie says
Thanks 🙂 It sounds like they might move it from the hotel to a convention center for next year. But maybe they’ll start coming to Houston regularly and I won’t have to travel far heh.
Tiffany Khyla says
There are no words for how jealous I am. I’m obsessed with Supernatural, and didn’t find out about DallasCon until the day after it happened. I so would have gone! Ugh! If you know of any more Supernatural appearances, holla atcha girl. Haha. I’m glad you had a fun time!
Julie says
They’re coming to Houston in January. Don’t know if that is too far from you though. Follow http://www.creationent.com/ for details 🙂
Tiffany Khyla says
You’re the best! My boyfriend and my 4-year anniversary is coming up, and this would be the best gift! Thanks so much!
Julie says
I’d love to hear about how much fun you had if you end up going 🙂
Julie says
I really like your link up idea 🙂
It was a HUGE turnout. I was surprised though when they said it was the longest room they’d been in. I figured they visit other very populated areas so should get huge turnouts there too. But Texas loves their boys heh.
Erika says
OMG That’s awesome!! I would have loved to see them! I love Dean/Jensen so much! haha 🙂
xx-Erika
http://whaterikawears.com/
Julie says
I know they do various locations so check out Creation Entertainment’s website to see if they are gonna be near you 🙂 Cause you should always have the chance to meet Jensen 🙂
Angela says
Sounds like you had a great time. My son would have LOVED this, he is a huge SuperNatural fan.
Julie says
Take him to the one in Houston in January!! http://www.creationent.com/cal/supernatural_houston.htm
Nicole says
How fun! I love Supernatural and I have no one to talk to about it because no one close to me is a fan of the show. I’m not-so-patiently waiting on the 9th season DVD to be released…
Julie says
The fandom online is awesome 🙂 Just tweet with #Supernatural and see all the cool people you find 🙂 Seriously though, I can’t wait until Tuesday!
Dee says
Sounds super duper fun! Glad you got to stand next to your boyfriend!! [He is definitely very, very cute!]
Erica @ The Crumby Cupcake says
Awww yayyy SN! I adore that show – I’m super far behind, but I love every episode I’ve seen. I would love to meet Misha, but Jensen(!) and Jared are amazing! You look SO happy in that photo! Glad you had fun. <3
Julie says
Yay, nice to meet another fan 🙂 Hope you catch up soon cause this season sounds like it will be intense. Keep an eye out on the Creation Entertainment schedule, maybe you’ll get to attend an event at one point. Great fun!
Lysha @ Magnolia Mom says
Looks like y’all had lots of fun! LOVE me some Dallas.
Julie says
One of these days we’ll have to visit Dallas and actually see some of Dallas. We didn’t see go farther than a block away from the hotel heh.
Valerie Darling says
OH man! My boyfriend is a big Supernatural fan! So much so that he got me into watching all of it. I’m currently on Season 5. But I wish I had known about this! We would have roadtripped up and taken pictures with them. And yes, I agree that Jensen is sooo gorgeous!
Julie says
Well if you don’t mind a road trip to Houston they’re coming in January! http://www.creationent.com/cal/supernatural_houston.htm