Young House Love meets the Wright girls!

Today was a very special day. Just over a month ago, the bloggers of Young House Love announced their book tour. Katie saw it as soon as the post was up and asked Mom and I to come with her to the Chicago signing. We love adventures, meeting authors, and spending time together, so the chance to meet $her Dog and J Boom (Sherry and John) was the perfect way to celebrate Bethie's birthday!

We stayed just out the city the night before so we could wake up early and get in line. I met the Pioneer Woman last Spring at her book signing and ended up waiting for hours upon hours in the aisles of a Kroger. This time we wanted to be as close to the front of the line as we could get. Our car pulled into the parking lot just after 7 to find only two people in tailgating chairs waiting by the door.

Numbers 3, 4 and 5 in line affectionately became our pseudo-names for the next few hours. A half hour later a pair of sisters showed up to take spots 6 and 7. From that point on numbers 1-7 were friends and saved each other's spots in line when we had to leave for coffee, bathroom, shopping and lunch breaks. We waited outside for three hours and thankfully it was great weather. Caffeine and bagel seeds held us over until the store opened.

Here's number 1-10 while we were still waiting on the sidewalk. West Elm employees came outside a few times to take our picture for their Facebook and Instagram too.

At 10:00 a line leader opened the doors and led us into the store for our new spots by the signing table. Now we could sit on the floor rather than the cement sidewalk. We saved one another's spots and took turns looking all over the store. 

I recognized all the ceramic animals in the store because they're one of $her Dog's signature favorite things. Rather than buy one of their books to have her sign I picked out a pair of ceramic owls to sign instead. This fireplace turned book shelf was Katie's favorite part of the whole store.

It was so fun to be with all these other Young House Love fans and flipping through the pages of the book. We all know about how they built their wall length office desk and how long they searched for a giant round dining room table. We know all the details of their old house and know about their daughter Clara and dog Burger. We know about other blogs and make suggestions and it's just this happy blogging community.

We were so excited while we waited in line I never got bored. We were following @younghouselove and saw them in front of the Chicago bean and read their tweets about when they would arrive.

While we waited Katie and I practiced what it would be like to be the ones giving out autographs.

About an hour before the event began West Elm brought out little cups of hot chocolate topped with whip cream and gingerbread cookies plus giant sugar cookies specially designed for Young House Love.

The perks of being in the front of line--we got our snacks first. The line wrapped all the way around the store, back outside and around the building so we could see part of line out of the windows in our section of the store.

Jeromy, one of the managers, told us that they had arrived to the store and we all stood up and got ready. Now only minutes away from meeting our home decorating/renovating celebrities we were all excited and nervous. First they gave a quick little talk on a few DIY projects by the front door so we left our spots and ran up to see them.

But the best part was when we got about three minutes with them. I handed them my owls and Sherry decided, "We'll sign $her Dog and John on both of them, they both need a mom and a dad."

The five best friends- Bethie, Katie, Sarah, $her Dog and John. We were totally geeking out to meet them and so pumped about it.

At every event they put out their own yearbook to have everyone that comes to see them sign their own special bit--such a cool idea.

While many people who read my blog may have never heard of Young House Love, let me tell you this is a very big deal. "Thanks for the love. xoxo Sherry & John"