I’ve been to other Official Twilight Conventions before, the last being Portland in October.  It was fun, but it wasn’t as fun as the convention in Arlington this weekend!

The convention was smaller than the one I’d been to at the same hotel last year.  Also, the Nation of Islam was there last year because Louis Farrakhan  was staying in the hotel and that was a nightmare.  Luckily they stayed somewhere else this time so it was easier to move around without so many people just standing around in the lobby.

I skipped Friday because I have two small children and I needed to be with them on Friday and my 4 year old has school.  I could have driven down after but what’s the point?  Everyone that I wanted to see was going to be appearing on Saturday and some even on Sunday as well.

This guy sat directly in front of the not so great seat I had on Saturday.  The room wasn’t all that big so it wasn’t too far back but there were plenty of people in front of me.  Like this guy who dressed as a member of the Wolf Pack!  He has the tattoo and everything.  More on him later.

Up first on Saturday was The Hillywood Show screening of Eclipse Parody.  While I’ve seen this many times already it’s always fun to see it with an audience.  Every time I see Hannah and Hilly I am shocked at how tiny they are.  I love Eclipse Parody!  I think it’s my favorite of the Saga Parodies, but I also really like the new Vampire Diaries Parody they did as well.  Check it out HERE if you haven’t seen it!

It was nice to see them there.  I haven’t seen them since I interviewed them for Twilightblogs.com a few months ago.  They had lots of shirts and things for sale as well as their parodies.  I bought a shirt for my daughter.  It’s a little big but I planned to make it a dress anyway. 

The first guest on Saturday was Gil Birmingham who plays Jacob’s father Billy Black in the Saga!  He was lots of fun and had great stories to tell about filming. 

Up next was Leah Gibson.  She played Nettie in Eclipse.  It was a very small part so I’m not 100% sure that everyone knew who she was.  She was one of the three vampires who turned Jasper when he got off of the horse during the Civil War.

Leah was fun.  Clearly a dancer.  She walks like she’s in the middle of a ballet performance and stands like she’s doing a pirouette.  She just seemed happy to be there.  She’s done other things but nothing huge.  She was in Supernatural last year and the mini series Tin Man back in 2007.

After watching clips from past Creation conventions and press junkets the next guests were of the Wolf Pack persuasion!  Chaske Spencer (Alpha Male ~Sam Uley)  and Bronson Pelletier (Jared) shared the stage and answered questions together.  They talked about what it was like to work with the rest of the Wolf Pack, Chaske showed us that he still has his Wolf Pack tattoo on his arm.  Apparently it takes ages for it to fade away.  Bronson mentioned that he had someone scrub his off before leaving and she had to scrub so hard that it scabbed over.  They also talked about farts on more than one occasion…random.

All of the morning guests did  photo ops and autograph sessions during the day.  I had my photo with Gil, because he seemed so nice.  I hadn’t planned on doing photo ops this time around but decided to take the plunge since the guests had been so much fun.   

There was a no minimum bid on Saturday as well as Sunday.  If I’m being honest I have to say that I don’t understand people who pay so much for autographs unless it’s for charity but some of those items were nice, they just cost more than two car payments.

Bill Tangradi was up next and he plays Randall, a nomad vamp who acts as witness for the Cullens in Breaking Dawn.  After him was Charlie Bewley who play Demetri of the Volturi.  Both were really cool.   I thought there was a chance I would be a little bored with the newbies but they surprised me by being some of the most fun of the weekend!

They both answered fan questions and told stories about playing vampires.  It was nice to hear Bill talk about being one of the new guys and Charlie talk about how he’s glad he’s playing a “bad” vamp because he thinks the Cullens are boring.

Saturday night was the Volturi Ball….

…and if you’ve never been to one, you should check it out.  It is hosted by Hannah and Hilly and the stars come and hang out for a while.  I met this girl named Alexis that had a kick ass Wolf Pack tattoo on her back!  More on her later…

There was a centerpiece contest and there were some fun ones this year.  This is the one that won:

However this one was my personal favorite:

I think there were 8 centerpieces total and they all looked like they took a lot of time. 

Everyone was dressed up for the ball!  Most just looked really nice but some took the extra set to look “Twilighted” as well.  There were capes, red wigs and fangs as far as the eye could see.  A lot of people stopped by the Fantasy Faces Body Art table to have their faces and sometimes necks painted.  I watched a lot of this being done and this woman is hella talented!  Her name is Andrea and she travels with her daughter.  Both were really nice and didn’t seem to mind that I not only watched them but took photos of them as well. This is Andrea and the following photos are of her working and the end result.  Looking at it, you’d think it took hours but she does it really fast.

Lots of fun outfits:

As if eyeballing the room wasn’t fun enough, the stars showed up!

This is just about the point where Alexis (who we met earlier) came back into the picture.  Remember she is the one with the great Wolf Pack tattoo on her back and another girl pointed it out to Chaske as he walked into the room and he stopped to look at it. 

Needless to say, he was impressed!  I think he was shocked (as was I) that whoever put that thing on her did it perfectly!  I would think that would be something that was easy to mess up, but it really was a nice tattoo.

How sweet of him to stop and pose for this photo for this girl!  I mean I really don’t even know her and just happened to be at the right place at the right time and will make sure she gets a copy of it but what a great thing for her to have this photo!  Who wouldn’t love this photo of themselves?  I totally love Chaske now!  I’m Team Chaske!!!  Also, on a total side note, the girl standing next to Alexis facing the camera, Andrea from Fantasy Faces painted that necklace on her neck.  I watched her do it.  It took minutes!

I retired after the Ball and at some point took some phone photos of some of my loot.  They didn’t have as much there in the way of vendors as they did last year or at other conventions but what they had was nice. 

Fantasy Faces did the face painting as well as hair and sold these scarves for the hair that were beautiful.  I know they’re probably called something else that makes them sound so much better but here’s a photo of them to help your visual:

I also bought these fun little necklaces from them:

There was also Twilightpated who sold Twilight necklaces, mouse pads, jewelry sets and all kinds of Twilight inspired items. 

When not onstage, the Hillywood Show sold their items. Lots of DVDs for sale:

If you click on the link above, it will take you to their site where you can buy items and watch their latest Vampire Diaries Parody.   I bought my daughter a shirt.  She’s only two so it’s a dress, but cute as hell and it goes great with her Chuck Taylor’s!

They had a vendor selling shirts and small items like these:

Sunday was a slower say but not any less fun.  I had been up until three so that may have been why it seemed slow.  I was dragging a bit.  After a yummy breakfast buffet at the hotel restaurant, I went into the auditorium and listened to Chaske answer fan questions again (fun as always) and then newbie vamp (Liam in Breaking Dawn) Patrick Brennan did the same followed by Charlie later in the day.  The fan questions are put into a box by the fans in the vendor room.  I asked someone a question but I don’t even remember who at this point, even though he totally answered it!

Every star was asked the same question by someone.  “Would you rather have no elbows or no knees?”  Patrick answered it best.  He at first said “I’d rather have no elbows because I need to get around.”  This was just a question or two after answering that his most memorable  moment was the birth of his 19 month old son.  Someone behind me yelled out, “You wouldn’t be able to hold your son!”  He then changed his answer to no knees because anyone with children would want to hold them.  I got a little teary at the question myself and I wasn’t even being asked!  Someone also asked him if he could dance and he answered by dancing to some Lady GaGa that someone happened to have on hand.

I don’t even remember what Charlie was doing here but it makes me laugh every time I look at it so I thought I’d share:

I also ran into this guy again who sat in front of me on Saturday.  I didn’t get his name but he looked great!  I like to see a guy having a good time and going with it.  My husband would NEVER do this!  LOVE IT and he was a really nice guy!

The last thing I did on Sunday was have my photo taken with Chaske, Patrick and Charlie!  They were so much fun and why would the photo be anything less than that?  I think I like this one better than my photo with Peter Facinelli!  Also, Patrick is hella tall!  My husband is 6’3″so me likey!  Love it!

If you haven’t been to one of the stops of The Official Twilight Convention Tour, you should go!  These things won’t continue forever so get in while you can.  Here is a link to the schedule.