Guess who we met?

Yesterday, Tatum and I went to stand in line at the Tempe Costco for 5 hours. Why? You ask.

Sarah Palin was in town, signing copies of her new book “Going Rogue”.

It was actually really fun. We had the sweetest old couple standing in front of us, and that made passing the time really easy. They thought Tatum was the cutest thing they’d seen in a long time. The man even went and bought her a danish when she said she was hungry. After getting back with his coffee in hand, he said, “I should have gotten her a cocoa or something.” Too cute! We found that we had lots in common… kids (1 boy and 3 girls)… love for Oregon (they’re snowbirds)… the church (the woman’s sister is LDS, and when I told her my parents were on a mission, she asked me a ton of questions. She said her sister has been talking about going. I’d like to think that our chat helped her feel a little better about the idea.)… But, most of all, we love Sarah Palin!

We were #890, and she ended up only signing 900. The Costco security estimated that there were about 2500 people there. So we were lucky!

Here’s her security detail. They stopped right next to us, and we could hear them say that she had heard on the news that there were 2500 people there, so she came in a half hour early to try to accommodate as many as she could in the 3+ hours she was going to be there.

When we finally got up to meet her, she asked our names, and told me she liked my hair. LOL!

(As you can see, my memory card had issues. So most of my pictures of her didn’t turn out. Grrr… Once you got up close, they had a photographer taking pictures. So we weren’t allowed to. I’ll check out the photographer’s pics online, and get back to you on those.)

I told her that Chandler (10 yrs old) is a BIG fan, and was VERY disappointed that I wouldn’t let him miss school to come with us. When she heard that, she first told me I didn’t look old enough to have a 10 year old, then, she grabbed another book and signed it for Chandler.

Next, she asked if I only had the 2 kids. The look on her face was pretty funny when I told her I had 4. Once again, she told me I didn’t look old enough to have 4 kids, and that I was sure doing my part to populate the earth (with a little wink*). I thought that was really cool of her to take some extra time to sign a book specifically for Chandler. All the other signatures were just her name, nothing personal. I told her it was nice to meet her, and thanked her for signing that extra book for Chandler. She told me to keep him interested in politics, and sent me on my way. After that, I met her parents. They were so cute. I told them thanks for coming and for raising Sarah right. Her dad told me, “Thank you for supporting our Sarah.” And her mom said, “Isn’t she just the sweetest thing?” I thought that was so cute.

It was all meant to be a Christmas present for Eric, but I was too excited. So I ended up telling him last night. Then, today we told Chandler about the book she signed especially for him, and I thought he was going to flip his lid. Seriously, I thought he was going to cry. He was so excited, and protective of that book like a bulldog. He wouldn’t even let the girls touch it unless he was sitting right there with them. Adorable! I hope he keeps his love for politics. We could use some level headed people in the political scene!

Tater has spent the last 2 days telling everyone she “met a nice lady named Sawah.” She doesn’t realize who she is, just that it was all pretty exciting! All in all, it was a pretty fun day.