*Rick Riordan*

Colton loves to read. I mean, he REALLY loves to read. When a new book or series comes out that he is interested in, he disappears for hours at a time. Before we go to bed, we always check on all the kids and most of the time, Colton is STILL up reading. I just love it!! He is so much like his mom! :)

One of the series that he loves is Percy Jackson and the Olympians. After he read the series, he had me read them, too. I loved them! I can't even count how many times Colton has read and reread the entire series. Well, when he found out that Rick Riordan (the author) had just released the first book in a new series, he was so excited!! Grandpa bought him the book, The Red Pyramid, and he devoured it in a matter of days.

Last Wednesday, Colton was online trying to find Rick Riordan's mailing address. He had written him a letter (giving him some ideas for a new book!) that he wanted to send. Well, while we were looking around his website, we discovered that he was going to be in Austin doing a book signing for his new book in just 2 days! Colton wanted SO badly to go. Kyle and I talked about it that night, trying to figure out a way to make it work (it was downtown Austin at 4pm and I didn't want to take all the little ones). Well, the next day (Thursday), Kyle surprised Colton and went down to Book People to buy a copy of the new book and get a line ticket. We already had the book, but you had to purchase the book from them in order to get a ticket to wait in line and have it signed. When we told Colton, he was absolutely thrilled!! So, Friday after school, Kyle got off work early (so he could stay home with the little ones) and I took Colton and Mia to the book signing. We went with some friends and had a great time!!! It was raining so they had to move the activities inside, but it was still a blast!! They go in alphabetical order and we were in the M group....so we did have to wait close to 2 hours but it went by fast. They had some activities set up for the kids and who doesn't love roaming around a bookstore!!? Instead of kids with their noses in video games, it was so refreshing to see so many kids reading!! Every where you looked, there were kids sitting in chairs, beanbags, huddled in corners...reading The Red Pyramid. I loved it!!!


Colton and his Egyptian face painting

When it was finally time for group M, Colton could hardly contain himself! He was so excited! The line snaked up the stairs and as we came to the top, Colton could hardly stand it! He kept saying "I see him! I see him!" I have to admit, it was pretty exciting! Rick Riordan was very nice and personalized the new book and also autographed all the other books of his that we brought (yep, we were the ones with the big tote bag full of books to be signed!!). Colton loved it!

Colton and his big pile of books!

I am so glad we were able to take advantage of this great opportunity. I loved seeing the excitement on Colton's face when he got to meet the author that he admires so much. As a mom, it makes me so proud to see that something like meeting an author brings so much joy and excitement to my son. I hope he always has a love for reading!

Of course, we had to get a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt!!