BEST. DAY. EVER.

July 8-11, 2015

Remember Lauren's Sweet 16 birthday gift? 

Well here's a hint:

The time had finally arrived and Liz, Sydney, Lauren, and I made the trek to San Diego for the One Direction concert. If you will notice on the picture Harry kindly reminds Lauren to make that special Sweet Sixteen birthday wish- after all it could very well come true. I had a pretty good idea of what that special wish might be..... to meet One Direction of course! So like any obsessed, crazy mother would do, I emailed, called, stalked, and searched for any sign of meet and greet opportunities. A few radio stations in San Diego responded but with no hope; only to tell me to follow them on email and social media, which of course I did. It's weird but I just really really in the depths of my heart wanted this trip to be the very best sweet sixteen gift that parents without buckets of cash could give their darling One Direction ultimate fan for her special birthday. So by the time we were all checked into our amazing resort, the Omni La Costa Hotel in Carlsbad, I had given up hope on the meet and greet part. However, I knew this trip and concert would still be unforgettable as we had great seats for the concert, shopping, and the beach to look forward to. That night as we were getting ready for bed I was looking through my emails and saw one from one of the radio stations saying to check out their tent in the parking lot before the concert because they had one last pair of meet and greet tickets to give away. YES! An ounce of hope had resurfaced.

 This is what we had to do to win.... well along with the stars aligning, lucky leprechauns dancing around us, and becoming besties with Karma!!
......but we held on to hope and crossed our fingers!

We arrived at the stadium around 4pm and got a prime parking spot since not many people were there yet. We walked up to the 93.3FM canopy with our phones in hand ready to show them that we had indeed posted their image on our social media profiles. With the flash of our phone we were given a drawing ticket and it's twin was dropped into a box. Four chances- we had four chances. The show didn't start until 7pm and the entrance wasn't even open yet, so we had some time to burn. We walked around the stadium, took some photos, and waited until it got a bit busier and casually went back up to the 93.3FM canopy with our phones in hand and got another ticket!! 8 chances!! The ultimate possibly life changing drawing wasn't until 6:30pm but the gates were finally open and Liz and I decided it might be best to see if we could get in....... 

Now there's another little story that needs to be told regarding our tickets. 

I didn't get tickets when tickets originally went on sale- I just didn't know and at that point in time there was no plan, so I had to brave the re-sellers. This can get dicey and you have to be a bit savvy in order to not get screwed. I searched Craigslist and actually found a decent set of seats for the girls (Liz and I just planned on buying some nosebleeds from a scalper at the show) the lady selling seemed legit and it was all a go until she decided she could possibly get more money for them. So I continued my search and found a great pair on Stubhub. They were on the side and first row of the stadium seats. Nobody's big head blocking your view! So I bought them and they sent me the link to print them off at home, which I did. About a week later I received a call from Stubhub, who guarantee their tickets, saying that the tickets I bought were found to be fraudulent and they would replace them with equal or better seats. So after a few tries we agreed on a pair that were actually on the same row as the previous tickets. Once again they sent me the link and I printed them out. So as we packed for the trip I figured what the heck and brought both sets of printed out tickets- because you never know and it doesn't hurt to try! 

So there we are in the parking lot of the Qualcomm Stadium, eight chances out of at least a thousand to win a meet & greet, a pair of legit tickets, and a pair of fraudulent tickets. Liz and I know the earlier the better on our tickets, first to scan gets in after all! We give Lauren and Sydney their seat tickets and the drawing tickets and tell them we will meet them inside after the drawing. We breeze on through, tickets scanned perfectly and they were basically free! Score! We walk down to check out the amazing seats we searched and searched for to find.....

This elevated VIP section blocking our view of the end of the catwalk! NOT TODAY!! We talked to this nice gentleman, maybe batted a few eyelashes and were advised to take a photo (above) and complain to customer relations. Now mind you the girls' seats were right by ours but they were still outside the gates waiting for the drawing and our seats were technically sold fraudulently but that didn't stop the mom brigade. We went and spoke with a nice lady, informed her we were not at all happy with our obstructed view, but that our girls were outside and had their tickets with them. Evidently none of that was a problem and she promptly printed out four tickets on the opposite side of the stadium, row 2, but no obstruction (Below)

Now while all this was going down inside the stadium, the girls were waiting patiently outside the stadium for the meet and greet drawing. Liz and I were waiting by the entrance so we could give the girls their new ticket to get in when I got a call from Lauren. THEY WON!!! I couldn't believe it! We thought they were joking but it was true! Liz and I were crying with joy, we couldn't believe it!! Lauren and Sydney had to wait out front with the radio station for a bit and when they finally came in we found out that they had won floor seats too. We got to talk to them for a minute before they were whisked off, but they said everyone was offering them money for the meet and greet and trying to give them stuff to give to 1D. They said they were standing in the back of the crowd as the numbers were read because they figured they wouldn't win and when the numbers were called Lauren looked at Sydney because she didn't have a winner but Sydney looked at her and screamed because she was holding the winner. They were both nearly mauled to death as they clung to the ticket and pushed their way to the front. Well now we had two extra second row seats. My cousin Rachel and her daughter Presley were there at the concert too, in the nosebleeds, so we met up and they came down and sat with us. No need for good tickets to go to waste!!

This is one of the radio DJ's and his post on Twitter with the girls.

The winners!! With their floor seat tickets!

The luckiest girls!!

This is THE photo. We had to wait three days to get this through email. When the girls met One Direction before the concert there were a lot of rules. They had to leave all of their stuff on a table- that meant they couldn't take any of their own pictures or video, they couldn't ask them to sign anything or give them anything. But all of that didn't matter because they hugged them and spoke to them all. A dream come true!

While the girls were busy meeting One Direction and rocking floor seats, Liz and I were enjoying our great seats and the concert too. We met up with the girls after the concert and they couldn't stop talking about their once in a lifetime moment. Lauren's "baby" walk to Harry but hugging him around his neck and running fingers through his hair, Niall's scuff scratching Lauren's shoulder, the eye contact as they waited their turn, Lauren and Louis having matching shoes, Lauren saying "you too" when Liam said enjoy the show then Lauren saying "wait you're not watching the show" and they laughed. Sweet sixteen wishes do come true and I know this will be something Lauren never forgets. To quote a One Direction lyric Everything that you've ever dreamed of.......

That's exactly what happened that night.

On Friday we lunched at Boudin Bakery then hit the beach and relaxed all afternoon. We checked out a mall and did a little shopping then finished with a little Italian restaurant down by the beach for dinner. When we returned to the hotel we soaked in the hot tub for awhile before calling it a night.                    

                                                                                               

Saturday we longed around our amazing hotel and enjoyed the pools and slides before checking out. I would definitely stay at the Omni again in a heartbeat!! It had like five pools, slides, an adult only pool with infinity hot tubs. The grounds were well groomed and everything was beautiful! We were sad to go but the time had come and we headed home. We had a memorable vacation and I'm so happy that the stars aligned and dreams became realities!!