SLC Comic Con 2014

As you may or may not have heard, the Salt Lake City Comic Convention was held earlier this month. This was the second year this particular convention has been held, and it has became a very large convention in a very short time. We missed out on the excitement last year, so it was a big goal for us to make it down this time around. Shortly before prices went up, I went online and purchased Saturday tickets for our crew.

We really don't live that far from Salt Lake City, so driving down for the day was an option. Brady made an executive decision that we should turn the fun into a mini vacation. This was one of those times that my husband was right; it was great. After a fair amount of researching hotels, we ended up staying at the Doubletree by Hilton that was about 3/4 a mile from the convention center. We stayed in a suite setup, complete with a mini fridge and coffee maker. Finding food that is safe for our food restrictions can be a complete pain in the behind. So having the ability to eat meals we brought with us, and can serve in the room, was awesome and saved us from dragging our tired children around the big city even more. Plus....our view was not half bad either.

Since we arrived the evening before we planned on attending the event, the older kids and I took the opportunity to walk to the convention center and get our wrist bands. I would highly recommend this. We arrived as things were shutting down, so there was no line to pick up the wristbands, and it saved us a lot of time the next morning. It was also nice to get to see some of the costumed attendees meandering around the grounds.

Saturday morning, we all got dressed and ready to go. My wonderful hubby even ran to Walgreens to pick up some cosmetics for me since I left mine home and I knew pictures would be taken. I am pretty sure that was a little awkward for him.

Princess dressed as Elsa, Squirt as Spiderman, and Spike as......Spike. As for the oldest child, she dressed as Terezi Pyrope from Homestuck.....

If you don't know who that is, don't feel bad, it is a bit obscure....and not appropriate for
young-uns. However, she did put a lot of effort into her cosplay, including make her horns, the design on her T-shirt, her glasses,  the arm stockings, and the stuffed toy (called a scalemate), so it was nice to see some people recognize what she was and give her a holler. She has written some information on how she made some of these, and other fandom crafts on her blog.

Of course, one of the biggest draws of a Comic Con is the fellow attendees in cosplay. These were just a few of my favorites (although I wish I would have taken pictures of so much more.)

Hiccup and Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon 2

Me and Princess with Totoro

We spotted Merida in line. She was super sweet and Princess was thrilled.

We had a great time at SLC Comic Con. We saw cool things, bought cool things, and talked to cool people, including many authors and artists, which I did not expect. There are definitely things that could be improved upon, such as the extremely long wait to get in that the people on opening day had to deal with, but for the most part it was great.  The biggest problem is that so many people want to attend, and I just don't know where they could possibly hold the event that would allow for better traffic management. For perspective, this year 120,000 people attended SLC Comic Con. That is just so many nerdy people to manage in a single building, ya know. Even with the ridiculous crowds, we would still like to go again. Here's hoping next time is even better.

For more pictures and information about our experience at Comic Con, you can check out my husband's blog here.