"Move That Bus!!!" (The Big Reveal)

Okay...so, I bet some of you have been waiting for a post to follow up on my Mother-Daughter bonding adventure with Mom to Geneva to see a glimpse of Extreme Makeover:Home Edition. I did end up going on Monday for the reveal. I was by myself, but with SO many people there, that was probably a good thing, because I didn't have to worry about losing anyone while pressing through the crowd.
It was a LONG day. The big reveal was supposed to be at 2:00, and I wanted to get there early enough to get a good spot. So I dropped my husband off at work around 9:30 and after gassing up my car and grabbing some sunscreen and a bag of chips at Walmart, I got on the road by 10:00...which meant that I got to Geneva around 11:00...3 hours before the scheduled reveal. I was very glad I didn't get lost, since unlike Mom, I don't have a GPS system in my car (my husband has one on his phone that we use when we go on trips). But my Mapquest directions got me there okay...but once I started hitting the roadblocks around the street the house was on, I had to get creative to find a decent parking spot in the neighborhood that was within walking distance. I got a spot fairly close, but they had the sidewalk blocked off to non-residents and I had to walk around the block to get to the spectator area. The security guards were very nice though.

So, here was the house when I finally got there.

It was gorgeous! I found it hard to imagine that last time I'd been there that the area where the house was had been a pile of rubble and contruction equipment. My favorite part was the boxing ring weathervane...the father had been running a boxing gym out of his barn/garage, and of course they built him a whole new one in addition to the house! I can't wait to see the show air in November so I can see the inside of it!

I found out that it's funny when you're on location when they're shooting a show like this. They did a lot of shots beforehand...before the family was even there. They did a bunch of crowd shots (I can't tell you how many times they had us chant "Move that bus!" and cheer), they did shots of the limo coming down the road (without the family inside), they did shots of the bus moving...all of this WAY before the actual reveal to the family. I told some older ladies when they looked confused that the crew probably want to get all these shots beforehand, because when the family was actually there, they'll want to be able to focus all the cameras on the family's reaction. Plus I think it gave the crowd something to do while they were waiting. The crew even provided us with free bottles of Vitamin Water. How nice of them! They gave us so much, I ended up with 3 bottles because no one else behind me would take any more!

There were a LOT more people there than I had expected to be there 3 hours early. Actually, I wasn't sure what to expect...but I had this crazy idea I'd be able to find a good spot to hunker down and sit, reading on my blanket. Yeah right! Maybe further down the street! I couldn't even get to the spot in front of the tree Mom and I had been on Wednesday...although I got pretty close. And no sitting down. I was on my feet for about 5-6 hours!

I did finally get to see Ty Pennington (the only "celebrity" from the show I recognize since I haven't followed it for a few seasons). I got some pictures of him, but they're all from far away and most of them are pretty blurry (Do you know how hard it is to keep a camera steady when you're at full 12x zoom and holding the camera as high as you can above your head?). I think Ty is the most popular person from the show, but he was the one who came out the least. Whenever he came out, it was never for a long time. He's like a butterfly! And you could always tell when he came out because of all the screaming. Maybe it was all the screaming girls that always scared him off!

When they finally brought the family in around 4:00 to really "Move that bus!" it was crazy. The crowd was really pressing and you could barely see anything from where I was (and at the height I'm at). Most of the shots of the family I got were just lucky (again, the camera over the head tecnique)

I'll have to figure out how to upload my video to YouTube.

*UPDATE: I've uploaded the video to my Facebook.