We got to the concert at 2pm and waited outside the gate for them to let us in to park. It was a two hour wait, but we met some other fans and the time passed quickly. After we parked and got to the doors, we waited another hour. We had reserved tickets, but I wanted to be there as soon as possible.

We were the first people in the pavilion. We found our seats, which were right behind the pit, then proceeded to walk around, like fools, with our MOE signs. I had drawn the three cartoons of Hanson from Kodiak's Middle of Nowhere site, then the words, I'M A MOE MEMBER on one sign. I wore that and another one, hanging over the front of me and the back. I got asked by a lot of the staff people what MOE was, and it was fun explaining it to them. My sister, my cousin, a friend, and I all separated for about ten minutes. When I met up with my sister, she had that look on her face. She was 30 feet away, but I knew, immediately, that she'd gotten backstage passes. There were only two passes and four of us. Somehow, we'd known ahead of time that if we did get passes, it would only be two, so the decision was made earlier as to who would go back. I felt bad for my cousin who didn't get to go, because she's a dedicated Hanson fan and more like a sister to us than a cousin. But, as sweet as she was, she was happy for us and told us we had to tell her every detail when we got back.

We went to an area where we were told to go and waited. There were about forty or fifty people scheduled to go backstage (press, VIPs, and radio winners), but all ten of us MOE members managed to find each other. We talked about Hanson and MOE and even explained MOE to a journalist inquiring about it. The guy letting people go ended up letting too many people down (girls without passes), so Hanson was behind schedule. We were the last to go.

We were led down a row of stone steps and into a building, nicer than your average backstage area; it was carpeted and had pinball games, a food bar, and tables.

And there they were: Hanson...well, Isaac and Taylor caught my eye first and I was taking a deep breath, trying to compose myself when Zac popped out, seemingly from nowhere, and shook my hand. I said hi to him, then went up to Isaac and handed him a slip of paper some girls had asked me to give him. Of course after that I shook his hand and said hello. I looked over at Taylor and realized he was surrounded by all the other MOE members and there was no way to get to him. Well, that left Isaac and Zac pretty much free. I showed them the poster I made. Isaac asked if I'd traced it. I told him I'd drawn the cartoons off Kodiak's site, but the rest was my creation. He said, "That's really good." Oh, man, gotta love Isaac.

Shannon had taken a poster my cousin had made with--somewhat confusing--drawings of Isaac, Taylor, and Zac. My sister showed Isaac and Zac that poster, and Zac took a moment to figure out who was who. In the drawing, everyone confuses my cousin's rendition of Zac with Taylor. She had kept pointing out that, "No, that's Taylor there. See, he has blue eyes." Zac, after pondering it, was the only person besides my cousin to figure out who was who correctly. We'd shown this poster to probably 10 or 20 different people. Zac was the first to get it right. We got a chuckle out of that, because we've always said that Zac and my cousin think alike.

Taylor broke away from the girls surrounding him, spotted my sister (hmmmm....) and came over to shake her hand. He reached out for her (she didn't even notice him), but I was there and I was determined to at least say hi to Taylor. I said, "Taylor, I haven't shaken your hand yet," and put out my hand. He looked up at me (actually, considering my height, he looked DOWN at me), took my hand, and smiled. Short but sweet. And we all know Taylor has really beautiful eyes. It was nice seeing them up close.

All I remember after that is lining up for pictures. Zac organized everyone, and my sister and I took the second row. Isaac and Taylor were on the opposite side of us--darn it!--but we didn't necessarily want to push all the other MOE members out of the way to get by Isaac (though that might have been a good idea). Zac ran to the front to kneel and pose for the picture, then thought better of it and came up beside me for the picture. Zac was being his typical self. He fluctuated between posing beside me and jumping off to the side to make some off-the-wall, not-exactly-funny comment. But he also made us all feel a bit more at ease. After the pictures were over, we managed to shake hands with Zac again, but missed out on saying bye to Isaac or Taylor. We didn't get autographs because of the lack of time, but still...this was amazing.

----Coyla