How we got to meet the Idols - by Jess & Jess (9 photos)

Jessica Anelli and Jessica Elwgren sent us this great account of how they went down to Grand Rapids last week for the American Idol concert with Maria and Laura Nanni and got to meet all but one of the Idols!

Enjoy!

But you'll have to follow the links to the very end to see the photo gallery!

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Grand Rapids: August 15 2006

All right so Jess and me and our other friend left for Grand Rapids on Monday morning and never thought the most about what was about to happen that day.

We arrived in the city at around 2 p.m. and decided to go do some shopping for Ace.

We ended up buying him a nice brown Hollister shirt and a brown polo and a necklace that I guess is a bottle opener (lmao).

We went out for supper and decided to check out the venue never knowing what was about to happen.

So were driving down an overpass and going in the opposite direction are two tour busses so naturally we started to freak out.

They went the other way and we told our friend's mom to do a u-turn and follow them but that didn't work out too well.

So we decided to keep on going.

We finally reach the arena and guess who's in front of us.

THE BUSSES!

So of course we follow them and park right beside them in the arena.

We didn't want them to think that we were stalkers so again our friend's mom went out and asked for directions.

The bus driver came out and said "Ma'am ... I cannot tell you anything" and then she just went on and on about directions so then she was like "Are the American Idols on this bus?"

And he's like: "Again I can't tell you anything."

So then we were totally blown away due to the fact that we thought they were on that bus.

Then all of a sudden this lady comes to the busses and opens the door.

We thought it was Paris' mom!

So again we had a little freak out.

Then she starts to walk away so Jess and me start running after her and we were like: "STOPPP are you Paris' mom?"

And she's like: "Nope, I get that a lot though."

Then we got to talking and Jess and I told her we were diehard Ace fans and we had gotten him a lot of gifts and somehow needed to get them to him.

So she goes: "Well if you wanna write something down I can do that for you and give it to Ace. So we completely run to our van and get out a map and start writing a message to Ace haha.

Meanwhile she was talking to our friend's mom and wouldn't let us hear what they were talking about.

Weird.

Anyways she said how nice of a guy he was and she said she would try to get us to meet Ace one way or another.

So then we hop into the van once again and our friend's mom was like: "Let's go to the Amway Hotel."

So of course its the fanciest hotel in all of Grand Rapids and here we are dressed up as if were going to a family barbeque.

Anyways we park and run into the hotel.

As soon as we stepped foot into the door two guys came up to us and were like: "Who are you trying to meet?"

And we were like: "No one" haha.

Then we blew our cover and then they were like: "You know Taylor Hicks is sitting right there in the bar? So we go and look and ah it's Taylor Hicks lmao.

So we leave him to his "ladyfriend" and decided to go to the bathroom.

We come back out of the bathroom and Taylor Hicks is talking to Jess lmao.

Wow I was stunned so I ran over and we got autographs and pictures.

He wasn't the nicest person in the world but still nice enough to take the time for pictures and autographs.

About 10 minutes later two girls come up to us and were like: "We met Ace out there" so we physically run over there and found out he went to an ATM machine and would be back later so we decided to hang tight and just sit around for a while.

About 15 minutes after that we were going to the lobby and I look up and it's Chris Daughtry.

Of course I yell out Chris and then I started crying haha!

He puts his arm around me and was like: "Don't cry it's okay" and was consoling me ... ahhhh ahha!

So then we get our picture with him and he says he has to go.

Not for long.

About five minutes later Chris is back and I was like: "I love, I love you Chris" and like: "Chris I hope your kids are okay."

Lmao, made a fool of myself.

I was like: "Bye Chris" and then he was like: "Bye sweetie."

Made my day haha.

So then we walk over to Chris yet again.

Johanna's on the phone so we're like: "Chris can you talk to my friend and he's like: "Can't do phones but hey how are you!" haha!

Anyways Chris leaves.

So then we wait another two hours for Ace but then finally give up due to fact that it was 12:30 and our hotel was like a half-hour away.

So we drive back and stop at Meijers and pick up a whole bunch of candy and chips and salsa for Ace haha.

They didn't have wrapping paper so we got a tablecloth that had Aces on it lmao.

So then we go back and pack up all his stuff and get ready for the morning because you know we were going to finally meet him.

Yes okay so we ended up going to bed at like 2:30 in the morning and I got up at 5.

Got ready, in our highroller gear and headed out.

We arrived at there hotel at 9 and went straight to the elevators.

Low and behold the security tries to get us out of there but Jessica is smart and so we go and eat in the little resturant which has the perfect view for catching them off the elevators.

We stay there until 11:30 and started to lose hope because we thought they went out the back door until we met this girl named Lindsay who was so funny and a big Kat fan haha!

So we stayed together and scoped out the hotel a couple times and then security started to pick up and holy cow we knew something was going to happen.

We had a nice little chat with the bellhop telling him how much we loved Ace and how much we needed to meet him and he was like well I can't do anything but you girls are certainly diehards.

So then we see him start talking to the main security guard and we knew something was up.

The main security guard came up to us and was like: "If you guys go outside we'll set something up and you can meet them, but if you stay here we'll bring them out a different way so you won't meet them."

We file outside and like freaked out yet again due to the fact that we were going to meet Ace.

Out first was Mandisa.

That woman is beautiful on the inside and the outside.

She was so genuine and caring and she picked up my marker I dropped haha.

We took some pictures and she went on her way.

Then Paris.

I'd have to say she was my second favourite of the night.

I love that girl.

She took pictures upon pictures and autographs and talked to us for a while.

So while we were talking to Paris, Kat and Kellie walk out and just wave.

We were so concentrated on them we didn't even notice Ace walking out the door.

At this point all I could say was: "OMG Ace! OMG Ace! OMG Ace!"

He looked right at us and smiled.

He took some pictures with some other girls and then came right up to us.

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