Good Morning America and Dad/Kid's Video Game Day

Well it has been a huge week. I got to be part of the Good Morning America Great American Job Fair in Chicago. There were over 2000 people that attended a job fair that started at 5:00am. People started lining up around 2:30am. When I arrived to finish setting up the booth 300 people are standing in line waiting to get in. The fair was very positive yet some what sad at the same time. There were 60 employers there and each average 3-4 openings. That figures to be only about 240 jobs that 2000 people were hoping for only 12% weer gong to get jobs that day. It makes me very thankful to have a job and it is an added bonus that I work for an awesome company. I did get to see my back on TV for about 3 seconds. No future movie star career from that. 5 was also interviewed by the Chicago Sun Times for about 10 minutes, they took pictures of me and my booth but I think I ended up on the editor's floor. Oh well, it did not take away from the greatness of the event.
This Saturday, with Carrie safety shopping in Chicago with her sister, Emmy, Tyler, and I played video games for six hours. We start our morning with normal breakfast for everyone and then went and rented three new games, 2 for the Wii and 1 for the PS2. We had to get Tyler a haircut which is finally starting to look better and run some errands. We stop and ate and Subway and then headed home for our video game marathon. Tyler got to pick first,since he is the youngest, and chose Carnival Mini Golf. Tyler has this game on his Christmas list so we wanted to try it out. It proved to be a big hit not only with Tyler but everyone else. I would highly recommend this game to anyone, it is very fun. Emmy choice was Petz 2. Emmy also wants this game for Christmas. I could be the stupidest game ever but Emmy liked it. Interesting side note, the bad gut in this game is a wolf and guess who woke up last night with nightmares about a wolf???? Our last game to try was the new Guitar Hero. We had fun playing the guitar and singing along. There is something wonderfully twisted hearing your children sing Joker by Steve Miller. We also pulled out Disney DDR and High School Musical-Sing it! These are tow of our faves that we try to play when we get the chance. Carrie came home to sleeping children and brought us all new stuff from her shopping trip. She will have to get on and talk about that.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and God's blessings to you all

Since August

I can not believe it has been this long since the last post. It has been crazy here in the Newman family. September brought first day of school for both Emmy and Tyler.

Our annual trip to the Apple Orchard

Carrie and I went to the Ryder Cup and saw the USA finally win back the cup. We were also able to finish off the last of the bourbon distilleries. We have finally seen them all and are ready to start over.

October brought on Cousin Jack's birthday, Emmy's Pumpkin theme birthday, Oktoberfest at cousins Ron and Steph's, trip to Food and Wine Fest for Carrie and I and Emmy's birthday trip to Great Wolf Lodge in the Dells. Emmy's birthday trip was during Halloween so we had great weather, trick-or-treats, water slides, and lots of great food. We sure do try to do as much a possible in the time we get together. This list doesn't include fantasy football draft parties, trips to Wildlife and Miller Park Zoo.
November is looking to be just as busy. I love getting ready for the holidays, they just seem to happen so fast anymore. We had a great wine tasting event at Mackinaw Winery, Emmy finished up her tumbling class, gave midterms at ICC, and getting ready for Thanksgiving at the Chatts. What a busy month already. I may be on GMA on Thursday, I will post more later

Door County and the Pate wedding

I know everyone loves to hear the play by play of our trips so here is another one, only with pictures. This trip was without our children but we did go with another couple, Courtney and Aaron. You will see pictures of them throughout also. We left Thursday night after work, and headed to the Super 8 about 1.5 hours from the Door. Not the greatest hotel but good for a night's sleep and a little breakfast the next day.

Our trip to the Door began early on Friday, with a quick stop at the world's largest grandfather clock. Very weird and cool all at once. After the clock was our first winery of the day. Door Peninsula

I nice winery located in a old school house with many wines to try. We picked up a few bottles of our favorites as did our traveling partners from here it was on Simon Creek Winery.

Another set of great wines, our favorite of the trip and two of the folks working there were from Peoria. Crazy! Another two bottles of wine in the Explorer and it was time for beer at the Shipwrecked.

Aaron and Courtney enjoying some good beer at the Shipwrecked, did I mention they were free. (I love WI) Cheese curds, beer, and an amazing day. One more winery to go, fish boil, and Haunted Door County Tour.

The last winery was a little disappointing. We did not buy any wine. Time to eat some fish. If you have never been to a fish boil go. One of the coolest things I have ever seen. Great food and awesome beer, New Glarus Spotted Cow. Carrie was a true camera person hanging in to get a great shot after the rest of us bail out.

Our last stop of the whirlwind day was the haunted tour. Carrie and I have taken a few ghost tours and have never seen anything or had anything that one would consider supernatural. This tour proved to be different. Both Carrie and Courtney took pictures of the same thing within a few minutes of each other with different cameras and got the same images. The cameras were fine all day and fine soon after. Check out the awesome sunset photos from the tour and the weird images.

I would also tell everyone to take this tour and enjoy all the great stories. I even heard a new one about the Door County Strangler/Slasher.

I will leave you with great photos of the wedding.

St Louis for the Kids and winery/movie combo for parents

Emmy and Tyler continued their summer of travel again this past weekend. They, along with Jack, Brooklyn, Grandma T and Grandpa T went to St Louis. Reports back form the children was a great time. They got to go back to Grant's Farm, Incredibel Pizza Company, and the Magic House. These were their favorites from our last St Louis trip so they were very excited. Grandma reports that Tyler keep them laughing for most of the trip. They also got to stay in a hotel with 7 floors. This was a new expereicnce as we normally stay at Marriot's that have maybe 4 floors. Tyler's favorite part was, "The Magic House and playing with the balls there". Emmy's favorite part was, "the swimming pool, it was cool becasue you could swim in and out". I think just being with Jack, Brook, gma, and gpa also ranked pretty high. Kid trips this summer: 2 trips to St Louis, Starved Rock Water Park, Galena, and Amana Water park. Plus many trip to Wildlife, Miller Park, Peoria Zoo, and Children's Museuem. Not a bad summer.
So what did Carrie and I do while the kids were gone? After we cleaned up around the house, Carrie laid out and I watched golf. We then went out to Kickapoo Creek Winery. We have been out there before for a wine tasting but did not taste their wines. We decide to safe the tasty for some other day well it came. We ended up trying abotu 12 different wines. Decent wine,but nothing great. We decided on one we both liked, Red October. It was semi-sweet table wine and it went well with grilled steaks we had for dinner. After dinner we went to see The Dark Knight. We both agreed great movie. I would highly recommend it.
Side bar-I played in another blackjack tourament at the Par-A-Dice. I have won one of these before but to no avail this time, I only took 7th and got $100. This is one zero less from my previous win, but it was a good time. Brian Pate and I played in as we did last time we both won. It was not in the cards,haha, this time. Brian will be getting married this weekend in Door County, WI. Carrie and I are looking forward to the trip north with another couple, Aaron and Courtney. I will be sure to post about the adults only trip.

Vacation Bible School

It was a busy week here at the Newman's. Vacation Bible school has been going on with the kids and Carrie gone almost every night. Tyler had a great time and had "good listening ears" all the time. Emmy loved playing with the "big" girls. Carrie liked doing music and said the kids where great. I worked most nights and had an officials meeting to discuss the upcoming football season. Carrie heads off to relay tonight in Washington so me and the kids will have some dinner and make a fire. The children are off to St. Louis with gma, gpa, Jack, and Brook. Carrie and I are hoping to have a date day and go to lunch and see the Dark Knight

Day 2-Niabi Zoo, Iowa Children's Museuam and the Wasserbahn

We were up bright and earlier to head to the Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, IL. The night at Stoney Creek was not the best. There was a wedding going on and people were celebrating in the hallways unitl 12:30 or 1:00am. Kids slept great, parents not so much.
We arrive at Niabi Zoo and head in with pony rides, the merry go around and animals waiting. All the animals ae great. New Africa exhibit was awesome with up close look at giraffes. We finish there and walk to Austrilia. Carrie and the kids have never feed Lorikeets before so we get some feed and watch as the birds swarm for the food.. Emmy freak out a little and dropped her feed. Tyler, surprisingly, loves it and likes fedding the birds. As we leave the are we get to watch and emu run off all the other animals so it could lay down. We head over to the Koi pond which is my favortie part. You throw the food and roughly 30 fish start fighting for food along with geese, swans, and turtles. I jsut love it. We pack up and head to Coralville and the Children's Museum.
We stop and eat lunch in food court. Subway for the children, pizza for dad, and mom decided no to eat. We went into the museum nd had a great time. New dinosaur exhibit was not as fun as kids thought it would be but rest of museum great as usual. We headed to Little Amana for the Wasserbahn.
The Wasserbahn is located in the Holiday Inn. We check in and get upgraded to a bigger room. Huge room with fridge and microwave, large beds, and pull out couch. We check out the indoor waterpark. There is a zero depth playarea with climbers and a small slide, a swimming pool and two large slides. We measure both kids and both are big enough for the big slides. Thye are very excitied to say the least. Back to the room to change and go swimming.
After swimming for a while, we decide to play on the playground outside before heading over to dinner at the Colony House. We have a great dinner and decide to have dessert back at the water park while swimming. More swimming, the game room, and Dippin Dots for the kids and we turn in for a great night's sleep. Tomorrow, more mini golf and Amana.

Emmy and Tyler's View of Day One

Emmy's favorites from Galena: "i liked the cheese place, chocolate store"
Tyler's favorite from Galena: "The big slide,it was ginormous"

Day One-travels to Galena and Amana

Just back from vactation and thought this woudl be a good time to start this. Carrie (wife/mom/all round awesome) and I (Brian/Dad) have been saying we should do after seeing Julie's (sister in-law) blog. Mainly you will hear about our travels and anything going on in our lives. It will be the whole family blogging so be on the look out for blogs by Emmy (oldest child) and Tyler (youngest child).
We are just back from a long weekend road trip to Galena, IL and Amana, IA with a stop in Coal Valley, IL. We loaded up and headed out to Galena early Saturday morning. We headed north on the Great River Road to hopefully see some nice scenery and maybe some cool birds. Carrie an I saw lots of cool things while the kids saw two movies, their Leapsters, and listen to music on mp3 players, my how times have change. Just outside of Savannah, IL is a great flea market. It sounds weird but we thought the kids would find it fun. We walked through the booths looking at all the different treasures. We left 45 minutes later with two new Disney movies for Tyler and another stuffed animal for Emmy. They both felt they got great deals. It was a short drive to Galena from there and soon we were ready for lunch.
Before eating lunch we see the Galena Garlic Company. We must go in because Carrie and I love garlic. We walk to a cloud of wonderful spice smells. Tyler and Emmy think the place smells bad and need to leave before they pass out from all the terrible smells. Carrie takes them outside to wait while I get to explore a little. I pick a mole rub and a coffee BBQ rub. Both tasted great and will be used on the grill soon.
We had lunch at Green St Tavern, connected to the Desoto Hotel. Kids had chickens strips and fries, great deal only $4.50 and was huge, and Carrie and I shared the appetizer combo, not as good as the kids. Food was decent but beer selection was great. I love it when the bad beer on tap is Sam Adams seasonal.
We were full and ready to walk the streets of Galena. First stop was a chocolate shop. The kids needed dessert. They shared a huge chocolate covered strawberry, maybe one of the biggest I have seen. Carrie had a lavender truffle, which she said was very good. I had a chili cream chocolate. It was great spicy and sweet at the same time. It was dark chocolate, that I am normally not a big fan of but worked perfectly. Next stop, Webkinz.
Emmy and Tyler are addicted to Webkinz. They love playing the games on the website and building their webkniz rooms that their animals live in. In some of the best marketing I have seen, Webkinz issues a pet of the month so Emmy wanted the brown monkey-July's selection. SO we find a store with Webknizs, not hard in Galena, and they have the Brown monkey that has been talked about for three weeks. Do we buy the brown monkey, no. Instead we get a chihuahua and Tyler gets a cow. Both pay for their webkinz with their own money and we are off the the next store, Great American Popcorn Company.
We walked in the door to fresh Carmel corn, not a bad start. After looking around a bit, Emmy and Tyler see that they have ice cream. They need ice cream, shopping for webKinz makes you very hungry. They each get a cup of Blue Moon, think of the milk at the bottom of Fruit Loops and you pretty much have Blue Moon. Carrie and I both pass on ice cream but pick up some Galena Mix popcorn for a snack later. Next stop, cheese shop.
Emmy knows that there is a cheese shop in Galena because we parked by is and she LOVES cheese. We walk back to the cheese shop and head in. Tyler is tired and wants no part of the cheese shop so Carrie and him wait outside while Emmy looks for string cheese. They do not have string cheese. Emmy settles for a nice aged provolone, her third favorite cheese. We head out and decide that Mom and Dad would like to sample a little wine before heading to the hotel to check in, off to Galena Cellars.
We have never tasted wines with children before, I now know why. Emmy wants to eat her cheese and Tyler wants to leave. Carrie and I each try six different wines. We have tried some before and really liked Galena Cellars wines but this time nothing tasted right so we leave with no wine. Off the the hotel, Stoney Creek Inn.
We check right in, no problems, room is ready and so are we for a little rest. After some quick naps we go swimming before dinner. Rooms at Stoney Creek are small and so is the pool area but everyone is enjoying it any way. We have planned to go to Happy Joe's Pizza for dinner and everyone is hungry so we head to Happy Joe's
Everyone loves Happy Joe's. Kids got cheese pizzas, while Carrie and I get the Nacho Joe, imagine nachos on a pizza crust-just awesome. While waiting for the pizza we play in the game room and get some tickets to redeem. Decent redemption center but prizes a bit higher priced than others. Kids love it and pretty much get candy, dessert is taken care of. We decide to head out and check out Chestnut Mountain Ski Resort
I had read that Chestnut had alpine slides in the summer. These are pretty much a concrete slide that you ride down on a wheeled sled. We were not going to do this because of cost ($7.00/slide) and because we did not know if the kids would even like it. We decided to give it a try. The kids loved it! Emmy rode with me and just wanted it to go faster, and Tyler rode with Carrie and wanted to drive which caused them to stop and few times and almost cause a crash but everyone made it to the bottom and rode the ski lift back to the top. Of course they wanted to go again. Next time we will get the twilight lift passes for $20 to ride from 5:00 until dusk, something to look forward to. We spotted a playground and the kids wanted to play so we walked over and the the playground was great. It had all the unsafe equipment that Carrie and I grew up with. The merry go round with just handles and a place to stand, teeter totter with not handles to hold on to, and my favorite, a set of swing that spun around while swinging. We let them play for about 20 minutes and try out all the equipment that we never be a new playground. We were still going to play mini golf tonight. To the Lil' General Mini Golf.
Emmy and Tyler love mini golf as much as Carrie and I do. The Lil' General proved to be a tough course much like The General at Eagle Ridge Resort. We do not keep score but I think I won, however the children showed much improvement since taking golf lessons. Time to head back and go to bed. Another early morning tomorrow as we head for Niabi Zoo and the Wasserbahn.