70 Degrees in November?

For those of you not Central IL this weekend you missed out! Emmy even wore a tank top and shorts yesterday as the thermometer topped 70 degrees...a rare occurrence this time of year! We had such beautiful weather this weekend and the kids made the most of it!

We had a relatively busy week because winter sports have started. Tyler is trying his hand at wrestling this year. Now I enjoy most sports, but wrestling is very new to me. I thought I was doing well until the coaches began talking about a special foam that they make for wrestlers to wear that keeps the germs off. They also made it very clear that the boys should shower immediately after every practice. On top of that, they described a typical wrestling tournament. The day will begin at 6am or so (now Tyler hasn't seen 6am ever!) and will finish up around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. during the tournament Tyler will wrestle 3 times with each match lasting about 1 minute. So if you do your math, we will be waiting for about 7 hours and 57 minutes at each tournament!

After Tyler's first practice he had learned one move. He came home and practiced it on Emmy and she had him pinned in about 15 seconds. Tonight is practice number two...can't wait to see what move he learns!

Indoor soccer also started this weekend. Tyler had his first game ever on Saturday and he did great. He had no problem being aggressive. In fact he managed to knock over his own teammate to get the ball and had a great breakaway play to the goal when was on defense. He did great for the first 3 quarters but by the 4th quarter he was watching the clock and chewing on his shirt. I think our goal for this session will be to actually play the whole 32 minutes.

Emmy also had soccer on Saturday. She had played outdoor soccer and enjoyed it. Her team never lost and usually beat their opponents by at least 3 goals. Though she believed that she was the 3rd best player on the team, she had a lot to improve upon. Her indoor team is not quite as good. In fact, Emmy could be called the star player...for at least 1 quarter anyway. She spent the first quarter and a half running up and down and side to side trying to cover the entire field. Unfortunately, she was dead tired for the 2nd half of the game. Her team ended up losing and the worst part is they actually keep score on an electronic scoreboard so we can't even lie and tell her that her team won.

I promise to update more so the postings are not quite this long, but today I am home sick, so I had a bit of time to work on the blog so you got all caught up on last week's activities.

Starting Over

Wow it has been a long time since we've posted! I've (Carrie) decided to start over on this blog. So much has happened since June when Brian posted last.

July

In July, 15 of us headed to Disney World for a fun-filled family vacation. We had a blast! this year we did a few things we had never done before.

We got to watch the fireworks from a special spot with a delicious dessert buffet.

We also signed the kids up for a Pirate Cruise where they got to find a hidden treasure.

After we left Disney, Brian, the kids and I headed to Vero Beach for a few days. This was the first time the kids had been to a beach and this was the first time Brian and I had tried a relaxing beach vacation. I think we're more theme park and water park folks, but I will say the resort was beautiful!

August

August brought with it the beginning of school! Emmy is in 1st Grade and Tyler started Kindergarten. Emmy loves school and as Tyler said a few weeks ago he is starting to get used to it! In fact yesterday he came home to tell me he was going to have new attitude towards school. Of course today when I asked him about his new attitude, he said it got off track, so I guess we'll

see!

August also brought about Fall Sports! Tyler played Flag Football for the Morton Hogs and Emmy was on the Shamrocks soccer team. Emmy loved soccer. Tyler liked the games, but was not a big fan of the twice a week practices.

September

For those of you not familiar with Central Illinois, you may not be aware that with September comes Morton Pumpkin Festival. This entails a week of gorging on pumpkin donuts, pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin chili, etc. It also includes a pumpkin decorating contest. This year's theme was Christmas in the Pumpkin patch. Emmy decorated her pumpkin like Santa Claus. Tyler thought he could wait till Halloweem and make a jack-o-lantern. Maybe we'll try again next year.



At the end of the month Brian and I got to head to San Antonio to surprise a fraternity brother of Brian's from college. Nine of us met down in San Antonio for a long weekend and had a blast. As you can see Brian and I went to the Alamo, a bunch of wineries, and the Missions during the day and enjoyed the Riverwalk each night! It was exactly what we needed!

October

October is always a big month for us. We have our nephew's birthday, Emmy's birthday and all of the Halloween activities we can fit in! Since Jack and Emmy have birthdays less than a week apart, we decided to hold a birthday party together. This years theme was Dr. Suess.




The weekend after our family party Emmy had her friend party. She invited her whole class and some friends from her summer camp. Despite the flu outbreak at Bethel, we still hosted 13 kids plus two cousins for pumpkin decorating, making caramel apples and overall Fall Birthday Fun!

Finally October brought Halloween. We love all the festivities leading up to Halloween. We went to Howl-Zoo-Ween and Wildlife Scary Park. We spent our Halloween evening Trick or Treating with Jack and Brooklyn in Dunlap!

So, now you are caught up on our life. I have made a commitment to myself to keep this blog up to date, so check back often!

10 years and still having fun

We had a great trip to south western IL and Hermann, MO. We tried lots of wines and beer. We had great food and alot of fun.

We would highly recommend Forsse Vineyards and Winery in Coffeen, IL Super nice people, wonderful wines and just a great way for us to start our trip.

Next stop Bretz Winery and Lodge in Carlyle, IL. The best thing I can say about this bar is it had Shiner on tap and cool atmosphere. The menu looked good and the place smelled liked cedar. Notice I have said nothing about the wine and for good reason. No good.

The final winery that day was Crooked Creek Winery in Centralia, IL. The winery has been open for 4 years but have been growing grapes for much longer. this may have been one of the best wineries We have ever to. the owners are awesome people and the wines are just superb. Just go here and you will understand. Dinner at Tony Roma's, so-so tomorrow Hermann.

Check out the pictures on my face book page for Mo Wineries. Robiller Winery in New Haven was our first stop. Great wines, great wine pouring person who knew lots of good pairings for the wines. A great place to sit and drink wine

Bommarito Estate in New Haven, MO. This is right up there Crooked Creek, if I had visited just this winery it would have been a perfect day. No longer on the Hermann Wine trail but the best wines we had in MO.

Bias Vineyard and Brewery was old winery in a good way. Wines were good and had some unique offerings. Beer was good but not great. We had lunch here with our beer. Ropp cheese spread and crackers, yummy.

Adam Puchta Winery, oldest winery in the area. great food pairing with wine and maybe the best port I have ever had. I got a bottle of the anniversary port. We were feeling pretty good at this point so $50 bottle of port seemed like a good idea.

Stone Hill Winery, the biggest in MO. his is a excellent tour and you get to learn about the area. Stone Hill wines are available everywhere and mass produce wine is similar to mass produced beer.

We check into Montugues B&B in Hermann. Great BBQ and a great place to stay. We walked over to Tin Mill Brewery and tasted their wares. Good but not great. We had a great meal at Wings a Blazin. Chicken Lips and Fitz's Root Beer just a perfect meal. Stop at Time for Pie and I would have to say crust was too salty.

We got up the next morning and headed to Hermannof Winery and were pretty wined out so we will try them again on the next trip. We then headed to The Swiss Meat and Sausage Co. as seen on Food Network. Carrie discovered she likes brats, who knew. This place is awesome. After getting some brats we headed for home. Every time I get a chance to be alone with my wife, it reminds me how much I love and the fact that we enjoy the same things only makes things sweeter or dryer depending on how you like your wine. Cheers!

Relay fundraiser at Willet's

What a super night and for an awesome cause. Carie and I attended and meet with many friends to enjoys this great evening. We drank a bottle of bottle, a white, I think and enjoys some wonderful food. We brought home a great dry red. We always enjoy Willet and consider one of the best wineries in IL. If you are ever in Manito, be sure to check them out.

First T-Ball Practice

Tyler had his first t-ball practice last night. The Diamondbacks appear to be a solid team. They look to have lots of team speed and good chemistry. Tyler loved being able to wear his new baseball shoes and try out the new glove. As the lone leftie on the team, we are expecting big things from him vs. right handed tees. Emmy's first practice will be this Saturday, this is the sophomore season of t-ball for her, so she should be more ready for the ins and outs of softball t-ball. Emmy was able to get a little work in last night with Tyler after practice. It is looking like a good season in the making for both of these ball players.

That 70s night

Carrie and I got a chance to volunteer at the ACS Gala. This year's theme was the 70s. It was a great night that raise alot of money to help fight cancer

Well it has been a while since our last post but here are some updates. Emmy now was two seasons of indoor soccer under her belt and when she is not dancing or singing is a pretty good player. She really likes to play goalie. Her favorite thing to do at the moment is tumbling class. She love working on cart wheels and back bends. She has gotten really good at controlling her body. Tyler has also finished up a soccer camp. Emmy and Tyler will both be playing t-ball this summer and can not wait.