Hello and Seasons Greetings from the Wilson family! We had a great year in 2011 and wanted to recap with you here.  Are you sitting down?  Good!  Here we go!

 

Gavin and Aiden turned three and five, respectively, so they’ve been very active lately.  The boys went roller skating for the first time in January (R-Way hasn’t changed!).  Snowmegeddon hit in February and much playing in the snow occurred.  We put the sleds we got from Grandpa and Grandma Wilson at Christmas to good use!  After the thaw, Aiden got a big boy bike in April.  Gavin was riding Aiden’s old bike by September.  Aiden started playing T-ball in April and followed that up with Fall Ball in August.  He had games every week.  We spent a lot of time playing at the beach this summer, so the boys took swim lessons in August at the Munster public pool.  They really enjoyed that.  Gavin accompanied Aiden to summer school in June, then began pre-school in September.  They both attend TLC in Highland now.

 

We went to plenty of shows this year.  We saw Toy Story 3 at the movies in February, Cars 2 in June and Puss In Boots in November.  Was anyone else let down by Cars 2?  We recently started seeing “Disney On Ice” shows at the United Center in Chicago, one in February and a different one in September.  We took the boys to see “Thomas the Tank Engine Live” again in April, “Sesame Street Live” in May, and a “If You Give A Moose A Muffin” stage show at nearby Governors State University in November.  We liked that so much that we went back for the “Junie B. Jones” stage show there a month later.  We shook hands with the Imagination Movers backstage at their concert in March!  That was huge for the boys.  Aiden met super heroes at C2E2 in March and the Chicago Comic-Con in August.  Time to hero up!

 

We did some traveling this year.  Not too far, just driving distance.  We vacationed at the Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells with Cassie in March.  They have an indoor water park there that the boys loved.  We took the boys with us to the Taste of Chicago for the first time in June.  We took a family drive to Wisconsin for the Ren Faire in August, but ended up at the Jelly Belly factory for jelly beans instead because it rained. After that, we stopped by Legoland and ate at Medieval Times in Schaumburg.  In August, we drove to Fort Wayne to visit Julia at the Science Central.  We also renewed our family membership at the Brookfield Zoo and picked up another at the Shedd Aquarium.  We wouldn’t miss annual events at Brookfield like Boo At The Zoo in October and Zoo Lights in December.

 

Locally, we have a new Labor Day tradition of visiting the County Line Apple Orchard in Hobart.  The honeycrisps are ripe and it’s not as packed as in October.  The boys attended Vacation Bible School at two different churches this summer, both with friends.  Chrissy and I left the boys at home for a Michigan wine festival in June and toured the wine trail with Katie while there.  Katie also tagged along on our second trip to the Vintage Illinois Wine Festival at Starved Rock National Park in September.  There were over thirty wineries present, so we brought a canopy tent and made a day of it.  The boys also went camping with Grandma and Grandpa Brackett at Turkey Run in August.  First time in a canoe!

 

As usual, the house underwent some changes too.  We finally got the concrete that we wanted in the backyard in May, adding a walkway to our deck and a patio alongside the garage.  I built some cedar raised plant beds in June so that Chrissy could start a vegetable garden.  We got lots of zucchini and tomatoes out of that.  Aiden got a venus flytrap in March that did well, but died over the summer.  We got a new fence from Reeves Exterior in June.  It matches the siding we put up last year and looks great!  Our furnace up and died in October.  Luckily, it wasn’t cold outside at the time!  We replaced it with a high-efficiency Lennox and a new heat pump to replace our air conditioner.

Have a great holiday season!  Love:  Michael, Chrissy, Aiden and Gavin

The last item on our summer list was the Renaissance Fair.  It only occurs on the weekends until Labor Day, just over the Wisconsin border.  We knew that there was a chance of rain, but we decided to risk it since there was other stuff to do out there, like the Jelly Belly factory tour.  But the weather would not be kind to us, and we arrived in Wisconsin just as it started raining.

The worst of the storm came while we were on our Jelly Belly tour.  The tour was indoors and consisted of a train ride around the Jelly Belly warehouse.  Along the way around the warehouse, the train would stop at televisions that would show video of the company history and how the jellybeans were made.  At the end of the tour, we were given free jellybeans.

Although the Ren Fair is open rain or shine, I know from experience that it’s no fun to be there in the rain.  If you want to see any of the events, you basically have to stand in the rain and walk in the mud.  That’s no fun.  So we did the next best thing: Chrissy called to make reservations at Medieval Times.  We were going to see a joust that day one way or another.

On the way back to the highway, we ran across a small outlet mall.  They had our favorite stores: Fossil, Osh Kosh, Carters and Columbia Sportswear.  Chrissy found a purse for $20 (a steal) at Fossil and we got tons of clearance clothes for the boys.  We grabbed some lunch and a short potty break at McDonald’s before heading back across the Illinois border.

A little while down the road, we came to Schaumburg.  The LegoLand is right next to the Woodfield shopping mall.  We had thought about stopping at the mall to do some more shopping, but Legoland seemed like it would be more fun.  It was a little crowded because of a birthday party, but it’s a good place to take the kids for a few hours before your dinner reservations.

They have a large room full of Lego parts and racing ramps.  Gavin and I spent about twenty minutes building and racing small cars.  First, it’s very hard to find wheels.  Some kids have eight or nine axles on their car, and you wonder why you can’t find any wheels.  Once we found wheels, we rebuilt Gavin’s car five or six times, making it better for subsequent races.

Aiden was playing in a nearby ball pit area.  It was like a giant jungle gym except with a Lego theme.  Gavin wasn’t interested, preferring to race his makeshift cars.  There was also a dragon ride where you move through a castle made of Legos.  And we saw a 4D Lego movie, like a 3D movie except with wind and bubbles blowing at you.  The boys had a lot of fun.

We had to watch the time because we didn’t want to mess up our dinner reservations.  Chrissy wanted to get there sooner so that we would get a better seats. The last time we went to Medieval Times, we were pretty high up in the arena bleachers.  We wanted the boys to see everything, and we luckily got third row, right in the middle of the arena.

Aiden and Gavin have never been to a tournament like this and have never seen a joust.  They are familiar with the concept of knights in armor, but I doubt they understand why they’re dressed that way.  Well, now they know.  It didn’t take them long to understand that we were supposed to cheer for the Blue Knight.  Sadly, he didn’t win. But neither did the bad guy.

Dinner was interesting.  Aiden had some trouble drinking the dragons blood, or tomato bisque, because there were no spoons.  He didn’t like that you had to pick up the bowl and sip it.  Also, it was dragon blood.  Furthermore, there were no utensils.  They didn’t have utensils in medieval times, so they don’t have them here.  They do, however, have wet naps.

It has been a very long day already, crossing three states and visiting four vacation spots.  The boys slept on the way home.  We would end up relaxing the next day, but we still wanted to spend a day at the Brookfield Zoo.  The Renaissance Fair and St. Louis would have to wait until next summer, and the boys will most likely be old enough to appreciate both then.

The problem was that the weather would not be cooperating.  We knew from the seven-day forecast that it was going to rain almost all weekend in St. Louis.  Since most of the things that we wanted to do involved being outside, it was decided at the last moment to stay home instead.  We cancelled our hotel arrangements and let our friends know that we would not be coming.  I was bummed out, but there’s always next year.

We fell back on our backup plan of going to Wisconsin for the Renaissance Fair.  We knew that it might rain there as well, but it would be better to risk a two-hour drive as opposed to a five-hour drive.  As luck (and the breaking of speed laws) would have it, it only took an hour to get to Wisconsin.  Where it rained.  Always prepared, Chrissy had Plan B all mapped out and ready to be put into action.  But more on that later, since there’s a lot to tell…

So the two of us went to the Chicago Comic Con again this year in August.  We went on a Sunday, which I think may have been a mistake.  We had other plans for Saturday, so we couldn’t go then.  From what I understand, Sunday is not so much a dress-up day as it is a day to get bargains in the dealer room.  Vendors don’t want to carry all that heavy merchandise back home, so they cut the prices down low to get rid of it.  I suppose that dressing up as a superhero would hinder your buying opportunities.

Although Sunday is a bad day to see superheroes, it was a good day to talk to celebrities.  Aiden and I spoke to Alaina Huffman, the doctor from Stargate Universe, and she told us how crowded it was the day before.  We also talked to Baywatch babe Erika Eleniak, who also said that Saturday was a mad house.  She had mentioned that Saturday probably wouldn’t have been a good day to bring Aiden, because such a little boy might easily get lost in that nasty crowd.

I also had a chance to talk briefly with Kai Owen, who plays Rhys in Torchwood, but Aiden doesn’t watch that show.  A highlight of the trip may have been Aiden getting to meet Chewbacca in person. Bruce Campbell was supposed to be there that day, but the line to see him had already started when we got there.  I can’t see parking Aiden in an autograph line for four hours.  Same goes for Christopher Lloyd.  It would have been awesome to meet them, but Aiden’s time is better spent elsewhere.

We didn’t find many people dressed up in costumes.  Maybe about two dozen in all, and I expected about three times that.  Again, maybe it was just because this was a Sunday.  It’s a buying day.  I did see some old Transformers, but we didn’t buy any merchandise either.  We walked through Artist Alley and ran into one of my favorite web comic artists, David Willis.  We also talked to Ben Templesmith, artist of Thirty Days of Night.  There really weren’t any more notable artists there that day.

All in all, it seems as that C2E2 to may be a better convention for Aiden and me.  If Saturday is too crazy for the boy and Sunday is too boring for me, then that might not be the way to go.  Especially since Marvel and DC are no longer represented at Wizard World the Chicago Comic Con.  We’re definitely going back to C2E2 next spring, but we will have to see if anything spectacular happens with Comic Con before I decide if we’re going back.

Our tickets were for the same venue as the Imagination Movers concert that we recently attended.  It’s a bit of a drive out to the Rosemont Theater (up by O’Hare Airport), but we stopped at the O’Hare Oasis for some lunch on the way.  The boys love eating at the oasis, since they can eat while watching cars and trucks pass under the restaurant.

The theme of the show was to use your imagination to go anywhere you would like  (camping, to the moon, home, etc.).  Elmo taught everyone the trick of it.  Rosita wanted to go to Mexico to see her aunt.  Bert wanted to go under the sea to play with various bioluminescent fish.  Ernie wanted to be a pirate captain or something.  Just close your eyes and imagine it…

Gavin was riveted to the stage.  There was a lot going on up there, with a dozen or so people-sized Muppets dancing and singing.  There were a lot of characters that I’m not entirely familiar with, as I haven’t watched Sesame Street in a very long time.  But this was the first time that I had ever seen Big Bird up close, which everybody should do at least once.

Again, we had the issue with sitting center stage at the Rosemont Theater: characters use the stairs to the right and left of the stage, not the center.  So when they come down from the stage to interact with the audience, we were too far away.  Actually, about ten feet away, but with no means of getting close to them.  Next time we book tickets there, we’ll shoot for seats by the left or right walkway.

A new production of Thomas Live recently came to the Radisson Star Theater in Merrillville.  That’s practically in our backyard, so we took the boys to see it.  The story was different from the one that we saw last time, with a slightly different lineup.  Thomas and Percy were there again, but other than that only Diesel appeared, and even then it was only his face popping out of his shed.

I think that the last show had a better story, more reminiscent of the television show, but Gavin was glued to the stage anyway.  Aiden, not so much.  Like I said, I think that he’s getting too old for Thomas.  Not too old for toy trains (he loves those), but too old for talking trains.  And the trains did talk, they had mouths that moved (for the most part: Percy seemed to be broken).

I don’t think that we’ll be seeing Thomas Live again the next time it rolls around.  Our boys will be too old.  But that doesn’t mean that we’re done with Thomas.  We’ll see him this summer when we head out to Union, Illinois, for the annual “Day Out With Thomas”.  Trains with faces on stage is one thing, but riding in trains with faces is something completely different! And better, I think.

As luck would have it, Choo Choo Soul would be the opening act.  They only played for about fifteen minutes, which was great since the hour-long show that we saw last year was about forty-five minutes too long.  This was the condensed version of that show, and was much better for it.  Not that we don’t love Choo Choo Soul, but they had their bit nailed this time around.  It was great to see them.

Then the Imagination Movers made their appearance.  They like to stand right on the edge of the stage, so we were staring up at them the whole time.  The boys were in awe.  The Movers actually leaned down to interact with our boys a little.  I missed a photo of Nina giving Gavin a high-five, but I did get a shot of them holding the microphone out for Aiden.  Mover Scott came down to see Gavin.

The show was shorter than last time, but we did get to see Nina, Eddie the Monster, and Warehouse Mouse (in person this time, not just on a screen).  I thought that KnitKnots was supposed to be on tour with them too, but he wasn’t there.  It seemed like they didn’t play as many songs, but they did come out for one encore.  Even Choo Choo Soul came back out on stage to help close the show.

After the show, we took the boys backstage for the meet-and-greet party. It was a bit of a letdown.  About a hundred people were crammed into a small reception room.  A table had snack bags and water available.  The Movers came in and sang two quick songs while the children played along with tambourines supplied by their crew.

We then got in line to get autographs and take pictures.  The package included a signed poster for each of us, but we didn’t bring anything for signing.  Each of them did shake our hand, thank us for coming, and pick up Aiden and Gavin to talk to them.  It was really nice to be able to do, but it was over all too quickly.  They told us not to take photos of our own, or else I would have snapped a bunch.

Overall, we had a really good time though.  Aiden and Gavin really enjoyed it.  It’ll be nice if the Movers go on tour again next year, we’ll definitely be there.  Maybe not front row again, which was neat to do once, but we’ll definitely be there.  In the meantime, we’re looking forward to season four of the Imagination Movers, which will begin filming once the tour is over.

This year, the event grew by about half.  There were a lot of people there, and maybe about a tenth of them were dressed up in costumes.  We stopped almost every one we saw and got photos.  Maybe a hundred people!  Star Wars, Marvel, DC, everyone was fair game.

We stopped by the Marvel booth where they had actual props from the new Captain America and Thor movies.  Aiden got to hold Thor’s hammer on the Marvel stage.  It was actually pretty heavy!

Aiden was able to name many of the super heroes that we met, especially the X-Men.  There was some very nice costumes there and we watched a costume contest.  I met BelleCher, dressed as Ghost, but I didn’t realize who she was until much later.

I was surprised at how long we hung out.  Because they served food on the convention floor, Aiden and I stayed right through lunch and spent about five hours there.  Although we took a couple of rest breaks, we were both pretty tired by the time we left.  But we had a great time and once again have vowed to return next year.

Cassie had been to the Great Wolf Lodge and had gotten coupons in the mail for huge savings.  We took advantage of that, and brought her along.  The drive out was very long: five hours to Wisconsin at night in a raging sleet storm.  I was driving far too fast for that kind of weather.  We checked in late and pretty much just crashed.  We would need plenty of rest to play the next day.

The resort itself is very large.  There are indoor and outdoor water parks, but only the indoor park is open in March.  I don’t normally like water.  I know how to swim, but I don’t like to be in a pool.  But the water here is mostly shallow and warm, and flowing through lots of water slides.  Chrissy and I went on the Howlin’ Tornado, which is awesome.  She looked like she was going to cry.  Cassie and I went on some of the other large slides after that.  We also spent a lot of time in the wave pool, with the boys floating on inner tubes.

There are plenty of activities for smaller kids.  There is a small wading pool with shooting water for toddlers, a play area in another part of the park for bigger kids, and a whole section for families.  This area had a huge bucket at the top of a tree fort sort of thing.  Every five minutes or so, the bucket would fill and dump water on everyone in the vicinity.  This was a very large bucket and lots of water came down.

The resort also has other kid-friendly activities.  There is a Cub Club tour for small children in the morning.  There are lots of stuffed animals in the lobby, not like teddy bears, but more like ten foot grizzly bears.  A tour guide leads the children to each animal and talks about each one.  We only did this once however, because we would rather be securing a chair in the water park to put our stuff on.

At night, the kids attended Story Time in the front lobby.  There is a large wooden cottage in the lobby that is animated, with mechanical characters that tell the story of the Great Wolf (and recycling).  Afterward, a guide reads a story to the children while a wolf character watches.  We got “How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight“, which we have at home and read to the boys often.  Then you meet the wolf.

There were plenty of restaurants in the area, but we opted to stay in for some Pizza Hut.  We took a break for lunch and to shop at the nearby outlet mall the first day.  We all had a good time and would like to go back some day.  Maybe not in the summer, when it might be too crowded, but another winter getaway sounds like a great idea.

We went out to snow blow the first night to get a leg up on the next wave.  The snow drifted up to four feet high back by our garage.  I was outside snow blowing in the dark even as the snow still fell.  I’ve got a large snow blower, but the drifts were taller than the front cover in some spots.  We did the best we could, knowing that another two feet or more would drop the next day.

The blizzard continued in the morning, so we plowed more snow.  We were able to dig ourselves out, but other areas around Chicago were not so lucky.  Hundreds of cars were buried along Lake Shore Drive for days.  It was a mess.  People were trapped in their cars for several hours, and samaritans were using snowmobiles to rescue them.  I avoided this by simply not going to work (work from home).

The boys helped shovel the snow, but that was mostly counter-productive.  They have their own little shovels, but they mostly just pushed the snow back where it came from.  It’s nice that they want to help.  There was so much snow in the back yard that it was easy to find a pile big enough to burrow a fort into.  They scaled snow mountains out there until it got too cold.

It got really cold in the days after the blizzard.  We’re talking ten below with the wind chill.  It was really no fun to be outside.  Luckily, the cold didn’t arrive until a day or so after the majority of the snow had already fallen.  So it wasn’t dangerous to your health to shovel, but it was pretty difficult to go outside after that.  I just stayed inside and tweeted about it.