Week #26: ROADTRIP!!! ... family style

This was a big week! Our first looong road trip with all the kids. Before now, our longest road trip was four and half hours to Indianapolis for a baptism. How about 19 hours there and 23 back!! We went to the Rocky Mountain National Park for a Cochlear Implant Family Camp. My youngest son was born profoundly deaf and due to the miracle of science, was able to hear by his first birthday. He had cochlear implant surgery and his hearing was "turned on" two days before his first birthday.

My wife found out about the CNI Camp a couple years ago and we decided this was the year to go. The decision to drive was a reluctant one because of the long hours involved. I am happy to say that the kids were very well behaved with only minor flare-ups along the way.

Half the way there, we stopped at my sister-in-law's house in Omaha. It was a great 1 1/2 day pit stop. The cousins had a lot of fun playing with each other. We went to the Omaha Zoo(unbelievable place) among other places.

After eight days, we ended up driving 2,400 miles (2398.6 to be exact) and saw "God's Country". We drove through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, South Dakota, Minnesota and finally back to Wisconsin. We played different road trip games with the kids on our trip. Our favorite was trying to find all 50 license plates. We actually ended up with 47 states (including Hawaii and Alaska!) , 6 Canadian Provinces, and 1 Indian Nation plate. The 3 states we missed were, Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Delaware. Oh well, we will knock those three off next time.

Pictures above include: Getting ready to roll

John Wayne's birthplace in Winterset, Iowa (family got a little grumpy about this silly excursion)

Entering Nebraska: The Good Life (WHO KNEW THEY HAD A LOCK ON THE GOOD LIFE)

My youngest had a "tiny" blister on his foot before going to the zoo.

Fun at the Omaha Zoo with the kids and their cousin.

Week #26: Additional Photos

Fun at the Omaha Zoo. Picture with my daughter at the Pony Express Museum.

Two pictures at the Sod House Museum, the later with the kids in front of the barbed wire buffalo.

Believe it or not, both museums were at a pit stop in lovely Gothenberg, Nebraska (Pop. 3700). My wife became a fan of their Lasso Espresso coffee shop.

Week #26: Additional Photos ... Chapter II

Group photo at CI Camp. People came from all around the country. Our youngest was sooo excited to see all of the other kids wearing cochlear implants like him. i.e. " Look Mom, he has a coil ... Look Dad, she has stars on her implant!"

A picture of a cabin (not ours) named after Little Bear - 0ur youngest son's favorite show. I showed him the inside of the cabin through the window. He asked "Hey Dad... where is Little Bear's bed?" I said that it was in the other room, he was probably sleeping right now and we had to go. Very cute! Also a picture of him with two of his new friends riding on a horse drawn wagon ride.

Last picture was pretty funny. About 20 minutes into our 20+ hour ride, our 6 year old son said he went poop in his pants. He has never done this before. Instead of getting mad, we couldn't help but laugh about it. We were going through the Loveland Pass with no opportunities to stop. " I have to go really bad!!" "No really I have to go now!!" "Stop in the woods if you have to!" While driving unnecessarily fast, I passed a random double wide port-a-let and quickly U-turned without hitting anyone. While in the potty, I thankfully found out he did not go in his pants after all. He took care of business at the emergency stop. Yet, on this warm day, the odor still stays with me.

Week #25: Parking! $10 only ... make that $15... no make that $10.. or lets make a deal!

And I thought last week was tough!! Our plan this week was to get the family together to work a parking lot for a NASCAR truck race and then I was going to go to my first racing event with a friend of mine. Two for one this week! Mother nature did not cooperate at all. We promised the children that they could get a video game they were asking for, but they had to earn the money themselves. So, we worked a parking lot that was right next door to a NASCAR event (thanks to my father-in-law). The kids started off none to excited, but after our first car my son said to my daughter excitedly, "Come on lets get back to work." I was very proud! My daughter kept yelling out "Park here for 10 bucks only!" (See the video below). We ended up getting about a half of the lot full, due to inclement weather. The night ended up with tornado and flash flooding warnings. It came down fast and furious! The race was washed out, as was my second task for this week. My wife later told me that the truck race was rescheduled for the afternoon the next morning. Me and my two oldest children were back on the job. Much hotter today with massive sunburns to follow (NASCAR Style sunburns: neck, face, and arms only!). We learned a lesson in stick-to-it-ness. Keep coming back and charge what the people will pay! My daughter suggested $15 instead of $10 and it worked (for awhile that is). Maybe I can try this later. Thankfully for all of us, we got to park a few cars and experience a family work outing that we had never done before. Pictures above show the oncoming storm and our reactions to this sad weather event.

Week # 25: Day 2 "Let's try again"

First picture is of day one before the storm and the last picture is of me getting "my groove on" after a stressful night of rain and parking. Day two we went from $15 back down to $10 depending on our feel for the customers. One customer showed up on Day 1 and Day 2, but I did not recognize him. He asked me if he could get a $5 discount for the 2 day park. I said the price was $15. My daughter told me later that she recognized him from the prior night. I felt guilty and refunded him his $5 and wrote a note and put it on his windshield. Our pricing recap: Illinois people didn't care much about price and Wisconsin people were pretty frugal. Imagine that!! No offense meant, I am from Wisconsin.

Week #24: Choo Choo Ka Choo

Some weeks are tougher than others. The initial plan of seeing a Kanye West concert at a small club in Chicago fell through at the last minute. When this didn't happen, I found a more family friendly plan B. We were going to be in Door County this weekend anyway and I found out that the National Railroad Museum was in Green Bay WI. We ended up going a little out of the way on our journey back home to find this railroad treat. Just when we got there, I realized I left my camera at my parents house. Another new thing this week was figuring out how to take pictures from my PDA and downloading them onto this blog. I am becoming very tech savvy this year.

We finally found the museum, but were surprised that they had auxiliary parking outside and buses taking everyone to the museum. I know the economy is in a decline and museum visiting is way down, but what gives here? We thought that we would be one of a few visitors at the museum. We soon found out it was the annual Thomas the Tank Engine weekend. Everyone with a young son in the greater Green Bay area apparently already knew this. The place was packed!! The admission price was over 3 times the usual cost. I explained to the ticket taker that we drove a couple hours and had no idea this "Thomas thing" was going on - we just wanted to see the actual museum. He was a nice man and worked out a small deal with us, and we were in. The kids had a great time and we all went on our first Thomas train ride together. They had some vintage trains on display which I found fascinating. I have some pictures above of the cocktail cars, viewing cars and the old time mail room car. All in all, it was a pretty cool museum to visit. I just wouldn't recommend going on Thomas the Tank Engine Day!

Week #24: Additional Photos

A steamy picture of really old steam engines. Thomas himself, I think he is getting up there in age (he drives REALLY SLOW). Finally, a photo of a "kinda creepy" looking Sir Topham Hatt with the kids.

Week #23: Take me out to the ballgame ...

This week I was able to chaperon (along with many other Dads) my daughter's field trip for a behind the scenes tour of Miller Park. Her teacher commented that the fathers come out of the woodwork for this outing each year. We know when it is our time to step up! I had never before seen the inside of a Major League Baseball Park. It was very informative. We were able to see the locker room, the dugout, the bullpen, media center, and much more (all pictured above). We had a great time! My highlight (pictured above) was catching a baseball with my daughter before it went over the outfield fence .

Week #23: Additional Photos

Pictures of Miller Park. The bottom one is the view seen by the radio play by play announcer Bob Uecker.