How We Spent Our Summer Vacation. By Kim and Alexis (and Aiden)

We know this is late. Really really late. But better late than never?

Our road trip to Tinley Park, IL last June 25-28 was the only summer tour trip that we were able to work into our extremely busy schedules and social lives. Living in the midwest we are geographically challenged and unable to make many "quick overnight" trips.

This trip was also very special because we brought Alexis's 7 year old son Aiden. For months he obsessed alongside us with all of our wardrobe decisions and was very excited for his own "Facetime" camp chair and t-shirt. His t-shirt did kinda kick ass. Since a lot of time has passed between now and then we are just going to bullet point it.

-We had a most difficult time finding cheese in Wisconsin. Naturally we eventually found it in the same town as Beer Lube. No, we didn't stop. We had a kid with us!!!

-We had borrowed Peggy's Tom-Tom for the trip. We had it set in the James Bond voice option. We must have had to take a lot of sharp lefts because at one point Aiden asked, "Why does it keep telling us to shoplift?"

-When we arrived in Chicago at Alexis's dad's house we found out that Michael Jackson had passed away. It was kind of surreal.

-Alexis's dad made us an amazing dinner of filet mignon, corn/feta/walnut/jalepeno/lime salad and Greek salad. We are now obsessed with the corn salad and both made it at least a dozen times last summer.

-It was too hot and the venue was too secure to do any bus stalking. We had lunch at Boston's in Tinley Park, IL with Lisa and Tiff (who you may remember from tours past) and some other friends. We were not the only fans who were drawn to a chain restaurant with the same name as the boy's hometown because we ran into several other fans that we knew.

-Before we knew it, it was time to head to the venue. We wanted to get there early because we knew Aiden would not be able to handle standing around too long waiting for our photo. Plus SNACKS!! Who can resist ballpark hotdogs and free wine! Aiden was getting frustrated with the line so Kim tried to keep him busy by playing I Spy. Aiden kinda kicked her ass in it.

-5* was its usual blur of excitement. When it came time for our group to enter, Aiden grabbed each of us by the hand to enter the meet and greet area. He made a bee-line for Donnie who was already swarmed with fans. Donnie motioned towards him to come closer and Aiden went to hug him. At the last minute he pulled back and offered his hand instead. Alexis started tearing up at that point and said, "Aiden, it is ok to hug Donnie." When they hugged Alexis was almost in full blown sob mode. The look on Aiden's face was priceless. Par for the course, the photographer yelled, "PICTURE" and Donnie pulled Aiden towards him and Kim and Alexis split for the sidelines. Alexis was next to Joe and Kim was next to Danny as usual. Mere seconds before the first photo was taken we heard Donnie yell, "Where is Aiden's mom?" In the photo both Aiden and Donnie are looking towards the end of the line, from where Alexis yelled "I'm over here!" After the photos were taken, Donnie led Aiden off to the side, took his Boston hat off his head and signed it, "To Aiden, your friend Donnie Wahlberg." On the way out Joe approached Aiden and shook his hand and introduced himself. Aiden's concert was a hit and since part of this was payback for all the trips that Alexis went on without him that was all that mattered. He had been wanting to come with us ever since the St Paul concert when he was able to sit with us up front for part of the show.

-Thanks to the powers of the internets we were able to stand in the front row directly in the middle of the stage. Thanks Sarah!

-The sh0w was great as usual. It was the second night of the Michael Jackson tribute and I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. Something about Joe singing "I'll Be There" gets me every time.

-And then it was over. We went to Denny's where the New Kids did not appear but we were not the only people who had the idea. It was packed.

To view our entire set of pictures on Flickr click here

-The next day we headed back to Chicago to nap, explore, and eat another amazing meal at Alexis's dad's house. This guy had our number and knew we were coming. He was waiting for us in Millenium Park

-The ride back to the Twin Cities was uneventful. To entertain ourselves we changed the setting's of Peggy's Tom-Tom so that every time she drives by a firestation it quacks at her, a bar yells "whoo-hoo" and if she drives by a winery it will moo. FYI: Tom-Tom considers breweries to be in the winery category so as we approached Alexis's house it mooed because she lives near a brewery. We wonder if she has discovered it yet.

Forever and ever and ever. Amen.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO,

Kim and Alexis

Attention! Million Sisters! Today is 8/7/09.

You know what that means, right? Tomorrow is 8/8/09.



And that means that it's almost time for our big awesome Mall of America reunion / Let's Get This book drive party!

Please, if you are anywhere in the vicinity of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, you should really consider joining us for an afternoon of fun.

We have a few activities planned, including a trivia contest, a Summertime sit-in, (We'll only make you listen to it once, while sitting on the floor. Promise.), not to mention a drawing for some awesome prizes. Haven't you always wanted your very own pink Face Time camp chair? What about an action figure (Jenni from TX - we suck, we'll get yours to you very soon - we have the raw ingredients for it now at least)? What about some beer lube? Vintage New Kids trading cards?

$5 or one new children's book will get you one raffle ticket, and one chance to win the grand prize. Naturally you can enter more than once :)

Seriously, you don't want to miss this.

Saturday August 8, 2009
1:00-4:00 PM
Tavern on the Avenue
825 Jefferson Avenue
St Paul, MN
http://www.tavontheavenue.com

xoxo, Kim
(It just occurred to me that we haven't reported on our Chicago trip yet. Whoops. Soon!)

Infinite Loop Indeed!

The internet is really amazing.

Sometimes, just for fun, we Google ourselves (don't judge - you know you do it too).

Last fall Alexis and I were interviewed by the Strib about NKOTB.

This morning, Alexis was engaging in a little self-Googling, and found this article, which appears to be the article from the Star Tribune, syndicated, and then translated into English from some language other than English.

Hilarity ensues:

The most amazing band ever!

New Kids’ return finds fans older, but still avid

what is the price of reliving your early teen years?

in requital for kim carlton and alexis lomen, it’s $375 each. that buys the 31-year-old bffs from st. paul, minn., a wager to meet their childhood idols, the new kids on the piece, and sit related the make up when they run across to town.

“i’m so excited to finally get my donnie hug,” gushed carlton, referring to new kids Mr Big donnie wahlberg.

“having an outlet for that daft spirit you procure when you’re 13 is tender-hearted of important,” said lomen, who is blogging with her consort about their trips to five original kids reunion concerts at www.projectnkotb.com. “i hypothesize you carry that with you for the rest of your life.”

thanks to devoted thirtysomething fans like kim and alexis, altered kids have become the unlikely drop in-music comeback of the year. their new album, “the sketch,” debuted at no. 2 matrix month, selling 139,000 copies, and their tour of the cooperative states, canada, mexico and europe is the hottest-selling reunion since the police in 2007.

I haven't laughed so hard... well since yesterday, when I caught my dog trying to get a lint roller sheet off of his paw.

So who will be joining us at the Let's Get This / Mall of America reunion party next weekend? There will be an awesome raffle prize... including a pink Face Time camp chair! Don't forget to RSVP at letsgetthistc@gmail.com !

xoxo, Kim

It seems to be a time of anniversaries........

Yesterday Kim and I celebrated our "Blogiversary" together. One year ago we had been sitting by my pool plotting our plan of attack for the Mall of America appearance and decided to start a blog. There may have been some vodka involved. Yesterday we celebrated with Kim from ReturnofNKOTB.com and Melissa from NKOTBNEWS.com planning a party. There might have been some vodka involved.
To celebrate the one year anniversary of NKOTB performing at the Mall of America and in conjunction with the Let's Get This Foundation you are all invited to a PARTY OF EPIC PROPORTIONS hosted by ProjectNKOTB.com, ReturnofNKOTB.com and NKOTBNews.com
It promises to be a wonderful time celebrating the friendships that were made over the past year and a chance for us to give back and raise books and funds for the Let's Get This Foundation.

To RSVP for the party please email LetsGetThisTC@gmail.com



I hope that the summer is treating everyone well!

XOXOXOX,
Alexis

Another View... and a Transcript

This comes to us from Lisa R. Lisa, did you transcribe this?? Anyway, it's another shot of the awesome moments after IBLYF, this time with the full speech intact. You can see the signage that people had brought as well.

“Houston! Over a year and a half ago, me and Jordan were in the car, listening to a song… we called Joe and played it for him and sent it to Danny and Jon, and suddenly we were on a trip and we didn’t know where we were going….

And we showed up a few months later, in the freezing rain, on the Today Show. I figured it was too cold and rainy for anybody to come outside and give a damn about us.

But instead, a couple thousand crazy girls who hadn’t seen us in 15 years were sitting out there screaming for us. Then we came back a few months later to that same New York street television studio – this time we had to sing and dance for the first time in 15 years. There were puddles all over the stage, it was raining and freezing cold again, only this time there weren’t two thousand of you…….there was about twenty thousand of you!

And I think we all understood at that moment, and I think the world understood at that moment. It didn’t matter if you were freezing cold, it didn’t matter if we were slipping and busting our asses on the stage in front of 20 million people all around the world…you all were the engine that made us go!

I said earlier today to somebody – we put a lot of time and energy, invested a lot of not knowing what was going to happen, and we built a ship, a sailboat. It was a beautiful boat and we put it in the water, but the boat ain’t gonna go nowhere without the wind. You all’s voices, you all’s hearts, you all’s love, is the wind that makes this ship sail.

We saw most of you as little girls all those years ago… you carried us then, when everyone thought you were crazy, prepubescent girls who didn’t know what they was talking about. And now we get to see you, all these years later, as women, with jobs and careers, and beautiful children and husbands and families. And you came back, and you’re carrying us again!

Let me just say, for the whole world to know - and I know that every guy on this stage feels the same way – we didn’t prove anybody wrong this time around – YOU proved them wrong! You proved them wrong! ‘Cause nobody in this world can tell me that the fine, amazing, brilliant, sophisticated, beautiful women that come to see us every single night don’t know what they’re talking about!

Y’all know me, I’ll talk forever if you let me, so I’m gonna shut up…

On that note, we’re coming to the end of a journey, and today’s the day that we can look at in two ways: we can look at it as the end of a wonderful year, an incredible year, where we all helped each other…and made each other feel good during some terrible, terrible times we all [garbled]… or we can look at tonight at the start of our next year!

And now that we’ve reunited and now that we’ve solidified our bond… Houston, I am happy to say that the state of this union is STRONG! Can we start next year’s party right now???”

A few words from one of our Million Sisters.

I just felt the need to share this with you. Our friend Tiff, with whom we traveled to Omaha, Champaign, and  Des Moines - and who wrote the awesome cruise recap for us, was at the Dallas and Houston shows (with Lisa and Peggy, two more of our "sisters"). She had this to say about the clip that we posted yesterday of the guys after I'll Be Loving You Forever. Big thanks to the person who caught that moment on camera.

*****

Much of the show up to this point had included a lot of fun and pranks.  The
guys were on fire, and the crowd was on fire (lol. I sound like DW…) We shed
some tears during some of the other ballads and during "5 brothers" (Joe was
incredible), but mostly it was a hell of a fun show.

This clip, however, was right after IBLYF.  The crowd was prepared with LED
candles that we "lit" at the beginning (at one point I turned around – it
was a marvelous sight.)  Jordan sang his heart out.  Back in the day IBLYF
was a love song, but today the lyrics are just so appropriate…

In the video that Melissa found (right after the song ended), the guys look
like they're smiling in the video, but tears were streaming down their
faces.  I don't know if she got many shots of the guys' faces contorting,
but they did – every one of them was crying.  A couple of them were crying
hard enough to be purple in the face (Jon in particular)…  We were all
sobbing messes in the crowd.  I couldn't even cheer – no noise would come
out of my throat… All I could do was hold a candle in one hand, and my
friends in the other!  It was a long break in the show; long enough to
really think about how much all of our lives have changed in the past year.
It was a moment of shared appreciation and love for the incredible journey
we've all been on.

I just really felt the need to put that into context.  That song is my
favorite part of every show, and on Saturday night it was poignant.  For all
of you who couldn't be there, I just want you to know that I thought of each
of you.  I am really not doing a great job of putting this experience into
words, but I'll never forget that moment as long as I live.

*****

Thanks Tiff.

We Proved Them Wrong

I wish, so much, that we could have been there last night.