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

So, Is The Beer Lube Done Being Made?

Or, St Paul to Champaign via Pleasoning

If you ask Drew what his Saturday morning was like he would say, "A bunch of Alexis's friends started bouncing around the house at 7am getting ready to leave for their pilgramage in a rented mini-van."

Once everyone had arrived at my house we headed out for the airport to pick up our awesome RENTED mini-van. We took Drew's car out there and about half mile from my house my phone rang. "Ummm, are you bringing my car back?" "No Drew, we all left our stuff in the front lawn and are taking your Jeep on our road trip. Didn't we tell you?"

We think we made the rental man quite nervous. There was a series of questions about who was actually driving the car and when we said, "All five of us" it only made it worse. However when I decided to asked if the outside of the car had to be clean if say, we drove through a mud storm or wrote on the car with pink paint I think that we almost gave him a heart attack. The final straw was when he asked where we were going and Lisa responded, "You know, just driving. Driving around."

We finally got the car back, we loaded it up and decorated it up.



We hit the road and stopped for lunch at the Norske Nook near Osseo, WI.


At this restaurant we discovered another Wisconsin original "invention" Pleasoning. Pleasoning is a special blend of garlic salt, grains and MSG. Wisconsin is great. Not only is it home to the Beer Lube, but it is also home to Pleasoning.

We drove for a bit, but pulled over when we saw this:


We traveled on down the road, to The Home of The Beer Lube in Deforest, WI.



We first encountered this mecca of awesomeness back in October of last year on the way home from Chicago. We were too tired then to realize what a treasure was on the other side of the parking lot. We were fully able to explore The Home Of The Beer Lube on our way home from Milwaukee on the Megabus. At that time, The Beer Lube was still being manufactured. It was developed in those big yellow trailers.

Well, guess what? THEY PERFECTED THE BEER LUBE!!!! And I can only say that it was worth the wait. Now, you don't have to choose between having a beer and doing it (TM)!

We met Roger "Story" Beer, Esq. III who was super nice to us. Not only do we have a lifetime discount on The Beer Lube, but he was nice enough to give us each a Beer Lube T-Shirt.


Holla at Rog! We are hoping for a Beer Lube endorsement deal. We will pimp The Beer Lube ALL OVER TOWN if it gets us another show...or five.

After a few more hours, we finally arrived in Champaign, IL. The iHotel was wonderful. The rooms were a bit small but they were beautiful and the service was amazing. After a quick dinner at the attached Houlihans we headed to bed. We had work to do in the morning and needed our beauty rest.

In typical Project NKOTB fashion, we were awake by 6:30 AM. We are physically incapable of sleeping in. It's really freaking annoying. We decided to make the most of the day and do some bus stalking. Five women were awake, showered, dressed, made up, and ready to leave the room by 9:00 AM. Sick, wrong, and yet totally expected.

Also in typical Project NKOTB fashion, it was cold and rainy. All of our cute Face Time gear that we made was covered in many layers of jackets. We were very grateful for our Face Time camp chairs.


The entire day of bus stalking was fruitless, aside from a Twitter from Jon about the crazy bus stalkers standing in the rain, and Chris Coleman (not our mayor) coming out to say hi. He was thrilled to have his photo taken with the Project NKOTB action figures. He made sure that his new friend got in on the action.


Even the promise of cookies couldn't lure them out...
Betcha didn't know that you could safety pin things to trees...

After several hours in the cold rain and snow, we decided to pack it in. We heart the New Kids, but we're not willing to risk hypothermia. We freshened up and headed to Houlihan's an hour early for our pre-party.

Holla if you see yourself!


















Holla at our road trip sisters!






Holla at Ben S., our insanely patient waiter, who tried to work it so we could have New Kids tunes playing (unfortunately, Houlihan's is contractually obligated to play the Houlihan's Muzak Channel 24/7)




The Jabbawockeez were more entertaining than we'd expected. Neither of us watched that show that they were on (even though Alexis hearts JC Chasez in a sick kind of way) so we really didn't know what to expect.

Our seats were at the back of the arena for this show, in the first section of risers. It wasn't so bad, since the floor only seemed to have about 20 rows of seats. Our view of the B stage was beyond amazing. When it was elevated, we were at eye level with them. It was almost surreal...

The new opening:

We both agree that we like Single better as an opener. We could write a whole post about this, but we'll leave it for another day.

A few photos. The rest are here

We both hate this one (we look bad), but check out the cute shirts we made :)




Check our view of the B Stage:




Seriously - check this view.


O Hai Jordan










We stood outside for about five minutes after the show, but it was FREEZING. And we were TIRED. Tiff was a trooper and stayed until after midnight, but she finally gave up and came back to the hotel after a security guy said they'd be bringing Donnie out on a cart because he'd hurt his back. She figured it wasn't worth bothering an ailing man at that point... She reported to us that there were at least 30 cars idling nearby, waiting to follow the bus when it left.

Stay tuned for the Champaign > Des Moines adventure... coming soon!

XOXO, Holla, Aloha, Shakalaka boom,
Kim & Alexis