I can't personally help you, but let me tell you. You stay on this forum for awhile and get to know some people. You will gain a lot of knowledge and several legs up on your average first year elk hunter. The key is, contribution, the more you contribute to the site, the more you will get out of it. You will also probably find someone to personally share some info with you.
Cheers, and welcome to the wonderful world of elk hunting. PS - Please do get your kids into it, I can tell you that when I was a kid, hunting was by far my most look forward to time of the year. It still is!

It was the single most important factor to my dad and I having a VERY close relationship.