It is scary for me to believe, but somehow Oliver has been with us for three years already. He has accomplished so much and added more to our lives then we could have ever imagined.
We had a small party for him at a local pizza place and this year he definitely knew it was his birthday. We all had a lot of fun and thank everyone who came or sent their love from afar. Enjoy:



Here are some posts that really amazed me from not too long ago:

• February 16th 2007 - here
• February 16th 2008 - here
  

Our travels this winter break were not nearly what they have been previously (2007: 1, 2, 3). In fact, no flights at all and we only drove about three and a half hours - to Cabarete. We stayed there for three weeks and although we missed friends and family terribly having a special group come from California helped us to survive.

As i sit here more than a month after the vacation so many moments jump to my mind as being incredible, i just could never share them all here. One of my favorite moments of the entire time however was about fifteen seconds in duration (overhearing a conversation between Karli and Rick):

Rick: So do you body surf?
Karli: Well i just float around and laugh a lot.
Rick: Sounds like fun; and a good way to live life.

A great final Christmas in the Dominican Republic.

The original vision of this blog was that it would be a place for us to share our adventures, thoughts and general goings on with you. I have done the majority of the postings but few loyal readers of this blog could ever forget this post by Karli.

Well today is another historic day. With great pride I present you with....

Oliver's first post:

"the ocean"

So now the proud father will give you a little play-by-play. So i was on morning duty Saturday and with the monstress happily entertaining herself Ollie brought me his paints saying, "I want this." He started the work by combining blue and green in the middle of the page. I told him it was beautiful and that it looked like the ocean. He then brought me the brown paint telling me it was for sand. He added the sun then the pink fish y VOILA!

We are awaiting a call from la louvre.

On Sunday we went to the botanical gardens where our now famous artist was mobbed by adoring fans:


you aren't going to believe me but i really had nothing to do with this - you trying being the cute little blond boy 'round here!

I am writing this behind the mountain of pictures and videos that ARE the festive season. I am doing my best...which isn't that good. Well anywhoooo these are some pictures from Early December, getting ready for Christmas, a visit from Granny and Boppy, and general goofing off, enjoy:



We Christmas-ed in Cabarete this year; that is coming soon.

some pics from cabarete:

lots waiting to be made into a video, but in case you can't wait

here

Well after going three months without a long weekend we were hit with two of them in November. The first one was "Dia de la Constitucion" which we celebrated on the 10th of November and then we celebrated our anniversary on the 26th of November by taking off the next two working days.

Enjoy...


The first one was spent in Cabrera on the north coast and the second brought us back to a place for beginning: Las Terrenas.

Also want to welcome Spencer Vernon Keith Lancaster to the world of BrantfordBoys. We have been excitedly waiting for you. Nikki you are an absolute goddess - congratulations all.

Halloween 2008

Truth be told this is actually a collection of shots mostly from the month of October.
Ollie playing the role of adorable tyrant, Ella as Sweetness and Karli as the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Enjoy:

Happy Thanksgiving Canucks...

Here is the video that brings you up to...the first week in August - ouch.

Last post: June 16
Today's date: September 16

ouch...


but seriously, where can i even think of beginning? we've been to California, Toronto, Kingston, Brantford, Cabarete and are now well back into the swing of things here in Santo Domingo. As i look through the pictures to pick a couple to put here the kids look so different then they do today...life has a tendency to move pretty quickly i guess...

Well here is part one of the summer: California.



If things continue at the same rate part deux should be out...December 16th

4 years of backgammon, 4 years of kitesurfing, 4 years of bowling, 3 kids brought into this world...
cost = 390 pesos.
that is a bargain (12-13 us dollars)

Goodtimes.

Worst part of being an international teachers is saying good-bye to the people who become your family wherever it is you are. We are losing a lot of wonderful "family" members this year, its tough, but perhaps toughest on those staying put?

To the people moving on from CMS, good luck, drop us a line every once in a while and we'll catch you on the flip side.
KOEm

That is right the waterproof camera we bought on January 3rd died last Saturday May 17th. It passed due to water intake despite being waterproof. I emailed Olympus on Monday and am still hoping to hear from them soon.
I will keep you posted.
As you can imagine i am pretty much crushed as i generally go nowhere without my camera.

Sure was lucky (for you) that this happened to occur on the week that Granny and Boppy were visiting. Those of you who have met them know that there would be no shortage of photos during this week - especially with a new grand-daughter to meet. We had a great time relaxing and being together and are thankful that the end of the year is drawing near and we will not have to wait too long to hang out some more.

Granny & Boppy: Spring Visit 2008


For those of you anxiously awaiting something worth reading Karli has informed me that she is finalizing a blog post in her mind these days and now just has to have a couple minutes to get it written down (finding this time was somehow easier b.k. (before kids)).

tombstone from: http://www.bigoo.ws/generator/tombstone-note-generator.aspx

It has been more then three weeks since i have posted here ... i could say i have been busy, which i have been (two kids is wonderful but also lots of work). Of course anyone who read the previous post knows why it has taken twenty-two days to write something here; how can i possibly follow that? Hopefully Karli will share more of her thoughts and her literary gift with us here in the near future.

Until then i am going to give up writing and stick to what i know (which isn't much)



In addition to wonderful visits from both Kristy and Geoff we were also visited by Pulitzer prize winner Junot Diaz - he was absolutely incredible to be around and one of the most incredible speakers i have ever heard (you can hear some of his talk here)

Its happened, its finally happened!! After months (actually years) of prodding and poking I actually got Karli to post a blog entry, it is of course incredible and puts me to shame, but of course you would have expected that. Without further ado:

Since I can’t manage to tear myself away from my new baby girl long enough to write you all an email, I thought I would finally write a blog entry. I apologize profusely for not telling each and every one of you our news personally but I hope you understand. I will do my best to email soon but until then know that we are all happy and healthy. If you watch Mark’s video that he has here then that speaks for itself really.

One of the reasons I love knowing another language is seeing the bridge between words and understanding them a little bit better from a different perspective. In Spanish, an infant can be called a criatura which literally means creature. Of course at first I was a little offended, people calling my beautiful baby a creature but now I am starting to see the truth of it. I can understand this as I watch my little 5 day old creature here, Ella Mackenzie Picketts. At times she seems totally out of this world as she snarfs and burrows and claws at the air and at other times she reminds me of little creatures that I know;

• she is like a kitty cat as she stretches her stiff little legs and arms when I take the blanket off of her
• sometimes she is like a chipmunk as she squeaks and clicks when she wants to be fed - - and other times she is like a puppy dog with her wrinkles of extra skin around her knees and butt
• or a basset hound covered in soft fur on her head which I go to kiss a hundred times a day
• or a bird as she wriggles and squirms to be fed, mouth open wide as a homing device for my breast. But one thing is for certain, she couldn’t be one of us humans. So small, so innocent and perfect.

When you think about the word criatura a little more…

I wonder if it came from criar which means to raise or better yet, to create
And is there also a connection to crecer which means to grow
And then there is also creer which is my favorite – to dream

So wherever we have kidnapped this little creature from, I am so glad that she is here. And be it to raise, create, grow or dream…she is all these things to me. To my lovely wrapped bundle , “As I raise you here with me, let us create a world in which you may grow in to become the you that you want to be – may your dreams be the limits of your soul.”

Recent Videos: Picketts 4.0 Release - Masters' Champion

The official release video:



We are all completely in love with Ella and really can't wait for her to meet you in person. Have no fear however...Kristy got me a FlipVideo for my birthday so there will not be a shortage of video here.

Big Brother...


so much footage, and it grows everyday...

stay tuned and have a great weekend

Picketts 4.0 officially released!
Ella Mackenzie Picketts
April 15, 2008 - 7:44 am
Clinica Abel Gonzalez
Special thanks to: Tamara Frankenburg, Jacobo, Juan Carlos Toral, Thom & Pam Pelliccia, to name only a few...

lots more needed here but this will do to get you started...

relaxing with dad

Ella - age 5 minutes (she doesn't look a second over 4)

Picketts 4.0 - the much anticipated release.

More will come soon, as you can likely imagine i have a little bit of footage from this event, so stay tuned.

phew! I really didn't think i was going to get this post finished in time - but it is here and its going up.

I didn't want the release of Picketts 4.0 to happen before an incredible spring break we had with Jeff, Debbie, April and Eric in Cabarete was duly documented. It was relaxing super fun and so great to be together.

As for life back in the capital we had some contractions last Friday which vaulted us into "full ready mode," the bags are packed and the cell phones are never far away. That said we are enjoying the last days with the three of us, full nights of sleep, and watching the excitement in Oliver build around his baby sister. Karli's belly gets lots of kisses each night before bed.
I am slammed at work and trying to get ahead before the arrival - how does it feel like i am falling further behind?

some more random footage from the last couple of weeks. 4 more working days until Semana Santa! i think i can i think i can i think i can...

Mom left Ollie and i for a weekend with the girls. I nice quiet boys weekend at home? Not for these two. He was jarred from sleep at 3:30 in the morning, thrown into a truck and then driven three hours to the best surf break on the north coast. There he watched the Master of the Ocean competition (cool video on the site, i tried to get some footage of the surfing but just don't have the zoom). After a breakfast we checked into the hotel, i almost went down while putting Ollie in for his nap; in the end however it was simple, if i wasn't going to kite why was i putting us both through this ordeal. It took one second on the water to feel on top of the world again. Had a nice long session on the reef while Abel and Ollie napped and had a short session on Sunday.
This kid is amazing to put up with me, i am so lucky.

long overdue but what can i say - February is a busy month in our family. Since Ollie's celebration the Hughes came for a visit (pic), there has been a full lunar eclipse, i have been down south into true Dominicana on a mind-blowing solo kitesurfing adventure, we pulled one over on Karli for a baby shower, i got older, so did Karli, and independence day was celebrated - not bad really. Does kinda leave you wanting a nap though.

And i have more good news. Karli has promised to write about Ollie's birthday here on this blog! When i started this i wanted it to be a family collaboration of thoughts, images and writing and this is the first step in that direction. There is no doubt her re-count of such a great day will force you to wonder why you ever read any of my drivel, but until she gets it written here are some moving images to keep you entertained.