Christmas

Pirate boy
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

We had a wonderful Christmas. Preston became a full-fledged pirate and knight, so he doesn't know which side to be on when we do knights versus pirates. Merry Christmas and happy new year everybody.

Brandon is famous

Not really. But Schmap used one of my photos. Yay me! It's a pic of the monorail

Schmap
~Brandon

Decorations

Look at us go. We have new photos of more of the Xmas decorations.

wreath
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Snow

Here's video of the dub in snow from this last Sautrday.

Update

So I have moved everything from Nebraska Gardens over to here. There weren't a lot of posts there and it didn't really make a whole lot of sense. Enjoy the consolidated version of our blog.
Also, as I was switching everything over I noticed we have been blogging since 2003! Wow! Super crazy
~Brandon

Get Down Tonight

The Dub getting his groove on in Lawrence, Kansas. This was at our friends M&M's wedding reception. I apologize for the film quality, I was shooting in low light with my digital, non-cam corder, camera.

And more below

Kicking Leaves

Here's a clip of our little man kicking leaves near Buckingham Palace.

trees

trees
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

This is from a set of 4 that Preston did yesterday. I helped with the technical picking of things, but he chose the colors and textures and did the actual painting on the computer.

Green Babies

Now that we're home, our attentions are turning toward the once and future newest BurkeWicker and what, exactly, we're going to do with it. (Ack!)

One thing we've decided is that we're going green on this one. For starters, that means no more disposable diapers. Right now, our top choice is gDiapers as a nice compromise between convenience and conscience.

The other thing is all about learning more about green babies (the secret, apparently is bamboo or hemp everything). Anyway...for anyone out there who's interested, we've mostly been doing our learning from sites like Great Green Baby.

And because I hate a post without a picture, here's a nice pastoral view from Marie Antoinette's Versailles retreat.

Home again, home again

Well, we have been home since Tuesday at it is nice. Still lots to do, but first other stuff to do.
~Brandon

Been offline awhile

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Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

So we are back home tomorrow! Been a great trip and I am ready and not ready for it to be over. Sorry, that's it for now.
~Brandon

The British Museum

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Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Whoa! Lots of stuff. Preston really liked the mummies and Tarehna took in the Parthenon(bits). More Asyrian stuff for B. Tomorrow is our last full day in London, so sad. But happiness awaits in Omaha!
~Brandon

Street Entertainer

This guy was awesome!

guitar window

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Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Here's Preston, through a display of just a very few of the massive display of musical instruments in the massively massive Victoria and Albert Museum, quite easily one of the coolest we've ever been to. Lucky for us, it was the only thing open before noon on Sunday in this town--otherwise we would've missed all the fun.

So far (after a sample of 1), it appears that British museums have it all over French museums. At Pompidou they tortured you with endless displays of chairs without any benches or seats from which to view them. The Orsay was hardly better. Granted, both were filled with spectacular art, but sometimes you just want to rest a second.

So, at the V&A not only was admission free (!), but there were cushy nice chairs and benches all over the place. In the 19th century section, the benches were plush and upholstered in brown velvet, and many included audio-guides or informative books built in to the seating itself. Spectacular! And if that weren't enough, the museum also provides "gallery stools" that can be carried around from room to room for your sitting pleasure, just so long as you return them to their little hooks when you're done.

After the V&A (and a nice, very British lunch of beef&ale pie and mashers), we walked up Brompton road to Harrod's, which is in full-on Christmas mode. The entire 2nd floor is given over to all things Christmas! We also paid a nice visit to the 4th floor toy department before heading back to the hotel. A busy, fun day.

Tomorrow we meet up with Theresa for a ride on the *gulp* London Eye!

~Tarehna

Portobello

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Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

We went to Portobello road and checked out the market today. It felt a lot like the Saturday Market, but with antiques and British accents. Also did a little shopping at H&M. Also found he Little Portland Cafe!
~Brandon

Père Lachaise and Musée d'Orsay

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Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Today was another great day. We saw dead people, well their houses anyway, and lots of impressionist art. Tomorrow we head to London via the Chunnel, should be exciting. Preston is starting to pick up a little French just as we're leaving-c'est la vie.
~Brandon

Dance Fever Paris Style

This kid was a maniac, maniac in the courtyard of the Pompidou. If you watch closely you can see the Dub towards the end.
~Brandon

Stolen Portraits

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Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

You'll see quite a few photos of what seem to be random people. This is my new project. I snap photos of people posing for other people. It's fun, you should try it. I have so far had only one person look directly at me as I was doing this. It's a really great picture. You should browse through and see if you can find it. Today we did a little shopping at Tati, saw the Arc de Triomphe, and a wee bit of the Pompadou. Very tired, very sore.
~Brandon

three invaders!

three invaders!
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

We're finding signs of the invasion everywhere. This is from somewhere on Montmartre, where we learned that my handy foldy map is neither handy in Montmatre nor particularly foldy when soggy.

It's raining on us in Paris. Not too hard, but enough that we made the mistake of giving the dub our little umbrella. We'll not be doing that again. Also, we'll probably be buying a larger umbrella. Maybe one with that black cat on it. That black cat was everywhere yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday, it was church day. We started at Notre Dame, where Preston most liked the area behind the altar where the models are kept. After a restorative (but expensive!) rest in a cafe, we took the Metro out to Montmartre and rode the funicular train up to Sacre Couer. It was great to look down at Paris in the mist, where only the tall landmarks were visible. We toured the inside of Sacre Couer, but felt like jerks because there was actually a service on while we were going through...and because about halfway through Pdub started saying "no church!" which is kind of rude.

The boys rode on a carousel, and we finished the day back on the Left Bank just across from Notre Dame with "lunch" and a visit to Shakespeare and Company, where the desperate English speaker can buy paperback books for twice the regular price! I bought three!

Day 2

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Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

We hit the Louvre bright and early. Well, early anyway. It was still pretty dark. T only took pictures of the old fortress inside, we didn't really feel like snapping the rest of what we saw. Anyway, time for some homework-YAY!
~Brandon

le tour

le tour
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

We made it! We are in Paris and we are pooped. There are a handful of pictures of us being pooped in Paris. To make it easier on everybody we've started a set of Paris Pictures for your browsing enjoyment.

We explored the neighborhood this afternoon...and the neighborhood just happens to have the Eiffel Tower in it. We discovered on arrival that our hotel deal included 2-day Paris Museum passes, so I'll be tweaking our itinerary to make the most of two days of free museum entry! What a lovely surprise.

The dub did awesome on the plane--only crying a little at the end (and by the end of a transatlantic flight, I think we all kind of wish we could cry). Now we're banishing ourself to the hotel room until 7am tomorrow in an effort to reset our clocks.

More Tomorrow--Au revoir!

Art projects

These are from Preston's school. Each week they pick a different theme. Next week's theme is camping!!! Which is, sadly, something we have not done this year, but hey we did make it to Canada.

The dub is an artist with an "e" and a beret. part deux

dudes1.jpg
Originally uploaded by the_pdub

More dudes!

The dub is an artist with an "e" and a beret.

pdubdudes.jpg
Originally uploaded by the_pdub

This is from about a year ago. I will put one more up. Need to scan and put more up after this.

Papa has gone nutty with YouTube

Square2

Just wanted to encourage everyone to visit http://artworldckw.blogspot.com/

Backyard

papa ties his shoe
Originally uploaded by the_pdub.

Here's a pic showing the progress we've made. Here is a link to show the transformation Back Yard

Pdub: the movie

thoughful at the zoo

pensive
Originally uploaded by the_pdub.

We went to the zoo on Tuesday to take advantage of this shockingly weird and rare March sunshine! We had a good time, although the dub wasn't all that interested in the animals this time out. We had such a good time, though, that we bought a membership anyway!

Click here to see all the pictures from the zoo...and look for yourself in our new "family portrait" photoset!

soulful musician

guitar 3
Originally uploaded by the_pdub.

he's getting more and more musical every day--here he's playing "gootah"...but he also hums, sings, dances and spins.