Subjugated in Sligo!

Ah, road trips with kids.

Great idea. Rough implementation.

This weekend proved it. We drove from Dublin to Sligo and back. What do Lisa and I remember? "Dad, are we there yet?" Mummy! Mummy! Mummy!" Desperate quests for food. And, the list of mental challenges goes on and on. If we properly reflect, we might recall slight visions of magnificent waves to surf and cairns to climb. But as we write this on a Sunday evening at the end of our Clark W. Griswald weekend, we find it hard to do anything but sit, stare at the TV and hope Ava and Liam go to sleep early.

From our Dublin home,

Tom & Lisa, the subjugated parents that we are tonight

Charity Party at Herbert Montessori

Liam's school hosted a charity party this morning for Support an Athlete Ireland.

View Us from Outer Space!

For those of you who worship Google Earth (big brothers!!!) here are our coordinates in Dublin.

Happy Birthday, Liam! Kah-Chow! xx oo Lightnin' McQueen

Lisa prepared a Lightnin' McQueen birthday cake for Liam. Here are pictures of Liam and Ava wearing their costume masks.

Mark's Dad told us that penguins are six feet tall in the Falkland Islands!

Uncle Mark from Australia and the Falkland Islands visited us for three days this month.

Forget the update, CHECK OUT LIAM'S NEW SOCCER CLEATS!!!

It has been three months since we have had access to our iBook; thus, we were unable to quickly post to this blog. Lisa has been extremely patient whilst we've battled the local telcom, Eircom, and SkyTV. Customer service is absent in Ireland. As of today, we finally have broadband access and cable TV (Liam and Ava have Playhouse Disney while Lisa and I have BBC's Trinny and Susannah back in our lives). Enough said.

Liam, of the four of us, is thriving the most. With uniform, he attends Herbert Montessori five days a week from 8:30am through 1pm. It's a pleasure to see him so happy there. As a result of his exposure to local accents, his voice is occasionally rather, well, English... I dare say. Ava is a long, lean fighting machine. Her language is advancing even though she insists on calling everyone "Mummy."

The Irish weather continues to challenges us. January saw me ill with a chest cold for the entire month. Lisa rises above it all as she is looking very good. We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary in Janaury. And, can you believe it, Liam turned 4 years old on 3 Feb.

We've spent our weekends in Dublin. As Portlanders, we were desperate to source a farmers' market and we finally have a good one to visit on Sunday mornings just 5 minutes drive from our house. Oh, yes, our house. I will try to post a Google Earth link so you can see where we sleep. Meanwhile, here is our address: 8 Clyde Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 Ireland.

Be well.

From far afield,

T. Wilson