Michael, Colleen, Ambiana & Jakobi in Vermont

Gaelen's Movies

2010-04-22T16:45:00.002-04:00

Gaelen is with us for a week and he's been very busy making and editing movies.

Gaelen, Ambiana and me spent a rainy afternoon checking out the elaborate granite gravestones in this cemetary. Ambiana took all the close ups, seems my kids got my photo gene :)

This is a long one of Galen and Ambiana and Jakobi and includes Gaelen singing in his school musical

Gaelen gets really crazy in this short film he made this afternoon

Weekend in Boston

2010-04-15T13:58:00.005-04:00

We went to Boston last weekend leaving on Thursday so Colleen could go to a conference at Hampshire College on Friday. We camped at the confluence of the Mill and Connecticut Rivers.

Jakobi thought we were back on Tortola, she loves the tent

We spent Friday Night with South Hadley friends Kim and Wendy and Hannah!

We parked outside katie and Bob's old home and took the subway to Granny's home.

Ambiana loves her Gamma...

...and was a big help pushin' her around,

Jakobi loves to swing..

...and to be pushed on anything with wheels...

We ran the Doyles 5 mile pub run for the 4th time on Sunday. 2nd race with the double jogger. Me and the gals finished under 44 minutes and Colleen came in around 52 minutes. I hit a post with the left wheel of the jogger and ran the last 100yds with the jogger doing a wheelie as the front tire got wobbly and was pullin' to the right. Granny said I was 7th out of 23 strollers..

Gaelen makes a Movie

2010-04-08T16:34:00.002-04:00

Gaelen was up this weekend and he made this movie. We also took his passport picture as he is coming to Ireland with us in August for Chuck's Wedding!!! Thanks to all the relatives who made this happen!!!! He is very excited!!

Spring Fun

2010-04-01T16:45:00.002-04:00

Jakobi hated the Ocean but she loves the Bath...

Granny came up for a vist after her 3 weeks in Montana with Katie, Maya and Bob. She wasa big help bringing Gaelen up for his weekend visit and taking him home too. Daddy loved the extra free time!

We celebrated the Vernal Equinox on March 2oth with a potluck party and fire at our place.

Here are the guys out by the fire.

We took in a family Contradance on March 21st

Jakobi loves to hang out...

...and Ambiana loves to make potholders...

Cutest bug in the whole dang house! Jakobi is now 8 moons young, she's scootin everywhere, getting up on her hands and knees and rockin', shakin her head and waking us all up in the morning with her good morning screams. She loves to eat anything within her reach...

Tortola the Movie part 6-12

2010-03-18T17:08:00.002-04:00

Tortola: The 2nd 2 weeks

Spring is in the air...

2010-03-15T12:56:00.005-04:00

Spring is in the air. We've been super busy, me with work, Colleen with organizing and throwing lots of events
The Fairy Workshop went very well and new folk showed up who had seen the flyer which was exciting!

The Romp was more like a run and scream than a dance but the potluck was nice and we met some nice folk again we hadn't known before.

And this one is coming up on the Equinox and we are also throwing a ritual/gathering potluck to celebrate the return of Spring.

Jakobi is a super scooter, loves to wake up screaming when Thomas the cat nudges her in the morning and is gearing up for full on crawling by getting up on her knees. She is eating bananas, rice ceral and avocados plus her new favorite: Pizza Crust.

On the homefront we have found a piece of land with our friends Rick and Karen and their 3 kids. It's in Worcester; 60+ acres and has a house on it. It is where Rick and Karen live now as renters We are preparing an offer sheet to submit in April and if it is accepeted and we get a mortgage we will buy it and build a small cabin this summer and move in September and then spend the winter getting timber ready for the 'real' house and have lots of fun work parties in the summer of 2011 building our solar passive hybrid post-and-beam 2 story with a living roof and greenhouse kitchen straw bale home.

More Tortola videos coming soon but until then enjoy this!

Ben at Sea Alone for Too Long

and this:

Home Movies!

2010-03-05T09:09:00.003-05:00

It's been a super busy 2 weeks since we've been back, I've been swamped with work, we got a 18" snowstorm, Ambiana started a gymnastics class, Jakobi is scooting all over the place and eating food. Here are lots of video from our past 6 weeks. Enjoy!

Ambiana's 4th Birthday Party

Ambiana Sings Over the Rainbow

Tortola: The 1st 2 weeks

Back From Tortola

2010-02-18T13:18:00.012-05:00

We had a wonderful month on Tortola and Vigin Gorda, I have been busy catching up with work so look for a Tortola retrospective soon but for now enjoy this
SLIDESHOW

Our Last RoadTrip of 2009

2010-01-06T14:03:00.006-05:00

Jakobi 5 months

Jakobi is rolling all over the place and loves to squawk and squawk! She is also very happy that Thomas came back after being gone 10 days. We thought the coyotes got him but he showed up yesterday and I followed his tracks and discovered he'd been across the road holed up in Daniel's barn!

Colleen is running a playgroup in our town and last week they made gingerbread houses.

The Montshire Science Museum

Before heading to NYC we met up with John and Eden at the Montshire Science Museum in White River Junction.

Gaelen was with us for his school break and it was fun for him to hang with all 3 of his sisters.

There was a big dino exhibit and Eden and Ambiana took a drive through the Pleistocene era.

Visiting Debbie, Aaron & Hayden in NJ

Then it was off to Weehawken NJ across the Hudson from NYC where we met 2 month old Hayden for the first time. Debbie is an awesome Mom and Aaron a proud papa. We spent 3 nights with them and had lots of fun.

On the last day of the year I took Gaelen and Ambiana on a big city adventure. We rode buses and trains and headed under the Hudson, across Manhatten, and then over the East River via the Brooklyn Bridge.

On the Bus

On the Subway

On the bridge

Under the bridge where we got Ice Cream!

Gaelen really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty so we took him to Liberty Park to get a good view of it.

Happy Soulstice!

2009-12-29T12:39:00.002-05:00

With the turning of the year we've been real busy and i've been slacking on the blog. We celebrated the Soulstice 4 days running with ceremonies in Burlington and at our home, a party at All Together Now where Ambiana goes to Music Together and a dream ritual at home on the 4th night of the long nights!

Gaelen is with us for a week over the holidays and we are happy to have him. We are planning on going to NYC to visit Debbi and Aaron and their new baby Hayden for New Years.

On the way to get gaelen I took a detour to the IMAX theatre in Reading MA to see the 3D IMAX version of AVATAR, it was unbelievably beautiful and very honoring of the Mother of Us ALL and the 3D was amazing.

Jakobi's hair is getting long, her new thing is to roll over and over and over and to bang anything she has in her hand up and down super fast whacking everything and anyone including herself that gets in the way.

Here are a couple of vids of the kids! Enjoy!

WINTER!!!

2009-12-16T15:18:00.002-05:00

Before the snow fell we took a carriage ride in downtown Montpelier.

Ambiana loved the horse.

She also loves her panda she won at the Co-op annual meeting raffle last month!

Jakobi's hands are always in motion and her favorite thing to put in her mouth is a spoon. She is rolling over from front to back and back to front, making all kinds of noises, and loves to watch her sister and Thomas the cat.

Snow finally came last week and didn't let up for a week. Ambiana loves to help me shovel the steps...

...and brush off the car.

She is much better in the snow this year, doesn't mind if it gets on her and loves to plop in it and make snow angels. Gaelen was up for the weekend and they had lots of fun in the sled.

We spent saturday night at Rick and Karen's. We slept over, had a yum meal and gaelen and Ya had a blast playing with Cole and Aila.

Ambiana in her munchkin tights! We treated her and the rest of the kids to a free showing of the Wizard of Oz at the Savoy Theatre. We bumped Ambiana's 1st movie age from 7 to 3 11/12ths because she knows the story so well and felt she was ready for a special treat! We prepped her for the Wicked Witch and the Flying Monkeys and she was fine throughout. At first she was a little reluctant to watch but soon got into it and even whispered to me what was coming up and said out loud when the witch was on the screen: "She's not scary, she's just a person dressed up!"

Here is the whole gang before going in to the movie...no Colleen because she and Jakobi were in Burlington for the weekend taking a dance therapy course. just me and my kids for 2 days!

Ambiana loves to hold Jakobi!!!

Fairyhouses and Toledo

2009-12-03T15:32:00.009-05:00

We are getting Jakobi Kai a passport and this is her photo for it, we made it ourselves and have 4 left over if anyone wants a little jakobi kai magnet for their fridge we'll make you one...and yes we are planning a trip; a month long excursion to Tortula in the British Virgin Isles!

We held a fairyhouse building playdate at our home the 2nd and 3rd Thursdays in November. Our friends Karen and Aila, Feather and her daughter, Cara and Callum and Yanna and her 2 kids all came out on the frosty mornings to celebrate the autumn season. We told stories, sang songs and and built houses for the fairies in the woods.

Colleen made yummy muffins...

Here is Yanna talking with Colleen and Ricarta, Yanna is the one who told us about Tortula in the British Virgin Isles and she and her family are going there too!

nina, ambiana and ayla

mommy reading

TOLEDO for THANKSGIVING

We drove overnight to Ohio stopping 1st to pick up Gaelen. I drank my 32oz +2 espresso shot coffee concoction and listened to john kraukaers Pat Tillman book, more about how much the army and those in charge suck. Tillman is portrayed as the embodiment of the virtue and integrity which is missing in the leadership of our country. Giving up the lifestyle which is glamourized and futilely sought after by the masses, the dream life that Madison avenue feeds us via TV and celebrity tossed aside because of duty...he took it too personally, it doesn't mean anything, Tillman died for nothing but his ideals which the army and its leadership do not share. He was killed by his own troops in the insanity that is war and then was attempted to be sold to us ala jessica lycnh which is also in the book as Tillman was in the unit that rescued her but did nothing, sat back in case support was needed in that charade...

the charade of war, so senseless so what the f%$k??? wouldn't we rather be making our planet as habitable as possible and living in joy but we don't because we are mind f%*ked and enslaved in a false reality to0 caught up in watching and imitating rather than living our truth...power...

The soviets got mired in Afghanistan and now it's the US empire and its making f&#kers rich and that is why it is done, so someone can feel their worth at the expense of others, passive aggressive action on a global scale. How many people could we feed and give good lives with all those billions??? why to we continue to play along? Let's go on STRIKE, stop buying all the stuff...only what we need then go cold turkey, they'll cut-off the food and then the dying will begin...

long drive, lots of thoughts, we arrived at 5am, woke Chuck up to let us in. Ben sue and Tony arrived around 11am from detroit where they saw Widespreadpanic the night before. The family together for the first time since Patti's wedding in '95.

Ambiana was so excited to see Maya who moved far away in June. They painted faces all week starting with Susanna and Katie.

Tony's Gal Beth, they are engaged.

Overwhelmed Poppa put us up at the Ramada Inn where there was a pool. We also had the Boston market catered Thanksgiving dinner there with the Travis Family from Massena Ny and Cleveland, only Billy and Karen and the girls were missing :( and Mom's older Sister Pat joined us as well.

Turkey Trot 2009 5K

Our first Race with Jakobi and the double-jogger. Katie, Gamma, Maya and Susanna joined us early Thanksgiving morning to cheer us on

Ambiana had been talking about the kids run for a month but when the time came, up-too-late, long-car-trip, too-much-chocolate, made her a weepy butt and see didn't run but Gaelen did and he placed 4th...

...and Maya and Katie ran as well

Katie brought cups for the great-grandkids to play with, this is Sam and Lucy, Kim and Brian's children

Ben Zack and Becky

Kendalynn

The Travii Clan

The siblings

The sisters

The great grandkids

Fun in Toledo

On the Palace steps as Ambiana says...

Gaelen and the Pillars

Gaelen with his daddy's namesake: St Michael the Arch-Angel

On the banks of the Maumee

Fun in the Imagination Station which used to be COSI...

Walkin 8Ball

Susanna's H.S. friend Teasha and her son

We stopped in Cleveland to visit Denise and Brian and to fuel up for the trip home.

Our little 4 month old gal!!

Gaelen 1st Visit in 6 weeks!!!

2009-11-11T21:25:00.003-05:00

Gaelen visited us for the first time in 6 weeks due to scheduling conflicts which made visits impossible, such a long time but sometimes time can be a good thing, makes one appreciate what one has. He brought his camera and took this awesome family photo of us.

Gaelen has learned to read since we last saw him and he and Ambiana read books to each other. Ambiana can "read" New Hat Old Hat since she's heard it so many times. But she does recognize words and it won't surprise anybody if she's reading by the time she is 5 which is when she is going to take a pill so she can stay 5 forever.

Cole and Aila came over on Saturday so karen and Rick could go on a hike. Gaelen and Cole get on well and it was fun to see Gaelen having a friend to run around outside with.

Gaelen took this picture too and he brought Cow-Cow up for the weekend as well.

Jakobi nver sits still, always moving, she's discovered her hands and they are always in her mouth and sheis reaching for things and snaggin' them in her fingers.

Feast of the Ancestors 2009

2009-10-31T21:21:00.001-04:00

LEAF Festival Asheville NC

2009-10-29T21:16:00.002-04:00

We made our first Post-Jakobi road trip last week to Asheville, NC for the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF). I drove us 16 hours straight through the night (and VT, NY, PA, MD, WV, VA and NC) drinking a quart of coffee and listening to Steve Martin’s “Born Standing UP” and Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book”. We arrived at 9am and after setting up camp I slept for 4 hours.

Beautiful Lake Eden looking across it to the festival site.

Grandma didn’t show till Saturday having missed the exit for I-40 off of I-90. Ambiana was so glad when she finally arrived. She LOVES her Gamma!

Jakobi in the tent!

We had a fun time, dancing, listening to good music like the Cowboy Junkies and wandering amongst all the other folk, lots of infants this year. The weather was cold and rainy on Friday and Saturday but Sunday was true to its name.

Ambiana is a big help with Gamma!

We saw our contra friends Beth and Kevin from Ohio who have gotten married since we last saw them. We also saw Brandon (as we do every time we come) and his daughter Willow, now 4 and sprightly. Lots of familiar faces on the dance floor. Daddy got to rock out both nights, dancing does me good.

Ambiana liked the Instrument Petting Zoo and really took to the fiddle.

Ambiana LOVED the puppet show in the kid's tent.

We tried to drive a big chunk home on Sunday night but a semi in front of us caught on fire and blocked the highway for 3 hours and the quart of supermarket coffee was not doing it’s thing so we splurged and pulled into a motel at 2am. Ambiana in the morning thought it was the finest thing ever and couldn’t wait to call Gaelen and tell him about it. We made it home the next day and discovered that Jakobi does well enough in the car during the day.

Susan and Kurtis Visit

2009-10-22T21:12:00.001-04:00

Our friends Susan and Curtis from Columbus Ohio paid us another visit last week. This time we had the heat on for them and once again they brought out 6 yummy pints of Graeter’s Ice Cream, we could get used to this! It was great to see them. Jakobi took to Curtis or was it the other way around???

We went of a hike and finally got to the top of Mt Elmore to see Autumn in all her Splendored Glory spread over the Worcester Range. I hiked the whole way with Ambiana wrapped on my back, even climbing the fire tower for the exceptional view.

First Snow on the ground October 13th. Curtis and I tried to go look a some land we are interested in on top of a ridge but the road turned impassable to Susan’s car and we walked about a mile in the gentle snowfall without any success in finding the property. Nice walk though, a winter preview as we have not seen snow since.

Autumn

2009-10-15T15:44:00.002-04:00

10 weeks young, our little screamer has a strong neck and can hold her head up and swing it from side to side. She is intently interested in everything and gets bored if she is in one place too long, she loves being out and about and she also loves watching Ambiana do anything.

I got a new wrap and tied it on all by myself and here's the proof. Jakobi can now help me cook breakfast for my girls!

We took advantage of sunny weekend weather to go apple picking which Colleen absolutely loves. That very night she made 2 quarts of applesauce while I made 5 pints of hot pepper jam from peppers grown in the greenhouse.

Ambiana picks out her pumpkin.

Jakobi is just along for the ride, next year she'll get to pick her pumpkin.

Ambiana and Thomas, buddies forever. Ambiana is constantly picking him up, covering him with blankets, reading him stories and Thomas is such a good sport but I bet he loves the alone time when we are at LEAF this weekend

Jakobi in action!

The Scahills Come to Visit!!!!

2009-10-08T14:55:00.001-04:00

Our dear friends Jan and Bill Scahill (Nana Jan and Grampy Bill) came to visit us finally after 5 years of us stopping in at their home on our way to a nd from Ohio and Illinois. It was so nice to have them in our home and to share it with them. Too bad they had to bring the rain with them :(

Jakobi hates her weekly picture so no more, maybe on a monthly basis. This is her favorite position though even then after 20 minutes with Dad she's had enough. She is most happy in the morning. Today I heard her up in the living room at 5am with Colleen cooing loudly and enthusiastically for at least half an hour. Colleen said she was talking to the tapestry that covers our living room window. She likes it better than her daddy-moch :(

All the same I love her dearly and don't mind the crying...

Gamma came to hang with the Scahills as well and to hold Jakobi again!

There was snow on the mountain across the way on October 1st.

Ambiana made these earrings herself out of ferns and stuck them to her ears with tape also all by herself.

We tried to climb Mt Elmore but Ambiana got tired and tried to climb Colleen.

Psychedelic Fungus in our woods!

8 weeks and a weekend with Gaelen

2009-09-28T12:23:00.003-04:00

Jakobi is so different than Ambiana when she was a baby. We shouldn't be surprised, she is the opposite in so many ways, a summer birth to Ambiana's winter birth, a sunset birth to Ambiana's sunrise birth, a Scorpio moon that is opposite Ambiana's Taurus moon. Her rising sign is Capricorn so she and Ambiana will get along.

Am finally getting the hang of the new video feature on my camera! Enjoy!

Gaelen spent the weekend with us, we had a fun day in the woods and then at our friends Rick and Karen's house, they have a boy Cole who is 6 and Gaelen and him got on well. We all came back to our place for a nice autumn fire where we sat around the campfire and told stories of how we hurt ourselves when we were kids. This is one of Ambiana's favorite story requests.

Jakobi loves this contraption and Gaelen remembers when Ambiana used to love it too!

Ambiana is a great big sister, here she is reading Where's Waldo to Jakobi.

Our little wood fairy!

Colleen set up the hammock and Gaelen had great fun falling out of it over and over and over again

7 weeks and trip to the Fair

2009-09-24T12:07:00.004-04:00

Our little lady at 7 weeks...

...and her big sister at 7 weeks :)

We went to the Tunbridge World Fair last week. Ambiana was excited to ride the ferris Wheel and the Bumper Cars but once we got there she was content to wander and watch.

What is delighting our little daughter?

Why baby pigs!

The french fries were the highlight of the fair.

Jakobi didn't like being changed on top of 50lbs of flour as we got ready to depart the fair.

Here is the sweatlodge I have made out in the pine needle place in the woods behind our home. I made a lodge within a lodge and now it is super hot when I pour water on the hot rocks...aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!

6 weeks and a Trip to Boston

2009-09-17T14:32:00.004-04:00

6 week old Jakobi! She met lots of family this week. Grandma Kris and Grandpa Bill came to saty with us for a few days. They camped out back and had a nice time with us. Bill even tried out the new sweat lodge with me!

Add Ambiana to the mix and everyone gets silly!

Grammy Kris and her 2nd grandchild.

Post Partum Glowing!

This is Jakobi's favorite perch, she is not happy unless she is attached to Colleen!

Ambiana is a big help, she gets diapers, picks out Jakobi's clothes, tries to soothe her when she cries and does dishes!

Ambiana slipped off her stool while brushing her teeth and got this big bruise!

We took our first roadtrip with Jakobi, down to Massachusetts t0 get Gaelen and then into Boston for the weekend to stay with Gamma and take in a Red Sox game and see Uncle Ben and Grampy who was also in town to see Ben!

Ben is looking good, he loves his little niece, it was great to see him recovering well from his auto crash in April.

Grampy loves his little granddaughter. He came for a visit on his way home from Boston.

Big Sister holding her little sis!

The game Gaelen and I were supposed to go to was pushed back to 5pm because of a rain out which was too late for us so we went down to the park and got tickets for the 1st game of the doubleheader and ended up with better seats and had no problem selling our tickets after the game. The Sox beat the Rays 3-1 on Pedroia's 8th inning 2 run homer!

Gaelen fakes a leap into the reflecting pool at the Christian Science Center plaza.

5 Weeks

2009-09-10T09:21:00.002-04:00

Jakobi is getting bigger, making more noises, is happiest in the early morning. She is super fussy when she is not with Colleen, only can deal with daddy-moch for about 10 minutes before beginning to scream, and i mean SCREAM, after 6 months of no crying from Ambiana when she was born, this is quite different.

Ambiana loves to carry Thomas around, he minds it very well but after a few times he's out the door

Angela left last Sunday after 2 weeks, she was a big help in the garden and in the house, we had a farewell fire for her!

Jakobi's 1st trip to Lake Elmore.

After dropping Angela at the airport we went into Burlington where Ambiana was very excited to share with me the ECHO center, a sort-of lake Aquarium and education center.

We then hit North beach, full of partying college kids who have flooded Burlington for the new academic year. Ambiana discovered she floats on the waves without a life vest!

Life with Jakobi

2009-08-31T15:27:00.003-04:00

Our little sweetie! She's getting bigger, her most alert time is sunrise, I can hear her and Colleen cooing to each other as I drift up out of sleep snuggles with Ambiana on our side of the big bed. One of the many benefits Jakobi has brought into our lives is the cuddle time I now get with Ambiana at night. Before Jakobi it was all Colleen but with Jakobi monopolizing Momma I get lots of sleeptime snuggles with Ya. I can't tell you all how sweet it is to crawl into bed and have our little lovie snuggle up to me.

Gaelen spent the weekend with us getting to know his new little sister. He started 2nd grade this week. Shannon he would love a letter from you!!!!

Angela and Ambiana write in their diaries after another full day in the garden!

Our Cauliflower...

and Kale...

Daddy-Moch got a new 15MP DSLR Canon D5000 camera, I thought I was fine with the point and shoots but this camera is bringing back Photo-Moch!!!! I love it! I can look through the viewfinder again just like a real photographer!!!

4 weeks old

2009-08-27T10:21:00.004-04:00

Here's our little gal at 1 month!

Daddy-moch and his little girl!

BIG SISTER little sister

Here is our WWOOFer, Angela is 18 and is from Paris, France. She arrived Sunday night and already we do not know how we will get along without her. She is a great help in the garden and in the house and we all love her!! She will be with us till the 18th of September.

3 weeks old

2009-08-21T10:08:00.001-04:00

Here's our little gal at 3 weeks!

24 days old!

Morning time

Our friends Jamie and DeanU and their two girls came to visit us for a few days. Here are Ambiana and Andrea in the sunset!

My gals!

Click Play for Jakobi!