(Click on any of the pictures to see larger versions)

The accident happened as we were all driving to Galveston to get on a cruise ship and spend a week wandering around the western Caribbean in celebration of Rae's 60th birthday. Despite the collar bone and realising that she would likely get better care in the company of two family members who are medical doctors, she jumped in another car the next day and made it in time to cast off. All in all, a very good outcome to what could have been a distinctly less pleasant situation.

Although tempered by the previous Saturday's incident, the holiday was a great success. Nikki, the boys and I had actually been on the same ship following the same itinerary last year so this time we knew our way around and also knew which day trips to take with the kids. Rather than picking adult-oriented excursions that we expected the boys may enjoy too, we picked kid-friendly trips that we reckoned could be fun. As a result, we ended up walking the plank on a pirate ship off Grand Cayman, climbing a waterfall in Jamaica (the one that flows out onto the "Ursula Andress beach" from Dr. No as it happens) and spending time on the beach in Cozumel.

Earlier in the year, the boys go their first taste of skiing during a weekend in Breckenridge. Cameron loved it and was amazingly good after his 3 days of lessons. Drew also took lessons but didn't enjoy himself quite as much since he was in "baby ski school" and spent most of his time waiting to ski down a very short run in a fenced area.

Keeping on the holiday theme, we headed back to Scotland for a couple of weeks in July. Rather than spend the time roaming around visiting people, we decided to do some blatantly touristy stuff and had a super time visiting Historic Scotland castles. The boys were thrilled at the information they picked up on medieval toilet arrangements! The highlight of the castles was probably Caerlaverock near Dumfries which non of us had visited before though the working seige weapon models at Bothwell Castle were also very popular. We also got to visit the Falkirk Wheel and take a boat trip up the lift and along the canal. Grandpa and I enjoyed this a great deal.

Just prior to our trip to Scotland, I headed back to Guatemala for a week with the Mission Presbytery Guatemala Partnership to go back to the community I visited in 2005. This time, we started building a new hall at the church we laid the floor in on the last trip. It was a larger project so we didn't get the satisfaction of seeing it completed while we were there but it was fabulous to go back and meet the people of Elim Presbyterian Church again and see how things had changed in the previous two years. I didn't make the mistake of leaving my SLR at home this time and came back with quite a few photos I am very happy with.

Aside from trips, things have been fairly eventful on the work front this year too. After 13 years working for essentially the same company (one takeover and one spinoff resulting in 3 different names), I left Conexant in August and moved to a startup where several ex-colleagues were also working. Luminary Micro designs and markets ARM-based microcontrollers (the kinds of chips that control your washing machine, your car's engine management system or material handling robots on production lines) and I am thoroughly enjoying being able to work on real, technical problems again. Conexant got to the stage where I was doing nothing but going to meetings, reviewing other people's work and sending nasty emails so a change was definitely in order.

Nikki is still working at First Presbyterian Church in San Marcos although she is about to cut back on her hours to give her more time to write. This will also have the added bonus of her not having to do the 60 mile round trip to the church a couple of times a week so we can expect a reduction in our monthly petrol outlay too, I expect :-) She is also still very involved in Junior League where she is the chair of the Caritas committee this year and organises volunteers who work in the downtown soup kitchen each week.

In August, Cameron moved to the new Rooster Springs Elementary School in the new subdivision being built a couple of miles from our house. It was a difficult transition from St. Stephen's where he had several good friends and where he had not really been academically challenged but he has now settled in well and is enjoying it. He has a fabulous teacher and a lot of clever kids in the class so is really being pushed for the first time in his school career.

Cameron also moved to a local Cub Scout pack which contains a couple of his school friends and this has been great fun. He and I spent a great weekend camping at Pedernales Falls State Park in October and we're looking forward to more camps in the coming year.

Drew is in pre-Kindergarten at St. Stephen's Episcopal School and getting on very well with Miss Frost, an excellent teacher who licked Cameron into shape when he was 4 too. Outside school, Drew is still mad on all kinds of animals and spends many an hour turning over rocks on our land looking for interesting bugs, creepy crawlies, reptiles and scorpions.

Looking ahead, I am excited about a photography exhibition I will be having in San Marcos in January. I've been spending far too much time getting prints ready and framed but I'm pretty much ready now, I think. The exhibition will be in the Blue Goat Gourmet café and opens on January 4th and you can see the set of prints here.

We all hope that your 2007 was as enjoyable as ours and wish everyone all the very best in 2008. Please keep in touch (or get back in touch if we haven't spoken in a while).

Best wishes,

Dave, Nikki, Cameron and Drew

PS: You can read occasional news on my blog at http://blog.webartz.net if this annual report isn't quite enough for you.