Disney World

The Burke and Wilson Clans meet at the "Happiest Place on Earth"!

In February, the long anticipated trip to Disney World finally happened. We flew down to Orlando where we joined Dave's parents, his sister Amy and her family, her husband Eric's brothers and their families, and their parents.

We spent 4 days hitting all of the theme parks, meeting the characters (Philip has quite an autograph collection!), riding the rides and seeing the sites. With three boys along it's no surprise that the "theme dinners" proved popular. After all there's FOOD involved! We started with a "Villain" dinner, which was attended by Captain Hook, the Queen of Hearts, Prince John (from Robin Hood), and a few others. Then, on our last morning, we had breakfast with Chef Mickey at the Contemporary resort hotel.

The Animal Kingdom was an unexpected treat, both for the real-life sites during the safari ride and the high-tech thrills at the "Bugs Life" show. But the best part of the whole trip was that we practically had the place to ourselves! February is definitely the right time to hit the Magic Kingdom!



Captain Hook subtly shows his displeasure
with Dave's insistence on whispering
"Tick, tock, tick, tock" whenever he was around.

Washington D.C. Trip

Family Takes School
to Washington D.C.!

Home Schooling definitely doesn't mean sitting around in the house all the time! This Fall we took to the road and headed to Washington D.C for the ultimate learning experience.

As with so many other things in home schooling, we began our trip by first checking out the internet to get maps, information and details about Washington and the many sites to see. One of the best links was to the United States Information Agency, along with the official sites for the Senate, House and White House.


View from the FDR Memorial, back across the Tidal Basin. (you can tell this was Day 1!)

We did science experiments at the Smithsonian and the Capital Children's Museum, saw the actual Declaration of Independence, visited Arlington Cemetery and ALL the monuments, watched the new $20 bills being printed, and basically walked our way through American history for four days.

The whole trip was capped off with a tour of the White House on Friday, and then a marathon drive home.

Maggie joins the family

"Magnolia May" Makes Her Entrance

Major Changes in the Family!

1999 proved to be a year of great change for the Burkes. As the '98-'99 school year drew to a close, we made the decision to transition the boys back into regular school this Fall. It was a tough decision, given that we've home schooled for three years now and loved nearly every minute of it, but it felt right for us in so many ways. And it was certainly easier to make the decision knowing that we've got such great schools here in Huntsville.

Home schooling left us with at least one lasting stamp on our lives, though! At the end-of-year picnic for our home school group we were introduced to young Magnolia May and her siblings, a litter of half Lab - half Australian Shepherds which one of the families was giving away for free.

It proved to be an offer we couldn't refuse, so we added the first new member of our family since Philip arrived. Tigger and Piglet, our 13 year old cats, continue to be largely unamused by Maggie and her puppy enthusiasm, but they seem to have developed something of a watchful truce between them. Maggie attended puppy school to become the refined southern belle (with limited success), but she is most definitely one of the family now!

Camping Trip

Camping at Fall Creek Falls in Tennessee

Spring Break 1999 was kicked off with a family camping trip up to Fall Creek Falls in Tennessee. Not only was this our first chance to use some of the camping gear that Santa brought us at Christmas, it was also our first real solo camping trip as a family. We picked Fall Creek Falls State Park based on the recommendations of friends, having never even heard of the place before, and we were THRILLED with the place! There are actually several falls at the park, including the name sake, which is reputed to be second only to Niagara in height in the eastern US.

The campground was also wonderful, and we found a really nice site, where the boys quickly engineered a first-rate campfire. The weather cooperated nicely, even considering the short thunderstorm that blew through late on our second afternoon there. The rain and wind stayed around just long enough to give us confidence in the integrity of our tents, then blew away to reveal that Tennessee has WAY more stars than Huntsville!

A return trip is already in the works, and this time we're bringing our bikes!

Taking to the Slopes

Philip Gets Quality Time With the Grandparents
While the Rest of Us Head Sugar Mt. in North Carolina

In February, we threw caution to the wind and headed for the hills of North Carolina for a ski trip with the boys, while Philip stayed at home with grandparents for a week of undivided attention. Neither of the older boys had ever been skiing before, so it was with interest (more like awe!) that we watched them take to it immediately, and head for the black diamond slopes without a second thought. It was a great time, made even better by the fact that we got snowed on several times while we were there. Up until that point several of the local slopes had even had to close down for lack of snow!

Football Mania!

Even the youngest Burke afflicted by testosterone induced football mania!

Imagine Karen's plight, living in a house full of men who are convinced they can change the course of a televised football game if they just concentrate hard enough,...

Any addiction is a sad thing. A sports addiction in a house full of boys is something on a completely different level. "Testosterone poisoning" doesn't even begin to capture the gravity of what goes on in this household during the football season.

This photo vividly portrays the state of things. But picking favorite teams and getting uniforms are just the beginning. Both Gerrit and Tucker had web sites devoted to their teams for some time, each of which developed quite a following. Thankfully they seem to have moved on to other pursuits now.

Not so their father. Since 1997, Dad's "NFL Picture" web page, has scored numerous awards and over 350,000 hits (most of which are him, according to the kids). With that kind of encouragement, the site seems to inspire the need to undergo a massive upgrade in each off-season. It's a proven "enabler" for thousands of other pathetic football addicts each season.

Family Secrets Revealed!

Happy family? No doubt, but our investigation has uncovered several potentially embarrassing secrets which shed new light on this family's strange past...

Family Pictures Uncover Hideous Facial Hair Mistake!

Most people will confess to having a bad photographic experience with their driver's license, but few would purposely sabotage their looks and then go so far as to include the obvious error in judgment in one of their family portraits. Apparently, the Burkes feel no such restrictions. Check out their Family portraits from the last fifteen years and see (among other things) the hideous mustache of 1995!

Genealogy No Longer in Question as Photo Reveals the Painful Truth!

The faint hope that Dave could somehow explain himself by claiming he was the result of some sort of weird alien encounter was dashed recently when photos revealed irrefutable evidence of his direct connection to the Burke family line. Our photo clearly shows the progression of the unavoidable, if impressive, Burke Schnoz through the generations. Scroll to the picture below to see the evidence, but be warned: the photo may frighten small children and animals!

There is a glimmer of hope for the Burke line, however; the schnoz appears to be getting better with each generation. So, there may yet be hope for the boys. For more information about the Burke family connections, visit our Genealogy Page which includes several ways to explore our relationships to the families: Burke (and Burk), Tucker, Dvorak, Roberts, Rosenbaum, Robbins, Radschlag, Martin and many more.