Happy Birthday to Halley!  He just celebrated his 7th birthday on 1/11.  He is also doing much better… the vet has been monitoring him close, and now has him on 14 units of insulin, which seems to be just about the right dose.  He is eating and drinking like he used to, and doesn’t seem to be having any other problems.

Merry Christmas to all of our family and freinds.

We had a bit of a scare right before Christmas, because Halley got very sick. He wasn’t eating at all, and anytime he would drink something he would throw it up right away. We called the emergency line at the vet that night, and the next morning took Halley in. Turns out he is diabetic and he had a very high blood glucose level. He stayed overnight to get IV fluids and insulin to stabilize him, and the vet sent him home the next day (Christmas Eve) because he wouldn’t eat for the vet, but would start eating for us.

Thankfully he is doing better now and eating and drinking normally. We are giving him insulin every 12 hours, and will take him in again next week so the vet can monitor his blood glucose levels and get the exact dose that he will need.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our Christmas day:

You can see all of the pictures here.

I finally got caught up with everything and now have all of our pictures posted from our vacation in Maui, Hawaii.

The first day it was overcast… it was raining very heavily with strong winds for almost a week the day we arrived. Most hotels were even without power for 24+ hour periods, it was so bad… we met many people that were very upset since they had been there a week and stuck inside the whole time. Thankfully the weather was very nice for us, with just scattered showers here and there but never all day, and the temps stayed in the 80’s.

We went to the Maui Ocean Center for our first outing, here are some fish pictures:

We also took advantage of the ocean, which was perfect for swimming, snokeling cruises (we went on 2 different ones!), and whale watching:

The view from our oceanfront room at the Maui Prince was beautiful, we were treated to sunset views every evening:

We also throughly explored the island, including some places you aren’t allowed to drive a rental car to, and we very impressed with the beauty of Maui:

And beaches:

Here’s a lava flow on the one side of Maui:

And here’s a large Green Sea Turtle, about 3 feet long and at least 100 pounds, that I was able to get very close to:

And more sights:

And for our last night, we switched hotels to stay at the Grand Wailea. This hotel has one of the largest and most beautiful pools in the world, including all kinds of slides, rivers, and even the world’s only water elevator (which was lots of fun to ride!):

You can see all of the pictures here.

Well I got to get really close to another green sea turtle today. Bridget and I first swam with a few on our first snorkle trip, run by the Pacific Whale Foundation (we chose them since they use biodiesel to run the boats and are a very environmentally freindly company). One of them was huge, maybe 400-450 pounds, which is about the largest that they can get to be, and was trying to surface for air very close to where we were swimming at!

But this time I found another turtle that was on land so I was able to get some great pictures. We were down the street from our hotel in Makena, also known here as “turtle town”. This guy was up on a very secluded small beach landing, made out of all lava rock. He was at least 3 feet around, and easily weighed at least 100 pounds or so.

I climbed over a rocky area and some trees to get to him, but it was worth being able to see him so closely and to get some many great pictures! He was happy (well at least tolerated) me about 1-2 feet from him for over 5 minutes, before he decided he had enough and went back into the ocean for a swim.

Bridget and I are enjoying ourselves very much here in Maui, Hawaii.

The trip started out with a few problems… it had been raining here in Maui, with some pretty significant rainfall and flooding and 24+ hour power outages at most of the hotel resorts. It was still looking bad when we landed and for the morning of the first day here.

But ever since then the weather has been wonderful for us… Sunny skies without any more rain and tempatures in the 80’s.

We also had a problem with out first rental car… they gave us a Mazda 5 wagon, but the driver’s seat didn’t work in it. So we were then given a Mazda 6, just like our car at home. In fact, it was even Dark Cherry, the same color! It’s great being able to drive around and already be familar with the car, since it’s just like at home!

When we checked into the Maui Prince, they gave us a room with a double bed. We tried to pay to upgrade to another room with a single king bed, but the only one they had was mildewy smelling. The next night they still didn’t have a king for us, so I complained to the manager about it, and he got us upgraded to a very nice oceanview room! It overlooks the ocean in the middle of the hotel, and we can see the sunset from our balcony every evening which is always very beautiful (as you can see from the pictures).

I’m sure we’ll have more when we return, along with lots and lots of great pictures! Here’s a few to get started:

Bridget and I have a new nephew!  John Thomas Schreiber was born December 10, 2007 at 8 lbs 7 ozs and 21 inches.  Here are some pictures that my dad took:

  

Here are some portrait pictures of Madeline and Ben with Vanessa and Chris:

You can see all of the pictures here.

Here are some portrait pictures of Madeline with Jenn and Steve:

You can see all of the pictures here.

Here are some portrait pictures of Ava, Carly and Eric:

You can see all of the pictures here.