Sunday Afternoon at Causey Resevoir

Went up with the Cronins to Causey for a picnic and a little play. Had a blast...It was the last weekend of Summer. Ah well, back to school and the grind.

Picnic at Causey Resevior

Summer Trip to Spokane

We just got home from a trip to see Cristy's family in Spokane. There was a big family reunion and we camped out at Priest River for a couple of the days. I think its safe to say that we all had a blast. Zip gave all of us a CD with all the genealogical work she has done on the Shoff side and I'm going through it now. Wow, what a lot of great info. It was good seeing everyone and I think the kids had a blast with the cousins.

Camping in Priest River

Spokane Vacation 2008

Some New Family PIcs

Just a couple of new pics of the family before we took off to Spokane for a family reunion.

Jack and Cami

Jack gets a tooth

Well, looks like our little man has sprouted a new tooth. He's been gnawing at things for ages and we just thought that he liked to chew. We were wrong. He has a bottom center tooth that just broke through. Its neighbor ought to be up soon. He told his mom he was going to bite her now.

Not such a good day

Well, today is a real bummer. Michah J Cronin, who is one of my favorite cousins, died today. We're not sure exactly why but we are so sad and we are going to miss him so much. He was on a job in Colorado Springs and was, unfortunately found by one of his roommates. I* feel so bad for my Aunt, T. Its such a difficult thing to lose a child. While I have not experienced that myself, I have lost siblings and parents, neither of which is an enjoyable experience. We've been flocking to her and Tom's side in this time of need and are hoping it helps in some way. As I was talking with my bro and Micah's brother, we all agreed that the only good thing that comes out of a funeral is that the family comes together. Its actually quite sad, the only time that my mom's side of the family comes together is when someone dies. At the rate we seem to be kickin off, it should be often. I blame myself a bit because I easily fall into the "I'm so busy right now" mentality and then its gone...can't say hi or goodbye. Sometimes life gives us hard lessons, I just wish we didn't forget them so much and need the constant reminder.

When the whole Family lands on you

My sister and 2 of her kids are out visiting from Austin. Its been a blast so far and the kids have loved playing with their cousins. They are all so cute together but , with Cristy, my sister, and Jess all lactating, its been a plain old dairy farm around the house. We all moo as we walk by. Needless to say, we all get punched too.

The babies are all getting so big! Bri's boy must weigh 30 lbs! he is such a chunk but also so happy. He just plays and smiles like he has no sense. Bri's was supposed to leave to go home today but the airlines delayed teh flight for 2 days and she won't fly out till friday now. Its nice having her around a little longer

Family Pics

What the heck have I jumped into...

My Dad sent me a box full of slides, negatives and pictures is nor logical order or even in any semblance or organization. Some slides where unmounted and many negatives were torn or bent. I decided to tackle this and get them all scanned. We bought a high end film and slide scanner and off I went. After about 2 weeks I had all the slides (600+) done at a good high res (4800dpi if you must know). They spanned most of the 80's and were a blast to look at as I went. I then decided to go after the negatives. I found 4 different formats and could, luckily, mount most.I started with what looked to bethe oldest and dived in. I even took the time to slightly organize them and get negative mounts to store them in. WHAT A BLAST!!!! They start around 1963 and go forward. I have pictures of me and my family I have never seen in my life. I just finished the odd format negatives, the oldest, last night and am working on the 35mm. The 110 will be a pain and I will probably send those out. I now have 10Gb on Picassa and am moving everything up. Since my album is in chronological order, you will need to go to the bottom of the page to see the old stuff. While its majorly time consuming, its also a labor of love. Its like reliving your life all over again.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mcressler


is the link to the main page. Feel free to look around. No laughing though...it was the 80s

Jack's second day of life

Both Jack and Cristy are doing well. Cristy is really sore and let her pain meds go a bit too long in between and suffered for it. I don't think she will do that again any time soon. Jack is doing well but is suffering from a mild case of jaundice. He is a little yellow but they have put him in the baby tanning bed and he is looking very good. Both he and Cristy should be coming home tomorrow.

There are a few other stories to tell since I have some time to put this down. As Cristy was coming out of surgery and was being moved into recovery, she began choking. I grabbed her hand as a look of panic set in and the nurses and others began trying to help. She's looking at me like "help me, I can't breathe" and then her eyes roll back and she passes out. I'm absolutely freaking out at this point in time and she comes too and gets the saliva that was choking her down. It scared the crap out of me and the nurses and Dr's in the room. I had images of trying to raise 3 boys by myself. It really scared me bad. All is well that ends well though and she is fine.

As you may remember, we actually conceived twins but one was an acardiac twin. Well, the dean of the school of pathology came to our room last night and asked us to donate the body of the acardiac twin to the school. Turns out that are they not only rare but this one was the biggest, and most complete, they had ever seen. It was pretty much a full sized baby up to the point of the top of the shoulders, where everything stopped. Imagine a Stephen king baby where there is a full body but no head. There were also no real organs but they hadn't done a full analysis until they had our permission. we did end up donating the body to the university for teaching purposes as long as we got a full pathology report. I may post that here if I feel like it.

Enjoy these new pictures, we sure did.

Jack Day 2

Santa and the Boys

We took Max and Alex to see Santa this weekend, They both loved it but I think thismay be the last year Alex still believes in Santa. He's a smart kid and is beginning to figure it out. How sad, losing on of childhoods biggest mysteries :(

They are such good boys. Max asked Santa for a couple of presents but also asked if Alex could have some too. Its so nice when they think of each other although I am sure they will kill each other later

Alex Max and Santa 2007

Mike's 39th Birthday

Yes, Mike turned 39 this year! We had a big bash at his favorite BBQ restaurant (Q4U) and then headed back to our place for Black Forest Cake (homemade for the first time by Cristy! lopsided, but delicious :), Guitar Hero 3, and Poker Night. A good time was had by all and we had a blast sharing the day with friends and family. Say good-bye to your 30's Mike! It's all down hill from here. . .

Mike's Birthday 2007

Halloween 2007

We had a great Halloween this year! Alex was Harry Potter, and Max was a cute but fierce Batman. We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins and just enjoyed our nice mild weather. The boys didn't last very long out trick or treating, I guess they know that Mom will buy them candy anyway when what they've collected is gone.

Halloween 2007

All Hallows Eve 2007

Cristy and the Baby...Status

OK, I will try to make this comprehensive, yet short. Cristy conceived twins but one is what is called a acardiac twin. basically its a Steven King baby. Its not conjoined or anything but it is parasitic. It has no heart, organs, head or much of anything but it is growing. The artery and veins from both babies umbilical cords are connected in the uterus. The good baby is pumping blood for both of them and that can cause heart failure. Now the good news...The good baby is doing ok so far. Its normal weight and length and the heart is looking good. Cristy is getting ultrasounds every week and as soon as the baby shows any sign of the heart issues or fluid build up they will take it. We are hoping to make 35 weeks but we will see. Keep all of you informed.

BTW, its a Boy.

Long Weekend at Lake Powell

We had a blast on Mark's houseboat at Lake Powell. He has a 40 foot houseboat we all pile onto and then pull up some secluded cove. From there we tube, fish,and generally bake in the sun. it was 108 almost everyday. We ended up getting some bad gas out of a aux tank and the speedboat started to act funny the last day. Mark, in his typical take everything apart approach, finally listened and we got the engine started and kept it revved. The gas wasn't so bad it wouldn't burn but was gunked up enough to require a high rev and temp to keep the engine running. We had a tube war to see who could stay in the longest and my cousin, Micah, and I jumped 4-5 feet in the air. We don't have a pic of it but it felt like we flew forever. Enjoy the pics as much as we did making them.

Lake Powell

Last Day in Paradise

Its a sad day! I have to go back and get ready to re-enter the work force again. Boy, I would love to live here full time. We just hung out, took a glass bottom boat ride and lamented our inevitable departure. But like Ahhhnold, I"ll be back.

Kailua - Last Day

Honoka'a

We drove up from Kailua to my friend Ben's place and then on to Honoka'a. What a wonderful side of the island. Not nearly as desert like as the leeward side of the island. Just lush and tropical. Rained on us a bit but its hard to believe that they are in a drought. I would have never thought it could have happened there.

Ben gave us a tour of his farm. The kids had a blast feeding the chickens. He has a real nice place and is building a second house for himself and his wife.

Honoka'a was a killer little town. Its more of what a typical Hawaiian town is, according to Ben. We met some of his friends and neighbors who were really nice. They seemed suprised to see Ben in town. Seems he needs to get out more :)

Honoka'a

Anaeho'omalu Bay

This is definitely our favorite Beach. It wasn't crowded at all and had a great reef to swim over a couple hundred yards out. I took Alex snorkeling over the reef while he held onto a boogie board. We also bonded really well doing that together and it made a wonderful memory. I can't wait to do it again.

Anaeho'omalu Bay

Sunday stroll

Ouch, are we burnt. Even the parts of my body I put sunscreen on 3x is tender. Cristy has"Red Lobster Legs" from passing out in the sun. Max is the only one not burnt because he took a 3 hr nap under a towel. Hmmm... maybe we should learn from him. We took it easy today. Did a little stroll around town, went up to the Kona temple, and topped Alex's birthday day off with a very cool Luau. The Luau rocked, the food was good, the entertainment was great and we had a blast.

One thing I did notice as I was contemplating things was that even in paradise, nowhere has everything. I was talking to some locals and if you wanted a meaningful job that was not associated with the tourist industry you had to leave the islands. I chewed on this for awhile. Say I did move here and had a great job, what would be offered to my kids outside the tourist industry? Is there anything wrong with that? I could see how people could become jaded living here because it looked like those who had the best jobs or most successful businesses were not natives, meaning local for many generations. I'm not sure how I feel about it but I do think that I need to not take for granted that I can be here enjoying this and be very grateful for being here.

Kailua Kona

A Day at Hapuna Beach

Wow, what an extraordinary time we had today. The kids played in the water, built sand castles, body surfed and boogie boarded. So did Cristy and I for that matter. I also went snorkeling off a spit of rock that jutted into the sea there. I only had some crappy equipment that was left at the condo but it was good enough and fun enough for all to have a great time. We slathered SPF 30 and 50 on multiple times but still got cooked on the places we missed. We Will definitely be much more conscientious next time we go out, that is for sure. After a fun filled Saturday at the beach, we went out to Dinner at a place called Huggo's. It was pretty good and the view was phenomenal. We really couldn't be closer to the beach than we were. We got home tired, exhausted and cooked but very happy.

Click the pics to see the album

Hapuna Beach

Dinner Out

7 peaks water park

While Cristy's brother and family were in town, we went to a really great water park and had a blast. It was hot, around 103, so the water felt incredible. We did get burnt but not too bad. It was a ton of fun though and a great bonding opportuntiy. Notice the orange slide. It was incredible...incredibly steep that is.