These are a few pictures and video clips of Joseph’s first birthday party.  As you can see in the first picture, Norma made a special car cake for him to enjoy.  She wanted to give him the whole thing, but Chris convinced her to only give him a part (although it was a rather large one). We had two families over to celebrate, and Joseph and Erik enjoyed having their friends come to play.

Joseph eyeing his cake

The aftermath

Today Erik got to sit in a Blackhawk helicopter.  Needless to say, it pretty much made his week.

Below are some photos and videos from one of the best causes we have supported in El Salvador.  Each year hundreds, if not thousands of Olive Ridley sea turtles come to El Salvador to nest.  Unfortunately, turtle eggs are considered a delicacy here, and many people harvest and sell these eggs.  Once concerned Salvadoran, Mimi Schonenburg, decided to make a difference and started buying recently-harvested eggs for a premium - $4 per dozen rather than the market rate of $2-3.  She then placed the eggs into a fenced off area in the Amatecampo beach and waited for them to hatch.  After the turtles hatch, they are collected and let loose into the sea about 4 pm, when the risk of being eaten by predators is the lowest.

This year she helped raise about 5,000 baby turtles. Even if 1% of them reach adulthood, this cause will have saved 50 turtles.

For more information about Olive Ridley sea turtles, click here.  For those who want to make a difference, please contact Larry Rubey, who can email you more information and let you know how you can help. 

This is the nesting area, with each square holding one nest.

Here are two baby Olive Ridley sea turtles. 

Here Erik gets a chance to touch some of the baby turtles.

 In typical Salvadoran fashion, we celebrated the new year by shooting off a whole box of fireworks.  We figured that we probably shouldn’t pack a whole box of explosives in our household effects, so we got to shoot them all off.

As expected, Joseph’s favorite presents were the boxes and wrapping paper left over.

Looks like someone made out like a little bandit this year. Thanks grandmas!

Here Joseph and Dad are jamming to Chris’ new iPod.

Wishing you and yours a happy holiday season.

Click here to download our 2007 Christmas letter

 ~Chris, Norma, Erik, and Joseph~

Here I am with the Procurement staff and Ambassador Glazer.  This is us dressing up for our office Christmas party decoration competition. We sang Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.

Norma & I had the chance to attend the Maná concert on November 15th, which was amazing. They started around 9:30 pm and played until about 11:30 pm.  They did a good mix of old and new songs, but the majority were from their previous albums.  The whole crowd sang along the entire night, which was good and bad.  Most of the photos I took with my camera phone didn’t turn out too well, but the one below of the band looks pretty good.  Norma and I were in the 18th row, dead center, which made for a great experience. I’ll try and find some sound clips of the show and put them up too.

Maná, November 15, 2007

Chris & Norma in El Estadio Mágico Gonzalez

Here the whole family went to see El Boqueron, one of the tallest volcanic peaks near San Salvador. As you can see from the pics, at the very bottom of the crater, a smaller peak has formed because of additional volcanic activity.

This site has lots of TV, cell phone, and radio towers because it looks out directly on the city below.

Here are Wayne, Melinda, Erik, Joseph, Chris, and Norma

I’m still trying to improve my photomerge skills - but you get the idea

Today we had the chance to tour a private reptile farm. This place raises lots of animals for export to the U.S., Europe, and Mexico. They raise everything from bearded dragons to giant tortises. They have a 26 acre area for the animals and a similar sized farm, which supplies the necessary food. While they may have lots of one kind of species, like a geko, they won’t have thousands to export. So, lots of the farm is dedicated to research and learning of how to best raise them.

I was amazed at how well taken care of this place was and how humanely the animals are treated. The owners go to great lengths to combat harvesting wild animals, and will only sell animals they raise from birth.

We were able to see the complete process, from the incubators to the packing area, which was really cool. Below are lots of photos that I think you will enjoy.