The Cow That Fell Into The Canal

 

Gwendolyn has begun writing books. This one is about a cow that ate too much grass, a farmer, a farmer's wife, and a chicken. The plot gets a little complicated and tricky to follow at points, but the main action seems to revolve around a fall into the Panama Canal....

Honey Do's

John always begins each visit asking for our list of honey do's. By which he means all the little things that have accumulated that we haven't attended to, but that he will fix for us during the course of his visit. This time, he and Sharon spent much of their stay up on ladders, doing all kinds of household tasks - and with David seemed to visit almost every hardware store in Panama City.

 With still a little time to see the sites and play with the kids.

Goodbye Grandpa John and Nana, we'll miss you!!

Gone Fishing

As in past visits, Sharon, John and David took a morning to go fishing on the Canal. Returning with lots and lots of peacock bass...

The town of Gamboa from the water.

Las tres princesas

Porch visitors

This sweet morning scene - Gwendolyn reading to Simon, both in their pjs, a breakfast of cinnamon toast - and dashing across the porch railing behind them, a monkey! 

These Geoffory's tamarins have become very frequent visitors. Always the same troop of seven. Seeming to get hungrier and hungrier the longer the wet season continues, and their normal food becomes more and more scarce.

 We line the porch railing with pieces of banana, and they come timidly down, vocalizing loudly.

 

As common as this has now become, it doesn't cease to amaze.

Kitchen colors

Kitchen slowly starting to come together. Yellow and oranges, and Aunt Lu's wonderful animal tiles!

This weekend at the beach

 

- sand - salt - water - waves - sweet hammock sleep -

Silly Simon

Gwendolyn's coiffeur

Green Mansions

We're loving all the new spaces in our new house! Here is the planta baja - the ground floor, looking out into a wall of forest. And Simon and Nana, soaking in the green.

Pillow patterns

What wonderful gifts the grandparents bring! Nana and Grandpa John sewed these pillow cases for the kids' room. With a few toes for reference.

Hooray for Grandpa John and Nana!

Following a bumpy day and a half or so of travel, came the arrival of John and Sharon, aka Grandpa John and Nana. Gwendolyn has long been talking about this event, so much so that when David and I went to our parent/teacher conference at her school, we were surprised to learn that all of her teachers knew about her grandparents' visit.

The visit so far has been wonderfully low key, full of house projects, like putting up curtain rods, installing door knobs, fixing dresser rails, and choosing kitchen lights. But we've let the grandparents out of the house on a few occasions - here's the Amador Causeway, overlooking the Pacific.

Inspecting the boats for some.

Chocolate ice cream for others.

Happy Halloween

The blog is back! Maybe in short snippets for now as we continue to juggle what seem to be what seems to be an unending number of tasks. But the requests for more photos have been heard, and here they come!

The crazy group of us - a flamenco dancer, a viking, a quetzal and a very happy pirate - all wishing you a Happy Halloween from Gamboa!

More wonderful arrivals....

Yesterday Gwendolyn and I set off for the airport....

 Marking the beginning of a long anticipated visit from Toby and Taisie!

 First stop, Pan y Canela, our favorite pastry shop, for fresh juices and empanadas.

 Then back to the house, where there was a happy explosion of playdoh.

 A family dinner - complete with some actual non-kid conversation. 

Early the next morning Gwendolyn was eager to drop in on the grandparents, who are staying in a bed and breakfast down the street.

 The grandparents seemed equally happy to see her.

A nice coffee together in the B&B, then on to the adventures of the day....

Clarice!

You can always tell when it's been a busy time for us - no blog posts for weeks and weeks. It's true right now, we've been doing so much juggling with work/new house/kids - many posts missing! But something great happened two weeks ago - the arrival of our cousin Clarice! Clarice is here for a month, working on the bat project, helping with the kids, and in general being wonderful, amazing Clarice. We're also trying to show her as much of the country as we can, but she seems seems to be taking care of that part even without us....

Here are a few photos - joyful excitement from Gwendolyn.

Sweet hugs.

And Clarice's first sloths - at Punta Culebra on the Pacific last Saturday. Four sloths in one day! I love this next series of photos, the excitement....

That one was napping on the chain link fence of the parking lot, but we quickly went on to find three more, hanging in various upside down positions, sleeping and eating, and moving in very slow, sloth like motion.

 

And a video of this same sloth eating leaves - they are crazy, wonderful creatures....

And this was just the beginning of many more Clarice adventures to report - more soon.....