Gwendolyn - Self Portrait

(Love the hair! You can tell there has been a lot of Rapunzel in our lives lately...)

Cerro La Vieja

David's birthday weekend we took a trip to the mountains, to a spot we'd never been before. It was only a few hours drive, and was startlingly different from Gamboa. Lots of beautiful pointy peaks. And lush waterfalls!

We stayed in a beautiful hotel that had all kinds of cool and quirky touches - one of my favorites was these actual strangler fig deck columns.

 

It also had all kinds of games to play. The kids particularly like billiards, shuffleboard and chess - complete with creative new rules - note Simon's chess stacking technique.

I love David's picture of these azteca ant nests. And then a beautiful surprise - a trek to the hotel's own waterfall.

  Some serene rock basking. 

But wherever Gwendolyn goes, Simon is quick to follow.

 A lovely weekend in a lovely spot!

Reuniting

One of the many changes (during our near year of blog silence!) is that Gwendolyn's friend Maya moved to Chicago. There is always a lot of coming and going in Gamboa, but it was hard losing Maya - we all love her! Luckily Cata's leaf cutter ants call her back to Panama frequently, and during the last visit she came with Maya in tow. The happy reunion!

Turning 42

David's birthday yesterday!

 First a lot of help in making the cake.

Gwendolyn and I had to laugh when Simon took this to a new level, inserting his whole head into the bowl, to lick the cake batter!
 

Then icing and decorating.

The final creation.

Singing, wishing, blowing out candles - happy birthday, wonderful David!

First Day of School

Simon's first day of school. So serious!