Pirate Party

First year birthdays are big events in Panama. Beth and Andrew have been living in Gamboa 7 years, and took this sentiment to heart. We received a custom invitation (addressed to "Crimson Curls Gwendolyn") to a boat in the Pacific.

After short trip into the harbor on a jetty manned by pirates, we boarded a larger boat and encountered the birthday boy himself: here's Alistair, age 1.

Gwendolyn was fully entranced.

Steering the boat.

Consorting with her friend Freya.

And observing the piñata-attacking craziness from a safe perch with Helene and Eric.

David and I came in costume too.

Here are the Wren and I posing in front of the Bridge of the Americas.

And here's David, sporting the one-eyed sunglasses version of a pirate's patch.

Thanksgiving

Still amazing to us that we've been in Panama a year now. It seems like a just a month or two ago that we had our last Gamboa Thanksgiving.

Again, Justin and Myra were kind enough to host 60-70 of Gamboa's residents.

There was amazing (and plentiful!) food.

 And lots of good, if a bit chaotic, company. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

My dad, my pig!

Gwendolyn spent the whole week in Rhode Island talking about her dad and her pig, both sadly left behind in Panama. She spent lots of time running around the house, shouting "I'll be right back! I'm going to Panama!", often convincing Maddie to join her on these tropical adventures. She found all the pictures she could of her dad and pig (and there were actually quite a few) and showed them to everyone she met. Needless to say, her reunion with her dad and her puerquito was very sweet.

Wonderful Grandparents

Fun days at home with the grandparents coming to an end...

The many attempts at capturing a group photo.

Cuddling up to watch a movie.

Tulip overseeing tractor play.

Guitar practice with Sam.

Dancing in the kitchen with Jess.

And bundling up for the cold outside. But mostly warm wonderful times all together - we'll miss you, Toby and Theo!!!

Bathtime

With cousins!

 

 

Kids' Fun

On Friday we all went to the Providence Children's Museum, which was great! Sooooo many kids, so many fun things to play with.

Here's Maddie, investigating a stack of fluorescent, translucent legos.

 Gwendolyn checking out a long, skinny version of herself.

And Max, communing with RI freshwater fishes (or his own reflection, or both?).

We also got a chance to hang out with Kerri and her two awesome boys, Andre and Atticus.

And go to a diner for lunch. Where Gwendolyn enjoyed her second (third?) cup of hot chocolate that day.

And Maddie and Andres got huge kisses, tickles and cuddles from Jess.

Barrington

 

Finally back to blog posts from the present.... here we are in Rhode Island! Gwendolyn and I flew in last night, Sam, Jess, Maddie and Max arrived the day before. The first day together, we took a cold windy walk on the beach.

Maddie showed amazing tolerance to the cold.

Tulip alone seemed to share the sentiment.

Theo lead the rock-climbing contingent.

 

After quite a bit of effort we got all three grandkids in one picture, getting them all to look at the camera was another story.

And Toby, responsible for bringing us all together, happily surveyed it all. He seems to be recovering well from his surgery. We're all really glad to see him.

Fonda San Miguel

A great part of our Austin visit was all the amazing restaurants we got to revisit. Fonda San Miguel was at the top of the list. We spent a rather active brunch there with Kim on Sunday, tag-teaming Gwendolyn care. What we can't show you in sumptuous food, we can show you in the surroundings, it was delicious inside and out:

And Wren's outfit for the occasion - picked out herself.

Kiddie Acres

It was fun to be back in Austin and to see it afresh from a toddler's point of view. One establishment we had completely overlooked when we lived there pre-Gwendolyn was Kiddie Acres. Vivian promptly introduced us.

There was a ferris wheel.

A carousel.

Boats.

Cars.

And Gwendolyn's first ever pony ride.

David especially loved the humble menu.

And I loved Vivian's patience in showing her small friend all the good rides, many of them more than once. Gwendolyn's favorite? The circling airplanes. Very hard to leave.