PANAMA 101: this is where I comment, rant, and rave about the quirkiness of Panama.

One will RARELY if ever see a lawnmower here in Panama, even tho’ there is a serious need to cut the grass constantly.  In the wet season you’ve got the jungle growing around your house if you don’t hack it back regularly.  In the dry season, you’ve got grass fires all over the place with ash raining from the sky.

The preferred methods of cutting grass are 1. machetes and 2. weedwhackers.  Mostly, where we live, the weedwhacker is the go to tool of the trade.  So there are these weedwhacker guys covered from head to toe with protective clothing…they even fashion these facecovers out of t-shirts and wear sunglasses and – I must say – look a tad creepy.

The other interesting (and sort of sad) thing about these guys is that they get carted around like cattle in the backs of these stick trucks and take them from place to place.

There is invariably several crews of them working at the path where I run in the mornings.  There are invariably little pods of them taking a break right next to the path and they invariably stare at me with these hard looks as I pass by.  If I am feeling good I will shoot them a “Buenos dias” and that usually surprises them enough that they stop staring.  But on a bad day, like today, where it takes a bloody eternity to pass by the silent staring trio or quad of unmoving faceless men, i want to know how to fly or become invisible.  Today, tho’, as i was walking by a gaggle of gawkers-not feeling up to looking them in the spot where i imagine their eyes are and saying anything- I just picked up my speed a little when one of them said (this is groundbreaking) “Buen dia.”  I just looked at him smiled, sighed and said “buen dia.”  I kind of wanted to hug him and say, “gracias.”

I am not sure i can even get my brain around that.  WHAT a kid.  He is getting to be so funny and so …. COOL!  I love how he still plays Harry Potter outside with a stick (or a chopstick if he can find one).  I love so many things about Liam.

So i started to try to plan this big paintball birthday party (what he wanted at first)… I was stressing about getting it done and who to invite – since his 3 top buddies are gone…..finally – i asked Liam (kind of bracing myself for him to get upset) “buddy, how ’bout going surfing with papa – just you and Papa- instead of doing a party?”  … he was almost in tears with relief….”yes, please.”  was all he said.  He just wanted to have a day – a morning where it was JUST him and Papa.  Driving (he gets to ride in the front seat) and listening to music and surfing together, simple and perfect.  Which is how i would describe both those boys…simple and perfect….

Then the rest was the ultra simple (well, becasue Trini made the sauce) Family birthday celebration….SIMPLE and PERFECT… spaghetti a la Trini, gooey brownies a la Mama, and the added perk of Grampa Nolan and Gramma Charlene here to help us sing “happy birthday”.

The story behind the foggy picture of Liam and Eirk is the 6 months of desperate need for a new AC…and it got really desperate right before N &C came to visit (crowded is one thing….crowded and hot is altogether different)….the whole installation process was comical – everytime these guys came it was sith 7 or 8 people – including the extended family…then there were 2 days with no air at all – and then 2 days with the new AC BLASTING us into the Arctic Tundra with no controller.  We hauled out the fleece and the down comforters….Anyway – when you bring a very cold camera out into the very hot….this is the kind of picture you get if you are not patient.

gramma charlene and grampa nolan came to town last week…they stayed at our house for three (crowded) nights and we had a blast…. i have to hand it to them – that is NOT their M.O…I do believe it was I who handed down the challenge a few years back and they really rose to it.  Especially for Charlene – coming off chemo and 6 months in bed (in a comfie spacious home) – straight into the crazy (crowded) house with kids wanting all her attention….it couldn’t have been easy.

they went to the intercontinental resort at playa bonita for the rest of the week (to recover) and invited us for a day and night of playing in the pool and enjoying one another in a more spacious location.  it was heaven!  now we look forward to the reunion and meeting a couple new-ish neices and hanging out on Camano in June!!

our gypsy lifestyle has brought us into contact with some really cool people.

these are some of them – Ben and Carter are Liam’s buddies from school and football…his mom, Nicolle, is as cool as they come.

but – as is the way with us itchy-feet types, they took off.

luckily, tho – they moved back to Evergreen, Colorado.  and we were able to visit them on our trip over the christmas break.

and, look!  Zoe was lucky enough to inherit my ankle strength in the ice skating department.

well.  it sounds as tho Jerry and Ann might be moving.  we will miss Christmas at the Sadler’s …  it just FEELS like Christmas there.

granted we flew in from the tropics…anything would have felt more like christmas to us.

but it’s more than the snow and the cabin-y comfie house.  it’s more than the little knick knacks and same candles they have had for 38 years (at least) that have never been lit….- it’s more than the same ornaments that i hung on the tree as a girl……..more than sitting on the same chair that has been reupholstered time and again.

…it’s watching the kids watch each other open their presents….it’s their faces when they discover santa has come….it’s gramma sitting and smiling as they open their gifts…and grampa opening his socks and underpants that he gets every year.

there is nothing like colorado in the winter time.  we will always go there, i think.

and nothing like christmas with family.

these guys.

this zips us forward to last weekend – right before school started back up – right as i thought i might lose my mind….

a dear friend offered us space at a rental house on the carribean side.  yyyyyeeeees!!!!!

about 20 miles down the road – through Portobello and all the ruins from Drake’s fort and past the church where the Christo Negro is, you can catch a little boat out to where there was SICK surf that day and heavenly beach with shade and grassy areas to relax situated RIGHT on top of where the guys surf.  AND it just happens to be be on the other side of where most people want to go.  so we had it very nearly to ourselves….Isla Grande…it was heaven…

i love the picture of the kids on the boat racing straight INTO the huge waves on a not-so-sturdy-boat to pick up one of the surfers ….i love how i am next to erik taking the picture from very far away in a totally different boat….does that qualify us for MOTY and FOTY?  chime in here, people.  we want to be in the running.

this.  was a great day.

and.  i.  just.  LOVE.  my.  family.

well – nothing has changed in the upload photos department.  but, imagine, if you will….

we stopped by ballet to see what the scoop is (no real posted schedule or anything like that EVER with anything here-they even MOVED LOCATIONS and did not put a sign on the door of the old studio (!)….are they trying to ditch the gringos?

anyway – there is a camp going on now – since it is summer break for Panamanian schools.  And they do 45 minutes of ballet and 45 minutes of tap or jazz…..after a big arguement, i talked zoe into it and off we went for some tap shoes.

so – we get home – strap on the shoes and Auntie Trini says (in her cute little fading British accent) “Well, then, let’s see it,”  and Zoe BUSTS out like a little blonde, white Gregory Hines…Trini and I look at one another with our jaws on the ground and I do another little fist pump.

(here is where i envisioned a close up of the tap shoes click-clacking…..alas.)

surely, i am ruining my kids lives in some way-shape-form….but when LIAM fought me TOOTH and NAIL on the day of football tryouts in front of everyone and their MOTHER, i just KNEW in my SOUL he would love it and he has since admitted that is was the most fun he’d ever had.  (fist pump)  And, really, we have to keep trying to find whatever it is that they will get full scholarships to and makes millions and take care of us for a change…..

We are VERY lucky to have a schedule that permits me to drive the kids to all these activities.  It won’t last forever …

ok – we are a little cheesed over a new development that we cannot get pictures onto here…..

i was all poised to go back to thanksgiving when trini and i cooked – part of the day in our bikini’s since it gets so hot in the house – especially when the oven is on….

there is a really cute picture of a leaf that zoe made that says “i am thankful for my bruther”  with backwards f’s and r’s ….but.  really.  it is just NOT as interesting without the PICTURE!!!!!!!!!!  argh!

so if you were even at all excited about team ward being “back” – please be patient.  even though i am not.

The great thing about Colorado is the sunshine.  Your got the snow, you got the mountains, and you got the sun….  we had a reallyreallyreally fun time playing in the snow at gramma and grampa’s house….and skiing at the nearby Wolf Creek ski area at Christmastime.

‘Scuse me!  SNOWBOARDING and skiing.  The girls of the family are the civilized skiers (well one of us is civilized the other is a clutz).  Then you got the knuckledraggers.  Grampa is even one!

We heard this terrible rumor about Gramma and Grampa leaving Colorado (something about being sick of shoveling snow…) and MAN would we miss Pagosa Springs – the actual stinky smelly sulfur-y springs, the snow, the cozy house….doing donuts in the City Market parking lot in the middle of the night….

Thanks Grampa and Gramma – we had a great time!