Thanksgiving 2007

As we prepare for the Thanksgiving Holidays of 2008 I thought it would be fun to review some of the excursions we went on last year at this time. We had several families here for the week of Thanksgiving so all of these excursions allowed children of all ages to participate. Here are a few photos from a trip to the Chocolate Farm.

Big Kids

The big kids around here, Scott, Tres and Boty, all got new beds last week. Living on site at the hotel has a few limitations, but it also has SO MANY benefits. One of the limitations is that our living quarters are currently a bit on the small side. Not really important as we do not spend a lot of time in our personal living space. When you take into consideration the size of the entire facility, well we have so much space. However, due to the size limitations in our personal quarters it was necessary to build beds into the room rather than put in individual pieces of furniture. We planned the beds out a little while back, but wanted to give the beds to the kids as a bit of a surprise.

So one day while they were in school last week we began the installation process. Scott and Tres got super cool loft style beds. Boty has a toddler bed under Tres’ bed. It has been a transition for each of them. The boys moved from toddler beds into the loft beds and Boty moved from the crib into the toddler bed. Patrick has a spot under Scott’s bed for his crib when he is ready to move out of his parent’s room after he grows up a bit more.

As you can see from the looks on the kids’ faces this was and is a big deal. Tres can’t hardly keep himself out of his bed, no matter the time of day. And they haven’t even begun to exploit the whole fort making possibilities that I am sure they will build down the road.

La Luna = The Moon

What a wonderful sight to end the daylight hours! How often do you get to see something like this? I imagine it has to be a limited number of times on one’s life.

We were getting ready for dinner last night when Jim realized the light was great to take some good photos of the moon. When he started taking the shots Luna, our Teacher’s dog, was up on the porch as well. So he got a photo of Luna con la luna. Luna with the moon.

Swim turtle swim

We went to the beach last week with the grandparents. It was a great day. We played in the water and along the shore. Tres and Scott were walking along the beach with Tres’ Grandma Anita. Scott saw a little baby turtle along the beach. That turtle had been injured by a crab. Nature. However we thought that maybe if the turtle was allowed to recuperate a bit he might be okay. So Jim rescued the turtle from the crab. We were going to take the turtle to Ramon and Natalia who study the turtles with WSC.

Ramon and Natalia came to see us at the beach when we were there. Jim and the boys had attempted to take the turtle to them at the same time they showed up. My dad and I told them about the baby turtle. They asked us where the turtle was found. They had been looking for a nest in that area that they had expected to hatch. After checking several locations, Natalia found the nest and all the egg shells left behind by the turtles. Jim and the kids came back as she was digging the nest out to count the shells to see how many turtles hatched.

Super cool to watch them go through the process to determine how many made it and if there were any eggs that didn’t hatch. The Hawksbill female lays about 140 eggs per nest. In this nest there were 137 eggs. Of that about four didn’t hatch. We also found this little guy. He didn’t make it out when the rest of his brothers and sisters made it out. The boys found one turtle that nature kept from making it, but because of that turtle we found a nest and rescued this turtle. Just one of the wonderful experiences we encounter here on a daily basis.



We got some video of this little guy making his way out to sea as well. I will post it in the near future.

The Path Less Traveled - Bocas del Toro

I was looking over the different videos on You Tube for Bocas del Toro Panama this afternoon. I came across this one which is from Panama’s Tourism Bureau. The restaurant in the video belongs to a good friend of ours. It is called Crawl Caye. Luis and his family have been doing business here in Bocas for years. Just about every time you see a photo of Bocas del Toro or a video it includes Crawl Caye. We are fortunate to be located in the vicinity of Crawl Caye as we have access to all of the same reef systems as they do. Luis is a great fisherman - he caught the largest tuna in a recent fishing tournament here in Bocas. This video brings a smile to my face as it is great that Luis and his family get this kind of publicity.

Happy Fifth Birthday Tres

Today is Tres’ fifth birthday. He woke up this morning and told us he was so happy to be five. He also informed us that he had been growing in his bed overnight to reach age five. He has invited his friends from the next farm over to come play this afternoon. Miss Gina made him a pinata for her gift to him. So, Tres, Scott, Boty and the neighbor children will take a crack at the striped egg shaped pinata (all as requested by the birthday boy) this afternoon. Later this evening we will have his family birthday party where we will eat a white cake with blue icing. Why a white cake with blue icing? Well because the YZ 250 is the greatest dirt bike around and all little boys must choose the colors of their birthday cakes based upon the color of their favorite motorcycle. Big surprises are in store for this little guy today. Have a great day, Tres!