September adventures

September has been a busy month of adventures! We started the month off with a “parents day out” while the kids were in school. A group of us rode our bikes out to a jungle lodge for a private lunch at Arboloco. Dennis said it was one of the best meals he’s ever had! The tuna was pretty amazing. We biked back into town just in time to pick the kids up from school and head to a birthday party at a questionable backyard waterslide. Apparently, people fly over the side on a regular basis and it is getting torn down soon - but when in Bocas?!? Fortunately no one was injured and we all had a blast zipping down the slide!

Also that weekend our friends offered to watch our kids so Dennis and I could have a date night! We jumped on the opportunity and had a great night out at a few of our favorite spots. Such a treat! Walker started chess club this week and seems to be really enjoying it. He’s also been pretty committed to soccer twice a week, 3 hours each time! I don’t know how he does it in this heat, but he’s loving it! School for Walker has been a bit of a struggle so it’s great to see him enjoying all the after school activities.

The girls and I had a really fun play date on our friends’ boat in the Solarte marina. The marina has a bbq every Friday so we got to meet lots of new boat families and hear about their world travel adventures. The girls loved exploring the boats and jumping on the trampoline nets! While we were away on Isla Solarte the boys were on another island for a beach birthday party. Not every day is paradise, but this one was pretty great.

We finished the weekend with a “game day” at the beach with friends. We played lots of soccer and softball and even saw a sloth! Somehow we managed to fit 14 people into a 5 passenger car for the 30 minute car ride back to town. It was definitely a ride to remember!

Since our house is so close to the school we often have a yard full of kids in the afternoons. We cracked up when Dennis met someone who said they thought we ran an after school kids program at our house! We love the community we’ve built here and have many fun filled days, but we also have lots of normal days in between. The kids fluctuate from saying “this is the best day ever!” to “this is all terrible” multiple times a week. The heat is still suffocating, the bugs are still biting, but hopefully we all walk away from this experience with a lifetime of memories of fun, laughter and adventure!