Family Portraits May 09

Moe and Brent


Moe and the Girls


Brent and the Boys

Kids


Family

Here are a few pictures we had taken by a photographer this last month at the Temple Grounds. We figured that we needed a nice family picture before Raquel takes off for college next week.

All is well with us. We are having a FHE this coming Monday with Sis. Julie Beck, the General Relief Society President of the church. Her father was my dad's mission president and my dad wanted to see her while she was here visiting in Panama so we were fortunate enough to have her over for FHE.

I will try and get some pictures and post them next week.

CARNAVALS

Adriana catching a Fish on the Panama Canal



Raquel's Cayuco "Serindipity"



Raquel, Moe and Moe's Mother (Shirley) in Front of her Cayuco.


Well I am finally getting around to posting another update of the Panama Lamb's. Jared is still enjoying stateside life with John and Jenn. He is wanting to stay but he will be coming back home next week. John and Jenn have been great and Jared has been able to experience quite a bit in the time that he has been in Missouri.




Raquel is getting in to full form with her paddling cayucos (dugout canoe's). She had her first race two weeks ago at a beach close to the city. It was a 8 mile race and they swamped on the first lap and had a hard time making up lost ground. Despite the not so good result she had a blast and is looking forward to the big ocean to ocean (from the Atlantic to Pacific through the Panama Canal) race the first week of April. She also has been accepted to the LDS Business College and will be starting in June. She is excited to get started with the next stage of her life.


We have had to spend the Panamanian Summer looking for a new school for Bryce. That is not a fun process here in Panama. We finally found one and it is a Montessori school that we feel will fit him well.


Adriana has been busy with summer activities and also Jazz and Tapp.


Panama loves to celebrate Carnaval's. It started last Friday and will end late Tuesday night with everyone traveling back to the city on Wednesday morning. It is pure madness. The whole country shuts down for 5 days while everyone goes to the different towns in the interior and celebrates a 5 day party that doesn't stop. There are parades, concerts, dancing, plenty of drinking and everything that those things lead too!! The church takes advantage of the days off and gives an alternative to the kids and holds camps during this time. Maureen left this morning for a Regional YW camp being held up in the mountains around 2 hours away. Maureen's mom went with her to be one of the camp nurses. I am get to stay home with the kids.

NEW YEAR

We have had an eventful two weeks. First we sent Jared to Missouri to spend the Panamanian Summer (USA Winter) with his Uncle John and Aunt Jenn. He is having a great time there with them. On Christmas Eve Maureen’s dad, Mike, came in to spend Christmas with us and Moe’s mom. The kids had a great Christmas despite being told that the trip to Disney World back in November was going to be their main Christmas present. Everyone got what they wanted. The main addition to the house was Bryce and Jared’s gift of Rock Band 2 for the X-box 360. We are still debating whether or not that was a good present. On Christmas day we had a nice ham dinner. And my dad even made it over and hung out for a couple of hours. We live so far away from most of our family so when we have an opportunity, like this year, to have family around we really enjoy it.

New Years Eve was great. That is the night we hold our Annual New Year Eve party. We had around 40 friends over and Moe made her famous chicken wings. There was a SPICY batch and a not so spicy batch. I took charge of the fireworks purchase this year. Moe usually takes the boys to China town and gets stuff but this year I went with a couple of buddies of mine and the boys and we went down to a street called “Sal si Puedes” which translates to “get out if you can” and went to this Chinto (Chinese merchant) and bought some serious fireworks. We kind of have an ongoing competition with some neighbors that live down the street as to who can put on a better show at mid night. Well we did well for a while but I think we got out done again. We did have some serious firework action going on. You can get some pretty powerful stuff here in Panama. My buddy Dan bought a whole bunch of firecrackers that were about the size as a half a stick of dynamite and probably just as powerful. A couple of the kids said that was the best time they had ever had at a New Years Eve party. Next year will be even better!

Raquel's High School Graduation

Well it is official!! Raquel graduated today from high school. the ceremony was held this morning at the Marriott Hotel. Her graduating class was a whopping 40 kids. She is so excited that it is over and now is looking forward to the future. She hopes to go to the LDS Business college or even BYU if she is lucky. We had a get together at the house this afternoon with some member of the ward. Moe made a Graduation cake for the occasion.

Raquel Seminary Graduation Pics

Here are the Seminary Graduation Pics. I couldn't figure out how to put them in the last post.

First Post

Well here goes nothing. I started this blog a while back but have been too lazy to actually get it going and send it out to the family. I am very new to blogging despite being pretty computer suave. So bare with me while I figure it out.

We have had a busy November so far. We started off the month spending 8 days in Orlando, Fl. visiting Disney World and Universal Studios.

These are a few pics of our trip. Adriana was fascinated by being in the good Ole US of A. She mentioned on many occasions how nice everything was. The last time she was in the states was over 7 years ago when she was around 2. I also took the boys to a Orlando Magic NBA basketball game which they loved. Moe and Raquel spent one day shopping while the rest of us went to Universal Studios. We went with 4 other families from our ward which made it even more fun for all.

When we got back to Panama we had a visit from Elder Bednar from the Quorum of the Twelve to our Sacrament meeting. I was privileged to pick him up at the airport and drive him to the guest housing at the Temple, where he stayed. We had a great sacrament meeting with him and Elder Walter Gonzalez. Elder Bednar talked about Priesthood keys and the importance of listing to and acting upon the words of those who hold those keys (Apostles, Stake Presidents and Bishops).

Raquel had her Seminary graduation last Sunday night. The CES here has the graduating kids dress in full cap and gown. Raquel towered over ALL the other kids.

The school year in Panama runs from March to December so our kids are in their final week of school. Needless to say they are excited. Raquel will have her graduation on the 14th of this month.

We also have Maureen’s mom here with us. She came down for some alternative treatments for some serious pain she has been dealing with since before the end of her mission in Ecuador. The doctors in Arizona could not find anything wrong and told her she would have to deal with the pain. Well, in her first visit with a doctor here in Panama he found a tumor in her cervix. That doctor got her an appointment that night with a cancer specialist, a biopsy was done and it was confirmed cancerous so she start radiation treatments last week. She will have to receive 35 treatments so she will be with us until at least the later part of January. We are happy to have her and Moe is glad that she is able to be with her through this trying time.

Well I think that about does it for now but I will try and keep this up.