En Garde, Lapin!

Below are the aforementioned chocolate swords. They charge for the dipping them in chocolate, but they don't charge extra for the awesomeness.

Are those not the coolest ice cream cones you've ever seen. Those are almost worth the trip down here. With all of the clean-up involved, however, they will come few and far between. We had a good week getting ready for Easter. We'll have more pictures for next week, but Claire and Sam were able to color some eggs while Caroline just smiled and smiled, like she always does.

Lapin = Bunny in French. I had to look it up.

Going Up?

I neglected to mention something really fun that we did a week or two ago because I haven't uploaded the pictures yet. It was recommended to us by a family when we first got here, and we just barely had an opportunity to go. They called it the "chocolate swords". It is an ice cream cone with a normal amount of ice cream dipped in chocolate and then hardened. But the "dip" in chocolate is done in such a way that it's about two feet tall. Claire could not hold her cone and reach the top of the chocolate. With the time it takes to get going on the chocolate, the ice cream starts to melt. While it ends up in a big mess for little kids, it was hilarious and we will definitely do it again. I will post a picture or two when we get them on the computer.

As for this week, I was gone. I went to Panama for work and was amazed at how different it was compared to the first time I visited (for a month in 1994). As a quick overview, when the U.S. finished the Panama Canal, an agreement was made that had the U.S. administering the Canal for a long time. That agreement also allowed for several U.S. military bases to be built in Panama in order to protect the Canal. The U.S. also had it's Jungle Operations Training Center and the military's Southern Command located in Panama. In the 1970's, President Jimmy Carter inked a deal that would return the Panama Canal Zone to Panama on 31 December 1999. So during the 1990's, the U.S. drew down its troops and eventually closed its bases. The Panamanian currency is the dollar and you can still see the U.S. influence in the stores, etc, but the bases are not the clean, maintained areas of the city they once were.

Panama City is nice, though. The highlight of the trip, however, and much like the first time is visiting the Panama Canal and being amazed by the engineering that carved 50 miles through the jungle. I'll spare you the technical details, but it really is an engineering marvel for the technology that was used. The Canal was begun by the French in the 1880's (I think) and then abandoned. The U.S. came in the early 1900's to pick up the work. They eventually finished the job and it was officially opened in 1914.

We visited the Miraflores Locks (one of three sets along the canal) on the Pacific Ocean side of Panama. In the below picture, you can see the two lanes. Then the next two pictures show a large container ship being lowered from the Miraflores Lake to the Pacific Ocean level while the boat next to it enters the lock. The first picture is taken about 5-7 minutes before the next one. You can see how far the container ship was lowered.

The below video clip shows the container ship passing through the lock while the ship in the foreground's lock is just opening up.

Finally, a picture of Panama City from the Old City. Picture taken looking East.

Cliff Notes

We had a good week. The kids keep us on our toes. Sam has started deciding that he would rather get out of bed, turn on the light, and play after bedtime, in the middle of the night, and really early in the morning. We are going to have to nip that problem in the bud... and fast.

We switched Caroline's carseat from rear-facing to front-facing. She is much happier. She turns one in a couple of weeks and is all over the place.

Claire is as pleasant as can be.

Lily is ever-present.

You Too

I thought I would put a couple pictures up from Claire's birthday party last week. Claire's bestest friend in the whole world, Maggie, had a birthday a week earlier than Claire's so they shared the party. We rented a bounce house, heated up the pool, had some cake and spent the afternoon having a blast, making sure we left in plenty of time for the BYU-Florida game.

This week had another 2 big events. While it was Claire's actual birthday this week (March 30th), it was also April Fool's Day and the long anticipated U2 concert in La Plata, Argentina. We pulled a few pranks on some people and enjoyed hearing about the pranks being pulled. The best, in my book, is still the saran wrap on the toilet. A good friend's wife posted on Facebook about her subsequent cleanup. Juvenile? Yes. Appropriate? Maybe. Hilarious? Every time. Other pranks included moving a car (while also turning on windshield wipers, radio, etc), playing hurt (a spouse finding their maid collapsed at home upon arrival), covering up someone's favorite baseball team merchandise with the rival team logos, and putting shredded paper in kid's lunch boxes (while giving their teachers lunch passes). All in all, it was a fun day. Or should I say a Beautiful Day.

So when I was in Buenos Aires for my mission, U2 came to Argentina as part of its Popmart Tour. They played 2 shows at the River Plate Stadium. No, I did not go, but I knew families from my mission that went, and I was surprised at how much media attention the Irish band got. Well, fast forward. I have never seen U2, but have told Candace in every place we've lived that they are a band that I would go see if they came to where we were. Candace feels the same way about Josh Groban. So when U2 announced the South American leg of its current 360 degree tour, La Plata (an hour south of Buenos Aires) was on the docket and I got tickets along with a few friends.

In the end, U2 will end up playing three shows in La Plata (Capital of Buenos Aires Province in case you didn't know) on 30 March, and 2-3 April. I went to the 2 April Saturday night show. It was awesome.

Traffic was OK getting in and getting out of La Plata, and we were enjoying the experience on the way home until we got a flat tire. Luckily, we were all still going on adrenaline and were able to knock out the tire change pretty quickly. MUSE was the opening act and was also super cool. I would definitely go out of my way to see U2 again.