Panama

I had give Panama its own post. Joe, Lizzie, and I flew down to Panama to pick Ammon up after his adventure there was over. It was truly an epic vacation. Thanks to Spence and Kerri for being such amazing hosts! We love you guys so much. :) (By the way...this is going to be an extremely long post, maybe the longest I've ever written!)

Leaving Boise (and the Broncos) behind at the airport

It was a VERY long day - up at 4:00am and left the Panama airport at 10:00pm

Lizzie's dessert...during a layover

Uh...

As Spence tried to explain to me...EVERYWHERE is jungle in Panama

Loved spending time with our cousins!

Our amazing host and hostess!

That cute Lexy is such a pistol!

From Spence and Kerri's apartment...not bad views :)

Our first day on the causeway

Dinner by the pool (made by the amazing Kerri, I might add)

The Panama Canal - what visit to Panama City would be complete without a visit to the Canal?

It wasn't the, uh, highlight of Lizzie's trip

I loved the boats

The crew headed out to go ziplining

We stopped for lunch along the beach

The ambiance was amazing...the food? Not so much. I had the grossest "hamburger" I've ever eaten, haha. Not sure that it was meat...

Lizzie was DYING to get in the water

I just loved being with my sweetheart

Our first experience with black sand

Pretty sa-wheet!

And then it started to pour

It IS the rainforest, I suppose

I won't lie...I was terrified for the guys to zipline

Cool rope bridge into the jungle

Phew! She LOVED it soooo much. :) I was happy she did it.

Her dad loved it too

El Valle (where they ziplined) is this cool town built into the caldera of a volcano...and SOOO beautiful!

The storms are just so gorgeous

Hiking in the metropolitan jungle with cousins

I was surprised by how much it reminded me of the forests of Idaho...different, of course, but still strangely similar

Ammon took like 3 photos in this spot :)

At the top of the hike, we could see the temple!

Ammon pointing out the sights for me

Joe poked himself on these weird trees

Preston and Sydney! I miss you!!!

On our way to Monkey Island!

When we first saw the monkeys, I thought I was going to die of happiness!

They ate right out of our hands

We saw three different species of monkeys

Right behind Lizzie's head is a monkey

We saw a baby cayman on our way

There's my baby!

Lizzie REALLY wanted to see bamboo - Uncle Spence made it happen!

Cool spot for family photos!

Gorgeous Lizzie

The Latino mall is an adventure! I even ordered from Subway without knowing a word of spanish. Haha...lots of pointing and nodding.

Lizzie having a ball (haha)

On our way to Embera Village!

I was such a "gringo" on this trip. I kept slipping on the mud. Oh well. These boats are made out of trees.

We saw a full sized croc on the way!

Our crew

Our guide's wife was 13 when they got married!

My hunky husband

A quick glimpse of the village

Our guide took us deep into the rainforest to hike to a waterfall

Lizzie was very helpful for her nerdy mom on this wet, slick hike

We swam...at the base of a waterfall, in the jungle, in a tropical rainstorm!

Joe and his poor sunburn...

My handsome guy back at the village

We were absolutely soaking wet (and freezing) when we got to the village

They make their living by selling their crafts to people like us

They fed us fresh fish and fruit in leaves

Spence ate...the banana chips anyway!

Joe was the only one who truly ate. He loved the fresh, fresh fish

We got a little demonstration on how they use the things around them to create their crafts

And a little history of their tribe

Teenage tribe members hung around and acted just like our teenagers

An example of their amazing work...made out of a fruit

They danced...with us!

We got "tattoos"

Simply stunning to think of them living such a remote, different life than we do!

Me with my girl!

That night we went from primitive to modern

The Burton kids had been wanting to see a live band, so we headed down to the Hard Rock Cafe

We were VERY sophisticated

And excited!

It was a blast

Most of the time...

Our Latina rockstar amazed the kiddos. She sang some American songs, but I could hardly tell she was singing English, haha!

It was VERY loud!

What a hunk!

The kids were enthralled

Even Ammon...he was just tired of me trying to take his picture ;)

My boys!

The girls were thrilled to get a picture with the singer

We took a ferry out to a small island off the coast of Panama to play at the beach - notice the long line of boats waiting to enter the canal

Lizzie was excited! She said this was her favorite day in Panama

We swam in the warm, gentle waters of the ocean. Spoiled the Oregon coast for Lizzie forever, I think!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day. We had amazing weather for it being the rainy season in Panama

Our setup

Spence and the kids swimming

I can't remember the name of this village. It reminded me of something you would see in Italy or something

One day, we wanted to take pictures by the Panama City temple

My husband was looking especially debonair, so we were ready to go!

Spence was our photographer...all started off well...

Even if I was goofy.

Then Spence started to go crazy. Claiming that Kerri had "mom arms"

Incurring this gorgeous girls wrath!

Took goofy pictures of Joe

And made my swing my hair to look fabulous

He finally gave up on us and started to get photos of himself instead

Crazy guy

We love you Spence! Thanks for such a great time. Can't wait to visit you in New York!