Well by this time I can say I'm fully recovered from my brother and Kristen's visit. Phew, just in time for our trip back to the US on the 20th. We had an awesome time with Tom and Kristen. They've only been gone a couple weeks but it feels like forever. I want to say we partied like rock stars, but, well, let's just say we've matured some and realized the benefits of a good nights sleep.

I've switched over to Kodak. Hopefully you can see photos here. Here are a bunch from Tom and Kristen's visit and another link with the latest on the house.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=330289463214%3A1415046935
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=730289463214%3A843419563

One of the highlights had to be our fishing trip. Kristen started the day by catching her first fish EVER. From there it just never ended. We ended up with 1 dorado, 2 Marlin pecking at the lures, 2 yellow fin tuna and 9 skip jack tuna....equally if not better than yellow fin to eat. Of course that evening we gobbled down plenty of sushi before the gourmet meal I'd been waiting for....Kraft Mac & Cheese and Shake N Bake pork chops. Good, sh*tty food all at the same time.

We spent Thanksgiving at our friend Joe's place. There had to be 40 people there. Tons of good food, drinks and fun. His house looks out to the ocean but most eyes were glued to the HUGE TV watching football. That's ok, that's what Thanksgiving is all about in addition to eating and drinking yourself silly.....Kristen...whooops, I mean, I'm not going to mention any names....KRISTEN...whoops.

Kristen and I stayed pretty much intact. My brother and Wayne....well, boogie boarding got the best of them. A couple smashed toes and some bruised ribs. No hospitals required so nothing too serious. Although Wayne's toe is still huge and blue...it's pretty much broken.

The weather held out pretty good for the most part. Even rain in 90 degree weather doesn't dampen things too much. We had a great trips to Playa Venao, Playa El Toro and Isla Iguana. Spent a few afternoons pool side at Play El Toro until it became apparent that cleaning the pool once a week is too much to ask. Hey, they had domino's to play and soccer to watch....we understand. NOT!

We hired a driver one day to bring us to the Abuelo and Seco distillery. They weren't harvesting sugar cane so the tour was quick but we got to sample some rum. Glad we hired a driver....as he got right up in there too and swigged a couple down. Not having reached our goal of stupidness we then headed to the Casino...free drinks while they take our money....somehow that's not really free. Lunch followed and still we weren't feeling we were getting our money's worth out of the driver.....who also enjoyed a few beers at lunch...again, why did we hire him?...Oh, he's just a super nice guy. So a jug of grape juice and a bottle of seco guaranteed the results we were looking for.

WOW, it was just good to have family here!!!!!

House update...well it's still coming along great. Septic is just about in. I do believe it could handle all of Pedasi after a night of drinking...and that's saying something!!!! Our wood for our roof came in...well most of it. The almond wood which will be used for our beams all came from ONE tree. Amazing. It's gorgeous wood and super heavy. All of the wood we are using came from Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean side of Panama. Permits are required to harvest the wood...believe it or not...and that's a good thing. This wood was cut and then carried, CARRIED out of the jungle. It took a couple of months to get it from the time we ordered it. We'll put everything on hold while we are away...so that will set us back 3 weeks, but hey, what's the rush..

We are looking forward to our trip which will start off in Panama City. We'll FINALLY go on a canal tour and visit some friends in the city. We fly to FL on the 20th, we'll enjoy the holidays with family and of course the big day will be on the 28th. Wayne is so lucky. He can hardly believe it himself!!!! :) Hopefully the weather will be with us and we can get married outside and then enjoy the afternoon at Hiram's bar/restaurant with about 30 people.....We are so lucky to have our family and friends willing to travel down to be with us. We've even got some friends we made here in Panama that live in FL and will be attending. Cousins, aunts, moms, dads, sister, nephews, friends....WOW, we'll all be together and it's not for a funeral.