Due to James' work schedule during the week, we decided to celebrate Genevieve's First Birthday over a series of days. :) We started on Saturday by taking her to the Summit Botanical Garden and Zoo, about 25 minutes from Panama City. I think if Genevieve was older, she probably would have been very disappointed by this zoo (we weren't expecting too much from it). However, thanks to the fact that she is only turning 1, she had a great time and the zoo was the perfect size for her! Her favorite things to see were the monkeys and birds. She thought every monkey was a cat and made her "Cccc" sound at them repeatedly. She challenged the parrots and toucans to screeching competitions (I think she won). It was really hot out so we only spent about an hour and a half at the zoo itself. There wouldn't have been a need to spend anymore time there since we saw everything in that short amount of time. Still, not bad for a $1.
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| James and I drove to Gamboa (past the zoo) while Genevieve took a much needed pre-zoo nap in the back seat. |
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| A tug boat on the Panama Canal |
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| It looked pretty crazy to see such huge ships on such a small canal! |
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| Summit Botanical Gardens and Zoo |
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| Mommy and Genevieve check out the friendly monkeys (or cats, as far as G is concerned) |
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| G and Daddy talking to the monkeys |
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| Looking at a Crocodile and turtles |
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| Intrigued by the animals |
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| El Mono |
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| Daddy and G walk through the zoo |
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| Totally inappropriate monkeys...look closely to see why... |
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| The little monkey was talking to G... Genevieve just kept calling it a Cat |
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| bamboo forest |
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| heading up the hill to the Harpy Eagle enclosure |
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| Leaf Cutter Ants hard at work! |
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| Taking a break from screeching with the parrots! |
Since James doesn't get home until its time for Genevieve to go to bed, we decided to do her Birthday cake today. It was hard to find a cake for her, but James found a small piece of chocolate cake at the local supermercado on his way back from dropping off our rental car this morning. We thought it would be best for this event to take place down by the pool at our building. While she started off digging at the cake like she did the sand at the beach, she eventually realized that it was something yummy. You can see her fun from the pictures below (there are numerous pictures posted because it is just so hard for me to choose which ones I like the best!). On Wednesday (her actual Birthday), I will make her some "Birthday Spaghetti"...her favorite meal right now. We plan on heading west along the Pan American Highway on Thursday with our destination being Santa Catalina. We are staying at a nice B&B run by a German couple for $50 a night. When I emailed them about reservations and said we'd be bringing Genevieve, they emailed back and said they have an 11 month old who would love to play with our daughter on the beach. :) Glad G will have some companionship!
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| Her little piece of Birthday cake! |
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| lighting the candle |
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| Make a wish! The first of many! |
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| Mommy helping to blow out the candle |
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| what am I supposed to do with this? |
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| is this right? |
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| grabbing the frosting and throwing it aside/behind her... :) |
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| here we go... |
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| mmmmm..."num num num" |
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| my "proper" little girl prefers a fork, haha |
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| Going back for more! |
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| Posing with Daddy! |
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| So much fun! |
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| Mommy and Genevieve |
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| do you want some? |
Well, while we hope Genevieve has a great 1st Birthday, we can't wait until we get back to let her celebrate with all of our family and friends! Miss you all!
