Nolan Family

We arrived in Panama late at night.  Our trip took us from Chicago into El Salvador and then into Panama.  God blessed us and we quickly made it through customs, finding a taxi immediately to take us to the Hyatt Place in downtown Panama City. The next day started early as we awoke to our first morning in Panama.  With only one day in Panama City we were determined to make the most of it.  Okay, the truth was that I was determined, the rest of the family was dragging.  Dave and I finally were able to drag the boys out of bed, just in time for a ten minute breakfast and a quick one kilometer walk to the meeting place for our tour. We boarded a passenger van and headed out of the city to Gamboa.  At Gamboa we loaded onto a small covered boat and headed out into the Panama Canal.  Gamboa is a small town that used to house the workers during the building of the canal.  Today, the many men who painstakingly dug the canal have been replace by machin...

Good Bye By Bandit Since Jean Luc was the one who introduced me to this blog, mom decided that I should be the one to write the goodbye to my brother.  I joined the family 3 years ago and during that time we became good buddies.  At first, I do not think that Jean Luc was very fond of me, but in the end, we could often be found sleeping side by side.  I would also run and wake him up if he did not wake up when the family came home, so that he would not miss out on our family time.   Jean Luc's was much older than me, in fact, he would have been 17 years old on July 7th. My mom and dad joked that he was their first child, at least that is what it felt like when they first brought him home and he woke them up at night.  When you look back on it the fact that Jean Luc and Dave and Laura found each other is a miracle from God in the first place.   It was Labor Day 1999, and Dave and Laura decided to use the long weekend to visit Dave's mom, Ro...

The day started with excitement.  The boys helped to pack the car in anticipation of our possibly picking them up early from school.  Josh repeatedly asked what time we would pick him up, using every ounce of his persuasive skills to convince us that the sooner we came the better.  Ryan was torn between the excitement of a movie at school and leaving for our trip. Everyone loaded into the car.  Ryan did not even notice that we had not brought his backpack.  Josh being ever responsible had his.  I told him he would not need it and took it from him.  He adamantly argued that he still had several classes he would need his books for.  I informed him, that he would not need it for such a short day.  And we were off. "I knew it," Josh exclaimed as we drove passed the turn for the school.  "What?" Ryan stated.  "We aren't going to school today!" Josh said.  Ryan joined in on the cheers and our trip to Minneapolis was officially starte...