Pato's Family Comes for Hotdogs

On my last post I shared a piece about Pato and his family.  They will be leaving us here at Yanapamba in about a week.  They will be the 'guard family' for our builder's next residential project.  I suppose if we just let them open the gate for us when we come into Yanapamba we might never have gotten to know them.  As it is, they have become our warmest neighbors.  We will miss them.

Dena will be three in November.  Christopher is 8.  Christopher is becoming quite proficient with the frisbie.  Dena is learning the art of the disc also, but her strength and coordination haven't quite gelled yet so she gets more attention being a clown.  One day Dena, Christopher, Patricia, Pato and I were all playing frisbie on the berm behind our house.  Dena came running off the berm and as her young legs buckled she went into the most acrobatic forward somersault only to land at the bottom of the berm in a sitting position.  We all just roared with laughter and even Dena just giggled.  I will never forget that moment.  Laughing in English and Spanish is the same and it truly joins the participants on a level that words don't even approach.

Last week we invited the whole family over for hot dogs.  Hot dogs are not perros caliente in Ecuador.  They are hot dogs!  Rachel made an awesome potato salad to go with the dogs and some chocolate cookies that sated even the most ravenous chocloholic (me).  This was kind of our 'good bye' meal.  We wanted to be on our terrace so that they could look out on their Yanapamba family of residents and know that they have been appreciated for just being who they are.

Dena hasn't yet learned the art of smiling for the camera.  She was actually a lot more interested in Dodger who was lurking close by in case there were some accidental hot dog escapees that might roll his way.

When given the option for the small hot dog or the large hot dog, Christopher needed little time for a decision.  However, these were really big dogs and he struggled to get to the end of it.  

I think they call it carb overload

We all had a fun meal together.....

But there was still time to demonstrate to the kids my most favorite sport, hammockeering.  It is usually Dodger's duty to keep me company while I navigate the fine art of hammock swinging but he seemed delighted to have more participants this time.

Christopher is the more photogenic, but Dena will learn soon enough

But there's really only one good way to settle hot dogs, potato salad, and chocolate cookies!

I hope that Dena and Christopher will remember that funny old gringo guy that played frisbie with them.