In case you haven't guessed, we made it back! Thanks to mom and dad, who came to our house to pick up spare keys and drop them off at the hotel where we parked our van, we were able to get home around 1:15 am on Friday night/Saturday morning and crash.
We are still busy trying to recover. I think most of the laundry is done (thanks, Dave!), sand emptied out of suitcases, the house put back in some semblance of order, mostly. We are still tired and kind of crabby. Abby had a birthday party yesterday where they went to a waterpark and then she slept over. I'm not sure how she did it... hopefully she wasn't too crabby! The kids are driving us a little crazy, and I'm not sure if it's them used to complete attention or me not wanting to give complete attention. If I'm being completely honest, I'm not looking forward to work tomorrow. It'll be very hard to get back in the swing of things, not helped by the fact that Dave is traveling half the week, the kids start softball and baseball, and Nolan has two nights of practice for First Communion with First Communion on Saturday, and his birthday party next week Friday and Saturday. Looking through the pictures makes me happy and nostalgic all the the same time. Here are the best... probably too many for anyone but me to care about! And, probably in not the right order as I have pics from our three cameras as well as Brenda and Mayur's. But here they are...
Here's a lizard that played with us all week. We had three rooms, but unfortunately two were connecting on the second floor and then a third room was on the third floor. This little guy lived in a doorframe on the third floor. Abby saw him once and thought he was fake, but then saw him move. She came to tell me, but then he was gone. I didn't think anything of it until I walked up by myself later and saw his head and foot. Anytime we were quiet we could see a little bit of him, and as soon as he heard noise, he'd duck back under the door frame. We made a game out of whether we could see him or not each time we walked past.
The boys getting ready to head out at 3 AM.
Donuts at 4 AM. Gotta love 'em!
Made it to the Dominican! Now to gather our luggage.
Ahhhh.... We're home.
Fun in the surf and sand!
A beer? Ok!
Or a fruity drink. Either way.
Love the Wall*Mart.
How many kids will we bury today?
The traditional hair braiding...
Even Ava got hers done this year! These kids' mom were braiding Abby's hair. The boy was 5, and he was teaching me all the colors of the beads in Spanish.
Three's a charm!
How cute!
Not to be outdone.
The swim up aqua bar, which was new to us this year. Loved it! It was like a little cave in the pool.
The days really wore her out.
Toughies.
Tired Rayva, too. This is the new Tapas restaurant. A great place for some wine! Or a vodka and tonic... I'm just sayin'.
Abby looks so old...
Three pina coladas, please.
Serenity Beach. The kids have to head out to the island to check it out.
Success!
Give me a big pillow and the sun!
Handsome men. This was at the restaurant Moomtaz (means excellent in Arabic), which had Indian food. Nolan and Kyan checked this out with Brenda, Mayur and Dave and I took the other kids to The Pearl, a new buffet. I'm not a huge fan of Indian food, and I knew Abby would never go for it, so it was a good deal all the way around. I heard the Indian food was great.
Karaoke night! Ava made Kyan dance with her.
It rained a lot more this time than in the past, but usually early morning or night. Some thunderstorms, and even some torrential downpour... but a lovely rainbow.
Harmony Beach in the morning.
These girls with Ava were not only gorgeous, but so nice and helpful. They and their family are from London, and stayed for two weeks. Katie, the girl in the water, is 16 and loved Ava, and wanted to take her home. Their accents were lovely. They said they loved our accent, which was funny. I felt so brash compared to them!
Kyan was actually sleeping under that blanket!
Tired? Find a hammock and catch a snooze!
We hit the smoothie bar for the first time. YUM!
Our last night eating at the Italian restaurant. Ava loved making fangs out of her noodles.
Rub a dub dub, three kids in a tub!
Daddy, check out my braids!
Ahh!
Love Scoops to get ice cream!
What better place to eat ice cream?
Lunch and swimming!
The new to us kids' pool. The girls loved it!
One morning it was raining a little bit. There's a stage, and the kids planned a whole show for us. It included some dancing and singing, and then a stage production of a Hansel and Grettel type play called Nolan and Max. It had different scenes, a narrator, a song, everything. Leave it to Abby. I love that she can make stuff to do, even on the unfortunately rainy days in the Dominican!
A pool with a view!
New restaurants. We didn't try them, but I liked the signs!
All four kids were water logged each and every day.
Happy to be there!
Ava found a puppy she loved.
Mmmmm.
Ava loved playing in the sand and the surf.
Abby making the longest hopscotch game ever!
Dave carrying all our pink bags for us.
What a crew!
This sign was EVERYWHERE. We saw it at least a thousand times. The election is May 20... not sure if he'll win, but he certainly has the most signs!
On the bus to our zip lining.
Security dog at Monkey Jungle. He was so cute, but rolled over on Ava once. She didn't like it, but when you get so close, it's bound to happen!
Feeding the monkeys. Abby would have nothing to do with it, but everyone else got in the action. They were very adorable!
Getting outfitted for ziplining.
Ready to go!
Ready Max?
Hang on tight, Ava!
Away we go!
Waiting to head back home.
Crazies...
Laura, if you've read this far, this sign is for you. You should move to Dominican and work for Coldwell Banker there!
VIP Beach... can't be beat!
There's Katie again. Ava asked for her over and over.
Miami Vices. Dave and I made it out to dinner and our 8:30 reservations. We started in a roof top lounge with drinks, which were great. We went to VIP Gourmet, which has light up menus. It was funny because Dave had been talking about the light up menus forever. We got there, sat down, opened the menus and, mind lit up but his didn't. For his own well-being, I switched so he could have the full experience. I asked for a new menu and I think the waiter thought I was crazy. Hey, I wanted the full deal!
The full group.
Some of these pics from the underwater camera were just kind of fun.
Nolan caught this fish on camera.
And even in the Dominican, the kids will sit and relax and watch TV. In some fantastically retro orange chairs in our room!
One more place to fall asleep.
Dorks.
And their sons. Much better than the dads!
And that's it. The final chronicle for this year's trip. I can't believe it's here and done... I wonder when spring break is next year???
