Ok, so I wasn't very good at posting as I go! The room we were in had no phone service--both a blessing and a curse. The pools and common areas were all fine, but sitting on my phone (distracted by emails) wasn't something I wanted to do so much, not to mention incurring extra fees for extra data. So, here's the rest of our vacation days, hopefully in order, but if not, who needs to keep track of days while on vacation??
This was the start of Easter Sunday. Ahhh, nothing like a nice warm (hot!) morning at the pool! It started out a glorious day, but quickly turned into showers off an on so we spent some quality time napping in our rooms. Abby worked hard at perfecting her back dive, and by the end of vacation, I'd have to say she was pretty good at it!
My fish.
Jack and Ava, enjoying the view. By the ind of the trip, they were holding hands and there may or may not have been marriage plans under way.
This was later in the morning on Easter Sunday. This year, for the first time, they had a Catholic mass. It was supposed to be in English, but most of it was in Spanish. It was supposed to start at 11:00, but the priest got there at 11:30 (island time!). It was a little hard to stay focused in the restaurant where it took place, in another language, when I wanted to be in a pool, but I am glad we went.
Tammy did a great job playing Easter bunny. She got Brian to stuff Easter eggs for us... everything from candy, to money, to toys! We were going to do an egg hunt outside, but because of rain had to move the operations indoors. The big kids and the little kids each had their own hunt, and there were surprisingly few tears and lots of happy faces. Here they are blowing bubbles off the balcony.
Finding eggs...
Happy Easter!
That night, there was a dance party at the nightclub. It started out with just the kids up on stage. Even Nolan went up for Gangham Style!
This girl just love Ellie. She spoke only Spanish, and I took a picture because I think she looks so much like Rayva, who was with us last year. Here's the random girl...
Here's Rayva. Similar??
And then here's Tammy. Tammy, what's that? You heart Dave? But why? What would he do to make you heart him?
OH!!! Well, there he is! Up on stage in a dance contest. Well of course he is!! Selected from the audience, contenstant number 4 I believe. Not a shy bone in his body. And wouldn't you know it, he WON! They tried to unbotton his shirt and the whole deal. It was a close competition (they selected by how loud the audience was), but Dave came out the champion. He won a pound of coffee. Yup, just what everyone wants to win!
Ok, here we are starting... the day after Easter, must be. Ava is just too cool for school.
Well, she was, before that hat she stole from Ellie.
Ava's perfect napping place! Too bad she didn't actually nap there.
The game the kids have been playing for four years now... dolphin trainer! Ever since they saw the dolphins, and then swam with them, at Ocean World, they love to pretend one is a traner and the others are dolphins. Keeps them entertained for hours!
Oh baby Ellie. I remember those days. They weren't that long ago we had Ava sleeping on a bed just like that!!
And then, there were these two. Nice hats!! It was nice to have my mom and dad there. An extra set of hands always comes in, well, handy! And I think Abby was happy to get some personal attention from Gram. Look at Dave photo bombing this picture...
And again...
And again.
Watch out! Full on assault! Think Dave had a lot of Sol Dominicanos? Cervezas? Mai Tais? Probably yes to all three!
We love this beach because it's right off the ocean, but not on the ocean so you don't have to worry about the kids. Plus there's the pool, the bar, the grill, and Scoops, the ice cream place! What's not to love? Here's Nolan burying Jack.
The fam.
My matching girls.
The fam, but dressed this time. Sorry, dad, I just have to tell the story of what happened before this picture. Max was crabby and did not want to smile. So, my dad was trying to make him smile. Sometimes, he does that by taking his teeth out (yup, dentures). Well, this time they slipped all the way out. To the ground. I thought Dave was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard. I wasn't so surprised... I think I've seen that before!
The boys... so handsome.
Dominican butts. This is year 4 picture like this.
Here's year 1... My how they've grown!
Self-explanatory.
Smile, boys!
Off to Serenity Beach! This must be a different day. See that island out there? Remember it...
Oops, back for a day. Hi Gram and Grumpy!
You know that island I told you to remember? Well, it landed us here, at the medical clinic. While walking out to it across the rocks, my dad slipped and fell and hit his shin hard. It got a huge bump on it right away, and bled quite a bit (salt water... ouch!). Then I was walking around the island with Nolan and despite having water shoes on, when I cam down on one of the many, many sea urchins, I got sea urchin spines in my foot! So I went to the medical clinic as well. Fortunately, the doctor (or, the man acting as the doctor at least) told us to put Neosporin on dad's and he'd be ok, and to pull out my spines (ouch!) and put neosporin on it and I'd be ok. Done deal. We're both ok.
But then we went back to the beach and did some of this...
And this! Wait, where's Ava?
Cheers to our favorite Baltimore friends!
Ellie loved the Lazy Loungers, too.
Bury Jack!
That's an awfully big hole...
Cheers, mom! No hold digging for your?
How big of a hole does it take to bury four Gawrych children?
Young friends.
Yum, Abby. Bread. Again.
Quite the life.
Max took over an hour nap. Ahhhhh.
As did Grumpy. He's under that white beacon.
The first year, Abby became swollen through her eyes and nose. We called her Avatar because with the swolling and the hair braiding, had you painted her blue she would have looked like and Avatar from the movie. Years 2 and 3 no swolling, but it came back this year. We gave her a little Benedryl and not only did it help the swolling, it made her pass out!
Max passed out on his own. No Benedryl needed.
VIP Pool!
Go Ava!
Date night.
We ended on the roof top bar.
Last day, boogie boarding. We've never done it, despite it being free through the resort. It was so fun!
This looks Christmas Card worthy to me!
Nolan was by far the best at it. He ended up doing some flips and kartwheels on some big waves, but got up and went back at it each time.
Matching swim suits.
Even mom did it!
Tammy and I took Jack and Ava to the kiddie pool. Oh, I'm sorry, kids pool Ava kept yelling at me that there were no kitties there! Ava and Jack started coming down the slide as a train. So cute to watch!
Last night for nice dinner and pictures.
Good bye, till next time!!
