The Trip...Finally!

How long have I been back from vacation? Since Sunday. But I will admit that today is the first day that I have felt back in the swing of things. And, schools over for the year. That is my excuse for not blogging about the trip yet! We arrived home Sunday and we have been on the go since. Monday, I had to do the grocery thing and even got brave and went to the new Publix. Super nice, Anna was tired though and ready to go mid-way through. Tuesday was Brice's graduation which I already posted pics on but might have to go into further detail about...
Wednesday was "water day" at school and "runyourlastminuteerrandsbecauseschoolisoutandyouwon'thaveanytimetoyourself" for Anna and I. This makes me sad too because no more Anna/Mommy time for a while. And then today I cleaned this house.

What's that? You don't care what I've been up to? You just want to see pictures and hear about the trip? Well, then, here goes.
Arrived in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on Wednesday around lunch time. Took the bus to the resort. Not a bad ride, only about 15 minutes. Got off the bus and was greeted with a fruity drink! Yum. Then we got our villa assignment...

Justin took this picture the first morning we were there as the sun was rising, so pretty.The bathroom which was open to air as you can see the plants through the blinds.
Separate beds? Okay. We had the same thing in Puerto Rico, no biggie. Turns out this was awesome because we were so hot every day that the last thing we were going to do was lay next to each other. Not to mention, Justin is like a freakin' furnace!
And then we see this...NO COMPLAINTS HERE!!!! We headed back to the lobby area where some of Justin's coworkers were not happy that they would give separate beds to a "married couple" or that they couldn't see the beach or that their toilet didn't work. Okay, so I do see their point. But, Justin and I were NOT complaining as this trip was paid for and we were literally six feet from sand!

The group at dinner one night. One of the restaurants opened a special tiki hut looking thing for us for two nights to have a private dinner. This was also the night that the "bosses" talked about my wonderful hard working husband and all that he has accomplished this past year.
In the picture below, he is holding the award for the year, which Justin packed in his carry-on so that it wouldn't break forgetting that it had liquid in it. So, yes, we were held up at the airport in Punta Cana as well as getting back INTO Atlanta. That is another story for another time but there needs to be some major re-evaluating of the security at Hartsfield-Jackson. Anyway, I am so proud of Justin and hope he is proud of himself as well. He deserved this trip, BIG time, and needed it as well. We did relax and Justin received two massages while I did one massage/one facial. Glorious!!!!!!
And, it wouldn't be vacation without some hottie in a Speedo, right?! Larry, I feel a song coming on, how about you???
This was one of the restaurants at the resort where we had breakfast each morning. It was great! Lots of different kinds of foods and most importantly, donuts, for Justin. The resort that we stayed at has some management issues right now as they were just bought out. The staff there was awesome, always wanting to help and serve and just make it wonderful for us. There was some language barriers but it wasn't too bad. I was told that the staff has to take two days of English classes per week. We think the phrase they were perfecting last week was, "my pleasure". They said this every time we said, "Thank You" or "Gracias".
Speaking of thank you's-HUGE thank you's to the grandparents for holding down the fort while we were gone including carpooling to school, a birthday party, two baseball games, the driving range and dealing with little Anna who fought her baths every time. We appreciate it so much and hope that they enjoyed spending time with their grandchildren as much as we enjoyed being away. It was bittersweet though as Brice hit his first homerun when we were gone. Oh, and he hit a golf ball 120 yards! The kid was on fire when we were gone, no pressure from us, I guess. The following picture is from up high at the "castle" portion of the resort where they had rooms with private pools and the spa was also located here.
This stretch of beach was not yet built upon. They had a sign up of the new resort that was going to be built. It was nice to be able to walk down the beach even if it was so humid and hot! Seriously, we sweated, a lot. The air conditioning was never really cold and not a lot of ice was in the drinks. I feared my hair was going to look like Monica's from Friends and that some braids would be in order but I did okay.
We saw this sting ray in the ocean and walked along side of it for about half a mile. Well, I walked, Justin was practically chasing it.
Okay, one more shot to make you jealous of what our view was from our room. Sorry, had to do it.
The ceiling in the lobby area which was open to air, no A/C, just hoping for a good breeze!

And this is what I did most of the time, with a few naps, few drinks, and meals in between!