Dominican Republic

Jorden had an amazing year this year with work. He was the number one seller of Sybron's new piece of equipment which made him eligible for this year's company trip. The trip was to the Dominican Republic. We had so much fun! It was hard to leave the kids for 6 days but it was also good to have some alone time.

We left on a Monday and stayed in Miami one night, then flew to the Dominican the next day. We were so exhausted yet so excited. When we landed, we took a bus from the tarmac to the gates. We had to pay $10 each to Immigration and Customs. At least we were serenaded while we waited in the long, hot, long, hot line! Did I mention it was long...and hot?

As we walked through the airport trying to find our ride, all these people would approach us asking if they could help us. Thinking they worked for the airport we said, "Sure, we are trying to find our ride." We soon came to realize that these were locals trying to get you to ride in their vehicle and earn an extra buck. We would get completely swarmed by these people, it was so annoying!

We finally arrived at The Sanctuary. Our resort in Punta Cana.

Here was the lobby where we checked in.

 Right away we were greeted with our free "all-inclusive" drinks (that we kindly declined). And you are also free to light up whenever, wherever you want. I was quickly reminded how much I hate cigarette smoke, or even worse, cigar smoke.

On the balcony off the lobby. Our first look at the Dominican.

The pools were much colder than the ocean so we didn't spend a lot of time here. But they were         usually packed with people, probably because of the swim up bar.

 Next we walked down to the beach where "The Caribbean Sea kisses the Atlantic Ocean."  It was literally breathtaking! Like you were looking at a postcard.

This little hut was the restaurant where we ate the first night.

 Here I am sitting in the hut in the above picture. We waited here with some other people from our group until they had our rooms ready. Everyone started getting drinks so Jorden and I asked for the same juice drinks they were getting, just with no alcohol. The bar tender literally laughed at us, "You're kidding me right?!" We got this response a lot that week.

I loved all the cobblestone streets. This was the road from the lobby to our room.

They also had these cute little huts along the way where people can stay.

That little door down there was where our room was.

And here is the grand tour of our room. I was so tried and crashed on the bed as soon as we arrived!

 The balcony off our bedroom,

also had an amazing view. The random bed totally reminded me of The Bachelor. As I was looking off the balcony one day I yelled to Jorden, "Jorden, look! A boat!...no, wait DON'T LOOK! DON'T LOOK!" It was then that we realized our resort was next to the "Secret Sanctuary" An adults only resort where clothes are an options. Yikes!

Another picture of the view off our balcony.

We didn't waste any time after our power naps and got our suits on right away.

When we were sitting on the beach two guys approached us with a little monkey and they said I could hold her. Her name was Tinkerbell and she was adorable. She was tiny and would crawl all over your hands, shoulders, and head. When we got our cameras out they said, "No, you can't take pictures with your camera, we'll take them with ours." When we went to pick up our pictures they were $15 each. I just didn't think that was worth it. Even if we didn't get the pictures, at least we got to hold her!

The food here was surprisingly pretty good (we weren't expecting much in an all inclusive resort) but the best part was the fruit bar. We would eat platefuls of fruit and also go to the bar and hand them a bowl full of the fruits we wanted in a fruit juice. They would blend it right there and it was amazing!! I wish we had this kind of fruit in the United States.

Another breakfast favorite of mine was the bacon. It was thick and juicy and just amazing! This was my plate every morning, with more fruit, I had already ate a bunch.

 See, doesn't that bacon look amazing?!

The drink on the right was just pineapple juice blended with ice. I can't even describe how good it was. My mouth waters just thinking about it!

 It was Jorden's favorite too.

Headed out to the beach one day.

Every day we could do what we wanted for activities and meals but we always met up with Jorden's fellow employees for dinner.

These were the times we needed to act really mature.

 So that's exactly what we did.

 Ok, really we did. I promise.

 We had one amazing group with us. They were all so fun. I'm hoping we can win this trip again with the same people.

Each day you could do excursions such as zip lining, swimming with the dolphins, snorkeling, horseback riding on the beach, etc. We decided we better stick with one excursion so we decided to try surfing. I wasn't super excited about it. I thought it would be too hard to enjoy it.

Waiting for the surfing instructor to pick us up.

 We were just oozing with excitement!

We were so wrong with our attitude towards surfing. We had a blast!!

 We each had our own personal surfing instructors. These teenage kids that made surfing look so incredibly easy. Heading out the first time I was so nervous! I had all the instructors laughing at me when I asked if there are ever any sharks. But I was dead serious.

The first couple of times were a little rough.

But we got the hang of it in no time.

We both surfed "goofy style" Which is expected with Jorden because he is both goofy and does most sports left-handed. I'm really not sure why I did it this way, it was just the way that felt natural.

 Waiting for the rest of our group to come in. When we took our break they greeted us with a fresh coconut cut open so we could drink the cononut water out of it. It was a perfect day and definitely the highlight of our trip.

 When we were done we were pretty proud of ourselves. That was until we saw a golden retriever surfing in waves twice the size as ours. It was pretty cool!

By our last day we were so ready to get home to see our kids. So we grabbed one last virgin pina colada and headed to the airport.

We had to arrive to the airport 4 hours early because the lines are long and very slow moving. I felt pretty claustrophobic.

It was so hot with this many people and no air conditioning, only these fans that weren't even turned on. Plus 80% humidity. I could not wait to get on that plane!

Once again we were serenaded as we waited to walk out onto the tarmac to load onto our plane.

Yay! Heading home!

For some reason we were upgraded to first class for both our flights home. The first thing I got was a real American Diet Coke. The Coke Light in the Dominican was not the same.

We were also served dinner as part of first class. It wasn't very good but we didn't get time to grab anything to eat between our connecting flights so it kept us alive. It will be hard to go back to coach next time we fly ;)

We were so excited to see the kids. Krew was pretty excited to see us but also said, "Aww! Does this mean I have to leave Grandma and Grandpa's house?!"

Myla was flat out mad at us. It took her forever to warm up to us,

 and she shot us these glares all day. We had a lot of sucking up to do!

This trip would not have been possible if Jorden's parent's weren't willing to take the kids for the week. We can't thank them enough!!

I'm also so proud of Jorden for working so hard this year! Thank you for letting me celebrate your accomplishments with you!