Punta Cana

One of the many things that I love about Daniel is that he loves for the two of us to go on vacation together.  We get to enjoy the new scenery as well as spend some quality time together.  We decided to use our anniversary from January as a reason to take a little getaway.  My parents kept the kids and Daniel and I took off to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

The airport was so cool!  Everyone deplaned by stairs and then walked across the tarmac into the open air arrival area.  It definitely made you aware that you were in the Caribbean!

After a 45-50 minute ride from the airport on some pretty sketchy roads (there are absolutely no stop lights...it is every man for himself), we pulled up to our resort, Excellence Punta Cana.

 We were welcomed into an open air lobby by a bell man with wet cloths for your face, a glass of champagne, and a "Welcome Home."

 Because we had mentioned that it was an anniversary trip, we had a banner on our door, swans with roses on our bed, and a bottle of champagne and fruit on the table.  Not a bad way to be welcomed to paradise! :)

 The room itself was very nice and spacious.  It had a jacuzzi tub in the room and a rain head shower....complete with a window into the bedroom. Definitely made me glad that I was staying with my husband and not a friend! ;)

 They had several covered beds next to the pool.  They were the perfect place to take a nap every afternoon!

 It was very wavy on this side of the island.  Boogie boards were provided by the hotel and we got a lot of use out of them....Daniel was MUCH better at it than I was!! 

 We would start every day by spending some time at the beach.  We would find a palapa and some chairs and stake a claim.  We would usually move to the pool in the afternoon, just because the winds would pick up a little.

 This was the view from our patio.  We could walk off the patio to the hammock or the beds by the pool.  That is why we took a nap there every afternoon...too convenient!

 These were the palapas by the pool.  They were definitely prime real estate!

 A picture to prove that I was actually there! :)  This was the walkway from our part of the resort to the lobby and main theater area.  They had some pretty entertaining shows every night.  The resort had some really good dancers that performed 2 nights, a singer one night, and a beach party one night.  Lots of fun.  They also had a casino but we didn't spend much time there.  We only went once to check it out.

 The last two days that we were there, the wind and waves had really picked up.  Because it was so wavy and had a pretty good undertow, the resort would not allow you to take out the boogie boards.  They had lifeguards on the beach that would let you body surf some but they would not hesitate to call you back in if they thought you were getting out a little too far.

 Of course, Daniel had to try it out!

 This is how I spent A LOT of the time that we were there.....on a bed on the beach (or under the palapa if I needed some shade) with a book.  I mean, really, what is not to love about this!!!

We had a really, really good time.  It was hard to jump back into work the next day, but it was so nice to see our kiddos again.  We are so thankful that they had a great time at Mimiz's and Poppy's (some of the pictures in the previous post are from them).  It was an amazing vacation!!!!