Not only has December come and gone, so has the year 2016. I can't believe I haven't written on here since the end of November. I do miss writing and sharing. Not only has my writing slowed down a bit now that I am teaching part-time, so has my picture-taking! Previously I was taking on average 250 pictures a month (I know, I know.....). Now? I am lucky if I hit 100!
However, for the last month of December, I managed to take over 300 pictures. Why? Well, this may have something to do with it: we surprised the kids by taking them to Punta Cana, Dominican of the Republic over Christmas.
We didn't tell them until they were done school, with just a few days left before we went. They were pretty excited! The night before, we got "ready" by spending a good hour doing this:
Early the next morning, we were up and at the airport, eager for some warmth! We got it near the end of the day, when we arrived at our resort: Grand Bahia Principe Fantasia.
Of course, Lincoln was in his glory, what with all the food he could eat whenever he wanted! Ice cream was a staple at least twice a day!
The resort had a small water park, much to the delight of this girl, who spent a lot of time there.
Lincoln on the other hand wanted nothing to do with the water slides.
Jumping the waves on our first day...
Life is great, huh?!
The dessert cart for kids at the buffet :)
Lots of games of Spot It and Uno played poolside:
My handsome men on Christmas Eve:
My beautiful daughter:
Don't let the above picture fool you - he wasn't always that chipper at suppertime. Typically he looked like this at dinner time. There's even dessert in front of him in the second picture!!
I just love this picture of Keziah running to Nathan.
Nathan is teaching Keziah how to ride the surf....
Gotta love the goggles :)
Fun in the pool! It was getting to the point I was wondering if I should also put sun screen on the bottom of this girl's feet as they seemed to be more in the sun than her face!
Santa came to visit at our resort - not that our kids would go anywhere near him. But it was fun to see how he arrived when there wasn't any snow. Via helicopter!!
Another picture I absolutely love:
Lincoln LOVED the long and skinny breadsticks :)
Keziah waited in line every single day for a new balloon animal. She adored each one:
These two had such a great time together.
This diva girl worked up enough nerve to have a small live monkey placed on her head!! I wasn't allowed to take pictures as they want you to buy the ones they take, but this happened on our last day so we couldn't buy one as the pictures weren't ready yet. Oh well. She knows she did it and that's what counts!!
Lincoln found sand in the planters by the pool - a great spot to play with his cars and trucks!
We sure didn't read our average of 9 books when we go away for a week - not with the kids with us! But at least we got to read 2 each....
But alas, it was time to go home. Despite a 3 hour delay due to this....
We actually came home so late, we could say Happy Birthday to the youngest member of our family! But it didn't really register with him as he was so tired.
Overall we had such a great time as a family. While the service was absolutely terrible at this resort, everything else was great! We kept telling ourselves we'd prefer awful service than awful food. It was hard though at times as we knew what we paid for the trip, which includes paying for the service.
We loved taking the kids but the next time it'll be just the two of us again! We missed our time together. However, if these are the kids that come with us, we are thankful it's them - they were fantastic and a pleasure to take.
I know it's a little bit late but from our family to yours: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! :)
