Liz & Kyle's Adventures: October 2018

Dominican Republic: 10/15/18

Today was another fun excursion day.... CARIBBEAN PIRATES! We were excited as this would be Sadie and Emery's first experience with snorkeling. With a Dad and Mom who love scuba diving, we were anxious to see if they would enjoy. You pack up on a boat and sail to 2 spots: one where you get out and snorkel with fish and other small things, and another that has Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays. While on the boat, they have really fun and interactive pirate shows with fights and such. Those were a lot of fun! My favorite pirate was the drunk who always had a bottle of rum in his hand, ha! Okay, so the girls... they weren't huge fans of the snorkel and masks (Emery more than Sadie), but they braved the choppy waters anyways with minimal whining. One of the guys found a clam for the girls to take home at the first stop. They sure talked about all the things they saw like they were 100% brave and like there was no whining at all (haha). So back on the boat ride home the Pirates started involving some of the ladies in dancing. I was chosen by one of the pirates and poor Emery was DISTRAUGHT over this. When I got back to her she was just balling crying that she didn't want me to be a pirate. Poor girl thought I was going to leave them to be a pirate forever, LOL. Here are some pics from Caribbean Pirates:

After we returned from the pirate ship, we got home, changed and went straight to our Italian dinner.

Dominican Republic: 10/14/18

We spent time today on the beach and at the kids water park until it was time to get ready for evening pictures. Here are some from our evening session (as you can see, the lighting is very different in the morning and evening. Mornings make wonderful colors but it is SO BRIGHT!):

After the professional pictures, I took my camera with the girls back to the castle area and took some of them with my camera:

Dominican Republic: 10/13/18

Today was SUCH a fun day!!! We booked a trip to Monkey Land in the morning, and we had our evening family photos in the evening. AND THEN! It was the night for the Michael Jackson show (you know I was super excited for this one!)!!!!! Busy day! Okay, so jumped on a bus first thing in the morning for Monkey Land. Here, you get to walk around a jungle-y part of the Dominican, while Squirrel Monkey's jump all over you! It was so neat!! I want a pet Squirrel Monkey fo-sho! The girls were a bit hesitant at first, but warmed up more and more to the monkeys hopping all around us and on us. Emery was a bit more hesitant than Sadie and was not as open to having them jump and stand on her head. She preferred to giggle at them on everyone else, ha. They both loved watching them though and have been talking about it ever since we left! Here are the Monkey Land pictures:

After Monkey Land they took us by a place to show us how things like coffee are made in the Dominican Republic (very organic!). We bought some mama juana from them and then headed back for dinner and the Michael Jackson show (which didn't start until 10PM). I had heard it was an amazing show but I hold Michael Jackson to pretty high standards so I was anxious to see my thoughts. Y'ALL!!! IT.WAS.AMAZING. I have been to MANY Michael Jackson cover shows, and this one beats them ALL. The guy who did Michael Jackson was INCREDIBLE! Here are a couple pics and a video (Notice the sweet patch on one of MJs back up dancers uniform?! GO 'STROS!).

Dominican Republic: 10/12/18

Today we decided to hang out around the resort. We went to the big pool in our section of the resort to check it out. They had music, food, swim up bar, and a popsicle truck! After swimming, we RUSHED to the room to throw on clothes and headed for our dinner reservations at a really neat Japanese restaurant. There, we met a really awesome Canadian couple, Trish & Brendan. They were so much fun!!! We drank Sake and Mama Juana with them (too much!). Mama Juana is the staple alcoholic drink of the Dominican Republic, BTW! You have to drink it when you are there :)! On the route back to our section of the resort we stumbled upon some sort of reception going on. The music was good so we crashed the wedding with our dance skills! Of course the girls ran into their resort bestie when we got back, so they played with him. Side note: It was beautiful to see them traveling abroad. This boy was not from the United States, and neither he nor his parents spoke any English. You would never know by the way they played together. They saw him everywhere throughout our stay and referred to him as "friend" the entire trip. "where is my friend?" "can we play with our friend?", etc. Here are pics from the day!

Dominican Republic 10/10/18 & 10/11/18

Sadie and Emery had their first adventures outside of the USA!!!! And what a FUN vacation it was!! They were so excited for the airplanes (it took 2 to get there), and when we arrived at our hotel they had backpacks with balloons and treats waiting for them on their hotel beds (awesome!!!).

We stayed at the Grand Bahia Principe Torquesa, and it truly was the perfect place for us given the kids age. There was an awesome water park right by our section that was great for the kids age, it was all-inclusive, and the shows were great!!! We got settled in pretty late in the afternoon, so we got dinners we scheduled and ready for dinner and our first show (Lion King)! The girls LOVED the show. They even allow children staying at the hotel to be a part of the show. They just needed to have been a year or more older. So neat!

On Thursday, we had made an appointment to have family pictures taken on the beach. We woke up and got dressed for those. Unfortunately, Sadie was a bit grumpy in the beginning, but then perked up at the end. Here are a some of them (gorg!). Because sunglasses were necessary for this time of day, we opted to schedule another session for the evening on another day so that sunglasses weren't necessary.