We are back

Ella and I successfully made it to Oklahoma for a full week and returned yesterday save and sound, with a lot more things than we started with.

It was a great trip and only wish it could of lasted longer to spend more time with family and friends- I always say this and hope to see more folks next time, but the time slips away from me.

I had successful meetings for some upcoming work projects, spent a great time with family and nieces at the zoo, shopped for Juniors room (MLB theme!!!) and slept in most morning and had a giant breakfast and dinner- the scale does not lie and I fear what my OB will say to me next week at my monthly appointment. I am thankful for all the support I received from family and my past co-workers, they lifted my spirits and have me looking forward to the future with a new perspective- you know who you are and I thank you!!!

I am sitting on the couch typing on my new MacBook, thanks to Kyle and myself. We decided while I was in Oklahoma to go ahead and get a personal computer for home, and I had the voting power of what kind and type. Since i have been a Mac user at work for many years, it was easy for me to want one at home, it is a investment, but one I don't think we will look back on!

I have some great photos, that I will share in the days to come. Even though the drive was a long 11 hours in the car, it was well worth it. I feel better about things and where we are headed, all four of us!

The Next Days

Tuesday, Feb. 10- The sun came out!!! Yeah. Kyle slept in later, well, he got up and had breakfast with me and then I went to enjoy the sun and he hung out for a while. The guys had plans to play golf that morning, but all the golf carts were in use so they waited until the afternoon. The ladies and I decide to hang by the pool and enjoy the sun while it lasted and then after a nice lunch of salmon we changed and headed to town for some fun shopping.

We asked the front desk for a recommended hot spot, we wanted high quality stuff, and a save place to go mainly. Well we took a cab, which the driver spoke no English, on a 15-20 drive through two very poor towns to our destination that was not the mall, but huts with vendors of all kinds. The cab driver escorted us to his friend's hut where we felt compelled to buy from him. He had nice stuff and his English was very good. The cab driver waited for us, which was almost two hours and then kindly drove us back. You won't find that around here, a cabbie to drop you off to shop or eat without paying.

I purchased a shirt for Ella and a cute drum. I got some coffee for me and for my Dad's birthday. I also purchased some jewelry for Katie, a native stone of the Dominican, it was a beautiful blue.
Once we got back to the resort it was time to shower and decide for dinner, we had no set plans for the evening, and the big group made the decision based on it raining again to head into another town and hit the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. I was game for this. Well, we go jump into another set of cabs and head out and end up at the mall I wanted to go to in the first place!!!

They had super nice stuff and it was like a outdoor mall next to a high end resort. Oh well, I did get to see part of the Dominican going to the original huts and purchasing from those vendors!
Dinner was fun, but I was tried and took a earlier cab back with our group, while many, including Kyle, stayed for a band that was about to play for a while. I am glad I went back, since it was later than I thought when they got back.

Wednesday, Feb. 11- The sun was out all day and not a cloud in the sky. It was a bit windy but we headed to the beach for some fun and sun. The sand kicked up a little bit. Have I mentioned yet the amount of boobs I have seen on this trip, I mean bare boobs, the women are topless all the time, flashing the world with pride. New ones, old ones, real and fake ones- EVERYWHERE.
We ate lunch by the beach and had a lazy day all together, it was so nice. Kyle played some games with the guys and I just layed out and enjoyed the sun and sand.
That night we went with a group to a Japanese restaurant and it was very interesting, one to see a Dominican trying to appear to be Japanese and they had the hot plates in front of us to cook. I got the shrimp and they were very good.
Later we went back to the casino, and one of the ladies, Lisa, had beginners luck and won over $100, lucky lady. I was up for a while and walked away with a $2 profit, but had a lot of fun, and saw a lot of money leave the other guest pockets and not return to them, so I was proud of my $2 in the end.

Thursday, Feb. 12- Two couples from our group were leaving early today, so we spent time with them at the pool and hung out. Later the afternoon and ventured down to the ocean again and took a stroll along the beach, it was so peaceful. The wind was much calmer today and the water was so warm and clear. I loved it. A small group of us decide to head back to the shopping center were Hard Rock Cafe was and try another restaurant and check out the shopping. I found a ring I loved and wish I had my $60 winnings back to purchase it! I decide on another ring, more reasonably priced. The ladies shopped while the husbands enjoyed stronger drinks from the bar! We ended up at a rib and steak restaurant that was very good. It was a fun evening and nice to be off the resort for a while.

Friday, Feb 13- One more day! Time to take advantage of our last day of paradise. I am half ready to go home and attempt to back some of my clothes into our suitcases and the other half of me just wants to enjoy the day. We have a breakfast at the buffet with another couple and then stroll down to the beach for a while. It is a beautiful day with only a few clouds and a light breeze. The other half of the day we spend at the pool with a big portion of the group. Everyone is enjoying themselves and seemed very relaxed. We check in with a couple of people to determine dinner and tonight, we are with a new group for dinner at the resort steakhouse. It was a very nice evening, and the meal was great. The waiters wore mini-cowboy hats that made me laugh. Following dinner, we went to a fun show of dancing and entertainment. And of course then to the bar for a final drink and then the disco for some dancing!

Saturday, Feb. 14- What a awesome day it is, warm and sunny. I opt not to lay out prior to leaving and instead have breakfast with Kyle one more time and then take a stroll around the resort. We figure we will be sitting for a long time, so we might as well get some exercise in now. We walked along the golf course and checked out a part of the resort we had not been to earlier that week, we were so focused on the pool and beach, we hadn't explored much! We later go back to the room and back our bags, I know mine is going to be over 50 pounds, I just know it.

We took a van to the airport and waited in a long line, but this time I have plenty of water and a full tummy, no fainting this time. Once we made it through check in, my bag weighing in at 57.5 pounds, and through security we wait, and wait and wait. Our plane is delayed and we get to walk the length of the runway, well not really but it was a long walk, to our plane. We board and get in line to wait, and wait and wait to take off. We ended up 1/1/2 hours behind schedule and the flight was 5 1/2 hours, so total we were in the plane almost 6 1/2 hours.

I finished one book and made it half way through another one, I could not sleep on the plane and we were seated in the first row behind first class, but could not use their facilities. So I got to walk like 30 rows to get to the bathroom. Fun times. I packed in my carry on some winter clothes to change in, I boarded in shorts and flip flops. Once back in the states, we made it through customs and baggage with no problems. We took a cab back to the hotel we had stayed at the following week, it is now 9:30. Kyle and I load the suitcases into the truck and start towards home. I check my Blackberry for a while and get caught up the best I can on emails from the week before and Kyle talks on the phone. We stopped with another couple that live one town over from us, half way home for a quick bit, then back in the car. I sleep the remaining of the way home and Kyle is on the phone with another person from the group driving to Sioux Falls.
We roll into the drive way just shy of 1 AM, poor Katie, I feel bad that we got home so late! She fills us in on Ella and after Katie takes off, both Kyle and I go in and check in on Ella, she looked so peaceful, part of me wanted to wake her up and the other part knew not to wake a sleeping child.

Sunday, Feb. 15. I am greeted to the biggest hug you can imagine. Someone missed us. Ella just kept looking at us and the hugging us both. Melted my heart! I could feel the love! What a great homecoming!

The First Days

I am going to start at the very beginning, if you look at my previous posts leading up to the trip, I am going to start from there!

Friday, Feb. 6. - I pick up Ella early at daycare today. We head to the bank and she gets two lolly pops, then to the grocery store. Ella proudly directs her mini cart around the store and I try and load up on items for her and Katie for the week. After we check out at the grocery store we head over to the movie store and Ella picks out Dora and Diego DVDs for the week (Katie is going to hate these by the time we get home, from Ella watching them over and over!). We then head home to getting the food put away and making dinner. Ella is more interested in watching her movie or painting, we opt for painting since that is more hands on with her.

I finish packing, write out the emergency contact forms, med forms and have the passport and money ready. Kyle and Katie almost arrive at the same time. Kyle showers, gets his stuff finalized, charges the IPod and spends some time with Ella.

Ella is bouncing off the walls with excitement, finally takes and bath and is full of energy. We talk about mom and dad taking a trip and Katie staying with her for a couple of days. She takes this information with stride and then proceeds to kick us out, tells us to GO. Bye Mom, Bye Dad and kisses us goodbye. So we take the cue and head out. We leave the drive way at 9:30 PM for the Cities.

We arrive at the hotel a little after 1 AM. We had to get gas and Kyle made several calls on the way there, I try to sleep and concentrate on the week ahead and not leaving Ella. Upon arriving at the hotel we learn we are on the earlier shuttle ride to the airport and need to be downstairs at 4:50 AM. Once in the hotel, I lay out my clothes for the next day, get in bed, close my eyes and before i know it am hearing the alarm!!!

Saturday, Feb. 7 - We are on the bus and headed to the airport at 5. I know a few people but not many on the bus. Everyone is quiet and I think still asleep. We wait in a extremely long line to just get to the maze to check in. No looking back, I had a very light lunch and dinner and not much to drink- this becomes a key in the next paragraph.

Once we are in the weaving path to check in I tell Kyle I am hot and take my coat off and begin to lean over my suitcase. Then I start to see black spots! And the next thing I know I am on the ground, yup fainted right there in front of a million people, impressive, scary and embarrassing all at once. Poor Kyle was super worried and I wanted to crawl under my suitcase and die. I rose gracefully and went to the magazine shop and got a bottle water and downed it in a minute, got back in line and did not talk to anyone or make eye contact, and of course everyone wanted to make sure we were ok.

We made it through security and got some breakfast and OJ- I was thinking maybe the lack of sleep and meals may have contributed to the fainting. I sit by myself and try not and focus on the moment. I did spot the Vikings football head coach in the waiting area, so the center of attention was directed to him, thank heavens! We boarded the plane at 7 for a 4 1/2 hour flight. It was every bit of it. The airport in Punta Cana is so cool, huts with palm tree leaves. We were greeted to rain and humidity upon walking off the plane. By this time I am over my fainting spell and ready to get enjoy the trip. Put a smile on my face and prepare for some fun.

The ride from the airport was about 15 minutes long, we arrive at the resort, attempt to check in and find out that we have a wait ahead of us, no problem. To the bar everyone goes for drinks, only I am need of some food and the restaurant is closed to prepare for dinner, this is around 3:30 DR time.

After several drinks that I witnessed the group take, Kyle and I venture out to find the snack shack. We found a great pizza stand that made the brick stone type, yummy, even fresh pineapple and cheese pizza, these people were after my heart. Once the tummy was full we finally got into our room, did I mention that it was overcast and raining- well it was. We cleaned up and got ready for a night of seafood with a group of people that did not witness the fainting incident! We had a blast, lots of laughs and Kyle entertained us with getting us more bread when the waiter went MIA and refilling wine glasses. We called it a early night and hoped for sun the next day.

Sunday, Feb. 8 - We rise a little later than usual and get are suits on and head for the pool. The sun is kind of shinning and we hope to catch some rays after a much needed breakfast. Kyle has to go to a meeting about the different trips you can take and I found a lounge chair while the sun was out. The guys made the decision to try and golf the next day so us wives booked massages. That night we went to the buffet and it was good, nothing fancy and then watched a show for entertainment, got a night cap and hit the sack.

Monday, Feb. 9- Woke up not feeling great, took some preventative meds to help and it seemed to help. I had my massage at noon and it was a 30 minute relaxation one, very nice, though I had to lay on my back and I thought they made some odd slapping sounds, made me wonder a bit. But it was very nice! It rained off and on and throughout the day. We went down to the beach for a while but it was very windy. We had lunch by the beach and it was nice. That night we went out to the steak house and it was a lot of fun. We later went to the casino and I played my luck at roulette and won about $60. Was proud of myself. We then headed to the disco for a long evening of trying to tell the DJ to play some Kid Rock and ACDC, didn't work out in our favor. As we were leaving the casino a down pour of rain came over the resort and Kyle and I got our second shower of the night, we were soaked from head to toe by the time we made the 10 minute walk back to our room.

More to come....

Home!

I am back from a great vacation. We had a blast, there is so much to tell, not sure I will get to it today, but promise to do a day by day later this week of the week in the Dominican Republic. It is a beautiful country, a treasure that the tourist community has not completely capitalized on, YET!
I spent several afternoons walking the beaches, the sand is amazing and the clear and crystal water were a piece of paradise. Being a non-drinker the whole time, I focused on the beauty around me and spent time with my camera, a book and great company. I had my share of virgin drinks to feel like a team player. My husband works with some great and very fun people.


More to come, I promise. I have some great why me stories too.

The rest of Saturday and the weekend

If you can imagine, the previous post talking about Saturday was only two thirds of the day. After the lake we headed north about 30-40 minutes to Spearfish Canyon. It is a beautiful drive through the mountain bottom, aka canyon. We stopped at Roughlock Falls, (again, not sure if spelled right) and walked around and threw rocks into this large stream that lead to huge falls. We spent a hour or so here and finally on the way home gave up and let Ella watch Dora on the drive home. She was really good considering a pretty busy day.

Sunday--
We slept in this morning, well I did, which lead to us getting to Hill City late and not getting our train tickets purchased for the first ride! Kyle- not happy. Needless to say, we spent some time at the Crazy Horse monument and it was impressive to see and realize how big this monument will be some day and is privately-funded unlike Mt. Rushmore, which the good ol' government paid for.

We had a much better lunch today, at a cool restaurant in Hill City, headed to the train depot, it is the same tracks used in the 1880. Very cool. We saw some beautiful homes and views while on the train. It was a hour to Keystone and then we go back. Ella fell asleep during the last portion of the first ride and the seats didn't have a lot of give, so she didn't sleep long, hauling a 31 pound bundle of love asleep is HEAVY, lucky for me, she feel asleep on Kyle!!!

After the train ride we headed out to see Jewel Cave, about 25 miles away and though I was not super excited, this was something Kyle wanted to do, so I was being supportive. Well, we get there and guess what, due to a overwhelming amount of people wanting tours, the last tour was cancelled/delayed until Monday. Insert a not thrilled Kyle. We ended up traveling back to Custer State Park, fed the donkeys again and was in search of wildlife, we saw many and it was a great way to end our time in the hills.

Overall I think we put close to 300 miles just driving around, can you believe it.
We stopped on the way home Monday and got Kyle some new shade at Cabela's and they are very nice. I am way behind on posts and will try and fill in this past week again.

Last half of the trip

Here is a recap of the remaining trip/vacation. There aren't any photos as they are all on my mother-in-laws camera in Oklahoma. Kyle took my camera to NYC and I haven't downloaded those yet. But it will be coming soon.
Anyway, here is the recap.
We left Monday morning and headed to Ardmore to see our great friends. They had just got back from a trip. We met at the office, one is a eye doctor and we headed up stairs for fun. Wrong, Ella freaks out and is super loud and pissed off. So we head to a local park down town. Our poor friend was super tired too, due to traveling home with a toddler and three year old from the west coast. Needless to say there were some tears at the park, Ella was determined to stay in the swing the complete time and I wanted her to diverse out a little, I mean come on, we can only swing so long. We had lunch together and the girls played well. It was a nice visit overall, just way to short!!!
Next we headed for Texas and met my mom in the town my grandmother now resides. She is in a really nice assisted living center. We visited with Grandma for a while and I could tell she enjoyed seeing Ella play and run around.
After this we headed for the ranch and some r and r. We made it home in time for Ella to get into her swim suit and play in the inflatable pool my brother had set up for her. She had a blast and ate a great meal that night and slept well, yeah.
The next day was about soaking in some good Texas sun. We played in the pool the majority of the day with a couple of break for lunch. Mom made me a berry cobbler too. I had to do some work related items. Ella took a long nap on the couch watching Cars, her new fav Disney movie.
Later we headed into town and had dinner with everyone, Ella was a little grumpy just waking up from her nap and finally settled down and ate all her chicken and broccoli. We then got gas for the next leg of the trip and treated the Pilot to a car was that both my brother and Ella enjoyed.
Ella had a restless night and ended up in bed with me, darn! We headed out that morning for McAlester, OK to visit my great-aunt and see my best friend and her kiddos. We used the GPS unit of Kyle's and took a more scenic route than I wanted. Ella was a bit testy too, so it made the trip stressful. We made it to see my great aunt and to our surprise my other great aunt was there too! So we were able to see both! Yeah, somethings just work out. We had a nice visit and they both said some very touching things to me.
Following this visit it was off for food and a great visit with Kristen and her kiddos. They have grown so much and are so darn cute. We had a great time and went to a local park to play, unfortunately it was super hot and both parents sporting sandals in the sand was almost unbearable but the kids didn't notice. They played great and we knew we would have all of them asleep on our journeys home. And we were right.

The trip to Tuttle was pretty quiet, I made few calls and enjoyed the nice scenery that I have missed so much. Once at Kyle's parent's house, we of course swam! Ella is like a duck out of water. We had a low key night and again, Ella ended up in bed with me, again.

We spent time shopping and hanging out the remaining of the week, went to the Fourth of July parade in Tuttle, saw lots of friends and family. The weather was much warmer in Oklahoma than South Dakota and I loved it. Ella took lots of lawn mower and tractor rides with Dad and Pa.
I got to see one of my dearest friend for a afternoon at a coffee shop and catch up and chat about the kids and work. It was really nice to see her and just hang out and connect like we used to.
Sunday Kyle and I made the big trip home. We stopped in Wichita and saw another great, close friend for brunch at a really nice place. Did you know that Wichita is one of the more sought out cities to test marketing items on and Pizza Hut was test-launched there! Food for thought.

Ok, this post has taken me days and I will report more soon. I might of left something out, if so, sorry.
Thanks for reading.

So far, so good, our vacation that is

We have made it to our destinations. Vacation rocks. Even though I am checking email and tempted to call in, I might later.
Anyway, here is a recap of the trip so far.
Thursday, we left around 4 p.m., by the time we got everything loaded, snacks for Ella, drinks and made a stop at the post office and bank, we were off. Ella watched two movies, actually the same one, back to back and fell asleep right before Omaha and allowed us to get to Lincoln with no complaints. We stopped for dinner and then a rest stop west to walk around and burn some energy. Once we headed south, we could see a good size storm ahead of us. Kyle check his BlackBerry for weather reports and it was a amazing show Mother Nature provided us. The lightening was amazing! It was everywhere. A little scary too.

And here is a shot of Ella in the car, happy to be up past her bedtime.

Friday we were out of the hotel around 7 and made it to my ole stomping ground- OSU by noon. We had lunch with Kyle's aunt and uncle at Eskimo Joe's a famous eatery in Stillwater, know for amazing cheese fries. We then headed to the stadium to look around. Check out the pics.


Here is the basketball court for player level. Cool, huh!



Next we took a peek at the football field.


After this we spent some time with Kyle's college advisor at his home and played in the yard and sprinklers. We had dinner with a couple we have know for a long time and then headed to Tuttle, where my in-laws live.

Saturday was Ava's birthday party! Lots of fun. Ella had fun playing with Ava and was a good helper. She grew very fond of one of there dogs.


After the party we headed for home and spent some time in the pool. Ella really liked it and enjoyed it even more naked! Goodness!

Sunday was another pool day and the girls had their photos taken, will post those later. Ella and I left Monday morning and went to Ardmore and visited some of our best friends, we played at the park and had lunch, then back in the car for another 2 hours to McKinney to see my grandma. She seems to be doing well, and enjoyed seeing Ella.

Ella is a farm girl at heart, and we both helped feed the animals today, need to get some pics. We filled up two little pools for this afternoon.

We headed for the ranch after this and since then having been enjoying ourselves and relaxing. Kyle and his dad are in route to New York City as we speak. I know they will have a blast, look forward to the stories.
Tomorrow Ella and I will go see my great aunt in McAlester, OK and my best friend Kristen and her kiddos. I can't wait, should be fun.

Will report back with more soon.