Sun and heat and No Kids. :)

We made it to the Dominican Republic!!!  First off... some pictures of the scenery, because it was beautiful everywhere you looked.  They raked the beaches each morning.  The sand was like powdered sugar.  So soft and clean. We saw workers one morning during our run, and they were picking up the seaweed that had washed up from the night... seriously?  Really pristine grounds to say the least.

The scenery was so pretty, there were several wedding parties going on while we were there.  Kind of cool to see the brides in their dresses walking around.

The water was aqua blue and didn't have that slimy fill on the bottom, or rocks (like you get in west coast beaches and water).  You could see to your feet and it was pure sand as far out as we could reach.  I have to say, quite Perfect Beaches!!

 This was my favorite spot.  Under the shade and feeling the warmth.  Are you jealous yet?? You should be. Taylor hates facebook, because he thinks people just boast about all the great things in their life.  I save that for the Blog. :)  The resort was all inclusive, which means I had a few too many pina coladas and daiquiris, and a lot too much of the all you can eat food! It was a great week. :)

This was a cool shot our friend took of the Pirate ship.  Apparently it was just a boose cruise, but it looked really cool passing by each day!

 The resort grounds were pretty amazing too.  Cobblestone pathways and palm trees and coconut trees.  They were stocked with exotic animals like flamingos, peacocks, ducks, etc.  Kind of fun.  It was a bit annoying to hear the peacocks all through the night, but we'll look over that minor point during my moments of gloating!

 
And of course.... the best part was the people that we got to see.  It was our friends the Franks's 20th wedding anniversary, so Jenn did all the planning for the trip.  That's my kind of trip, because I am a horrible planner (and anyone who knows Jenn, knows she is a great planner!)  It was fun to see them and also made me a little home sick.  That keeps happening when I see my friends!!!

L2R: Craig and Katie Pritchard (Tara Broberg behing - not standing by her man Mark in the yellow shirt over to the right),  Me and Taylor, Robb and Jenn Franks, Mark, Kathryn and Chris Morrill

Here are some pictures of our excursions.  The first day we just hung out on the beach... which was fun since we had been traveling for half the day.  And the next day was our first excursion which was snorkeling.  I don't have many pictures of this yet.  I'm hoping to bum some off of the others. 

 We had to take a 2 minute ride to the catamaran in a little life boat.  Hence the sweet life jackets.  Taylor thinks we look like we are on a river trip! :)

 Me and Katie above... soaking up the rays.  Me and Taylor below (right after we did the reenactment of the Titanic on the bow of the ship).  Sad you are missed it, I'm sure!

 

Day 3... Blue hole

 

We took an excursion to the BLUE HOLE which was a cool natural water pool.. On the trail to the hole we saw a few interesting creatures... a parrot, an iguana, an eerie spider and some sleeping plants.  Seriously, the plants were cool.  Check out this video of them.  They "Fall asleep" when you touch the leaves.

 

 And some photos of the other cool things on the hike to the hole.  Feeding the iguanas below.

A parrot eating nuts.

 This spider was kind of gross, but really cool too... can you see it there?  Right in the middle of the shot.

 Me and Jenn in my shirt to "not look pregnant."  Yeah, that didn't fool anyone.  The guy booking the excursion said I couldn't be pregnant, but once we got there no one cared.  Good thing, because this belly is not being hidden by anything! #gettinghugealready

 A few of us on the hike down to the hole... us, Franks and Pritchards...  Such fun and funny people.  I love them all!  The whole lot of us swimming below. The water was pretty amazing!

 Jennifer trying to photo bomb our picture. :)

 Katie trying to photo bomb our picture.. not so discreetly

And finally, our picture.. ahh  so cute!

Of course, where there is a ledge, Taylor must jump off... here is a video of his flipping.

Day 4 we went surfing... just me and Taylor while the others went to play with the monkeys and do the zip line.  I wasn't allowed to do the zip line, so I opted to go hang on the beach while Taylor showed off his mad surfing skills.

Love my man!

 He got up the first time and did a really good job.  The waves weren't huge, but just perfect to have fun surfing.  It was another great day.  A little overcast so I didn't roast on the beach and I got to start on my book I brought for the trip!

 

a video of him in action

 Ahh... the time is going too fast.  Just one 1/2 more days to play.

 Hanging out in the lobby... with some drinks of course!  Jenn, Katie and Me above, Kathryn and Tara below.  Don't we all look refreshed and happy!!

 Each night we were able to all eat together and it was just a great way to end each day.. We'd just hang out talking until we had eaten all we wanted.  A couple nights we played some games and a couple nights we watch the exciting resort entertainment.  Not quite as good as Vegas, but probably as good as Bar 10 entertainment. :)

 This shot cracks me up... you have to look close, but the signs on the public portion of the beach huts say "target" "jc penny" "walmart" etc.  They were just local trinket shops, but I love that they can get away with using popular American Chain names here in the DR.  pretty funny.

 The last 2 days we just relaxed at the pools and on the beach.  I got fried, but at least it was on the last day. :) Sad to say goodbye to the week... really sad to say goodbye to my friends again... but really excited to get back to the boys.  We kept saying all week, "wouldn't the boys think this was cool."  Funny how you want to get away from them, but then just think about them the whole time.  Now, what, another 5 years until our next get away?  Who is planning that one for me???!!

NYC spring break

SO we had fun visitors for part of our spring break... and then we took a little road trip for the rest of the vacation...   

We finally took ALL the boys to the NYC transit museum.  Luke had been there for a field trip and wanted Jake to go so bad, it was great because we took the chance on a rainy day to be inside.

 The museum is very hands on and the best part is pretending to drive the subway trains and the buses.

 Then, Taylor had a paper to present at Cornell University, so we all headed up north with him to explore and tour.  First stop... Ithica New York.  We took the first night to walk around campus and try to find a pool to swim in.

 They have a very cool waterfall through campus...

 And some amazing old royal looking buildings.  The clock tower was our favorite.

 Of course, the best part of traveling was jumping on the beds in the hotel room!  We found a pool, but it didn't have family hours while we were there... we'll keep looking.

We did find a cool science museum to explore while Taylor was busy working.

 The boys had a great time building an aqueduct (that's what they called it) and could roll a ball from the start to finish.

 And the weather wasn't too cold and they were happy clams playing on the museum playground.

 Jake made a friend.. the two of them were trying to get more than 50 nails to balance on 1 nail.  The instructions said some one was able to do it... they only got about 35, but I was impressed.

 

Next stop.... PALMYRA!

 I love this little town.  The weather was PERFECT.  We didn't need jackets and the sun was shining.  I've only been to Palmyra in the middle of summer.  It was nice to be there with just our little family and not a ton of other "mormon" tourists. :)

 The boys loved seeing where Joseph Smith grew up and were glad they have nice comfy beds at home.  Straw and rope didn't seem too great to sleep on.  The picture below is where Moroni appeared to Joseph in his bedroom.

 We only had one little melt down from Nate... His thing is to just sit down and cry if we get too far ahead of him.  haha what the baby he is FOR SURE!

 The other fun thing about going in the early spring, was to see the grove as Joseph would have seen it.  Usually, the movies depict it lush and full of foliage.  But really, we were there April 20th (early spring) and the buds were just starting.  I think it may have looked more like this.  Either way, very pretty and very spiritual to be in the same place as our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to man.

 

Unfortunately, we weren't there for the Hill Cumorah pageant.  We'll be back in Utah by then.  But we stopped by the temple, and we also stopped by the hill where the pageant takes place.  The best part for the boys was rolling down the STEEP hill.

 

This is the Moroni Monument at the top of the hill... Pretty cool.

 

 Our hotel was great in Palmyra, but the pool was down for service... AHH the kids are dying at this point to find a pool!!!  But we still have more places to see.  Hopefully we'll find one!!

Next stop..... NIAGRA FALLS...

 This trip to Niagara was about 3 1/2 hours out of our way.. But how can you be that close and NOT go see it??? I love this place.

This winter it was so cold the entire falls froze over!  You can see some iceberg/frozen falls at the bottom of this picture.  It was really pretty... and a little chilly!

 You won't see a picture with Taylor here, because he wasn't capable of getting that close to the edge.  He has this weird desire to jump off high things and kept at a reasonable distance the whole time.  So funny, but he was happy to take pictures of us!

 The boys thought it was pretty amazing too.  They are TROOPERS.. they never complained about driving too much and were happy to spend 30 minutes looking around and get back in the car... after all.... we promised a hotel with a pool tonight! :)

 My favorite part about Niagara is taking the Maid of the Mist boat ride by the falls.  Unfortunately, with the water being SO cold, the boat wasn't up and running for the season yet.  We did get to see the IMAX film though and that was pretty cool to learn some history, and find out about some crazy people and near death experiences at the falls.

 Happy Easter!  We made it to the hotel in Binghamton New York in Plenty of time to swim.. YAY.  That lasted for about an hour until Nate decided to poop in the pool.  SERIOUSLY!!!???  anyway.  we ruin the pool for everyone else (which was no one actually but us) and ended the night at the movies.  It was a success after all!  In church I was told that the boys explained to the primary that they had the world's smallest easter egg hunt (it was in our hotel room). Ha Ha.

 My cute boys walking to church on Easter Sunday.  They all wanted to hold hands (I didn't even put them up to it) and Taylor couldn't handle it.  I did grab one picture with him in it, and then it was just too much and he would only let me take a picture of just them.

 I never feel more out of place than on Sunday mornings when we are all dressed up walking to church.  It's weird enough to be dressed up, but then to have 4 kids, and to be pregnant.  It's the most stand outish I feel all week here. :)

The next morning, we headed out to the Dominican Republic for a couples trip.  YAY for warm weather and SUN.. The one bummer, was that we missed the pine wood derby while we were gone.  Thankfully, our wonderful babysitter (Callie) took some pictures and sent them to us. 

 I feel like if you win a few heats the derby was a success!  So, it was a success for both boys. Luke ALMOST made the finals, so he was pretty happy about that.  Wish we could have been there... but as you will see in the the next post, SO GLAD I WAS IN D.R. instead. :)