Dominican Vacation ; PART 1 -- Logistics

Well we are back and had a wonderful time! There is sooooooo much to share so it looks like I am going to have to do this blog in installments to capture all of the neat things that happened over our fun filled week of pleasure... hee hee. So, here goes...

PART 1 -- Logistics

Shawn and I got up at the butt crack of dawn to drive to Washington DC to fly out of Region Airport. Everything pretty much went without a hitch. We had a connection flight in Miami and arrived in the Dominican Republic at about four in the afternoon. After stepping off the plane you immediately knew you were in paradise. It was beautiful 80 degree weather the entire time we were there. In the Dominican Republic right now this is there "winter" which seemed crazy to me and Shawn having lived in Colorado for so long. The locals said that the heat is nearly unbearable in the summer months; so we picked the ideal time of year to visit. Once we touched down we had the fun of going through immigration and customs. If you ever travel to this wonderful country as a "visitor" BE SURE and take CASH and plenty of it! Plastered all over the walls of the airport, on billboards along the street, in advertisements on TV, and posters on the walls they say "...VISA the number one accepted card in the Dominican Republic..." but no one, I mean like NO ONE accepts credit cards. Before you can enter the country you are REQUIRED to buy a visitors card. This card is $10 per person and they only accept CASH, and to top it off American Dollars ONLY. This would have been fine if we had not spent our last bit of money in the Miami airport buying lunch. So, Shawn had to track down an airport official who escorted him to another part of the airport where he pulled money out of the ATM. And since we were in a foreign country it came out in Dominican Pesos. So then he had to go to the currency exchange desk to change it money back into dollars. Then he came back to immigration where I was patiently waiting and we then purchased our $10 visitor cards. We walked about 50 feet and then handed them to a guy who chucked the card into a cardboard box. I swear it is the biggest scam I have ever had the privilege to participate in. We then went through immigration, gathered our bags, went through customs and were finally on our way to the hotel.
The trip to the hotel was an interesting experience in itself. Everyone in the country drives motorcycles or mopeds, and our driver nearly took out half of them driving us to our hotel.




Luckily we made it there in one piece, checked in and crashed. This was an all inclusive hotel so we quickly dropped our stuff and hit the bar...



Stay tuned for part 2 -- THE BEACH

VACATION

For those of you who may not know, Shawn and I are going on a vacation. We leave on Wednesday and will be gone about a week. And when I say vacation, I mean VACATION. We are going to an all inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic, and we are going without children. Grandma Carrillo has so graciously flown out to watch them while Shawn and I bask in the sun. I will probably have a lot to share when we get back so stay tuned.

Christmas

This was the first year that we really did the “Santa” thing. WE had not really advertised in the past, but then didn’t discourage it. The kids didn’t really catch on till this year. To keep the focus on what is truly important during the holidays, the kids current believe that Santa is real, BUT that he works for Jesus. Hee hee. We kept a majority of the gifts hidden in the garage or in the attic, and then did the official Christmas morning routine. However the night before, we had to set out cookies, and a cup of hot chocolate (the kids thought Santa would like this better than cold milk), and then we had to put “Oats” on the front lawn. Kaleb’s class created a small baggie of oatmeal with sprinkles in it that you are supposed to sprinkle on the lawn for the reindeer. The sprinkles are to catch the eye of the reindeer in the dark. So at 8 o’clock at night Kaleb and Skyler were walking around the front yard in the PJs throwing oatmeal on the lawn. It was pretty cute; because of the darkness the pictures really didn’t turn out.



Well, the kids had a really hard time going to sleep, but we immediately got started on the presents. We filled the stockings and stuffed the tree. We left a
couple of presents out and unwrapped so the kids could play with those immediately. Shawn spent about an hour building Skyler’s Barbie doll house, but he did it with a smile. The kids received a lot of truly wonderful gifts from Grandma and Papa Carrillo who were visiting from Colorado, from Grandma Erika, and also from Aunt Dani and Uncle Jason. I am not sure that there is one single thing that either of them has latched onto, but they really have enjoyed the diversity of their gifts.

Christmas Show

Skyler's School puts on a Christmas Show each year re-enacting the story of Jesus. They Sung songs and performed a play. skyler was part of the choir and sang beautifully. I could not figure out how to add video, but maybe next time. It was cold outside and she looked adorable all bundled up.

Kaleb's Birthday - Part 2

So we celebrated Kaleb's birthday for the second time in style. We went to 'The Playroom' which is an indoor facility that has large blown up play things. The kids had a blast playing, jumping and acting like maniacs! Kaleb had a darth vader cake and invited EVERYONE in his class. We ended up with about 20 kids and it was organized chaos. Kaleb has made a lot of good friends here in Richmond and particularly in his kindergarten class. Ninety percent of them are boys so you can imagine the headache they give their kindergarten teacher. One neat thing about the facility is that after you are done the birthday kid gets to put their hand on the wall with their name and the date. I can't believe that he is 6 years old!! They grow up way tooo fast.