Summer wrap-up

With only one week left before the kids started school, we had a lot to get done!!!

Shop for school supplies, new shoes x4, eye exams, haircuts, dentist, pack meeting and a little fun in there too!

Before the scouts could be awarded with their Bear, they had a competition to see who could catch gummy bears in their mouth first and Gavin won!!!  

Shopping for new shoes, dad thought this would be funny~

And Brooklyn's favorite part of shoe shopping is trying on ALL the heels!  I have to admit, she's pretty graceful at walking in them!

We made it to another  #pogopass Diamondbacks game, this time with the WHOLE family!!  And since it was a Friday night, we got to watch a fireworks show after the game!

Just the beginning of school supplies x4!

And of course we had to make sure our eyeballs are working their best by visiting daddy at the office!

Poor Preston.... I swear every time we go in for a teeth cleaning, he has 2 or 3 new cavities.  *sigh*  He must've gotten those darn LeBaron teeth!

Brooklyn finished up sewing lessons with Sister DeWitt in the ward.  She went twice a week for an hour and learned some basics sewing skills.  I was impressed with the projects she did!!

A skirt, a tote bag, a DRESS FOR HAYDEN (she kept as a surprise), a wallet and headbands!

Quick trip to the cabin

We got home from the Dominican Republic after midnight, went to church, then Monday morning, I packed everything up to head to the cabin for two days.  Crazy, I know, but the kids were absolutely begging to go to the cabin and this was really the only chance we had to go during the summer.

strawberry jammies at the Strawberry cabin!

Bounce Dance Company was BACK!!

Filthy feet!

A pile of cousins on the trampoline

Up before anyone else....  zzzzz

Tearing it up at Hand & Foot!!

Eating straight from the blueberry carton in your panties, why not?
A few people were weirded out by her nakedness but whatevs, that's our norm!

The boys, building their "fort" up the mountain

The kids love visiting great Aunt Sally Sue at her cabin down the way!

of course our photo on the steps before we leave~

Even though it was really tough to do back to back trips like that, I'm SO glad we went.  The kids had a fabulous time and I love the down time and the constant card games!  Grateful we have the chance to spend time at the cabin with family!

Saying goodbye to the Dominican Republic

It's hard for vacations like this to end.  We're finally at the point in our lives that traveling is doable and I have loved being able to explore new places together.  Not to mention the undivided attention that we get with each other!  This trip came at just the right time and I'm so glad we were able to have this experience.

Before we left, we took a little time to walk down the beach, just outside the resort to do a little souvenir shopping.  Thank heavens for Matt's street smarts and haggling skills!  Sidenote: I could listen to him speak Spanish all day long!!  I think his brain probably hurt after thinking and talking in Spanish the whole week!

in the lobby at Dreams La Romana

Driving back to the airport, I continued to be amazed at the poverty I was witnessing.  When you're at a resort, you're kinda in this little paradise bubble.  It's easy to forget that people struggle to just live every day here on the island.   Dario told us that the average income is like $300/month?  Insane.

Our flight leaving Santo Domingo was delayed about an hour, which made the rest of our day tricky, especially the part of making our connecting flight in Philadelphia to Phoenix!

our best pouty faces

The landing into Philly was the smoothest I've ever felt!  The whole airplane clapped!  We got off the plane and rushed to baggage claim only to have to wait, tick tock, tick tock.  Our plane was literally leaving in 30 minutes and we still had to go through customs!  By the time we grabbed our one checked bag, the line for customs was so long, I was sure we were going to miss our flight.

line at customs, arghhhhh

We ran down the corridor to security where there was ANOTHER line, dang it!  Once we go through security, I put my flip flops in my bag and we hauled booty through the terminal, hoping we would get to our gate in time.  It was a HUGE relief to see that they were still boarding when we got there!  Ahhhhh!  Our flight was the last one to Phoenix that night so it would have been quite interesting had we missed it!

Yes, I ran barefoot through the airport

We were so happy to make it but once we got seated on the plane, we were notified that there was thunderstorm activity in central PA and they weren't sure how soon we would even be able to take off.  We waited and waited and waited...... Finally nearly two hours after the flight was originally supposed to leave, we got the all clear.  It was a pretty turbulent flight home due to the clouds and evening storms.  It was an extremely long day and by that time, you're just ready to be home!

Our trip did not fly by, I felt like we got to enjoy each day together while we were there.  It was just the right amount of time for us to be gone but we were ready to get home and see our babies!  I'm hoping we will have the chance to return again, especially if this becomes an annual thing for Matt to see the baseball players.

Dominican Republic~ day 7

Matt wanted to go deep sea fishing while we were in the DR.  He mentioned it to our driver, Dario, who gave us a number of a guy to call.  We woke up pretty early, which I wasn't happy about.  If you're picturing some fancy fishing boat with huge fishing poles and catching giant fish, that can't be further from what we did.  This kid pulls up in a beat up old aluminum jon boat.  We hop in and he drives us out a ways from the shore, we drop anchor and he handed us the most rudimentary fishing "poles" you could imagine, just a spool of fishing line, literally!  I was like, 'are you serious right now?'  He rigged them up with weights and hooks and we got to fishing.  Within minutes, I felt a tug on my line so I started rolling up my line and lo and behold, I had TWO fish!!!  These were red speckled fish and the ugliest things I'd ever seen!  Of course I had to do the traditional "fish kiss" picture.

I kept pulling in fish after fish while Matt was trying to be patient. He even busted out the fishy dance!  Meanwhile, I was trying not to barf as we sat out in the ocean, rocking and swaying.

My compromise was that if Matt got to do his fishing trip, I wanted to go zip lining.  Matt said it's such a fad thing, to go zip lining, blah blah blah, but I wanted to do something thrilling and this fit the bill.  We booked through Bavaro Runners.  They picked us up from our resort in this safari looking vehicle (open air, no windows) and took us to Punta Cana.  We passed miles and miles and miles of sugar cane, the principle agricultural product of the country.

As we got closer and were driving up the mountain, little kids would smile and wave and yell out, "Hola!"  I seriously wanted to snatch one of these cute faces right up and take them home with me!  As I looked around as we drove through the towns, the houses are tiny and ramshackle.  The families here live in straight up poverty conditions.  The people here (kids even!) work hard for their money, either selling merchandise or offering services.... but these kids don't know any different and they seem happy.  And here I've been frustrated that our internet connection has been sketchy, hello wake up call.  We have SO SO much, living in the U.S.

These half-built cinder block structures are everywhere.  They just build a little at a time, I guess.

We arrived at our destination and got geared up for our zip line adventure!  It was so lush and green at this part of the island!  Zip lining was just as fun as I had imagined it would be!  Turns out my slight fear of heights didn't apply here, thank goodness.  There are 12 lines total and I guess this is the longest zip line in the Caribbean!  On the last run, there are side-by-side lines so Matt and I got to race each other!  He flew down like a rocket and I didn't quite make it all the way to the end.  haha

Once we got back to the resort, we change into our swim suits and headed to the pool.  We grabbed drinks and a few snacks and just lounged, soaking up our last evening in the Dominican Republic.

FaceTiming Hayden before bed