WE DID IT!

Well we did it and it wasn't half bad! The wedding day was great, and needless to say, we were more than ready to leave the reception that night. My parents got us a room at the Grand America in downtown Salt Lake. b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. We felt like royalty. Complete with bathrobes and slippers. Oh and room service in the morning!

Thanks to everyone who came. We loved having you there to share the day with us!

Here I am in the morning getting my hair done before the big day.

This is what our dining room looked like after we opened a bunch of presents the next day before taking off for the DR. This picture really is for Savannah who wanted to open all the presents with us.

On Sunday night we took off for the Puerto Plata, DR.

Our first picture on the beach. We arrived at our resort after a red-eye flight and another 4 hour flight. We left SLC at 11 pm on Sunday and arrived in the DR at 4 pm on Monday. FUN...psyche!

On Tuesday we hung out on the beach and tried out some boogy boarding. The north coast is the the hot spot for kyte-boarding, which is really fun to watch. There were hundreds of wind-surfers and kyte-boarders out when the wind was good.

On Wednesday we ventured off of our resort. It was much smaller than you'd think so we ventured off into the city. What an adventure.First of all we took what they call a ghua-ghua (sp?) into the town of Puerto Plata. It's a van that picked us up on the side of the road. It's run by two men. One to drive and the other to hang out the window yelling at people to get in the van. It cost us about $3 each, which we were told by an English lady on the van that the guy scammed us. It should have only cost a little over a $1. Oh well. Much better than the $35 they wanted for a taxi ride.

Driving in the DR in crazy. Not only are the roads barely big enough to fit two lanes of traffic, but there are motorcycles and scooters to maneuver around. Kind of like driving in New York, but with less adherence to laws.

We wanted to hike up the mountain in town. Most people take a tram up it, but we wanted to hike and the tram was broken. A guy got on the ghua-ghua telling us that he worked for the government and was from New York. They all say they work for the government and have these fake looking ID badges. He took us to the bottom of the mountain and lied to us the entire way. We shook him and another guy off as we started the hike up. They just wanted our money.

We didn't make it all the way up to the top. The trails weren't that good. But it was warm and very green as you can see!

On our way down back to town we walked through neighborhoods. The kids were all on their way home from school. It's interesting because all of the houses were very run down and small, but the kids were all dressed nicely in uniforms. We even saw some girls doing homework. It was cool to see.

When we got into town we walked around and tried to find a place to eat. People followed us around telling us they work for the government or that they recognized us because they work at the hotel we're staying at blah blah blah.

We finally found a decent looking place to eat. Dave's shrimp were fine, but my crab was unheard of. It was like they stuck a bunch of crab legs (shell and all) in a food processor, gave it a whirl, and put some sauce on it.

Luckily later in the day we were "saved" from getting on another ghua-ghua van by a white woman who approached Dave and asked, "Excuse me, sprechen de Engles?" Or something like that. She and her husband offered to give us a ride to our resort. They had a car and they'd do it for free! Then she said, "My name's Janet, this is Jay, we're from Utah." Ha! Of course they are from Utah! One of the only Americans we meet and they're from UT. What are the chances?Their name is the Thomson's and they're a retired couple and spend two months out of the year in the DR. They ended up showing us around another town and took us back to their house and made us dinner. It was really yummy. And so nice to be in someone's home. It turns out we're related to them on the Moss side. Crazy!

This is the view from the Thomson's condo. It was really gorgeous.

Needless to say we stayed on our resort for the remaining day and a half of our journey. I loved being on the beach and drinking pina-coladas all day. We even bought a coconut on the beach and drank straight from it.

I miss the warm weather, but I was ready to come back. There's still so much work to do to get settled in! Luckily we have a book that appropriately sits on the back of the toilet titled, How to organize Everything. It's perfect.