A much needed break....

It feels like an eternity ago, but at the end of January Adam and I took off for a long weekend in Punta Cana with my good friend Brian and his wife Lisa.  It was a much needed break from the cold weather and the kids.  Adam isn't the biggest fan of all-inclusives, and the food wasn't the best, but I was happy we were at a larger resort, so there were multiple restaurant options.  On the flight there, we had a whole middle row to ourselves - Adam made me move over so he could enjoy the arm-rest, hence the poopie-face!

It worked out well going with friends.  We would bump into one another throughout the day, but were more or less doing our own thing.  Then, we would meet up and do dinner together in the evening.   

It's a good thing that neither one of us is a big "beach person">  This is what the beach looked like by our resort.  So. Much. Seaweed.  There were pockets along the shore that weren't as bad, but it was difficult to walk along the beach or swim.

On our last full day there, Adam and I both came down with a stomach bug.  Ugh.  At first we thought it might be something we ate, but Brian/Lisa were fine and we had done hibachi the night before (so eaten identical food).  We were really missing first-world plumbing!  It could have been worse -- at least we had enjoyed two nice days, and it would have been so much worse if it had struck the following day -- being sick in an airplane would have been horrendous!  It seemed to take me a long longer to recover, and I wasn't eating normal food for 5 days.  It was pretty annoying being in a tropical location with the chills -- I was dressed in my jeans jacket, drinking hot tea, while those around me are drinking in frozen concoctions in cute sundresses!  I was so cold in the room, and we couldn't control the thermostat.  I wore as many warm layers as I could, and Adam put a towel and bathroom on top of me, since there were no extra blankets in the room.  Yuck.   

Homeward bound!

Back at the ranch....  Ken & Lee Ann had the kids over the weekend.  My mom came down to help Lena manage the crew from noon on Sunday until we got home just before bedtime on Tuesday.  This is the photo we got from my mom -- the kids were a bit challenging to say the least.  I believe the text that accompanied the photo said "Good thing they are so adorable. And that we have wine".  It didn't help that (thanks to what turned out to be a worker-error at an outside junction box) there was no internet in the house the entire time we were away! 

Mom was supposed to take Oliver out for a special crepe (Pfannekuche) lunch at a cute place in the neighborhood that Oliver & I used to frequent with Pauline, many moons ago.  Unfortunately, it was closed when they wanted to go, which was a real bummer.  I kept Oliver home from school one day that week and we went since he kept talking about the failed outing.  Yum, yum!  We'll have to take Omi next time she's in town!