Punta Cana 2011

What a great trip we had! I will go ahead and apologize for the length of this post - and the number of pictures I have included. I took about 650 pictures on the trip, so narrowing it down to this many is a big accomplishment! We drove to Atlanta to fly in and out of because that ended up saving us a lot of money. So we drove there on a Monday and used some Hilton Honors points to spend the night near the airport and flew out that Tuesday. We were gone for a week and then drove home the evening we flew back in. I have to say - going through customs in Atlanta was such a pain! It didn't help that we were all tired and had a sick Katie in tow. But all in all, what a trip! The ocean was beautiful - and doing an all-inclusive was definitely the way to go! It is so different to order any and all of what you want - that could be dangerous after too long! Here we go with the pictures from the trip:

On our way to Atlanta - Katie has all her favorites with her in the car!

Reading books before bedtime once we arrived in Atlanta

We made it to Punta Cana!

No jetways at the airport there - kinda strange!

Once we arrived at the resort, we all changed into shorts and comfy beach clothes to walk around and go to dinner. Katie was definitely not so sure about the ocean at this point!

I'm not sure why, but I just love this picture - Katie was getting a ride on Daddy's shoulders to dinner!

Ready to head to the pool on our first full day there!

My favorite drink - the Ocean Blue. YUM!

Every night after dinner, we headed to the lobby! They had live music and the kids loved running around and dancing!

Again, Katie gets a lift on Daddy's shoulders!

Momma and her girl :)

I couldn't decide which picture I liked best, so I posted both of them - just love them!

An island sunset

Happy girl at dinner!

One of the few pics of the two of us on the trip

Such a funny expression - hanging out in the lobby after dinner

I love how soft her skin looks here. I think she was trying to find Elmo on TV.

Ready to hit the beach!

I love this picture - isn't that water beautiful!?

Happy girl - laughing at the other kids playing in the sand and ocean

And she finally decided to join in the fun!

Ahhh...I just can't get enough of this!

"WOO WOO WOO!!!"

Letting the ocean water cover her feet

I think this is a neat picture

She loved splashing in the pool! I splashed out of the pool to get a wasp to go away and she thought that was the funniest thing ever!

Climbing out of the pool - and so happy.

Every day, there would be employees that danced and played games and music around the pool for a fun atmosphere.

Brad brought Katie back out after naptime - and yes, he put her bathing suit on backwards...

...the rear view of the backwards bathing suit!

Katie loved Kennedy's Dora suitcase!

Another "WOO WOO WOO!!" - she started doing that while we were gone! And I love it!

Do you think she's happy? You can see straight down her throat! We were playing in the lobby again...

I think she was dancing with someone here - such a sweet smile.

I'm so glad Katie figured out how to drink out of a straw before we went. She loved drinking juice (lemonade) anytime she could get some. We were most concerned with keeping her hydrated, so she drank a LOT of juice!!

Daddy & Katie reading before bedtime - she loved Goodnight Moon! She would hold her finger and say "shhh" when the part with the old lady whispering "hush" came up!

She also loved Elmer's Friends while we were gone. She learned what a kangaroo does (bounce) and what an owl says!

Look at that sassy stance!

A view of the kiddy pool

One of the bars with a swim up bar! Katie got to know the bartenders because of her love of juice! She would give them a fist bump (boom, as we call it) everytime!

The building our room was in

We had matching shoes! Hers ended up breaking - and it was only the first time she had worn them!

Katie and Kennedy

The 3 kiddos - we obviously went on this trip with another family and one of the sets of their grandparents! It was so fun!

The other family - great picture!

And our family picture

Katie playing in the lobby again!

I'm thinking of having this one printed and framed to hang somewhere in our house - I just love it!

Katie decided sand wasn't so bad after all. She and Brad worked on a little castle!

Turning the bucket over...

Voila! It was just a matter of seconds until she knocked it down :)

Pure bliss.

Happy girl. This was when she began the whining and not feeling so good.

Hanging out with momma in the pool!

Poor girl had a fever of 102! Thank goodness I packed our whole medicine cabinet!

Another family picture! Poor Katie.

Whenever Katie had her fever reducer, she got a second wind - as shown here!

The kids playing after dinner! Oh the laughter out of those kids - so sweet.

Daddy and his girl

And she was out - she would never sleep on us like that, so we definitely knew she didn't feel well at all! And we did go back to the room at this point - we didn't make her stay out (even though it was our last night there)!

The next morning - Brad had just given her the tshirt we bought her. It was the only thing we bought and brought home with us - a handpainted Elmo shirt. She LOVED it!

Katie loved these fish in one of the walkways through a building.

Happy girl waiting on the shuttle to the airport. Again, she had her second wind here because of the medicine!

This was heavenly. After eating at the resort all week, mostly off the buffet, we were ready for something different yet familiar. Wendy's was at the airport - and it tasted divine.

Right before we hopped on the plane to come home. She slept all but the last 20 minutes of the flight home - poor girl. She finally caught up on sleep and started feeling better after being home a couple of days. Thank goodness! What a great trip it was - I'd definitely go back, and I'd love to try a different resort to see what it is like! Maybe something a little more high-end so we don't have to deal with spring break-ers :)