welcome to paradise

first and foremost, going on a honeymoon was absolutely the 2nd best decision ive ever made in my life (1st of course was saying "i do"). ty and i had gone back and forth on the idea for a few months... it wasnt cheap, as im sure you all know. were still living in a less than stellar apartment, and each day the kitchen cabinet door falls off i curse that place more and more... so to say the money could have been used for other things is true. BUT i would never ever take back the week that we spent in punta cana (dominican republic) and the experiences we had, and were looking forward to hopefully going back sometime next year (thats how much we enjoyed it)!

when we left portland at 6am on tuesday morning it was a whopping 19 degrees. i wore my uggs to the airport and switched to flip flops before walking into the building. people looked at me funny, but it probably wasnt cuz of the flip flops in january....

come on, no one should be surprised by this

(*fun fact- we were easily recognized as a honeymoon couple (wonder why?!) and the flight attendant gave us free beer on the plane!)

when we touched down in punta cana, the weather was sunny and 82 degrees. ah yes, this is the true reason why we chose to get married in january!

after a long line through customs and dodging people trying to take our bags from us, we aimlessly walked around the parking lot to find our van... in a sea of white vans... i felt like i was in a reach the beach parking lot nightmare! but alas, our van was found and we boarded. of the 13 passengers on the van, 9 of us were from maine. all going to the same resort. and one of the women not from maine had a cousin who lived in maine. small world.

when we arrived at our resort, we were greeted with drinks. um yeah, hello honeymoon!

i thought the toilets were cool in the lobby, so i took a picture. little did i know, this was what all the toilets looked like, even in our room. they were not that comfortable to sit on. kinda awkward. and the company that made them was named "althea".

"althea? youre shooting with althea?"
"althea is correct."
"nice shooting!"

ty kept wanting to use one of the towels. they made it to the last night.

my handsome husband

night #1 from our balcony

we stole this and is now on our bedroom door

day #2

started out with some coffee on the balcony before we went out to explore and enjoy the warm sunshine

finally i know how to spell karaoke!

i thought this was mac & cheese. i thought wrong.

the guy in the red shirt tried it... just plain cheddar for the omelets

book #1 of 2011

pina colada #who knows of 2011

fried potatoes with a side of fried potatoes. i tried to be healthy by putting the fruit on there.

nothin like spanish scrabble on your honeymoon

this was sent to us during our game

night #2 hibatchi/sushi dinner

i got real excited that there was a tv in the bedroom

day #3

view from breakfast

huge connect 4 game

i almost dropped our drinks in the pool. twice.

a few too many drinks?

got dressed up to go out to dinner at the steakhouse

and decided to put on sweats to go to the michael jackson experience that night

but first we stopped for a snack... edible mousse cups? yes please!

day #4

book #2 of 2011

watched this guy propose

found a boyfriend for ashley

decided to take a swim

mmmm endless pina coladas

now this is a honeymoon!

we thought we would end the night with a "martini and sax" show by the pool. there was an open martini bar with a few different types being made, while a sax and piano duo played. appetizers were also served, and the sunset (above) was breathtaking.

you can probably guess which one i had (and by one i really mean two)

needless to say,our night didnt end with the show. we each had a few more martinis, headed over to the main lobby bar for a few more drinks, and we ended up at a late night magic show which ty was super impressed by. sure the guy turned two small white birds into a large gray bunny rabbit and appeared to cut a woman in half, but it was more comical watching ty react to the tricks than the actual tricks themselves.

after the show we went back and decided we would sneak on facebook real quick to see some pics from the wedding. facebook thought someone from the dominican was trying to hack into my account so i had to identify a friend. out of all my friends, they choose sarah.

um yeah, i think i know her

day #5

we both woke feeling just a bit under the weather. luckily it was the morning of our honeymoon breakfast in bed. 

apparently they thought we were a family of four?

we had also set up to go parasailing at noon, and while we were waiting for the boat to pick us up we saw a wedding photography session. im pretty sure i would not do that in my wedding dress.

people also walked up and down the beach with parrots, iguanas, and a monkey that you could get your picture taken with. one of the guys made me touch the iguanas tail. yuck.

the boat ride to the parasailing boat was the scariest experience ever. first we had to walk out into the ocean to our waist and then get lifted up and thrown into the little motor boat. once inside the boat, we found a rusty steak knife on the floor of the boat. i couldnt even sit next to ty and i began to freak out a little. i had no idea where we were going as i couldnt see anyone parasailing anywhere near us.

the boat driver went about 100 miles an hour over waves while i was hanging on to the side of the boat for dear life. as we went around a bend in the land i saw the parasailing boat... but i was still confused as to how we were getting from our boat to that boat. at top speed, our boat pulled up next to the other boat (that boat also moving right along)... neither slowed down, and the guys from the parasailing boat started motioning us to jump over.

you want us to WHAT?!?! before i knew it, we were getting pushed from our boat and pulled onto the other boat. i scraped the hell out of my shin, from knee to foot. awesome. i literally thought i was going to die, and i hadnt even been put in a harness yet!

what did we get ourselves into?

im not so sure about this....

please dont go any higher...

once i was up there it was pretty freaking awesome

top center under the rope. steak knife.

i kissed the ground when we got back

we spent the rest of the afternoon napping by the pool (and by napping i mean ty napped, i drank more pina coladas, read my book and played with sun screen).

hehe... mess with the hungover kid

later on that night we had our honeymoon dinner at see & sea restaurant on the beach under a little hut. our dinner wasnt until 8pm so we had a little sushi snack first. (unlimited sushi bar every night meant a sushi snack before every dinner)

dinner was so prefect... we were all alone out on the beach and our waiter, nelson, was really fun. he kept bringing out food and drinks which he would take over to a hidden chair and we watched him down them himself. we had a four course meal- rock lobster caesar salad (very salty, no maine lobster out in the dominican), lobster bisque (neither of us ate it, it smelled like rotten fish), surf & turf which was SO good (steak, shrimp on a bed of mashed potatoes, and buttered veggies), and a chocolate moose layered dessert type thing. i had a few glasses of white wine too which was excellent. and nelson even gave me a red rose!

when we got back to our room there was a wedding reception going on at the tiki hut bar outside our balcony, and our hot tub was set up for a rose pedal bubble bath. ty is like a zillion feet tall so we didnt really fit in the tub, but we sat around the edge, drank our bottle of champagne, listened to the music from the wedding and played "remember when" about our own wedding. edwin mccain's "ill be" came on right before we got out of the tub... albeit an older song, it really fit the moment. i wont ever forget this night of our honeymoon!

after the tub we went out and finished the champagne while creeping on the wedding some more. it was a great way to end a beautiful honeymoon.

and i made ty wear his bathrobe

day # 6

our last day here we decided to get up early and spend the morning walking the beach before we had to leave for the airport at noon. we had walked down the beach one way a few days earlier so we walked the other way this time.

i LOVE turtles so i was so happy to find this one.

one of my favorite pics from the trip

our last drink from the piano bar

the staff waving "adios" to our bus