Days 1 and 2

Day 1:

6:10---head to the airport already 10 minutes late. At the airport, a band is checking in. Mindy uses her celebrity stalking skills to determine the band is a Christian rock group called Anthem Lights. They're legit as you can buy their stuff on iTunes. You can find out anything in 30 seconds with a smart phone. She just googled the name on the guitar case luggage tag. Chalk one up for Mindy.

The "thrifty one" (along with my full support) encouraged the girls to pack "light" and consolidate. With our family, we're facing $550 in luggage fees alone. You can guess how that went over. Steph showed up with a humongous bag weighing at least 100 pounds. Butch said it about pulled his arm out of his socket. The weight alone would have made it more expensive than just taking an extra bag. We gave her one of ours. We tried to carry on as much as possible. I'll get to the clothing numbers in another post.

 These are just 3 of the 8 computers we have with us. Everyone wants their own. That doesn't count the iPod and iHome speakers I brought and other iPods and phones. Good thing they don't charge per electronic device. I guess that will be next. Thank goodness that with our upgrade, we get free internet.

No flight problems---we met up with the Lapps' in Charlotte and flew together from there. We arrived in Punta Cana DR about 4 p.m.

 Not a very good picture of our lving/dining area. We are all on the Preferred level with us getting a "master suite." We were supposed to be higher up so that we could overlook the ocean and the pool. Instead we're on the first floor. That was a disappointment. They said we could move in 3 days.

 We have a very large patio right next to our private pool for Preferred guests. We have our own hot tub .

 This is just like having a pool in your backyard! Oh wait, we do! But we don't have the swim up bar. I guess things happen for a reason. Little did we know that this would turn out to be the absolute best location: beach on the other side of the pool, bar and food right here. Perfect. And the breezes from the ocean makes it cool all the time. We've spent both evenings so far, out here late at night.

 

 We have two bathrooms which makes it convenient for the family at the pool. But they do let the flies in and that freaks me out. I can be sort of prissy sometimes.

 

Almost paradise. Note I said "almost" It wouldn't be our family vacation if there weren't a few glitches:
Right off, our mini fridge with our upgraded "free"mini bar wasn't chilling and neither tv worked. Butch had the guy here working on it at 9:30 p.m. It took him awhile and a couple of trips back, but he got it going.

Day 2
The next morning, Butch stepped in to the hallway and nearly broke his back. There was 2 inches of water. Apparently, they hose everything down and just hadn't gotten to our hall with the squeegees. Then the toilet was stopped up, luckily we have two. In the afternoon after a day of sun and beach, there was no hot water. Butch wasn't happy---he likes a hot shower---lukewarm is okay with me.

Does any of this interfere with our fun? Absolutely not! It's been fair sailing since then. We had to plan our week on Sunday night as everyone was "wigging out" about what we wanted to do and when. This family loves a schedule!! I guess I raised them right!

Up next...Day 3 & 4---plus, "Vacation by the Numbers."