Punta Cana

For many months, one of my best friends, Jenna, and I dreamed about going on a trip somewhere together with our husbands.  And then we realized we were about to turn 30 within two weeks of each other.  Good excuse to plan the trip?! I think so. :)  After many weeks spent scouring the internet for where we wanted to go, we found a good deal to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic that we couldn't pass up.  The trip was officially booked and the excitement ran high!

A few weeks before the trip Jenna and I naturally needed to make a shopping trip in preparation for the trip...

Starting the day off right!

We shopped.  For 17 hours.  I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.  Here Jenna is rubbing her sore legs - which I laugh just thinking about!

I took a screenshot of my phone when we ordered our dinner.  Note the time.

Even though it was almost midnight, we enjoyed dessert and had fun chatting before driving home.  Our hubbys graciously kept the kids all day by themselves!

Getting our nails done a few days before the trip :)

The day was finally here!  Ben's parents drove in from Colorado to stay with the boys while we were away.  Knowing they were in such good hands made it easier to leave them!  We flew out of Cincinnati so hit the road earrrrly to make our flight.

Starbucks for the road!

On the shuttle headed for the airport

Let's talk about how Jenna's bag weighed 64 pounds.  64 pounds people!  Luckily she had an airline employee who was feeling kind that day and said he would pretend he didn't notice :)

Breakfast before our flight

Love these two!

They were tired of all the picture taking already...

We made it!

Punta Cana airport

We had private transportation to our resort which was about a 20 minute drive from the airport.  We were all excited to finally be there.

Cheers to vacation beginning :)

The resort was really nice and definitely met our needs.  Nothing over the top fancy, but definitely nice. 

Unfortunately these sun beds were only for guests who payed to have VIP access, which we did not opt to do.  They were pretty to look at though!

We spent our days laying by the ocean reading, relaxing, sleeping, and swimming.  It was absolute perfection.  

One afternoon we played some beach volleyball and soon there were a few other people wanting to join us.  Jenna and I made our exit and soon it was a two on two match between Brian and Ben and some Europeans.  It was fun to watch!

I should note that there were tons of Europeans at the resort.  Way more than Americans, that's for sure.  And with that comes speedos galore and many topless women.  Definitely different than what we were used to!  Brian and Ben were the minority in their swim trunks.

Ben had a pair of tiggggght swim shorts that apparently he had purchased long ago because he thought they would be comfortable underwear (who does that???), and he brought them along as a joke because we read lots of reviews and knew lots of people at the resort would be wearing speedos. He dropped his gym shorts at the beach one day and had them on - I think we all peed our pants.  Hilarious!

Ben got an awesome tan while we were there - ha!  Apparently the spray sunscreen didn't work too well.

In the evenings we got dressed up and ate at one of the restaurants on the resort.  We usually skyped with the boys before leaving for dinner.  We missed them lots!

Don't let the fancy presentation fool you - the food was not the greatest.  It definitely got better as the week went on and we figured out the best places to eat breakfast and lunch, but it definitely was the weakest part of the resort in our opinion.  It was still fun to dress up and eat with friends every night without looking at a kids menu and cleaning up spills :)

We usually ended the day playing cards and having good conversation.  It was perfect!

One day we walked the beach and went past all of the resorts until we reached the public beach which was pretty much deserted.  We had a blast swimming - and taking lots of pictures of course.  Punta Cana is so beautiful!

Yes they had matching trunks and no it was not planned.

Such a great trip with amazing friends!  We can't wait to do it again sometime.

The flight home was uneventful.  We stopped for a quick meal at Chipotle and drove all over the state until we found a Dunkin Donuts, then were homeward bound :)

We got home late but were so happy to wake up to these faces the next morning!

A huge thanks to Ben's parents for giving up your week to stay with the boys.  They had a blast and still talk about it!