Last November 27th was Daddy's and Mommy's 10th wedding anniversary. That day we took a plane to visit my family in the Dominican Republic :) We were gone for 9 days. We had a blast, but we missed our children so bad. The first few days, it felt good to be away. However, we started missing our kiddos so bad later on. Every time I would see a toddler, I would just melt thinking about my trio. They did very good for Grandma, sleeping all night and not getting too crabby. Grandma gave each one a picture of us. They would carry around our picture and say "bye, bye." The girls would hold on to the pictures more so than Armando. Grandma said that when they would be having a tantrum, she would give them the picture and they would calm down. However, Armando would look at the picture for a second, then throw it on the floor and continue on with his business. Hahahaha. But the girls on the other hand would hold on to the picture, look at it and say "bye, bye."
Back to the trip. The first thing that I did once I arrived to Santo Domingo was to find a beauty salon. Back home it is VERY important to have your hair done and straighten :) I wouldn't feel comfortable visiting all my relatives and friends with an afro (that's what my curly hair turns into down there with the crazy humidity). Thanks to my dear friend Farah, I was able to get my hair done with the same lady that did my hair with when I lived down there :) It was great to see everybody. Pictures will describe better our trip.
Me after getting my hair done :) I should have taken a before picture, but I don't know if I would have the nerve to post it here, hahahahaha.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!!! The food!!!! These was part of a buffet at the hotel! Yum!!
Something else that was VERY high on the to do list was to go dancing! Yay!!! We Dominicans love to dance! Unfortunately, Daddy has 2 left feet (sorry honey, but it's true). Not to mention that in rural usa would be hard to find a disco with Latin music! My sister was kind enough to take me out dancing and let me dance the night away with her husband :) Thank you sis.! Thank you Tony! Being out of the loop with was in with music, it was reality check for me to see how much the music has changed. Thankfully, Tony (my brother in law) knew of a party going on just at a park where the music being played was the so called "clasicos" or retro merengues and bachata from my time, hahahaha. We had a great time there! We dance on the sidewalk and ate a humongous sandwich from the very popular food stand called "El Forty." Don't ask me why is called like that, I have no idea. But the food was awesome! It's too bad that I don't have pictures of us dancing on the street! Don't be shocked, dancing on the street is very popular in my Caribbean country :) It's fun!
After all the partying in Santo Domingo, we head to my home city - San Fco. de Macoris to visit my dad and my other sister Wendy. It was hard for me to step in my parents house and not find my mom :( Last time I visited the Dominican Republic was back in 2005 for my mom's funeral :( It was so hard to walk in the house and not find her there. I guess I still have some healing to do .... it was good for me to confront that reality. My sister Wendy cooked a feast for us! She made sancocho (a traditional Dominican dish) and it was very tasty. Thank you Wendy for taking the time to put on this feast:) After filling our bellies up, we took time to catch up and reminiscing about our mom. Later on in the day we visited her grave that was a very powerful experience for me. All the feelings that I have been keeping in safe box locked up in my heart came rushing out leaving me with a sense of peace and acceptances.
Then we spend a little time at a beautiful green area, taking pictures of everybody:) From left to right my sister Alpha, Wendy and me (in order of birth).
On this one from left to right Wendy, my dad, myself and Alpha.
My family.
After visiting San Fco. we head to Punta Cana (east part of the island with the most beautiful beaches). Matt and I hanging out by the pool.
Me by the beach, enjoying a fruity drink :)
Relaxing in the pool.
When we got to the all inclusive resort, dh surprised me with a room upgrade. He upgraded us from a standard room to a honeymoon suite :) It was very nice room and dh definitely earned lots of brownie points:) This is part of the bathroom.
The living room.
The bedroom.
The view from our balcony.
After a nice few days at the resort, we returned to Santo Domingo to catch a fly to Miami. There we met my dear friend Flerida:) Flerida and I downtown Miami.
Flerida and her dh took us downtown and we stopped to eat at a nice outdoors cafe. The food was yummy! Matt ordered a portobello burger, which turned out to be huge and tasty.
I ordered jambalaya. It was delicious, but I couldn't eat the whole plate. I think that I could eat for a week from that one plate. The servings were huge!
After a day in Miami, we flew back home the next dat. We were so excited to see the kiddos again. We were expecting lots of excitement from them. We kept telling each other how they were going to react when they saw us. We were both SOOO wrong.... When we got home, they just stared at us. It was almost like if they were thinking "so you guys finally decided to show up, just when we were getting used to being without you." To our disappointment, there were hardly any reaction from those three. Grandma had introduced them to cookies, and that was better than having Mom and Dad home. On the bright side, we won't feel as bad as we did this time when we take another trip without them, ah!
Merry Christmas everybody!
On January 2nd we got bundled up and headed to to Grandma's house. This is Alea, ready to go.
Arianna telling me "let's go! I'm ready!"
Armando "take this darn thing off my hands."
Armando studying his gift. They all got phones from Auntie Maria. They LOVE phones! Particularly Alea (later I'll post a video of her "talking" on the phone.)
Alea with cousin Alicia opening her present.
Arianna trying to figure out what Armando got.
All three with their phones.
We got them a kitchen! They are IN LOVE with their kitchen. It's amazing how much they copy the things I do when I'm cooking. Grandma gave them a gigantic set of dishes that they love to use to set their little table. Also, they like to buzz around with the shopping cart that they got from Grandma as well:) But to tell the truth they played more with the wrapping paper than any other toys, lol.
