We had a great time in Punta Cana, despite getting there one day later than planned; the Punta Cana airport was shut down when we were supposed to land due to the fact they had no runway lights - pretty important if you are landing at night, like we were supposed to do. So anyway, we got there on Wednesday morning. The resort was beautiful and after checking in, we decided our room was too small, so we upgraded to a suite! Yeah, lots of room, a jacuzzi on the balcony and a view of the ocean. We wasted no time in putting on our suits and securing our spot at the pool under a palapa and ordering something alcoholic, fruity and tropical. Ahhhh, life is good. We were a little disappointed with the beach as it was not the clear blue Caribbean waters we were looking forward to; instead, we were located a little too far north and were on the Atlantic ocean, therefore the water was more brown and murky, so we spent the majority of our time at the pool. "Lather, rinse, repeat", that was pretty much our existence for the week we were there, no sightseeing, didn't really care to do it; no late nights, too hard with kids that insist on being in bed by 8:30 pm. Just eat, find our spot at the pool, people watch, chat with other vacationers, eat some more, decide where we were going for dinner while we were eating lunch, lay by the pool, read, time for a snack, pool time, get ready for dinner, eat some more and then to bed! You get the picture! It was a great week and I highly recommend an all inclusive if you have kids, they have a great kids club that keep them busy all day long, the food for kids was just right and the only money you need is for tipping those friendly waiters that keep bringing you something to drink with little umbrella's in it! Here's some pics of our week:
Getting closer, on the bus to "Dreams", Caroline is soooo ready!
We are finally here!
Caroline and her beautiful Toycha Gail, celebrating Toycha's birthday
Looking for fish in the pool! Sorry Caroline, wrong place!
The kids having fun in the jacuzzi
The view from our balcony
Mama Peacock and her baby outside our room
The building our room was in and part of the huge pool
Caroline "chilaxing" before dinner
Chase just looking too cute!
Brother and Sisterly love
Chase getting ready to do the mexican hat dance!
Okay, now for the big reveal from my last post; I was offered and accepted a fantabulous job! Yeah! This has been two years in the making, and it finally happened. The only issue is that we have to move back to Dallas. As much as I wanted Austin to be our permanent home, it was just not meant to be. I am so glad I only rented a home here and did not buy one right off the bat. I actually start this coming Monday and will be living in corporate housing until I secure something permanent (the company is paying for my living expenses for 3 months until I find something - this is such a sweet deal). The kids are going to go and stay with my sister Gail for the rest of the summer while I get myself situated in my new job and find somewhere for us to live. They will be going to their old school, so everything is falling into place just beautifully. I am so excited, I work in healthcare, but in a terribly small niche of it, so these jobs are not just falling off trees (as if any are these days!), so I am so fortunate that this happened. I do have a question for anyone of you out there that might know: What are your experiences with Au Pair's? I will be doing some overnight travel and need to secure reliable childcare for when I am not here and thought an Au Pair might be a good solution. If you have any thoughts on that or suggestions for other childcare options I would love to hear about them.
Until later, Adios!
7 comments:
Your vacation sounds just my style! Good luck on the new job endeavor.
Sounds like a wonderful vacay.... what was the children's program like? could you sign them in at 10 am & pick them up at 4 pm so you could have some alone time? I was always curious how those things worked
good luck with your new job.. that is great news. By Au Pair do you mean a full time live in Nanny?
Many agencies could help you with questions or you could try sitter city or one of those online sitter finders.
Lauri, the children's program was great, you could drop them off by 9 am and they stayed open until 9:45 pm. Tons of activities and really well supervised. They took them to lunch and dinner if you wanted. You could also pick them up for awhile and then take them back. They gave you cell phones to contact you if there were any issues. You just couldn't leave the property.
As far as the Au Pair, I am just not sure if that is what I want. I don't know about another person living with us full time. Ideally, I would like to find someone like a teacher that would stay with them at my home while I was out of town and take them to school everyday and pick them up and take them home, do homework, make dinner and put them to bed. I just hope I can find someone like that.
Congratulations! Yes, good jobs are very hard to find these days. Looks like you had a great vacay - the kids are adorable.
What a fabulous trip - I am so glad you got to relax and take a break!!
Congrats on the job!!! Let us know what you put together for the kids while you have to be away.
Ohhh... what an awesome vacation! Congrats on the new job! You're right - obviously Austin wasn't meant to be. How great that you can rely on Gail so you can get settled. I don't have experience with Au Pairs... sorry. I know exactly what you're looking for though - basically an overnight babysitter/house sitter to use every so often as you need to. Good luck finding everything!
Hi:
You have no idea who I am, but I have been following your blog for a while- not sure even how I found it, but I have a 3 year old adopted from Guatemala. Anyway, i am also a single mom and a doctor, so I have child care issues at night also. I live in NYC and have some family help but need an overnight sitter sometimes. I have had no problem finding someone to stay overnight for a nightly rate. I was using medical students, but they would move on to clerkships and could not sit anymore. I found my current sitter on sittercity. She is wonderful! I live in a small 2 bedroom, and it has not been a problem to find someone to sleep on my couch.
The downside to au pairs is that they leave after a year or two, so that can be disruptive for your kids.
Good luck.
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