Newly Wedded Bliss: Punta Cana Anniversary Trip

When Paul & I first got married, we sat down and wrote a list of the places that we wanted to see together and the things that we wanted to do together. The list keeps on growing as we each think of new things that we want to experience with one another, but amazingly in our first 2 years of marriage we've managed to check quite a few off of our ever growing list:

Get a dog (which was the best decision ever)
Drive the coast of California
Go on a cruise
Take a trip to New York
See Niagara Falls
Disney World

To mark 6 things off of our list isn't too bad in only 2 years of marriage and even better is that we just marked a 7th item off of our list the day before our Anniversary:

7. Stay at an all-inclusive resort

If you ever decide to stay at an all-inclusive (which I would highly recommend) you have to stay at one of the Excellence Resorts. The staff was great, the food was great, the drinks were great, the rooms were great and the beach was beautiful. The only thing negative we have to say about it is that the resort is about an hour away from the airport so you have to take a cab to and from the airport ($70 each way), but other than that is was perfect!

Side Note: 2011 has really been a hard year for my mom. Not only did her mother pass away but my parents also had to put down Bailey, their 12 year old Shih-Tzu. In addition to all of that, they've recently decided to live full time at their farm so they put their house on the market - which is the house that they've lived in for almost 30 years (it's also the house we grew up in), so when Paul & I were planning this trip we decided to invite my parents along since we knew they really needed the rest & relaxation. I know it sounds crazy to invite our parents on an anniversary trip but we love hanging out with both sets of parents so why not ask them to come along for the fun?

Now to the good stuff, the pictures: (please excuse the date on some of the pictures but one of our cameras was set for 2009).

They have beautiful birds all over the place and this one in particular climbed up my dad's arm and ate one of the buttons off of his shirt. He also got a hold of one of my hair ties but we missed a picture of that

We relaxed in the sun

and relaxed in the shade

The food was wonderful

and I even won a little money in the casino :)

My favorite spot was in one of the chairs in the pool - you can barely see me lounging across the pool

We went on a bicycle tour one afternoon

and we only had bad weather 1 afternoon of the whole trip

We visited the Dominican Wal-Mart, Home Depot & Kohl's :)

We even got to ride horses

A closer shot of my favorite spot at the pool

If you stay at the resort for your anniversary they fill your tub with a bubble bath and give you champagne and fruit - and you also get towel swans :)

This was the view from our room - - - so beautiful

I had to get a head shot of our crazy cab driver that just about killed us by hitting a speeding school bus while singing "I will always love you" and "Red, red wine" - it was hilarious.