The Dominican Republic

Scott and I were lucky enough to get the opportunity to go to the Dominican Republic for Home Instead's Leadership Conference and lucky enough to have grandparents to watch Caden all week! Thanks Grammy and Pops! And for those of you wondering, yes the Dominican Republic is on the same island as Haiti. We were in Punta Cana, which is the furthest point from Haiti, so we did not feel any effects from the earthquake, but being that close to that tragedy made us feel helpless, sad, and greatful at the same time. We are still praying for the people of Haiti.

First night dinner...

Matt and Ansley Cohn from Louisiana...

Unfortunately, we had bad weather the first three days of our trip and actually didn't see the sun until the day before we had to leave, but we made the best of our trip and ate and drank all we could on the resort. The resort was nice and had some activities for us to do - I enjoyed the spa and Scott enjoyed the casino :). Here are some pictures of the resort...

Flamingos hanging out near the lobby...

We had booked a catamaran trip not knowing that the weather was going to be terrible, so we went ahead and did it anyways...It turned out to be fun (the bar on board might have had a little to do with that :)).

Here's some pics from the catamaran. Scott and the boat captain - he always seems to make friends with the bus driver, the captain, the tour guides...

Bad weather...it kept raining off and on that the crew of the boat put up a sail as a roof over our heads on the boat.

Ruth Maguire and Teresa Banark from Omaha.

Look closely and you'll see the mast of a ship - a ship wrecked into the coral reef...

And the most important person on the boat (well that's how the tour guide introduced him to us)...the bartender. He was actually a deaf mute (not sure if that is the correct pc term or not), so you had to grab his arm sometimes to get his attention then you pointed to the drink you wanted on a sign...It made me happy that the tour company hired him - perfect job where he didn't have to talk!

The last night we were there, the resort kept putting up signs about a Michael Jackson show...we weren't quite sure what it was going to be, but it actually turned out to be very entertaining! They had an impersonator and dancers, they did songs all the way from the Jackson 5 to Thriller to Smooth Criminal to Bad to Black or White...and you get the picture. We were impressed!

Here is Michael himself...Random pic of Dave Banark from Home Instead home office and Scott at dinner one night...
Last night there...farewell dinner...Dave Banark again and his wife, Teresa.
Scott and I...

New Year's...yes I know it's late

For New Year's, we went down to Port St. Lucie to see my entire immediate family! Uncle Ryan, Aunt AJ, Uncle Robert, Aunt Candy, and cousin Griffith all came down to Aunt Jen and Uncle Albert's house. Unfortunately, Caden did not get his picture taken with every family member, but here is a few...

Uncle Ryan and Aunt AJ - wedding date has been set for August 28th! So exciting!

All four cousins on the Johnson side...from left, Griffith, Caden, Kaley, and Andrew.

Not the greatest picture of Caden, but we found out when we took him to the doctor on Monday the 4th (the day after we got back), that he had double pneumonia...so we were out all week with one sick baby!

Taking a bath with his cousin Kaley!
We went out to eat at Benihanas our last night there (because Kaley got up that morning and said she wanted to eat at the Bahamas...:)). We were running late to our reservation and were panicking that they wouldn't seat us, but we got there about 15 minutes late. Anyways, there was a single diner that they sat with us. He was a nice man and offered to buy the adults a round of drinks when he started talking to us. We were SO greatful for that, but then after we had eaten and were about to get our bill, he stood up, handed Jen $300 and told her he wanted to buy all of our dinners as well! We were shocked and so thankful...our anonymous benefactor is what we called him the rest of the night. What a nice man! It was fate that we were running late! He did drop subtle hints as to his identity, so we did figure it out and are going to print out this picture (that he took for us) and send him a thank you note. He actually is quite the generous man and even has his own foundation that gives out scholarships...the wonders of internet research...

We all decided that we each must pay forward his generosity to a stranger to keep the cycle going!

Caden with the Benihanas hat on...

I thought that this was cute and funny, too...Caden likes to push his trucks and cars around, well since cousin Andrew is too old to have any of that stuff, he made do with cousin Kaley's baby stroller, but notice that he did put his monster truck inside...

And here he is playing his new ball pit when we got home! Thanks, Uncle Robert, Aunt Candy, and Griffith...now mommy just needs to go get some more balls...