5th Anniversary

Scotty and I celebrated our 5th anniversary this past weekend.
Here's our track record: Met in '02, Married in '04, Babies in '06 & '08. Makes you think something big needs to happen in 2010, huh?

We spent the most wonderful night at Casa Colonial in Puerta Plata. We aren't lovers of the all-inclusive resorts (hence he took me to a VRBO [vacation rental by owner] to the Bahamas for our honeymoon), but we also knew we wanted a nice, romantic getaway without staying in a house or apartment. Scotty stumbled across SLH (Small Luxury Hotels) and found 3 here in the DR, Casa Colonial being one of them. We drove about 3 hours to get there. The pool and 4 hot tubs were located on the 3rd floor overlooking the ocean.

The north beach is very wendy. It's a great beach for water sports.

All dressed up for our anniversary dinner. We were one of a handful of couples there, so we felt like we had the whole palce to ourselves. After dinner we sat in the lobby and read while listening to a pianist, then we made our way outside and had a drink under the stars. You can see that the grounds were decked with candles. We headed back to our room after half an hour or so to find that the hotel staff had covered our room with rose petals and candles, including the bathtub. Every penny is well worth is for this place.

This is the CC beach at Playa Dorado. Yes, I'm wearing a bikini...it was an anniversary trip! We were beginning to doubt if we could find a place in the DR where EVERYTHING worked (i.e. air, toilet, water, no cockroaches) and the staff was more than willing to serve you. Well we found it!

The drive to and from Puerta Plata isn't pleasant. It's a very well traveled 2 lane road through the mountains and well traveled means getting stuck behind one slow car or semi truck after another and playing the passing game. On our way home, as soon as we hit the Duarte (which is a major highway and would be compared to a U.S. interstate) there were 4 groups of professional bikers taking up both lanes and shoulders. As soon as you pushed your way through one group, there was another and another. We have NEVER experienced such a frustrating time. Can you imagine fighting bicyclists, their helpers in vehicles, traffic cops on motors that aren't directing traffic but part of the problem, and the rest of traffic fighting for every inch of highway shoulder to shoulder. Complete chaos!

As we entered into town we slowed down for traffic and Scotty looked in the rearview mirror to see "MACK" in his view. It was a Mack semi within an inch of rearending us. The semi pushed his way passed us and Scotty made the smart decision not to fight him for the road because we then went on to witness him weaving in and out of traffic going full speed like a BMW roadster. Scotty looked at me and said "I wish he would crash and burn." I looked disapprovingly at him and he said, "Ok, I wish he wouldn't burn, just run into a pole." We turned our heads back to the highway and there the semi went....flipped on his side into the ditch knocking out a power line and splitting his trailer wide open! Sparks started to fly as the swinging power lines were touching.

There are only a few times that you will catch a Dominican running and one of those times is to an accident to see what happened [Dominicans will agree with me on this one]. From what we could see the semi was the only vehicle involved and the man was being pulled from the front window that had busted out. You can imagine the guilt Scotty had to deal with after he said that, and he acknowledged it as well. (I do have his permission to write the story.)

I read Boost Your Child's Immune System by Lucy Burney that my girlfriend let me borrow and it a GREAT read for mom's who aren't familiar with the in's and out's of the immune sytem and how to give your child a diet to help not hinder his system. It is helpful with the common cold and allergies. Half of the book is recipes from 6mths to 18yrs.

On the way home we listened to more of Vision Forum's Mega Conference History of the World part A.D. Wow! What a great investment this CD series is. Where has the Church been during the development of societies and countries? Who has played major roles in Christianity throughout history? There is so much information about the Christian church in the A.D. series alone! This CD series is a MUST for the Christian home. We are way underinformed about our Christian heritage.