December 2012

This year ended with a bang!  2 beach trips in one month!  Can’t get much better than that.  In the first trip, my parents (and Esther) took the kids for a weekend while Scott and I snuck off to Tybee Island to help a friend celebrate her 40th birthday. Scott worked on his computer all the way down and back so I got to listen to Life of Pi, which was good so it was ok.  It was really a nice break.  We played lots of sports, swam in the Ocean, and talked talked talked.

Then it was time to let the Christmas celebrating begin!  Ignoring the fact that we were going to be out of town for Christmas, Scott insisted that we go all out on the decorating:  complete with a tree, outdoor lights, nativities (plural), and a Christmas village.  It really did make the place feel cozy, but I tend to feel like less is more in these types of things. :) Check out the panoramic shot, thank you again i-phone.  We started at our place with the Ordner-side Christmas.  One thing we did not over-do this year (unlike last year) was presents.  Everyone opened one gift.  And it was great!  Also, in case you were wondering, that is not Esther’s boyfriend behind her, that is Quintaveous, a young man that Jeff mentors.

The next big event of the month was Esther’s wedding (they were later sealed in the DR temple—long story). It was a beautiful ceremony.  Unfortunately, Taylor (who happened to be the flower girl) and I, were weak and chilled with high fevers.  But we made it, Esther was beautiful and happy, so all was well.

I love the brilliant Indian clothes!

Now onto the DR trip, we had been looking forward to this for months! We were looking forward to the beach and endless pina coladas (w/out alcohol of course); but we were most excited to spend time with family.  Especially Grandma Becky and Grandpa John who are taking care of 180 missionaries in the DR for the 3 years.  Above the kids are handing out some toys/Christmas presents with a couple of these missionaries.  Then we were off to the resort!  Here we are on Christmas morning!

It was a stunning resort in Puerto Plato, and we learned the ins and outs of the place.  So next year (yes we are already planning on going back), we will know exactly where to eat, the best excursions, which airport to use, prettiest beaches, etc. And, Grant won’t be crawling around putting every thing in his mouth (and getting sick)!

The kids LOVED the water, and making sand castles.  Other favorites were the wood fire pizza place on the beach (they would bring it to you at your beach chair), the cold stone icecream replica, crepes, and for Jacskon the life sized chess board, and basketball courts were a highlight.

Jackson loved getting so much cousin time.

 

 

Grant was our water baby!

 

He can now consistently beat all of the Douglas men.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not a bad way to take a nap.  There was lots of shade, and he slept so soundly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And probably the coolest part of the trip was when were at ‘Ocean World’ (DR SeaWorld) and out of ALL the children there, Taylor was selected to be in the Dolphin show with all the trainers.  She totally ate it up, and was such a ham!

Six people from our 21 person group, got to enjoy 1/1/2 hours of  swimming with the dolphins.  And Jackson was one of those people!  He was hesitant at first “They actually have really sharp teeth.”  But then he got comfortable and let the dolphins hug, kiss, and push him around the arena on a boogie board.  Once in a life time experience.  Come to think of it, Jackson even went on his first helicopter ride during this trip.  Not bad for a 6 year old!  Stinker.

And check out Scott, Arrius (Esther’s cute new husband), Michael, and Thomas doing the 27 waterfalls!  And bananas!

That was the fun part.  The important part was that I feel like the kids really got to connect and spend good quality time with their grandparents whom they miss so much.  Jackson is terrible at goodbyes, he cried for 15 minutes as we drove away.  It might have lasted our entire trip if we hadn’t wised up and pulled over for canya (sugar cane).  I on the other hand was ready to get 4 sick people home (we all got sick at the end of the trip too).  Plus I have never been so unprepared for a trip (I blame it on my delirious fever state while packing).  I only packed 1 dress!  And I wore flip flops to the temple!  But we made it, and it was cute to see Scott so happy to be back in the country where HE served for 2 years.  We are already looking forward to going back.

It has been a year full of blessings for our family.  Most recently Scott was promoted to PL (project leader) at work.  But our 2 biggest blessings were 1) Grant was born and 2) the intestinal scare with Jackson turned out to be a treatable bacterial infection.

We give praise to our Heavenly Father for the blessings in our life, and we are overwhelmingly grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ.

Hope you all had a fabulous holiday and a fun New Year’s Eve (ours was lame by the way—we stayed in and ate Indian food)!

Much love,

The Douglas Family