{Punta Cana}

{Get ready for a picture filled, vacation extravaganza post}

Where do I even begin? Last week was incredible. If you read my surprise post last Friday, you know that Caleb and I snuck away with our best friends for a week in the Dominican Republic...Punta Cana to be exact. We scored an INCREDIBLE deal on a resort recently and honestly expected it to be a pretty basic resort. Boy were we surprised!

So I'll start from the beginning...We left last Saturday, and had a less than perfect experience with a delayed flight out of our airport in Cincy, but nothing could bring us down knowing we'd be near the beach by early evening. So, Erin and I took it upon ourselves to try out my floppy hats!

When we finally landed, we were able to get a quick bite to eat at the beach side pizzeria...#nobigdeal. The next day (and every day after this) we hit up the beach, did lunch, went to the pool, and then ended our sunny day in the hot tubs! 

 *Not so fun fact of the day - this was the day I got the worlds craziest arm burns...I straight up looked like a tiger. This was also the night that Caleb unknowingly (until the next morning) got terrible food poisoning. I was burnt, so between the two of us, we really needed a day out of the sun.

Best pictures of us, ever.

After some time relaxing, we hit up the fun little dance club they had there and danced our little hearts out for a solid 20 minutes! We just got too excited when they played our American jams.

Probably a new favorite of us :)

Honestly, each day was a little similar with our routine of breakfast, beach, laying out, pool, lunch, hot tub, dinner, etc. So I'll give you a ton of pictures to gawk at from our entire week. Enjoy!

This was on the beach!

This next shot is one I'm definitely going to print on canvas. It's just my favorite.

When people ask me how we liked the DR, I cannot say enough awesome things about their culture. This trip legitimately made me want to come home and learn to speak fluent Spanish.

This guy was part of the entertainment team...and actually spoke the best English of any employee their. He was also fluent in French, which was crazy impressive. Made me feel a little silly, but that didn't stop Erin and I from taking a picture with him! Earlier that week, he convinced us to play balloon darts (then make fun of us both for how horrible we were at it), and also to take the "stretching" class. It was great fun!

Caleb and I also, somehow, got roped into a dance competition one evening...and we actually WON! Caleb blew my socks off and I was so impressed. We won a fun DR painting, but weren't able to bring it home with us, so we struck a pose with it right before we left instead.

Last night.

I honestly couldn't have asked for two better people to go on vacation with. The four of us had been talking about doing this for years...and it was so surreal to finally make it happen. The Dominican Republic will always hold a special place in my heart! I can't wait to go back one day. The memories we made on this trip will not be ones I forget easily. So many hilarious things happened, and many more "inside jokes" were made. I love my people!

If this didn't give you a travel bug...I don't know what will :)

*congrats to anyone who made it this far.