Dominican Republic

Life has been very, very good to us. We spent a week in the Dominican Republic and found out that life with twin toddlers can actually be very relaxing if the setting is just right. And it was. Without too much commentary, here are lots of photos of our good time.

 

We spent the mornings at the main town beach, walked back to the hotel for a nap, then played around in the sandy tidal pools by the hotel in the afternoon. The hotel's beach wasn't swimmable, but it was actually perfect since Creston and Ivy aren't ready to really swim in the ocean yet. Here's the scene:

 

In the evening we walked back to the town center and ate dinner on the beach.

Cabarete, Dominican Republic, is famous for windsurfing, surfing and kiteboarding, so all of that was a real theme of the trip. Every afternoon the ocean was full (100 maybe?) of sails and kites. Surfing happened further down the beach and we didn't see it until our last day, but Creston and Ivy still got into it. Here are their sand surfboards. Nice form, little dude.

 Paddle, paddle, paddle.

And then we went to the Master of the Ocean tournament and saw some real surfing and actual surfboards.

In the Dominican Republic, people just take your babies from you and walk away like it's no big deal. It's great. Actually, I think that happens in a lot of countries that are not the US. This young lady was a real fan of our twins.

This is at our hotel - it had great meandering paths, beautiful stone walls, and beautiful flowers. We spent a lot of time just wandering.

One of the security guards at the hotel had a couple of chihuahuas that Creston and Ivy liked to walk.

The hotel didn't have a bathtub, and we had extremely sandy babies, so this was the best solution. All parties enjoyed the set-up.

Ivy's into yoga.

And there you have it. The trip was as great as the pictures make it seem. And Creston and Ivy turn TWO in a few weeks. Unbelievable.

Holidays 2011

Ah, what a holiday. It was long and luxurious.

Before we headed North for Christmas festivities, we opened up some gifts from Gran Leah. Here are some sweet photos of Creston and Ivy enjoying their very first dolls. Creston immediately insisted that his doll be clothes-free, and he's never looked back. Great Grandfather Amory would approve.

When we got to Vermont there was a little bit of snow, just enough for some excellent sledding. Here's cousin Cora in the sledding mix.

 

'Twas the night before Christmas, and Ivy sewed her own stocking with Grandma Robin. Ivy also wore some sort of Brownie beanie for awhile, and every time it slipped a bit shouts of, "My Hat!" could be heard throughout the house.

Handsome cousin Arthur, days away from turning ONE.

The merriment continued over on the New Hampshire side of the river. Readers may recognize this famous horse, still very much in action.

 Cute cousins in the snowy cold.

Grandma Carola's road is closed due to a storm that happened quite awhile ago, and no government agency wants to foot the bill for doing the work to re-open it. People are mad enough about it that you can buy bumper stickers at the village store demanding, "Preserve Lyme's History: Open River Road." But its closure sure does make for a safe and quiet winter walk with toddlers.

We walked down to the Tullar's dairy farm, where Creston was able to satisfy his tractor obsession. We counted many tractors.

And, as is the holiday tradition at this point, Paphanh came to visit bearing crazy amounts of delicious Laotian food. We stuffed ourselves silly.

We even went out to dinner, which is extremely rare for the Lea-Simons clan. In fact, have we ever done it? I am not sure.  But here is Creston practicing his penmanship while Grandma decides to order veal. It was a great meal.

Ivy really likes Grandma Carola's puppy, Mai. Now that we have returned home, Ivy tells a lot of stories about Mai - usually they involve letting Mai lick peanut butter off of her fingers, which is something that Grandma taught her how to do.

When it was all over, we traveled home with the obligatory stop at Friendly's.

And to all a good night!

Happy New Year. We miss you. Come visit. xo