Para-sailing & The Monkey

I looked up some fun things to do in Punta Cana prior to going and decided that it would be fun to parasail.  I almost decided not to do it after seeing it happen.  The second to last day I decided we should do it.  I asked how old you had to be and they said 5.  I wondered if Kaylea would be willing to do it and when I asked her she said she wanted to.  We signed her up.

I was worried if we didn't go first that she would get scared.  We didn't get to go first because there were several people on the boat.  I could see her getting a little nervous watching the people in front of us, but she was ready to go when it was our turn.  She had an amazing time.  It was very peaceful in the sky.  I would definitely do it again.

Throughout the resort there were several animals that you could have your photo taken with.  We saw many, but the monkey was the only one I was interested in having my picture taken with.  At first, Kaylea wasn't interested.  Jordy and I had our picture taken together, but they didn't turn out very well because the monkey urinated on our arm.  Just as we were finishing up, Kaylea came over because she changed her mind and wanted her picture.  As you can see from the picture she has paint on her face.  She had decided to go to the kids club for a little bit that day and they painted her face like a pirate.

Punta Cana - The Beach

We spent a lot of time at the beach on this trip.  Last year Kaylea didn't like the sand or ocean nearly as much.  This year not only did Kaylea enjoy the sand, but she loved going out in the waves.  She didn't want to come back in.  On the last day, we put on her floatie on and took her way out.  She really liked that.

Water Park/Pool

We spent a lot of time at the water park and the pool.  The very first morning we woke up and headed to the water park by 9:30.  By the end of the day we were all burnt.  I'm not really sure why.  We applied sun screen multiple times.  The water park was very nice.  It was new.  There was a section that was perfect for Kaylea's age, along with several adult water slides.  Kaylea would have done those, but she wasn't tall enough.  Luckily, she didn't get too upset.  Jordy and I had about 30 minutes to hit the water slides alone.  It was a blast.

Our other favorite place was the pool.  Between our resort and the sister resort, we had 4 pools to select from.  Kaylea has become quite the little fish.  Kaylea got to spend a lot of time with the entire family in the water this week and had a blast.

Punta Cana 2014 Family Vacation

We just returned from a week long family vacation at Memories Splash in Punta Cana.  Back in March I came across an excellent deal on Living Social and my mom generously agreed to take everyone on vacation once again.  We had a non-stop flight out of Cincinnati.  We had to leave our house at 2:30am on Sunday morning.  We decided to take a limo to the airport.  I'm going to do several posts to highlight some of our favorite things.

We took one day for an excursion with Mikey & Meleena.  We decided to go an adventure park.  We got to select three things to do.  We decided to do the flight simulator, zip lining, and bungee dome.  The zip line was nothing like we had done in the past.  There was a rope bridge that was very challenging and several ladders that we had to climb.  All in all it was a very fun day.  I didn't get any photos because we were going to miss the bus back to the resort and have to wait 2 extra hours to return.

Happy Father's Day

Sunday we celebrated Father's Day.  We had the Struck's over for a very yummy lunch.  My mom made steak and fries, Kathy brought fruit salad, and Shannan brought a yummy dessert.  After dinner we went to see Malificient.  Kaylea had been wanting to see it.  I wasn't sure if it was age appropriate.  She liked it.  It was a little scary in some parts, but she seemed to enjoy it.  At the end of the night we realized we never got a picture of daddy and Kaylea and little miss said, well, take one now - and we did just that!

Huber's

After an evening at home planting our small garden on Friday night, we woke up early on Saturday morning for a trip to Huber's Winery.  We purchased a living social deal and decided we would use it during strawberry picking season.  Kaylea remembered from last year.

We started the day picking a few strawberries.  They were really good.  Then we had lunch with our pizza certificate.  We went to the family fun park.  There are no real animals anymore, but there was a new playground.  Kaylea played and went down the slide and rode on the tractor.  We also took a family tractor ride around the place.

When we were finished with that we had ice cream.  Kaylea loved the salted caramel.  We ended the day picking up our apple butter and added a few root beers to the tab.  We had a great time, but I think we were all pretty tired when we returned.

Happy 4th Birthday Nora

Saturday morning we headed to Noblesville, IN for Nora's 4th birthday party.  Her parents are friends from West Lafayette who have moved.  Almost all of our old dinner club was there to celebrate, so it was a great time.

The kids played outside on the trampoline and in the fort and then played in the playroom.  After the party the adults headed out for dinner.  The kids seemed to have a great time.  Kaylea played and played and fell asleep in the car on the way home.

CAI Play Date

Friday night we decided to let Kaylea have some friends over from school.  She invited Gabby, Stella, and Lucy over for a 3 hours play date.  90% of the time it went really well.  They played, they ate, and then we got out the water slide in the front yard.  We had a neighbor stop by to tell us how fun it looked!

After they got cold, they went inside and decided to have a pajama party.  They played and colored and then they played outside.  They had fun.  Kaylea was tired and had a meltdown at the end of the party.  It was silly and lasted much longer than it should have.  But, hey, 10 minutes out of 3 hours isn't too bad :)

Water Balloons

Last weekend I introduced Kaylea to water balloons.  I don't know why.  I just thought she would like them.  I actually thought she would like throwing them at people, but not like having them thrown at her.  I was wrong - she loved them.  We had a good time.  I wish I could find a faster way to blow them up because the fun ran out too quickly!

Preschool Graduation

I was out of town and missed preschool graduation, but Kaylea had a bunch of supporters in the crowd. Daddy sent me some videos off of his phone. The kids were super cute. Kaylea kept yelling out to the crowd. At one point she says, "Daddy, I think you'll know this one." She also kept playing with her dress. I'm going to steal some photos to put on here that others took.