Time would fly..

I haven't forgotten with blogging we have had a lot going on!!

We left for Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on August 13th but leading up to that I had gotten folliculitis, which is an infection in the hair follicles in your body which lead me to a fever and feeling horrible. Less than 24hours later I was SO much better but Carlos developed a pilonidal cyst, which is a cyst on his tailbone. He was miserable:-( I almost bought trip insurance in case he wouldn't make it. So it was all up to me to pack for the four of us, clean the house (sort of) get the dog taken care, laundry done etc.. Thankfully the surgeon pulled through the day before we left and was able to drain it and he was 80% better by the time he left the surgeons office. Talk about cutting it close but he could go!!

        4:45am we were off to JFK 

           Getting ready for take off

I'm trying to catch up so these are just my phone pictures, the camera has ALOT more.

  Our first night there Anthony was waiting to go to dinner.

        Our view from the hotel suite

              Ready for the beach

I also didn't have my phone or camera with me all the time as I wanted to be in the moment!

                 Eating lunch in Toro

          He was really enjoying lunch

          I

zabella napping at the pool

I swear these kids were meant to travel, napping poolside. He also decided on the plane ride down to roll over and nap. They were so easy to travel with.

My Mom waiting for new friends to arrive for dinner.

       My Step-Dad Chip aka Nonno

          Carlos looking handsome

              A beautiful morning

 We were off for the "Dominican Experience" tour off to the mountains we went.

The nice part about the adults outnumbering the kids was Carlos and I had time for each other.

             I loved these flowers

This guy waits on the road for the tours to come holding many snakes. We had people who were terrified of snakes so we didn't stop but I still tried to snap a picture.

 An adorable little house in the mountains

          Checking out the crocodile

      

Such a beautiful view with the option to zip line

Anthony got bit by a parrot, it didn't hurt him but scared him!

An area to buy lunch and plenty of hammocks to rest. Our kids came up with a game by pushing myself or Corinne in the hammocks an called it the brazalian butt face game.. Haha it was so much fun.

       Hibachi dinner back at the resort

               My little man and I

                My big man and I

Ended the night with a visit by a monkey

(This is horrible blogging, a picture of a picture sorry!!!)

          Can't forget Titi Corina

To be continued...

Weekend wrap up...

Last week Izabella and Anthony did their second week of gymnastic camp. They had so much fun! I can't believe Anthony still wanted to stay a day but he did. He even told me it was the "funnest place on earth" they had so much fun on the trampolines, bars, beams and a inflatable water slide. They came back stronger and faster I can't believe how their muscles became defined in such a short time!

Our nephew came on Friday and brought them to camp!

Carlos and I  visited two of our friends who had a baby! She was so sweet and so tiny! Keep having babies people! I can't get enough!!

Carlos, his sister and brother in law took the kids to the Italian Festival while I ran errands buying my niece a present and buying Izabella and Anthony soccer supplies!

On Sunday we drove to Massachusetts for our niece Samantha's birthday party! I can't believe she's three!!

It's so fun to find so many personalized name items!!

On our way to Aunt Melissa's!

My Mom with all her grandchildren!!

Highlight magazine

We received a packet from Highlights magazine inviting us to pay for a top secret book and activity book. I have I say Izabella loved it from the time we sent it back she was checking the mail to see if it came. 

A few weeks later we received a book about China, a caribeener, a key chain and a activity book to figure out what was stolen. Izabella needed some help in te beginning to learn how I do the activities and then she was flying through it.

We ended up paying $3.95 for shipping but it was well worth it!

My kids would have conversations like these

I picked the kids up from camp today and was listening to the two of them talk as we drove home when Anthony started talking about building a house...

Anthony: "I'm going to build a house bigger than our house with a pool, no grown ups are allowed in the pool..."

Izabella: "How about a hot tub for the grown ups?"

Anthony: "ok a hot tub or the grown ups and two pools for the kids. I'm going to be the only four year old with my own house and my Husband is going to buy it for me..."

Izabella: "But Anthony don't you want kids? If you marry a man you can't have kids..."  

(I was going to interject here about adoption but figured it was best I stayed out of the conversation)

Anthony: "Okay okay I do want kids, I do, okay I'll marry a wife.."

Izabella: "Well you can always marry a woman and have a baby then divorce her and marry a man"

So they are fully comfortable being able to marry who they want but..

I'm thinking we need to work on marrying for love instead of a house or a baby...

Gosh, I love their innocence.

We would have so much fun!

 This weekend started on Friday night when our friends Kate and Gianna cane over and the our Brother in Law joined us later. We had great conversation, lots of laughter and stayed up way too late but it was exactly what I needed to rejuvenate my soul. Carlos woke up early with the kids made an amazing breakfast and we hit the road to Rye Playland. I had no idea what to expect as I had never been there so we went full throttle into the unknown.

            The entrance to the park

On our way in

It was about 100$ for the four of us to enter the park and have unlimited access to rides, if and when we go again I think we will save ourselves some money and only pay for either Carlos or I to get a bracelet and the other can buy a spectator bracelet which only costs 1$. We spent most of the time watching the kids ride anyway. The amount of children's rides they had was insane the kids didn't get to go on all of them and we were there for seven hours.

Our view from the gondola aka Ferris wheel 

   Anthony and I on the Gondola

We had some scared tears before the ride Izabella was so scared to go on the Gondola so we talked and talked about what it means to be brave and face our fears. We got on the ride and started to go up and almost instantly those scared, nervous feelings she had turned to excitement and joy. She snuggled into Carlos' arms and laughed and laughed about how she couldn't believe how scared she was.

The options for lunch were Burger King, Nathan's, pizza or a wrap restaurant. We went for wraps as it was super hot and we didn't want the fried food to cause upset stomachs. They took forever to make them! The kids and Carlos had ham and cheese and I had a buffalo chicken wrap which had a secret ingredient of hot sauce... Lets say the first half was good the second half was to spicy to eat. They were also out of any bleu cheese or ranch...

Izabella enjoyed the lettuce and Tomato more then the wrap.

We went on more rides

My camera's battery died so these are all from my phone unfortunately.

They had a tent (thank goodness it was SO hot) where they played with hula hoops, simon says, danced to the Cha Cha Slide, Harlem Shake, and a few others. It was awesome to get out of the sun for a little bit and let the kids jump around.

Those are mine breakdancing on the floor!

Waiting for more directions!

We ate some ice cream, overpriced but soft serve ice cream hit the spot before more rides

Izabella's favorite ride

You can see how happy Izabella was this was one of the rides she cried before going on and then she rode it twice.

They were dancing through the park

Sweet hugs in line for the log flume

So cute as it wasn't posed!

A beautiful view of Long Island Sound

It was hot and the sun was in their eyes but I love this picture anyways

This is probably the last year Izabella can and will ride on some of the kiddie rides

Anthony still enjoyed this ride especially the bell

Izabella and I on the train before I got yelled at to turn off all electronic devices.. Really?!?!

Right before I took this picture I received wonderful news from someone close to me and no I can't tell but I'm so happy for so many reasons!Carlos makes me laugh in this picture, Izabella was sitting on the other side of him..

This was Anthony's favorite ride

They had a concert going on that night

We actually were able to see R5 up close as they rode a roller coaster. The kids knew who Ross Lynch from Disney's Austin and Ally was. Izabella was nervous and started hiding, Anthony was all into them trying to get a better look. It was exciting but the mob of preteen girls chasing them was intimidating, I'm so happy we have time before Izabella is one of them. We didn't stay for the concert because it was late and we wanted to eat dinner somewhere other then the park.

Remember him?!?

We ended the night at Portofino's Restaurant in Goldens Bridge, NY where the slices of pizza are bigger then your head and the service is wonderful!