Vacation and Thanksgiving

David and I are back from a fabulous week and a half of total relaxation. We just spent a week living it up at a resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. We spent every day on the beach or poolside reading a book and sipping on fruity cocktails. Let me rephrase that: fruity cocktails for me, beers for David. One day we splurged for massages (something we had scheduled on our honeymoon but was cancelled by Hurricane Wilma). It was 50 minutes in heaven, and well worth the wait. I wish I had a lot of great pictures to show you, but our camera battery died. :(

Aerial view of the resort. The pool ran the length of the resort down to the beach.

The only proof (other than David's sunburn) that we were actually there! David thinks he's Christopher Columbus discovering the island.

The beach!

We missed Chase a lot, but we had some other pets to watch. The flamingos could get pretty rowdy at times. I think they are sleeping here. This bird, however, sure loved to hang out by our room. This picture was taken from our back porch.

Our room, along with the pet swan we kept at the end of the bed in place of Chase.

A view from our back window and porch. We were lucky to have a poolside room. We spent a lot of time in those chairs reading books and taking a dip when we got too hot.

We returned to Indy just in time for Thanksgiving. We drove up to Wisconsin (i.e., Kirk drove while I slept in the back) on Thanksgiving morning, where we feasted on turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, pies, and other delicious things that I just can't remember. We had a great visit in Wisconsin. Chase especially enjoyed it because he was spoiled to the max. There was no lack of attention for the pup, and there's always a lot of action around the Stelsel household. Needless to say, he's plum exhausted. Connie and Kirk ventured out on Black Friday and made it home unscathed. Then we all went shopping in Madison on Saturday morning where David and I finished up our Christmas shopping.

The men at work. Dave carves the turkey while David whips cream. He hates whipping cream. Can you tell?


Chase didn't stray too far from the turkey. I didn't stray too far from the pumpkin pie.

After a long day, Chase takes a rest on Kirk's belly. The two of them had some good bonding time while David and I were on vacation.


We're happy to be home in Indy....snow and all! It was hard coming to work this morning, but in just a few weeks we'll get to have another break to see more family. Can't wait!!

Categories: family time, old married couple, puppy love