I like to boogie

The days of our grand, superb, adventurous vacation almost always ended in the same place: the hotel lobby. 

It's here that we would re-group with our new friends, and hang out with our employee buddies while they were "working." We made friends with pretty much anyone who would have us: 

  Christian insisted on getting his picture taken with his favorite bar tender, all 5 of them. He was having such a good time, when I said: "Smile a smile that shows how much fun you're having!", he did this: 

Here is Hector, one of the best, fun, most entertaining people I have ever met: 

Once a week, his job requires him to cover himself in glitter, and stand by guests for photo-ops. He says he loves his job....I know what you're thinking: "How does he get the glitter out of certain sensitive places?" Wonder no more because I marched right up to him and asked.....

...and he promptly wiped my whole neck and chest with glitter. 

I'm doing three things in the picture below: swallowing the sip of beer I just took while smiling a "OH NO YOU DIDN'T" smile and killing him with my eyes. 

No joke, I found some of that glitter in those earrings a week ago.

The most special people we met, were our friends from France. Ambre (who we Americanized as Amber) was 17 and Tom, 19. They were on vacation with their dad, Fred. We met them early in the week while playing beach volleyball. The rest of our trip was spent trying to bridge the communication gap with slow speaking, and unnecessary hand gestures. Lucky for us, Tom and Fred could speak English very well, and Amber caught on quickly. The majority of our time was spent with them:

Hi friends, we miss you!

We met Luke (far left) the same time as Tom and Amber. There were a TON of tourists from New Jersey at our resort, but he was the only one we actually liked. 

We loved Amber and Tom so much we made them members of the family by officially marrying Andrew and Amber. It's true! I performed the ceremony myself, right in the discotheque (which my Missouri twang pronounced: discOH-tech). I'm quite certain the marriage was legally binding too......

Speaking of the discOH-tech, when you experience an entirely different country for 8 days, you allow yourself to become fully emerged in their culture (well, if you want to have a good time you do). So aside from drinking Presidente beer as our main water source,

we got to hear many of the 'popular, local' songs. We were so immersed within the Dominican culture, we heard these songs over the resort speakers again and again and again and again and again. If you want to feel like you were on the trip with us, just listen to these songs on repeat for 8 days straight:

Michel Telo- Ai Se Eu Tu Pego 

Great song to sing when your day could use a little accordion in it. 

Danza Kuduro- Don Omar
This song is perfect if you are in the mood to fake your Spanish skills...anything sounds right.

Shakira- Waka Waka

This song comes with dances moves that I never mastered, but I do like saying waka-waka-hey-hey. 

Lately, if Chris asks me a question I don't know the answer too, I just respond by throwing my hands up in the air and say: "Sorry, waka-waka-hey-hey!"

My dad's favorite song: 

This song's main lyrics are "Que calor, que calor." 

Beware when listening to this song because you will wake up with this phrase going over and over in your mind it's that catchy.

And finally, this masterpiece:

Literally meaning, The Cow, this song is perfect when you speed clean something. It is always quite appropriate to yell 'La Vaca, moo!' along with the growly voiced singer--I find it therapeutic. The fact that the video showcases sexy dancing girls, a singer from1995, and an assortment of cows is just a bonus.

I have now given you all tools needed to become a true, authentic inhabitant of the Dominican Republic: 

                        1) Friends in high places at the Lobby ba
2) Friends from France
                    3) Memorization of the above songs.

Don't believe me? Just ask Christian:

I'm still recovering....

Every once in awhile something special happens in the United States: a 3-day weekend . When we are blessed with a 3-day weekend it's usually something to celebrate, this time it was MEMORIAL DAY.

I always think it's interesting when people don't live near an ocean they find any body of water they can play in, whether it's a river...lake....pond...stream..pool...canal....moat...you get the idea. My family? We go to the lake. We've been going to Grand Lake in Oklahoma for so long, we consider it OUR lake. I just say: We're going to the THE lake and expect people to know which lake I'm talking about (duh). So last weekend, in addition to remembering and honoring our veterans, we invited our friends to THE LAKE and had ourselves a damn good time.

Since we had SO many people spending their weekend with us, we had to bust out the air mattresses. Lesley and Blake graciously agreed to "air-mattress-sleep" the first night. Ten points to Gryffindor if you can spot Betty....hint: she looks like an alien that about to shoot lasers out of her eyes.

The next morning, breakfast was made. In my opinion, as a master chef, the easier the better. Chris wanted to have an omelet bar, waffles, eggs benedict, pancakes and mimosas- although that would have been amazing-I said no. We made homemade McMuffins, and they were much appreciated:

You are going to start noticing a pattern: Every picture I take of my two closest friends,  Lesley is masterfully posed and Jana is... posed in her own special way--she was obviously REALLY excited about homemade McMuffins!

Chris ate his the fastest because he really wanted to be here and breakfast was just getting in the way:

This is the new boat my hard working dad just bought. We haven't named it yet. My brother Christian wants to name it 'The Duke' but I think she looks more like a girl, don't you? Wouldn't Sandy the Suncruiser be a PERFECT boat name (say yes so I can win the boat naming war).

When everyone was done stuffing their faces with breakfast, we loaded the boat and were ready for our voyage.....

These two lovebirds could have cared LESS if we were loading or unloading for a great adventure on THE lake...they were just happy to be together.

My dad is an expert at loading the boat into the water, no big deal:

ANNNND WE'RE OFF!

Jana promoted herself to honorary first-mate.

After driving to "our spot" on "our lake" we dropped anchor, rode the jet skis, 

and floated to our heart's content. 

What does that mean?

PARTY TIME

 

Who knows which boy I'm bossing around here....dad is just glad it's not him.

I would just like to point out that a lot of beverages were consumed, and there was not ONE time anyone asked to be taken back to the house for a bathroom break....

After hours of relaxing and floating, it was time to head back to the house for dinner. 

Christian beat us there and was really ready to eat.

"Ummm could you guys PLEASE hurry up? I'm needing some bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos right about now!"

I think we could have all just hung out on the boat all evening...

but we knew there were S'mores waiting for us that night:

The bonfire was so hot Jana had to go to extreme measures to roast her marshmallows, but she is fearless and showed all the boys how to do it properly. 

Lesley is saying: I'm not sure why there is no S'more in my hand!

There was even a 'meeting of the minds' on the back porch with deep philosophical questions being asked, like: "What will it take for Kobe to win a championship next year?"

After we solved the world's problems and made ourselves sick with S'mores, it was time for bed. 

The next morning we all woke up...

....and argued over who had the best time and who was most tired.

 But I think Jana may have demonstrated how we all felt the best: 

 

I think I went to Willy Wonka's house....

There is a 'so incredible it will blow your mind' secret place located in St. Louis, Missouri. Actually I don't think it's a secret, but everyone I've asked about it always says: "Now just WHAT are you talking about?" And I say: "EXACTLY!"

When you're in downtown St. Louis, you're already in an appreciative mood because of the beautiful architecture and rich history. It looks like this:
 

The guys and I are walking to a restaurant in this shot. I promise, Andrew WAS in St. Louis with us, but he is very popular, and had many fans to attend to. However, notice the very metropolitan area we're in?

Little did we know that just a few streets over a place that was a cross between Narnia, Hogwarts, Willy Wonka's chocolate factory,  and the World's Fair was awaiting us to explore its deepest depths. What's the name of this magical wonderland, you ask? CITY MUSEUM. Don't let the name fool you.

We found a place to park, and as we were walking up to CITY MUSEUM, our eyes feasted on this sight:

This is the outside. COVERED with ramps, ladders, tunnels, TWO airplanes, a castle turret, a fire truck, and a bonfire complete with marshmallows. 

When we walked into CITY MUSEUM, I was delightfully overwhelmed by all awesomeness:

Wait- is this real? Or is that man in a BRIGHT yellow shirt about to tell me I'm dreaming and then turn into a cat or something?!?

 After pinching myself in sensitive areas that shouldn't be pinched, it was decided I was most certainly NOT dreaming....so we went to work in the EnChAnTeD cAvEs (that writing is meant to denote whimsy). Exploring the man-made caves was a bit daunting. It was fairly dark in there and you never knew where a tunnel would take you, if  it would get smaller or if it would ever end. 

This was a very small dark tunnel. I used my camera flash to see where it would lead. Immediately after this picture, I quickly (frantically) crawled out backwards saying: "Nope! Nope! Not happening. Turn around! Go back! Go back!"

Now this is more my speed, lots of room: 

You can't tell but, those jagged spikes are actually dinosaur teeth. Yup, you read right, DINOSAURS!

My brother Christian has a true skill for climbing and fitting through tight spaces. He was in heaven: 

Ahhh! Look out! There is a Cave Monster behind you!!! Or pushy 3 year old.

After thoroughly exploring the CaVeS, we discovered the stairs to the TEN STORY SLIDE. We climbed for what felt like hours and finally reached the summit.  We had some time while waiting in line to reflect on the awesomeness that is CITY MUSEUM, and discuss how to re-create it in our backyard. Many ideas were thrown around, but somehow my suggestion of adding a mermaid pool was shot down....not cool.

This is at the top of the 10 stories looking down, pretty cool right!?

My mom and I, after looking down at the spiral stair case.....

I almost said: "Hold me mommy! I don't wanna goooo!"

but I remembered I really didn't want to walk ALL the way down the stairs so I got brave and did what any sensible girl would do: 

...and made her go first.

The ride down wasn't that bad.....if you don't mind careening around a spiral slide for ten stories:

Dad obviously liked it. I'm pretty sure on his way down he yelled: "SEE YA SUCKAS!"

We all made it down the slide of death in one piece, and worked our way back through the EnChAnTeD cAvEs with only one emergency along the way: 

Christian! A giant fish just ate you! Get out of there!

I got really excited because I thought SURELY this was a time machine hiding in St. Louis, ready to transport me to all kinds of fascinating places past and future....

.....it wasn't. 

It may not have time travel, but CITY MUSEUM did show us some other cool things like:

Don't mind me, just climbing an indoor tree-house. LIKE A BOSS.

and

It really did have a lot of mirth, mystery and mayhem....AND a circus. Yes, a circus. What are we holding? Oh just a beer CITY MUSEUM legally sold us! This place is paradise!

An art center with pottery, painting, chalk drawing and paper mache? Yes, please!
I know what you're thinking, reader: "No way this is all in one place! She somehow transported me to a dream she had!"  I am here to tell you that IT IS REAL (at least that is what Chris tells me) and IT'S WONDERFUL!

I don't know why the creators of this magic-land decided to put a bank vault in it, but I'm glad they did...

because now I can crack a safe....like a true professional (lie.).

The outside was just as cool as the inside: 

HELLLOOOO DOWN THERE!! You look like tiny ants! I wanted to spit, but Chris said no....

We're just hanging out climbing stuff...no big deal. 

So if you're ever in St. Louis make sure you make it a PRIORITY to get yourself over to CITY MUSEUM! You won't regret it. Be careful though, because when you leave, you'll want to put this in your backyard: 

Hello my loyal subjects! Thank you for being so faithful now GET OFF MY LAWN!

and it might end up looking like this: 

Actually, if you can achieve this give me a call so you can make one in my backyard. Seriously.