destination: dominican

so eric and corinne got married in the dominican at the end

of January and yes i know i've blogged about it already but

that was mostly the wedding itself and there was also so 

much fun on the other days that the 15 of us spent

 in punta cana together and

there's no reason for me to take all these photos if i don't 

share some of them so that's what i'm going to do!

this is my brother todd and corinne (the bride) waiting patiently to board the plane.

corinne's mom (jolene) and dad (curtis) and sister lindsay also waiting.

and then there's brother cole… he didn't miss a chance to recharge.

it's always fun to look down and see the ground looking so small and interesting from up high. 

well, here we are in another country...a first for lars and i.

travel days are long and you need all  the patience you can muster, but then we were there,

*dreams resort, punta cana, dominican republic and it was worth all the lines and

security and monkey business!

yee haw!! where's my swimming suit???

i came back from the beach and saw these 3 dudes up on our balcony.

lars, cole and eric, (the groom).

there was quite a bit of cigar smoking all week. some people even had to be monitored 

but i'm not going to mention any names... (you know who you are and that you were spending ALL

the souvenir money on smokes!) naughty!! haha

uncle todd with nephews cole (brother of the groom) and eric

we loved the little outdoor seating area where we had our first coffee and pastries of the day.

this is my sis-in-law (bonus sister) mary and i. she and todd made the trip so much more fun and i still can't believe how blessed we were that they joined us on this trip of a lifetime!

everybody loves mary. she is what i'd call steadfast.

she's reliable, fun, smart, calm and the best wife my

brother could have asked for!

how cute are these 2?

every day our group circled our wagons, (lawn chairs) and spent a lot of the day talking smack and

enjoying having our adult beverages delivered.

 it was really fun to get to know corinne's family in a way 

that i don't think we ever would have, had we not vacationed together. that right there made a destination wedding so worth it and i'd recommend it to families whose kids are getting married!

this is curtis (the bride's dad). he liked to drift in and out of the circle and impart words of wisdom and he kept us all laughing. he also kept us on our toes by using big words that we had to look up the meaning of.   ( e.g. "obsequious")

here are brother-in-law jeremy and sister lindsay with corinne 

getting ready to play olympic games in the sand (such good sports!!!) this game

was hilarious and i took some videos that still make me laugh till i have tears.

*i couldn't play because i was on the injured list. (wink)

childhood friend kasey (on the right) flew from Colorado for the wedding- loved her.

eric's best friend sean (on left, who's from northern mn) and cole, off to do some snorkeling.

these beards look hot in the domincan sun but they are "manly men" who love their beards.

dale, jill, (friend from colorado) and mom jolene getting ready to kayak.

dale and cole liked doing allll the things, they snorkeled, worked out at the gym everyday,  smoked cigars,  scuba'd,  kayaked, cole paddle boarded to Jamaica-(well almost), they went fishing.these dudes can't sit still- if there's activities to try- they want to try them! 

here's the story of me being on the injured list.

 the first day there, eric came and said "hey mom 

have you been in the ocean yet?" i said "nope" and he said "well, let's go" so i hopped up and said to mary "will you take our picture?"

 so here we stood all smiley and carefree …...when a huge rogue wave about the size of the titanic came from out of nowhere and tsunamied me!!!

you guys it knocked me over big time and holy toledo---i was injured!!!

i can't swim and eric scooped me up and set me back on my feet and i limped back to my lawn chair and tried to be brave, but i'd give about a million dollars for a live video because it doesn't look like this could have been that bad 

  but i sprained my wrist to the point where someone had to open my water bottles for me, and my knee?? well i must have torn something.

 it's freaking april and it still hurts (and there might still be sand in my belly button.)

just say'n. 

a lot of venders walk by on the beaches and peddle their wares...

no this isn't dale and i, it's an adorable couple that walked the beach every day and stopped to talk to us one of those days. they were from canada and so interesting...they were just so nice and eager to talk to anyone along the way. i loved everything about them including how comfortable they were in their own skin.

everyday on the plaza, the resort had a big cookout. it was a blast watching them cook in huge quantities like this while the crowd stood around, hungrily waiting to try it.

todd and mary, me and lars

*still can't believe i got to vacation with my little brother. : )))

cole

dale took this picture of me on a morning walk. 

(i'm the one in front...now you also know why i'm the one getting

paid to take photos. check your background.)  

; )

our boys

our vacation could have only been more perfect if our daughter and her

family and cole's girlfriend sarah could have been with us.

*next time you guys!!!!

this is rae. on her bucket list for the vacation was getting her hair braided on the beach. she has gorgeous

long, curly auburn hair and i think it took close to 5 hours to complete!!!

(rae is friend sean's wife.)

sean and rae

mary and i did bottle painting on the beach in the hot, caribbean sun to make these

bottles for eric and Corinne as a wedding gift.  (as a joke) hehe

pretty sure i saw a small tear behind those shades when i gave mine to him...

the day before the wedding all the guys set off on a deep sea fishing excursion.

todd, jer-dog and sean

eric got the only fish they caught that day, this big old barracuda, and a very sunburned nose!

the sea was wicked while they were out there and cole got violently ill poor guy~

the rest of them just held on for dear life and hoped they weren't thrown over board- dale said if they had been there would have been no retrieving them.

*ugh*

so glad i was safely back on shore, leisurely walking into town, buying souvenirs and watching rae get her hair braided!

most of the evenings, our group would end up in the open air- main lobby of the resort to talk about our day and laugh some more....we'd re-arrange the furniture to accommodate everyone and just made ourselves at home.

no doubt a tall tale was being told

the wedding day.... my boys got ready together in cole's room so the groom didn't 

see his bride till she walked down to the wedding site.

cole, todd and dale

 me and my boy (the groom) 

 these two... what can i say, i adore them.

a whole lot of larsons

jer, curtis and rae

the weather was perfect that day...the night before there were two weddings and 

it rained so we felt very lucky!

overly sunny shot

we had a delightful reception afterwords in the open air seafood restaurant closest to the beach.

congrats mr. and mrs. l

dale and i and our boys raising a toast to eric and corinne~

now it was time for fun... i love fun. 

mary was ambushed by this hottie. she hated it.

 corinne's family

a super fun surprise for Corinne was these two great friends from high school surprising her on her 

wedding day! when they heard she was getting married in the Dominican they decided to go on a vacation there too and surprise her! they were at a neighboring resort and they had to spend several hours (and some cash) getting entrance to our resort to pull this off! how fun is that??

(they don't just let anyone in unless you're a registered guest).

umm rae, that's the men's bathroom.

corinne,  lindsay, sean and kasey

dad and daughter- awwwww  : )

eric and sean… gosh doesn't everyone look happy???

this pose is a family tradition...lars does it at all formal events.

we're carrying on the tradition started by my dear uncle clayton and aunt dar.

this magical day was almost over

our last morning i got up and hurried down to catch the sunrise.

and look who i found already down there! 

and then cole walked by and took this picture of the two of us looking kinda 

tired, but oh so content.

so there you have it.

 it really was such an incredibly great time...just ask any of us that were there!

i hope you enjoyed seeing more of my photos,

have a great weekend,

xox, beth