trip highlights: Dominican Republic

What a trip! I can't believe I've been back in Kansas City for a week already. Blue Eyes, his family and I arrived in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on April 5th for five wonderful, action-packed days of vacation. The most exciting part for me was fulfilling the very tip top item on my Bucket List: I learned how to surf!! We went to Macao Surf Camp where we were taught proper form and had one-on-one instructors. Once standing upright on the board (it took me a few falls and lots of salt water up my nose), it is the most fun I've had in the water since skinny dipping with my friends in high school. I already can't wait for the next trip when I can get back out on the board and ride more waves.

A few days before the surfing excursion, we went zip lining (no pics allowed there, but it was so liberating!) and embarked on a fun booze cruise where we got to swim with nurse sharks (scary) and a sweet seal named Jaca. I ended the trip with tons of bruises and scrapes from surfing, wonderful memories with Blue Eyes and his fun family, an empty wallet from the resort's casino and a love for the Dominican and its people. All in all, a successful vacay! 

Here are some of my favorite pics from the trip. I'm waiting for more from Blue Eyes' aunt and mom, but these are from my camera and the surfing photog. Enjoy!

Beautiful coast line

me, cousin, mom, aunt and Blue Eyes with Jaca. She was so soft!

Macao Surf Camp

What a baby wave but... I'm up! NBD.

our surfing crew: Blue Eyes, cousins, uncle, and brother

surfer pup!

Blue Eyes' mom and I enjoying gars on our first night. Yes, we're matching. 

You can find my mint jeans here. The leopard Old Navy top is out of stock, but similar found here. 

The houses in DR are all colorful, each color representing a Catholic Saint to protect their house. 

mint condition

Kenneth Jay Lane

What a pretty way to incorporate spring's hottest color: mint!

creep fest

I realize this might be something that goes against my blog mantra, but I find it interesting/informative and thought I'd share. By now I think we're all aware that little BIG spiders/bots/companies track our every move on the internets. They collect data on where we browse, how often we're there, etc etc CREEPY. I'm not going to get in to the techy mumbo jumbo because frankly, I don't really understand it. I still can't figure out how my TV gets Cam, Gloria, Phil and the rest of the Modern Family crew in my living room every Wednesday.

Yesterday I discovered a nifty little gadget (they, the techy people, call these "add-ons") called Collusion. Disconnect, Inc. has made it their business to keep what you do on the web your business, to a certain extent.

One of the most popular add-ons allows you to "disconnect" from Google, Twitter and Facebook so their bots aren't stalking you all over the place when you're not even logged in to those sites. You can still get on FB like normal, they just won't receive notifications when you visit one of their over one million connected sites that can push your info to third parties.

I haven't downloaded Disconnect just yet, but I did install Collusion, which shows a map of all the websites currently tracking you. Get ready for a creep fest. I went to 3 websites (just 3!) after installing Collusion, and here's what my map looked like:

should we sign up for the Witness Protection Program????

So all these little guys have a snippet of my personal information and will continue following me until they decide not to anymore. There's nothing I can do about it, except install the Disconnect gadgets which will help a bit.

Just for full disclosure, the three websites I visited were Yahoo! Finance, Gmail, and this cute blog post sent from a friend. I don't think I want to know what happens when I get to AmEx, eBay or J. Crew.

Pretty freaky, huh?

spring dream satchel

tory burch bond small satchel

Is this not the most pretty and sleek satchel you've seen all season? If it's in your budget I'm super jealous and think you should probably get it stat. If it's not in your budget (like me), there's a similar, less expensive model over at J. Crew. Love the white and tan combo!

j. crew mezzaluna satchel

procrastinator

Hello! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. Mine was simply lovely, but now the inboxes are overflowing, my body is torn up (more on that later), freckles are out in full force, deadlines are approaching, suitcase is still full... and what am I doing? Reading blogs and looking at pretty things. I guess I'm not quite ready to face the real world just yet. It's a beautiful crisp morning here in KC and I am really wishing these would magically appear at my doorstep.

kate spade via

Tolani Pantone scarf

ella moss ringo maxi

Happy hump day! 

month in photos: march

I'm starting a new installment on the blog where at the beginning of each month, I upload some of my favorite pictures from the previous month. I hope you enjoy while I track my adventures, findings (like little Bowie down at the bottom), obsessions and projects!

flying to Orlando for a work conference

"The Capitol" drinks at The Hunger Games Fork & Screen. Those are glow sticks! in the drink!

Lake of the Ozarks for a little mock Spring Break

Opened up one of my favorite wines from the Napa trip to enjoy with my parents and Blue Eyes

rainbow on Highway 50 en route to the Ozarks

Cute new hair ties for spring

This little guy (who we later found out is named Bowie) ran away from home. Some friends and I took care of him until we got hold of his owners the next day. How precious is he?  

I leave for the Dominican Republic first thing tomorrow morning! Woo hoo! I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. Cheers :)

officially in la la

It is so hard to concentrate today.... I leave for the Dominican Republic in t minus 3 days! Hope you're all having a much more productive Monday than I am. 

[all images from Note to Self Tumblr]