Dominican Republic (part 3)

Tuesday morning Matt and Amy noticed they'd both worn their volleyball shirts from when Matt coached her city league team (Matt's said "Coach" on the back).  They're pretty cute.  

We went to the Colonial Zone on Tuesday.  I wish I'd read up more on what we would be seeing here and learned more about Columbus because it was so interesting to be here!  Dad started out by driving us around the area and pointing out different places before we got out and walked around a bit.  It was hot and humid, to say the least, but I loved listening to Dad talk about the history.  

Fortress of Ozama

     

   

     

     

   

Much of the bricks and some of the paths were made from coral.

      

Cathedral of Santo Domingo (aka Basilica Catedral Santa Maria de la Encarnacion) was the first cathedral in the western hemisphere)
   

Plaza of the Santo Domingo Cathedral

   

It was perfect time of day to come home and go swimming!  There's not a whole lot to be said besides we had a great time.

   

We only brought our water proof camera, which I'm not as familiar with.  While at the pool I changed the setting to 'sport' to capture Daniel's delight as he discovered his love of jumping into the water and going all the way under (more of him at the very end of the post).  Turns out, if you push the button once in that setting it takes 5 pictures in rapid succession.  We had a fun time taking pictures as everyone took turns jumping in.  I'll spare you all the pictures, but included one of each of us.

Daniel.

Amy.

Reid (I love this one!)

Kate.

Oliver Mac.

Matt.

Vicki.

Matt and Daniel spent most of the time working with Daniel on swimming after he discover a love of being under water.  Matt also worked with him a lot on kicking and swimming so as to start teaching him some skill to go along with his reckless abandon as he jumped in over and over.  It was just last summer, at the Macdonald family reunion, that we had to really work with him to jump into the water at all.  This time we had to remind him over and over to make sure Daddy or I was there to catch him.  He like being under the water so much that he wanted to take his puddle jumper off so he could stay under longer.  I took these two pictures by just holding the camera under the water when he jumped in (I wasn't under water).  They capture well how much he was loving this!