Scrapbooking {Vol. 9}

I seriously need to get a scrapbook to put all of my honeymoon pages in. I'm thinking about just getting a cheap, solid color one...I can always paint something pretty on it later. Not that I'm in a hurry, but I have quite a few finished pages for this scrapbook and they are just lying on my dining room table unprotected. I need to put them in a book before all my hard work gets destroyed. Between my clumsy self and my crazy dogs, nothing is safe in my house.

Anyways, last night I finished a few more pages...here they are!

My husband loves cigars so of course we had to visit the local cigar factory while we were in the Dominican Republic. They give you a free cigar to smoke while you tour the factory and you get to learn about the entire process. My favorite part was watching all the guys rolling the cigars...one guy can roll hundreds of them in a single day!

We also went on a really cool all-day excursion through the Dominican countryside. 

We went horseback riding which was my favorite part of the excursion. I know we look super cool in those bright blue helmets, but it was required that you wear one if you wanted to ride. Once I saw how not-so-skilled some of our tour group was on horseback, I was glad they had a helmet on.

The theme of the excursion was the "Dominican Way of Life" which I found very interesting because I love learning about new things. We visited authentic Dominican homes and schools. We also visited the farms and fields where the locals work harvesting sugarcane, fruit, tobacco, and coffee. And we had an awesome view of all the scenery on our travels from our means of transportation...that giant green military truck.

 
While at one of the farms, we got to learn how the Dominicans make coffee...straight from the tree to your cup.

First, you have to pick the fruit off the tree which has the coffee beans inside it. Then you lay out the beans on the ground...yes, on the cement...and let them dry out in the sun. Some people have hand grinders to grind the coffee beans, but most people just use a bowl and a tree branch to crush their coffee beans.

Once you have the coffee grounds, you boil water and your coffee grounds over a fire pit. Using a little contraption that looks like a net with a stocking attached to it (that works like a coffee filter), you pour the mixture of grounds and water into the stocking and it catches all the chunks of coffee grounds and your fresh brewed coffee sifts through it. Yes, it is a lot of work but they don't have instant coffee makers like we do. I didn't taste any of the coffee because I hate coffee, but Jared was definitely in heaven.

That's all for now! More pages will be coming soon.