Family Weekend

In honor of Kelly's last weekend before departing for DC, we did one last family dinner. After an amazing meal at Texas Roadhouse, we played a friendly tournament of laddergolf while the cousins played in the yard. I am happy to report the Schab's dominated and everyone got along (except for Porscha and Lexi). During the middle of the game, Porscha and Lexi got into one of the worst fights I have ever witnessed (all over a stuffed animal). Despite the sisterly fighting, we all had an amazing time! We love you Kel, best wishes!!!

Goodbye Surprise Party for Kel

When Kelly found out she got her dream job in DC, I knew I wanted to throw a small party in her honor. She worked her tail off for the past two years to get this position, so she was most deserving of a nice celebration. In addition to our fam, I invited two of her closest girlfriends, Heather and Caitlin to join us in "wishing her well" before she started on 8/16! We had a great time and I definitely think she was very, very surprised!

ARUBA

For Christmas this year, Rob's parents so kindly gave us their timeshare as a gift. Without hesitation, we decided to go back to the Happy Island of Aruba and to the same resort as our honeymoon! The time of our trip also fell two weeks before our 2 year anniversary, so it was perfect! Our Aruba trip #2 was absolutely amazing and blew our honeymoon out of the water. We had an amazing time and really took advantage of what the island had to offer. Find our schedule of what we did and photos below.

Thursday, July 29th

We departed from BWI at 6AM and landed in Atlanta without any problems. After a short delay in Atlanta and changing gates three times, we landed in Aruba. By the time we got to La Cabana, it was close to dinner time and after a long plane ride, we took it real easy our first night. We walked around the resort (reflecting on what was the same/different from our honeymoon), enjoyed some drinks at Happy Hour and ate dinner at the Islander Grill.

Friday, July 30th

We woke up early and headed to the gym for an early morning work-out. Rob disappeared after running on the treadmill for 15 minutes. Turns out, he almost passed out in the bathroom, I guess he was out of shape! We went to the beach, enjoyed lunch at the Islander Grill, went to Iguana Cantina (Mexican) for dinner and enjoyed late night stops at Senor Frogs and Ben & Jerry's.

Saturday, July 31st

Rob and I enjoyed a beautiful boat ride/snorkeling adventure. Rob and I were both pretty excited about this trip and I thought it would be a piece of cake! Snorkeling proved to be much harder than I expected. I am not sure if it was the depth or the fact I had a mask on, but I definitely had a small panic attack in the water. I ended up hanging on a rope near the boat for dear life and encouraged Rob to stay out in the water and have fun. Later that evening, we enjoyed dinner at Tomatoes and Charlies and Rob had no idea that a "large beer" meant 1liter.

Sunday, August 1st
Sunday = Lazy Day

Beach alll day and then we enjoyed a beautiful dinner on the beach at sunset. I even got Rob to slow dance with me on the beach near our musical entertainer.

Monday, August 2nd
After spending too much time in the sun and getting burnt, we spent the morning traveling downtown and visiting shops. We enjoyed lunch at Iguana Joe's and taking photos around the harbor. For dinner, we kept it casual and ordered pizza and ate it on the beach while we watched the sun set. Later that night, Rob was an amazing husband and let me watch the Bachelorette Finale (go Roberto!) and we ate ice cream in bed.

Tuesday, August 3rd
Rob and I enjoyed a jeep safari tour of the island which was AMAZING! We saw sights such as: California Lighthouse, Ostrich Farm, Natural Bridge and snorkeling at Baby Beach. After a great day, we enjoyed dinner and a (fake birthday surprise for Rob) at Gianni's and an impromptu tour of the Raddison.

Wednesday, August 4th

On our last full day in Aruba, we spent the day at the beach and enjoyed lunch at the Islander Grill. For our last night on the island we did the PARTY BUS, which was so much fun. We met so many new friends and had the time of our lives!

Thursday, August 5th

We had to say good-bye to Aruba :-(

Rob and I spent the majority day traveling back home. We experienced many, many flight delays and didn't arrive back home until after 3AM. What an amazing trip!

Funny Rob and Kristin Inside Jokes...

1. TEARSEA!!!

2. We got locked out of our room.

3. The band at happy hour LOVED me.

4. Some man randomly walked into our room.

5. The rude woman in the black bathing suit on the beach.

6. The day they turned off the water.... alternatives for showers!

7. Sneaking into the pool with my clothes on at night.

8. Douche = soup in Aruba

9. "Do you have any muscle T-shirts"- wacko woman

10. "Ooo, Rob, you're face is breaking out a bit." (Kristin)

"Um, have you taken a good look at yours lately?" (Rob) hahaha- I looked like a teenager all over again during one part of the trip! My skin had a reaction to my spray on sun screen and resulted in my face breaking out very badly. Thank god Rob and I have a very open relationship and can call each other out on things...

SLEEPOVER!

This past weekend, we had a packed house! Kelly and Rich took a weekend camping trip with friends and we had the pleasure of babysitting Abbie. This was the first weekend Abbie was away from her Mommy and she did very well! Porscha and Abbie had a blast playing while Lexi just watched from the sidelines, snipping occassionally when things got too rough. Saturday night, Rob and I went down to DE to visit our good friends Jaclyn and Mike.

4th July Celebration in Long Island (one week later)

As promised, Rob and I made the trip to Long Island for a 4th of July celebration (just a week later). Rob's cousin, Caitlyn, graduated from HS a few weeks ago and her HS graduation party fell on this weekend. On Friday afternoon, Mom, Dad, Rob and I traveled up to LI and boy did we have a fun weekend!!! Friday night included pizza and some late night swimming, Saturday we went over to the Geer's House for Caitlyn's party and on Sunday, Papa Schab took us all out on the water for a boat ride. Great weekend with family!

House Projects...

Over the past few weeks, Rob has kept himself quite busy around the house. Some summer house projects included fixing up our office and painting the stairway. The office projects included ripping up carpet, painting and rearranging furniture. He did an amazing job and everything looks great!

Before...

After...

4th of July Celebrations

This was one of our first years we didn't make the trip to Long Island to celebrate 4th of July, but no worries...we will be there next weekend. This weekend was beyond relaxing and full of lots of fun, friends and yummy food.

Saturday- we hosted a BBQ at our place and Kelly, Rich, Abbie, Heather, Marshall and Iggy all came over for a doggie style BBQ. All of the dogs got along famously and we think Iggy developed a little crush on Lexi (even though she shot him down....) We had a great time and even lit some fireworks/sparklers at the end of the night!

Sunday- Rob and I hosted a "leftovers" BBQ and invited Grandma over for dinner.

Monday- I joined Kelly and Rich for a day at the pool and Chinese food for dinner.