2 year Recap

We decided to start this so that everyone can have a little glimpse into our life, since we don’t get to talk to everyone as much as we’d like. It’s been a little over 2 hurricane-free years now since I became a Schmitz and since Eric became a cat owner (twice). So far, it has turned out to be a great adventure, filled with many visitors, traveling (mostly back to Illinois), meeting great new friends, exploring South Florida, studying a ton, and enjoying married life together.

So here is our condensed Floridian story….

Married on August 4, 2007

Loaded up the Cobalt and departed Morton on August 5^th, 2007

Arrived in Florida August 6^th, 2007

YEAR 1

I began pharmacy classes at Palm Beach Atlantic in August and Eric played golf, pretending to be on the job hunt. My parents became our first visitors. They drove the Kid Bus, which was packed with the rest of our belongings. This trip started our tradition of boat tours with my parents. The inaugural tour took us through the canals of Fort Lauderdale, whose canal system is 2^nd only to Venice. Not long after this trip, we made our first trip home for Molly and Adam’s wedding. After spending Friday night in Atlanta due to weather, we caught a Saturday morning flight and made it home in just enough time. Though it was less than 48 hours, we were fortunate enough to see plenty of friends and family. Before we knew it, the holi

days and the end of 1^st semester had arrived.

Our second trip home was for Christmas/John and Christine’s

wedding/Mall of America/New Years. One of our best and busiest trips to date, because we were able to see so many people in such a short amount of time.

2^nd semester began and our adventures continued, thanks in large part to a number of visitors: My mother-in-law Kay, my parents and Aubrey, Jon and Jennifer, the Armstrong’s and Johnson’s, Patrick and friends, and Evan and Darah. We also took a long weekend to Orlando, adopted our 2^nd cat, and I spent my Spring Break in AZ with Sarah and Dean.

Our first summer down here began with a trip back to Illinois for Patrick’s graduation and ended with Tropical Storm Fay. In between we took trips for Mike and Shelley’s wedding in Tennessee, Axel and Jamie’s wedding in Morton, Kirk and Kristen’s wedding, Roley vacation in Daytona, and spent numerous weekends at the beach.

YEAR 2

My P2 year started up and we missed our 2^nd consecutive Pumpkin Festival. As school became increasingly more difficult, visitors continued to show up to make life a little easier. Eric flew out to Las Vegas for his “guys trip,” followed by a visit from my parents and Sarah, Nick and Beth with Aubrey, and Jim and Kay. We lucked out big time for Thanksgiving as my parents took Matt and Katie’s family to Disney and we got to tag along! We flew back for Christmas again, but celebrated New Year’s back in FL with our cats (I swear I’m not a

crazy cat lady though).

2009 started off with Evan and Darah’s 2^nd trip in January, Justin and Mary followed right behind, and then my parents in February. Mixed in between was the most rigorous studying I’ve ever done. In between we made our 1^st trip down to Key West for my Spring Break and coached a youth soccer team.

Our 2009 summer began with a weekend trip to IL for Matt and Donna’s wedding, followed by a 10 day, action-packed vacation to AZ, which included lots of hiking, four-wheeling and a failed attempt at dirt-biking by Eric, a Diamondbacks game, and even skydiving! We also went back to Daytona, where we got to meet my newest nephew Chase. For Evan and Darah’s 3^rd visit we headed down for a long weekend in Key West and Key Largo.

YEAR 3

The past 2 years absolutely flew by and P3 year is already almost ½ over! This fall, our traditional boat cruise with my parents took us to Nassau, Bahamas

for a quick 3-day trip. We also visited Chicago for Dave and Ashley’s wedding and Eric went back to visit his grandparents.