Throwback Thursday

Ahhh, 2007, you were good to me.  I moved out of my parents' house and in with my {then} boyfriend.  I had a job that I {mostly} loved.  I had a blast at my sister's wedding {and still laugh when I think about the night of her bachelorette party}.

And I went to Aruba.

This photo was taken in August 2007 at Texas de Brazil, and I can still remember what an amazing dinner we had.  Scott and I spent a week in Aruba that summer and it was, for the most part, fantastic.  I spent the first three and a half of our seven day stay sick in bed.  Not just "not feeling so good" sick, but "fever, can't breathe, swollen glands, hurt to move, cried every time I swallowed because it felt like I was swallowing shards of glass" sick.  It started on the flight to Aruba with some sneezing and ear pain and just got worse and worse until, on day three, we broke down and called an emergency doctor in town.  We couldn't understand half of what he was saying, but we paid an arm and a leg for a prescription that we could only hope would do something to help.

By day four, I was feeling better.  I dragged myself out of bed and on an ATV tour around the island, and we had a blast.  The rest of the week was spent soaking up all the fun things I'd missed out on while I was sick.  We took a ride in a submarine.  We went into town and walked around the outdoor mall.  We stopped and had Starbucks because of course you have to have Starbucks whenever and wherever you can find it.  We spent entire days soaking up the sun by the pool, swimming under the built-in waterfall, relaxing in the hot tub, and drinking our weight in Cocadas at the bar.  We went to the beach.  We had pizza and beer on the balcony outside our room at the resort.  We ate dinner at a lighthouse.  And we enjoyed this dinner at Texas de Brazil.  For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of experiencing this form of dining {there's one in Philly!}, it's an all-you-can-eat meat restaurant.  When you're seated, each person is given a two-sided coaster.  If you flip it to the green side it's a signal to your server to bring more meat.  If it's flipped to the red side it means you're full for now.  If you're a meat-eater you'll love it.

Illness aside, we had a wonderful, wonderful week  and were sad to have to leave.  Luckily, I've got a ton of pictures to remember the trip.

Four months after this picture was taken, Scott and I got engaged.  A little less than two years after that, we were married.  And here we are, coming up on five years of marriage.  Our kids keep us busy, and we don't always have time to just sit and be "us" these days.  But I'll always remember this vacation and I'm so glad I have the photos to look back on. You know what they say...we'll always have Aruba!