A whirlwind trip and a wonderful wedding!

Congratulations Mom & Mike! We were thrilled to be able to come home and celebrate my mom's wedding in Pennsylvania on June 18. It was a beautiful, family-filled celebration and they couldn't have looked happier. But let me back up a bit. We flew from Beirut to Chicago and enjoyed a very quick weekend there. We are so grateful to the Pylmans, our gracious hosts, who allowed us to crash at their place the weekend of Leigh's graduation. We loved getting to catch up with them and get some time with their wonderful families. We also managed to squeeze in a bit of work, including a job interview for Dena and some 4th year med school obligations for Jad. While we didn't get to see everyone we would have like to, we had so much fun with the friends we did get to see & are now looking even more forward to being reunited with everyone at the end of the summer.

After Chicago, we split ways for the next 3 days and Jad headed to Montreal with the rest of his immediate family to visit his grandma while I headed back to fulfill my matron-of-honor duties for Mom. We both loved the time we had with family - and Jad especially enjoyed having a few days to spoil our adorable nephews.

Jad & his parents got back into town the same day as 2 of my siblings and their families arrived. My amazing in-laws housed me and, yes, all 4 of my brothers and their families made it in for the wedding. It was so fun getting to swim, play, and be together. Jad got to hit up the lake a couple times, once to water ski with his parents, and another to tube and relax with his cousin Mark & his girlfriend Natalie. We girls got some lovely hang out time celebrating before the wedding. We also got to celebrate my mom and Mike's one year anniversary. They met on a flight, so we made them a little present (see below) and wrote a song that we sang for them over dinner. They loved it.

The rest of May and a bit of June

Shakira, Shakira! We went to our second concert of the year to check out the half-Lebanese Shakira in Beirut's new outdoor venue. We brought along Dominique and Elio...or rather, Dominique and I dragged Jad & Elio to see Shakira. But, she truly is an amazing dancer and put on a great show...even if the boys will only admit that for the part where she ripped off her shirt. :)

Otherwise, we had a pretty crazy busy few weeks thanks to Jad's finals and my finishing up with work and getting ready to head back to the states. With about 10 group projects to do, Jad spent a lot of quality time with his friends from school. Thankfully, they were definitely a bright spot in the midst of a few weeks of 3-hr of sleep nights. Thanks to cramming 18 months of course work into 11 months, it was probably the busiest I've seen him since second year medical school. We were definitely ready for a break - so, to celebrate finals being over, we all headed out for some Lebanese dinner & dancing.

Riwa acting out her feelings during finals

I finished up my work for HOME, but thanks to a summer conference & training my replacement, it was a busy end. I went on my last official mobile clinic trip in June. We actually went to Kawkaba, the Jabbour family village. Jad hasn't even been there, so we got a good laugh out of me going there before him. I had a great time, got lots of kisses and heard many stories from distant Jabbour relatives who knew all about my family.

The mobile clinic that I'm always referring to

A lot of Jabbours

In the midst of the craziness, we also celebrated our 4 year anniversary...kind-of. Jad spent the entire afternoon & evening with 2 girls he was writing a paper with, and I sat chained to a computer in the computer lab filling out a job application. It was really romantic. He did pick me a pretty cute flower though. (But, don't worry, we did actually go out for a nice dinner to celebrate a couple days later.)

We also had to start saying some goodbyes as summer in Beirut usually brings a max exodus of ex-pats. We had a lovely farewell dinner with our small group whom we will really miss (complete with Ray - our fearless leader - using a hair-dryer to "jump start" the grill on his balcony). Before we caught our flight home, we were able to squeeze in a beach day to get some more time with the Khalife cousins and work on our tans before we literally grabbed our bags and headed to the airport.

Part of our small group hanging out on the balcony

Perfect relaxation - a glass of wine on a beautiful beach