2009 was definitely an eventful year in our lives! Kicking off the year as newlyweds, we enjoyed all the rites of passage as we continued to decorate our place and get into a “married” routine! Although we don’t know if routine is the accurate word to describe a couple who spent more weekends out of our condo, then in, we are certainly loving married life more and more every day and enjoying all the new adventures we get to share together!

The first of the year brought a new nephew to the Caballero clan, Joseph DiLuciano, and it also brought a newly-engaged Caballero sister, Rosemary – meaning all 10 Caballeros are taken!

Thanks to her brother, Kate secured some tickets to the Inauguration of President Obama! She was so pumped, and since Ryan was out of town for work, our friend Becca met Kate in Arlington where they walked all the way downtown for the momentous occasion. The two of them braved the cold January temps to be a part of history!

To celebrate Rosemary’s engagement, Kate’s Chicago cousins threw a party, so in February we headed to the Windy City to dress shop, party, and of course make many memories with family (Superdawg is all we need to say).

The following weekend, we headed to Kansas City for FCA’s Real Time Retreat, giving us an opportunity to enjoy some time with many of the FCA staff who work with Ryan and their spouses. We even got in a few one-on-one basketball games, with Kate dominating Ryan each time (don’t worry, Ryan whooped her in ping-pong…though it’s still under great debate as to whether that qualifies as a real sport!).

We both had some work travel in the next months – Kate to San Antonio, and Ryan to Nebraska, Kansas City, and Rochester. Booz Allen again won the Cyber Storm contract, so Kate has been churning her wargaming wheels away while Ryan continues to enjoy the challenges of being FCA’s National Director for Lacrosse. Kate still heads down to McLean, VA once a week for work, making the drive more bearable by trying to see her siblings on the way up or down.

In the Spring, we took a trip with Kate’s parents to Espana, visiting much of Northern Spain (Madrid-Segovia-Leon-Aviles-Cudillerro-Oviedo-Comillas-Santillana del Mar- Santander-and Aranda de Duero). Since we were there over the Easter holiday we were able to see some the solemn and beautiful Spanish “processiones” during Holy Week, and of course an Easter mass in Spanish. Even across the ocean we kept the tradition alive of an Easter Egg Hunt, where Ryan found quite possibly the largest Golden Egg ever! The food, drink, and culture of Espana was fabulous, and learning to pour sideria, hear Kate and her dad speak the lingo (Ryan’s vocabulary spanned no further than “chocolate y churros”), visit the picturesque fishing villages, walk the beaches, and enjoy a night at a winery, we left Spain with many breathtaking memories! And in traditional Spanish style, we had plenty of 9/10 o’clock dinner times and somehow even Mr. Caballero stayed awake!

May had us heading to a wedding in Toledo, OH, with a side-trip to visit Kate’s brother Louis and his family, right before FCA Lacrosse began gearing up for a busy summer which would take Ryan all over the map! Beginning with meetings in Kansas City, Ryan never stopped, heading to Boston for the Lacrosse National Championships, tournaments in Vail, Edgewater, Rochester, Toronto and Ocean City (MD and NJ), camps in Northern Virginia, Gettysburg, Kutztown and Salisburg, a retreat in Point Pleasant, NJ, and even some fun in Annapolis with Ryan’s summer interns! Ryan had a ton of help this summer, making Gettysburg Camp a family affair as all of the Horanburgs joined us there to help out with registration, photography, and running the camp store! So, needless to say from May till August, there wasn’t much time to breathe. But, we did get a nice break to Tampa in June for a bridal shower for Rosemary, and then Kate stayed in Florida for her best friend’s wedding in Fort Lauderdale. Somewhere in there Kate had a work trip to New York City where she was also able to spend time with her brother Matt and his family. We even found a weekend or two to head down to Virginia, visiting family and friends, and for swim instructor Ryan to help teach our niece Elizabeth the basics!

At the end of August, things quieted down some and we took a trip to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. Our first stop included a triathlon for Ryan in Fort Desoto, FL with Kate’s brother Joe and his wife Claudine. All three did great, and Ryan really got the itch to continue with hopefully more triathlons once things warm up again! The rest of the trip was really fun and relaxing (and of course too much food eating), as we enjoyed time with both of our families in Tampa and Vero Beach, as Ryan’s parents joined us in Vero for a few days. The only downside was a back injury Kate incurred, leading to a hospital trip and a few months of physical therapy! The trip culminated with a Caballero Wedding in Chicago, as Rosemary and Gus wed with plenty of Caballero Craziness had by all (Caballero girls believe McDonalds is a great pre-wedding meal). As September closed, the Caballero family expanded once again, as Anne and Colin welcomed Colin Charles into the world! We are up to 18 nieces and nephews – wow!!

The fall months weren’t quite as slow as we predicted, but we had a blast having our niece and nephew, Elizabeth and John, come spend some days with us, providing wake-up calls staring you straight in the face from the side of the bed. Then, babysitting for baby Joe, as Liz and David headed to Notre Dame for a weekend. We even got to spend a special weekend at Notre Dame with Kate’s family giving Mr. Caballero his first Notre Dame game experience. It was so enjoyable to see dad and his girls trouncing around campus as the girls detailed all their pre-game rituals, and having Mr. and Mrs. Caballero be part of it all!

We snuck in a Halloween weekend in Northern Virginia, sharing in the fun with Anne’s family of getting the kids ready in their costumes and going trick ‘or’ treating around the neighborhood. Kate even allowed herself to be “embarrassed” as she put it, and we dressed up as Waldo and Wenda for a Halloween party that night!

At the beginning of November Kate had to head to California for work, so Ryan piggy-backed on this trip and met with some FCA folks out there as well. While there we found time to enjoy Huntington, Laguna, and Newport Beach as a mini-vacation! This was Kate’s first trip to California, and being raised a Florida girl, she was hoping the water would be a bit warmer, but enjoyed the beautiful shoreline, oceanfront breakfasts, and delicious fresh markets! When we got back, it was about time for Kate to tune into her 24-hour Christmas music station, and we headed to Northern Virginia to spend Thanksgiving with Ryan’s family. All of the Horanburgs were together to celebrate the holiday with some late night Sequence games and a hike at Great Falls Park. And we can’t forget Ryan’s yearly Black Friday tradition – meeting Anne at McDonalds at 3am to chart a course! This year we traded in the traditional Turkey Trot morning run, as Reed and Nikki headed into DC with us to deliver meals and spend time with some of DCs homebound elderly – it was a huge blessing to us to have them share their lives and for us to bring them some Thanksgiving cheer!

We made it home from the Thanksgiving weekend just in time to stop and pick up the much anticipated Christmas tree (Kate was like a kid in a candy store). Our Advent season has been spent in preparation and conversation with our small group – a great group of friends we have made here in the Baltimore area, to remind us of the real reason for this wonderful season – the birth of Christ. Kate has enjoyed hosting the group, as she loves the opportunity to cook for more than two!

We will be headed to sunny Tampa to spend the holiday with Kate’s family. We are so thankful to have so many people to love and who love us. We are excited to celebrate Christmas and know that spending time with family and friends is one of the most special ways to celebrate Jesus’ birth.

For all of you that we will not be able to see over the Christmas holiday, you are in our hearts and our prayers. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Love,

Kate and Ryan

Pictures from our year:

Well, this first year of marriage, new home, and new job can definitely be described as a WHIRLWIND!!  Ryan has been taken all over the map – from Kansas City to Rochester and Nebraska City to Toronto, Canada!  Our year has been filled with plane trips and car rides, where we have enjoyed a trip to Spain in the spring, and look forward to ending our year with a vacation to Tampa and Vero Beach, and then on to the BIG EVENT – Rosie and Gus’ wedding!  This occasion marks the 10th Caballero child to be married!!!  Yep, that makes the Cabs 10 for 10!!

Ryan has spent the summer overseeing camps, clinics, tournament teams, interns, and a slew of other events that have been both fulfilling and tiring…Kate has been working on Cyber Storm III, the DHS cyber exercise, and some other DHS projects, that have taken her to San Antonio and New York, to name a few places.

Hunt Valley, MD has been a good home to us the past 11+ months.  Our condo is really coming along, and we love all the space we have – it makes cooking and baking so much easier!!  The past few weeks they have been working on a new balcony off our condo, so we have had a nice noise wake us up early every morning!

Hopefully our lives will calm down a bit in the fall….the only thing on our calendar right now is that we are expecting a new NIECE OR NEPHEW at the end of September!!  Kate’s sister, Anne, is having her 4th!

We update pictures quite often on facebook.   We will try and be better on posting here, but at least we want to get back to writing!

We hope everyone is doing well and having a blast of a summer!! We know we are!

At the beginning of this year, Ryan said “2008 is going to be GREAT!”  Well, it definitely has been.  Kate started off the year living in Anne and Colin’s basement in Woodbridge, VA, and Ryan in his condo with two roomates in Annandale, VA, and we ended the year together in Hunt Valley, MD!

The winter months saw a very busy work schedule for Kate, as the project she had been working on the last two years, Cyber Storm II, culminated in a week-long cyber wargame in March.  Because Kate was stuck down in DC, she was close to the hospital where her 7^th niece, Rosemary Kate Eckman, was born, and was able to slip out of Secret Service just long enough to see Rosie right after she came into the world!  Kate was also helping out at a bible study at Madiera (the high school we both coached volleyball), and enjoyed being around all the girls, who we definitely miss.  Ryan continued leading the DMDC project for DoD, though he kept feeling there was something else out there he was being called to do.

Our Easter plans seemed like a whirlwind – literally, as Ryan’s soon-to-be sister-in-law Nikki was playing in the Division III National Championships.  So we decided to head to Michigan to support her!  We flew into Chicago, and got to see many of Kate’s family, then headed to Hope, MI, via South Bend, IN.  Kate enjoyed being back on campus and showing Reed all the beauties and tradition of Notre Dame while snow began to slowly fall…then, became WHITEOUT conditions as the region was hit with a blizzard.  We made it to the basketball games, and although Nikki’s team fell in the finals, the weekend was definitely exciting and exhausting, finishing with our arrival back in DC just in time for Easter dinner with Kate’s family!

A few weeks later, we found ourselves in Lancaster, PA for the wedding of Reed and Nikki.  We definitely enjoyed quality family time and their beautiful wedding ceremony!  This must have been the Year of the Horanburg!

Our most exciting news of the year was our engagement and wedding!!  On May 5^th (Cinco De Mayo – Ryan wanted to make sure the date was easy to remember), while on vacation in Tampa visiting the family, Ryan proposed to Kate.  The week quickly turned from relaxing to lively!  The decision to get married in August (less than 4 months of preparation!!) was made because after dating almost 4 years…lol…no, because we wanted to be married and settled before Ryan began a new chapter of his career, as National Director for FCA Lacrosse.  This new ministry position would bring together his love of lacrosse, business, and Jesus Christ.

Our summer months were filled with planning and preparation for the wedding, as we took pleasure in all the details that go into the BIG DAY – Kate was in HEAVEN with all the particulars!  Together we enjoyed working with Fr. Bob to have the most perfect wedding ever!  We had so many family and friends head to Tampa- many who traveled great distances, under soon-to-be circumstances (thanks Tom, Dilia, and the boys) and around hurricanes (thanks John, Jen, Molly, and the Coups!) to share this truly memorable day, August 23rd,  with us!  We hung around Tampa for a few days after the wedding so we could see all the people who came in town, and then we headed on our incredible honeymoon – ITALIA!! We traveled the Amalfi Coast, staying in Amalfi, Positano, Sorrento, and Capri for the first half of the trip, and then on to Rome in all its glory for the rest.  We miss the coastal towns, the people, the history, the sacredness, and of course, the food and drink!  It will be a time of our lives we will never forget.

We arrived back to DC on a Friday, and had planned to move on Saturday up to Hunt Valley, MD, but the weather had other plans.  So, instead, we used Saturday to clean up the condo with the help of many Horanburgs, and then moved all of our stuff in on Sunday, avoiding the terrible weather.  The move went great, and soon we were settled in our new place, that we absolutely love! 

Since we got back from our honeymoon, the days have flown by, and our life has been busy with Kate getting down to McLean, VA once a week for work as her new life as a telecommuter for Booz Allen began.  We have been to Tampa, Nebraska City, Chicago, Gettysburg, Harrisburg, Olcott, Suffolk, Rochester, and we are missing a few, in the past 3 months since the wedding, and things do not seem to be letting up, but we are enjoying all the places we are getting to visit.  We even got to see what parenthood was like, as we babysat all weekend for Kate’s two nieces and nephew- man, was that entertaining! 

The busyness continued through November, as we spent Thanksgiving at Anne’s house in Virginia, then a midnight to 9AM Black Friday shopping excursion with the sisters, and then the baptism of Kate’s Goddaughter, Sophia Maria, to conclude the weekend.  December crept right up on us, and we are definitely enjoying being in the Christmas spirit!  Ryan had to be in Rochester the second weekend in December for an FCA Lacrosse All-Nighter, so we drove up to Olcott, NY to visit some of the Horanburgs for the weekend, where we enjoyed yet another rousing game of Spoons!

The Christmas tree is up, presents wrapped, and decorations adorn our condo.  But, each of these things are a reminder of the real reason for this wonderful season – the birth of Christ.  We will be headed to Virginia to spend the holiday with almost all of Kate’s family, Ryan’s parents, and Reed and Nikki.  We are blessed to have so many people to love and who love us.  Truly God would have wanted nothing more meaningful to celebrate the birth of His Son, than the tradition of sharing this most special time of year with our family and loved ones. 

So, to those of you who we will not see, you are in our hearts and our prayers.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!  We hope 2008 was as great for you as it was for us, and we hope 2009 is even better!

Love,

Kate & Ryan Horanburg

Well, we got a dose of being a mom and dad for a weekend as we babysat for Elizabeth, John and Rosie, so Anne and Colin could have a weekend away in Staunton, VA.  The kids were perfect—shocker, and we had a great time…except for the fact we thought last weekend was when we turned the clocks back – yeah, jokes on us!

Anyway, we went on walks, played outside, went to Tom and Dilia’s, Liz and David’s, and ended the weekend with Chucky Cheese (always an interesting experience)…

We had a great time with the kids!

Click here to see the pics!

Kate had the joy of heading to the Pumpkin Patch with her niece Elizabeth’s school.  She helped out Anne and Abuela take care of Rosie, John, and the Bug!

The kids are definitely growing right before our eyes, its been pretty amazing to see so many of Kate’s nieces and nephews grow from tiny to tall!!

Enjoy the pics! Click here.

Liz and David are expecting a little boy on January 1st, 2009!!! Last weekend we headed down to Vero Beach and then to Tampa for two showers given my David’s mom and sister Christina, and Mrs. Caballero’s friends.

Click here to see pictures of the showers and the weekend! It was good times as always! *note the pictures of David in the water

Ryan became a Caballero and a week later became a NEW UNCLE to Tom and Dilia’s beautiful baby girl!!!! YEAH!  A GIRL!! 

She was born September 3rd, and measured 21.5 inches, 8lbs 6oz…she is a beauty!! 

To see some pictures, click here

August 23, 2008 Tampa, Florida, Incarnation Catholic Church – OUR WEDDING DAY – the day was perfect!!! We were surrounded by so many family and friends and everything was better than we had ever expected!!! 

We will definitely write more about the wedding and our AMAZING honeymoon in Italy, but we wanted to get the link to our pictures posted.

If you would like to see wedding pictures, go to:

http://www.aflyphoto.com/#
click on Client proofing
click on us
The password is 83974WKateRyan 

Also, we will try and post honeymoon pictures as soon as we can – things have been crazy with the wedding, honeymoon, traveling, and moving!!! BUT IT HAS BEEN AWESOME!! WE ARE HAVING SUCH AN AWESOME TIME!!

So a month ago we had engagement photos taken, and FINALLY we are getting around to posting them.  We took them in Tampa (actually on Kate’s birthday - June 2nd) at the University of Tampa, which is a private college right in Tampa that has a ton of history and is right along the river.  Click here to view our pictures. 

JUST 48 MORE DAYS!!!!!

We have put together our wedding webpage, and you can find it as a link on the right or click here.  We hope you check it out and we will work to keep it updated!