We hit a pretty big milestone this year by buying our first house! Over the summer, we started the what we thought would be the long search ahead of us. It didn’t take us long to find a great three bedroom, two bathroom house in the charming Ericsson neighborhood in South Minneapolis. We love that it’s just two blocks away from Lake Hiawatha and look forward to taking the kayaks out during the spring and summer.
Spending a long weekend in Vegas right after you move into your first house sounds like a something only crazy people would do, but that’s where we found ourselves in mid-September! Despite the post-move exhaustion we had SO much fun enjoying the warm sun by the pool during the day and the lights of the Vegas strip at night. We were mystified by a Cirque du Soleil performance and entertained by Penn and Teller. A big highlight was seeing the Neon Boneyard, an outdoor museum which showcased a large collection of neon signs spanning the long history of Las Vegas.
Early this spring, we traveled to Germany with Abby’s mom and her travel group. This trip focused on spending time in Berlin, but also included Potsdam, Dresden, Leipzig,Torgau and Wittenberg in honor of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. It was a whirlwind of an adventure! Some highlights included Christopher playing kubb with German friends in Berlin and Dresden, visiting the Bauhaus design museum while in Berlin, and visiting the Sanssouci palace in Potsdam, AKA mini Versailles.
Our trip to the L.A. area was inspired by Christopher competing in the West Coast Kubb Championships. We thought this was the perfect opportunity to check out a new part of the country. Our friend Lauren—who interned with us in Switzerland after college—showed us around downtown, up to the Griffith Observatory and then down to beautiful Santa Monica. After Christopher and his teammates won the kubb tournament (!!!) we drove up to Zuma Beach, through Malibu and then to Venice. We fell in love with Southern California. If we could have bottled the weather we experienced while we were there we would be cracking it open riiiiight about now!
Abby’s brother, Aaron, and his fiance, Lisa, joined us on an epic double date weekend to Toronto in October. We went to the Hockey Hall of Fame where we saw the Stanley Cup, enjoyed the sights from high above at the CN Tower and took many selfies while walking through Graffiti Alley.
Ireland was a very memorable trip for our family. It’s where we said goodbye to Christopher’s mom, Nancy. She passed away in Dublin from pneumonia caused by complications with the cancer she had been battling for over two years. We were on a family roots trip to connect with the history of the Jones and Nugent families. We were glad to all be together for support. After Nancy passed, we visited the town of Cashel. This was the place Nancy was the most excited to see because it’s where her grandma was from. While we were there, Bryan, family friend Lyn, Christopher and I visited an old castle known as the Rock of Cashel to honor her life.