The Wattmans at Muckross Abbey, in Killarney National Park, Ireland.
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It will grow only as time is available to devote to it. (Sadly limited, to be sure!)
This year offered challenges, changes, and celebrations in many forms, each an opportunity for growth and reflection. Continue reading
Back to Banff: Reliving their epic “ROAD TRIP!” from 2015, Rick and Judy returned to Banff National Park, and environs, in Canada.
Rick and Judy even managed to attend a Vikings game this year at the new US Bank stadium, site of Super Bowl LII in 2018.**
After dabbling in fits and starts through various iterations over the past half decade of an “empty (or nearly) nest,” Rick and Judy experienced the first full year completely on their own in 2017—the first year since 1990 and the advent of kids, that is! We still have frequent contact with our girls and their men (We LOVE it and them!) but we no longer have anyone else living with us.*
“Elise’s” room is now the “guest room,” and “Anna’s” room is now the “office.” They both still have things here in storage (after all, RICK still has things at his mom’s house!) but all that is tucked away out of sight.
Destination Denton: Matt, Elise, Anna, Judy, Alex and Rick (left to right) gathered for Christmas down south this year. Matt and Elise had to work around the holidays, so they couldn’t come home to Bloomington. Together in Texas we had a terrific time.
Anna and Alex were married on October 1.
There is a fun story. We were on a double date with Anna and Alex last January (dinner and a concert by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra). Anna excused herself to visit the ladies’ room, and Alex mentioned, almost casually, “Well, I made an exciting purchase today.” What, we wondered, could he mean? Continue reading
In a play on words, this year our Christmas card is styled as a birth announcement: We celebrate the birth of the Savior, Jesus.
We also commemorate the arrival of a son into our earthly family, as Anna and Alex were married. Continue reading