The simple answer is that travel is our favorite tradition. We take trips every spring and summer, and sometimes winter, too. However, summer road trips have become our favorite. Following the cancellation of a trip to meet our Goddaughter in California during the early stages of the Covid shutdown, we decided we wanted a way to travel long distances that wasn’t flight dependent. So, we purchased a teardrop camper made by a small family-owned shop in Wausau, WI, and started taking long camping road trips in the summer. We spend about three weeks visiting family and friends on the west coast, taking different routes each year to see new sights. We regularly travel 5000 miles each trip. Our most recent trip was jam-packed and brought us to Yellowstone, Glacier, Kootenay, and Banff National Parks. We are grateful for Rachael’s summers off and Richard’s flexible remote job which allow for experiences like this.

We keep ourselves quite busy but absolutely love lazy Sundays. A typical Sunday afternoon would bring us together in our cozy living room. There’s a fire going, and Moira the dog is sprawled out in front of it. We each have a cat in our lap. There’s something savory cooking slowly in the kitchen, while some music plays softly. We’re chatting, reading, making loose plans for the week ahead, maybe sneaking in a little nap.

When people visit our home, there are two things they usually remark on. One, is that our bungalow home is actually much bigger than they expected, and the other is how “homey” it feels. Our little house is deceptive. It sits in a double lot and makes excellent use of its small footprint. The TV is tucked away in the finished basement so that reading, relaxing, and socializing are prioritized (though, don’t get us wrong–we love TV and movies!). We have guest rooms ready for our friends or family to stay at a moment’s notice, and every space is decorated with photos we’ve taken, art we’ve selected or that’s been created for us (Richard’s brother is a talented painter), little tchotchkes from our travels, families, or childhoods, and Rachael’s many plants. Our guests can learn a lot about us just by walking around our space. We’ve built spaces that are calm, relaxing, and full of sunshine.

Our favorite family meal varies based on how busy the day, is. For instance, a regular weeknight meal we like to prepare together is broccoli rigatoni–simple, garlicky, hearty, good for leftovers, and delicious. When we have more time, Richard will smoke a tri-tip on the grill, a delicious cut of beef we learned about from our Goddaughter's family. But, for special occasions, especially around holidays, we’ll get parents, siblings, and nephews involved in making Rouladen, a German dish Richard introduced Rachael to. His Oma used to make it for him, and it’s always been a favorite. We love to make lots of it so we can eat it for days, and there are many small steps, so everyone can help!

We want expectant parents to know that our family is much bigger than the two of us, bigger than our “traditional” family of parents, sibling, in-laws, and nephews. We have wonderful families, and our parents raised us to recognize that families extend well beyond blood, biology, or last names. Chosen family has been a part of our lives long before we ever knew the term. Adoption is part of our family’s past, present, and future. We were raised with close friends equal to family. We measure our friendships in decades, not years. We are aunt and uncle to two nephews, Godparents to two girls, and are considered bonus auntie and uncle to several other children as well. Our friends’ parents treat us as their own, and we consider them bonus parents. We want expectant parents to understand we truly know and believe that there are many ways to find and form a family.

Friendship! We basically already have invented a bi-annual holiday to celebrate and honor friendship already–Cabin Weekend. Twice a year we gather with a dozen-or-so of our friends at cabins we’ve been renting for years–we started this tradition when we were 20 and 21 years old as a way for all of us to both relax and stay in touch when college and adulthood started to bring larger responsibilities and greater distances into our lives. It’s a deeply ingrained tradition where we basically have a weekend-long slumber party with nonstop food, snacks, games, dancing, and laughter. The menu rotates, but there will always be taco dip, chili, special sloppy joe’s, and a variety of breakfast bakes. In the fall, there are campfires and kayaking. In the winter, there is ice fishing. Someone brings a new game to each cabin weekend. There are "cabin gifts," which recognize our friends' vibes. It’s the best. Our friends are family, and we love celebrating together.

We were raised to do things well, to see things through, and to be reliable. We both frequently find ourselves trying to make things better, personally, professionally, and civically. Each of our parents shaped us to believe in the importance of stepping up and following through. Our parents are/were generous, hard workers, with long careers and long marriages, and their high expectations of us surely shaped that drive. We both strive to leave a situation better than we found it. That means small things like picking up trash on the hiking trail or dog walk and bigger things like taking on leadership roles at work or volunteering with local nonprofit organizations.

To be honest, we live in a beautiful place. We are blocks from Lake Superior and a beach, and just a short drive from rivers, dense forest, and even several waterfalls. We got married in a nearby state park, making the most of Richard’s favorite season by having an outdoor wedding in December. Yet, we are fortunate to have had many travel opportunities, so beyond our backdoor, our favorite place to visit thus far has been Gimmelwald, Switzerland, where we were surrounded by mountains and the sounds of cowbells chiming in the fields above and below us. Everything was beautiful, day or night, rain or shine. There was seriously magic and whimsy on every excursion. We were awestruck by the isolated little Swiss village and can’t wait to go back.