I cannot believe we are starting this year in Fargo, North Dakota but here we are on this crazy adventure we call life. I knew that moving could be a possibility but I really thought we would have one more year in Texas, and then I was hoping that if we did move it would be to Utah. But life has its way of showing us that things don't always go as we imagined but that it could be just as good and sometimes even better.
Going from Texas to North Dakota has been a drastic weather change but so far we do enjoy it here. We definitely miss New Braunfels and the endless swimming, but most of all we miss all our old friends there. I'm sure one day I'll be saying the same thing for Fargo, but Texas is going to be hard to beat. Looking back at this past year I'm happy with how we spent our last six months in Texas. I'm especially glad we took that Houston trip in January for the Cleveland Browns game because it really did turn out to be a once in a lifetime experience, at least for us. I'm also glad we went back to Houston the week of the Total Eclipse to experience NASA. We almost didn't, thinking we would have more time later to cross that off of our list. I feel like we did almost everything we wanted to aside from going to Big Bend National Park. It still would be great if we could go back and do that one day. Now we're starting a new year in a new place with a new bucketlist of adventures we want to cross off.
JANUARY - We started off the year right by going to Sea World on New Year's Day. We thought it would be crowded but it wasn't at all which was awesome for us. I went to Wicked with some good friends in San Antonio and then the following weekend we all went as a family to a last minute getaway in Houston for the Browns playoff game. We then got back to New Braunfels to find ice everywhere, which sounds silly now that we're in Fargo experiencing real cold but at the time I thought it was pretty cool to record.
FEBRUARY - Hudson finally lost his first tooth. He was super excited about that. We celebrated Valentine's Day by going to my favorite restaurant ever. Every state should have a Chuy's. I also celebrated Galentine's Day by going on a ghost tour with some friends where we walked around San Antonio, including the Alamo. We didn't see any ghosts but had a lot of fun. After nearly ten STRAIGHT years of diapers we finally got out of that stage when Rylee and Quinn were both officially potty trained! Danny did the math and concluded that we have spent over $10,000 on diapers and wipes over the years. We're really glad to be out of that stage. The girls also continued their big month by turning THREE! We love them so much. Happy birthday sweet girls.
MARCH - All of our Saturdays were about to fill up with soccer games so we started off our first Saturday of the month going swimming before the soccer chaos all started. We also had a low key spring break by going hiking, rock climbing and getting ice cream before I flew to Utah for my brother's wedding. In between the temple sealing and the wedding reception I went into the credit union and completely paid off our van! It's been really nice having zero car payments. By the end of the month soccer games had started which kept us really busy. I turned 35 and sadly my brother-in-law James passed away after his battle with liver cancer and kidney disease. We ended the month by celebrating Easter with our usual traditions, mixed in with soccer and bluebonnets, while also trying to focus on Christ and the Atonement.
APRIL - We loved having Grandma Donna and Grandpa Dave come out to visit us. Their trip started with a Texas tornado watch warning, but we were able to enjoy the reason they came out here by escaping to Canyon Lake to experience the Total Eclipse. We took them on the Glass Bottom Boat tour and then decided to have the kids all skip school as we headed to Houston for another fun getaway where we got to check off NASA from our Texas bucketlist. I was also able to chaperone Grant's field trip to the Snake Farm Zoo.
MAY - We had a great Mother's Day. Grant graduated from Kindergarten. Addie and Hudson completed third and first grade, and it was bittersweet because by this point we knew it was their last year at Clear Spring Elementary since Danny was offered a job at NDSU. My nephew Caide tested positive for HDL2 and was admitted in a care center. The kids all finished their soccer season and we headed to the beach for a full fun day with the Olsens.
JUNE - This was our last full month in Texas and felt really busy. For Danny's birthday we drove to the Painted Porch where he got to meet Ryan Holiday. We celebrated Danny again on Father's Day. We had a family scare back in Utah that thankfully ended well. We officially found our new home in Fargo. Knowing we had weeks left we took advantage by going to the pool, Schlitterbahn, Landa Park, Sea World and the kids spent time with friends (Urban Air and the river). We also joined friends and went to the racetracks where we watched horses and ostriches race. We said goodbye to the Olsens and can't wait to get our families together again.
JULY - We finally floated the river as a family and regretted not doing it sooner. The 4th of July was our last full day in Texas and we got to spend it with good friends, before we headed out to our new adventure in Fargo. We crossed off nine new states moving from Texas to North Dakota which was awesome. Grant turned SIX years old! We also experienced the Blue Angels for the first time.
AUGUST - Grant lost his first tooth, and his second tooth, within days of each other. He hasn't lost any since then. Texas has bluebonnets and North Dakota has sunflowers. We were able to drive out to one of the many sunflower fields which was pretty cool. We had fun trying to catch and tag monarch butterflies, and we took advantage of the many different parks here as we tried to explore as much as we could. We were able to see the new school and meet the teachers at Centennial Elementary the day before the kids officially began a new school year as a first grader, second grader and fourth grader. Danny and I had our eleven year anniversary but since we just went through a huge move and have no family around we didn't really do anything crazy. In fact we went to a park as a family which was fine.
SEPTEMBER - We got to see the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile while it was passing through our new town. We then headed to Detroit Lakes which to this day is still one of my favorite things we've done so far since moving here. We had fun at the NDSU homecoming parade and Addie turned TEN years old.
OCTOBER - My parents drove through Fargo on their way back to Utah after their New York mission was completed and it was fun to have them here for a day before they continued on. We updated our family pictures and I love how they turned out, especially the ones with the kids as a group. We traded cleats to skates as the kids all started hockey and ice skating lessons. They loved it. We also experienced our first hockey game when we got tickets to watch the Fargo Force. We went to a pumpkin patch with our new friends which was nice, especially since it's been years since our last pumpkin patch adventure. And we dressed up as Marvel superheroes for our Halloween family theme this year.
NOVEMBER - The kids got their school pictures back and look so cute. Instead of continuing hockey we put the boys in Addie's ice skating lessons and all enjoyed it. The presidential election ended, but we don't really need to talk about that result, and BYU and Utah played each other which we also don't need to talk about that result haha. Okay, BYU won. The kids were really excited about our first snowfall here, especially Grant who we realize bare has any memory of snow since he was three when he last played in it. I went to a movie by myself for three hours to watch Wicked part one and I'm still counting down the days for part two. We also celebrated Thanksgiving by spending the day with some new friends (Erickson family) who we've really gotten to like.
DECEMBER - Hudson turned EIGHT! We are so proud of him. He had a great birthday. He also chose to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and it was great to have my parents fly out here to be with us once again. With Oma and Opa here we celebrated an early Christmas which the kids all approved of. The twins also started a little preschool program which they really came to love but I think they're also not really sad that it was only a month long. I'm really glad to have them home with me again. We learned what the term snow squall meant and experienced our first real cold days here. The kids completed their ice skating lessons and all passed their courses, and we got to spend our first Christmas here in Fargo. Felix made it here and mentioned that he preferred our new place over the heat in Texas. We also added a new 'helper' this Christmas season. One of our family gifts was a membership to the Red River Zoo which we got to enjoy the day after Christmas. We ended the year helping Hudson recover from getting his tonsils and adenoids removed. It was an especially big month for that sweet boy.
Looking back now I can see it was a pretty big year for our family. At the start of the year I wrote about how we wanted to achieve our finance goals. One of those goals was to pay off the van by March and we were able to do that! We also wanted to be completely debt free with any credit cards and we would have reached that too if it wasn't for the move in the middle of the year. However, we should have all that paid off by next month which is awesome. We plan to save up our money for the next couple of months so that we can go to my family reunion this July and then after that our next step is to start knocking out our student loans. It would be amazing the day we finally are free from those. I wrote about my fitness goals which once again I ended the year not reaching it, however I'm actually feeling really confident about my ability to reach my goal and it's definitely going to happen in 2025. In last year's post I also mentioned that we didn't have any major travel plans (besides my solo trip to Utah) and that we just wanted to explore Texas, specifically Dallas to see my sister. When I had written that I didn't even know that within the month we would be doing a short getaway in Houston as a family or that we would finally go to Dallas and see my sister but that it would be on our way out of Texas. I also laugh now when I read this sentence "Will we be going to the neighboring states of Louisiana or Oklahoma this year? Most likely not but that's okay. There's still so much of Texas we haven't done. If Danny does get a job lined up at the completion of his post doc experience then we really want to see all that we can while we're here." Little did I know our time left in Texas wouldn't be long, we would get to see a lot but still have regrets on things we didn't get to do, we didn't go to Louisiana but we did go through Oklahoma as well as eight other states. It was a cool year for our 50 states checklist, that's for sure.
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This year I think it's safe to say we won't be moving. I think we'll be able to enjoy a full year here in Fargo before we start thinking about what's next. I do plan on reaching my fitness goal. We should be credit card debt free by next month, and hopefully making payments on our student loans this year. As far as traveling goes we have a reunion in Bear Lake that we are looking forward to. I'd love to cross off a new state for Rylee and Quinn and it would be awesome if we can make a trip to Canada sometime marking a new country for Danny and the kids. I'd also love to go to the Mall of America for the first time, but we'll have to see how we can fit all these things into this year. We're excited to get to know this area really well and to make the most of our time here. We're ready for you 2025.
Our 2024 year with only scenic pictures.
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