2025 in Review

2025 was a really big year for several exciting reasons! I'll try to keep the text brief and let the photos tell the story.

Kris kicked off his new year with what is becoming his annual ski trip in Utah with Emma and Anne. There was not nearly as much snow as the previous year, but the conditions were still wonderful. Then in February we went to Hawaii for a week and a half with Katie's uncle Mike and his wife Bonnie. We spent the first week on Maui and then three days in Waikiki (Oahu).

Emma, Anne, and Kris at Solitude Resort near Salt Lake City.

Our last night in Hawaii, at a place called Tikis Bar & Grill in Waikiki.

The big events in March were Sarah's "Match Day" for her residency, and the birth of Grace's and Kyle's daughter Louise Jordan O'Hara. Sarah matched in plastic and restorative surgery at her first choice, the University of Chicago. (she and her boyfriend Josué moved there in June) Louise was born on March 25 in St. Louis Park.

Sarah and Josué on Match Day.

Louise shortly after birth.

Sarah, Anne, Emma, and Grace with Louise.

In May we were blessed to attend two graduations: Emma from the University of Utah (though she technically completed her degree in December 2023), and Sarah from the University of Minnesota Medical School.

Kris, Emma, and Katie in Salt Lake City for Emma's graduation.

Kris, Sarah, and Katie in Minneapolis for Sarah's graduation.

In late September, Kris and Katie's brother John went on a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters. They don't go quite every year, but it's been a 20+ year tradition so they always look forward to it.

Kris on a foggy morning in the BWCA.

John surveying our surroundings on a foggy morning.

We went off the beaten path and saw some amazing, pristine lakes.

A magnificent photo of a loon by John.

On November 9, Grace and Kyle were married in Minneapolis. The venue was the Nord Tasting Room at the French Meadow Cafe in Minneapolis. It was a beautiful space for a wonderful, intimate ceremony. Definitely a highlight of our year!

Kyle and Grace O'Hara.

Kris, Kyle, Grace, and Katie.

Grace and Louise.

Since the wedding on November 9, our lives have just continued to focus primarily on Louise. Though another big day was November 17, Kris's first day at his new job at Medtronic.

Kris's first day of work photo!

I could fill this blog with dozens of additional photos of Louise, but I'll leave you with this one, perhaps my favorite:

Louise, clearly concerned about grocery prices!

We wish you all a peaceful Christmas and Happy New Year in 2026!

Kris & Katie

2024 in Review

Wow, five years can go by quickly! And yet so much happened in that period — I'll have to decide whether I want to go back and do years in review for 2020-2023. In the meantime, here's the traditional supplement to our printed holiday card.

In March we flew in from three cities (Minneapolis, Houston, and Salt Lake City) to converge and be together for a week in Florida. We rented a condo in Indian Shores, between Clearwater and St. Petersburg, where we could just cross the street and be on the beach. The weather was perfect—sunny but not too hot, and we also enjoyed the pool on the property as well. It was the first family vacation, with all of us, for several years!

Enjoying a sunset on Indian Rocks Beach, just north of where we stayed.

Perhaps the biggest event of the year was Anne's graduation from Southwest High School, and her grad party, in early June. We had a great turnout including all of her grandparents, lots of other relatives, and a ton of friends. Anne spent the summer playing soccer and driving for DoorDash, and moved to Salt Lake City to start her first semester at the University of Utah!

Anne and Grandma Sharon

The biggest change to the household is Sage, our golden doodle puppy that we got in August. Sage moved in much to Gus's surprise and, soon, frustration. He no longer seems wired to react positively to Sage's constant desire to play, at least when they're indoors. Fortunately, out in the yard it's quite different. There Sage and Gus enjoy chasing each other around the yard — it's very fun to watch, especially when there's fresh snow, which really gets them going!

Sage and Gus

In October, the highlight of Kris and Katie's year was their trip to Italy to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. Their itinerary included a long weekend in Rome followed by a weeklong hiking tour of the Amalfi Coast on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Then they spent a few days in Naples, and a week on the opposite coast in Monopoli (the "heel" of the "boot") on the Adriatic Sea. The trip ended with two more days in Rome.

Positano, one of the towns we visited on the Amalfi Coast.

The view from our balcony in Naples. Mt. Vesuvius is in the background (left of middle).

Fruit and vegetables at a street market in Naples.

Fish and seafood at the market.

A busy square in Naples.

Resting while we do laundry in Naples

The historic center of Monopoli.

An afternoon boat tour along the Adriatic Coast.

Pedestrian area of Monopoli.

The Pantheon in Rome. Absolutely stunning.

La Casa del Caffè Tazzo d'Oro, one of the oldest coffeeshops in Rome.

Having an espresso and latte at Tazzo d'Oro.

The Rome Colosseum.

There's more photos and news that we could add, but we'll wrap it up for now. Thanks for reading, and we wish you a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year!

Kris & Katie; Sarah, Grace, Emma, and Anne

2019 in Review

Happy new year! — and another year with a digital-only greeting. Kris is still reluctant to completely give up on paper cards via the mail, but until he gets his act together earlier in the season, our annual blog update will have to suffice.

Anne, Emma, Grace (and Gus!), and Sarah.

This was a very special Christmas in that all four girls are back living in Minneapolis. Sarah returned to Minnesota after four years in Arizona, and Grace transferred from Loyola in Chicago to the U of M. This meant having time for several family get-togethers versus fitting in just a few during the short college breaks. The above photos are all very current as of the past few weeks, so if you haven't seen any of the girls in a while you can now catch up with their likenesses online.

Some highlights of the year:

Sarah at her honors college graduation ceremony.

Sarah's graduation from Arizona State: Sarah graduated from ASU in May, and it was a thrilling moment. All of us were able to travel to Phoenix to attend, and we had several celebratory meals out to mark the occasion. There were two ceremonies and they were both great; first, the smaller graduation ceremony for the honors college, and two days later we attended the large university-wide ceremony in Sun Devil Stadium.

Kent and Marilyn; Sharon and her extended family; Elaine and Steve.

75th birthdays: Three extra special highlights of 2019 were Marilyn's, Sharon's, and Steve's 75th birthdays. In March we had a party for Katie's mother Marilyn at the French Meadow in Minneapolis, with many family and friends in attendance. In June we hosted a party at Sharon's, Kris's mom's, lake home in northern Minnesota, where the weather was nice enough for the cousins to play in the water. And in July we had a birthday party at our house for Katie's dad Steve, one of many stops during his "victory lap" birthday road trip around the U.S.!

Kris and the girls (John not pictured).

Boundary Waters: The first week in August marked our return to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for our annual (most years) camping trip. It's a week of quiet solitude for Katie, who stays home, and in addition to all of the girls being able to go, Katie's brother John joined us. It was a great trip with a new route, and other than our voyage beginning with a downpour, it was thoroughly enjoyable.

On top of Mont Royal in Montreal, Quebec.

25th anniversary: Where did the time go? It's hard to believe that it's been 25 years (and 30 since we met!). I think we're in some kind of strange time warp, because we don't feel old enough to be married this long. Did we get married in elementary school? (yes, nearly) To celebrate this milestone, we took a trip around the northeast in October with stops in Quebec (Montreal), Vermont (Burlington and Montpelier), and Massachusetts (Boston). It was a wonderful vacation that took us abroad to Canada, allowed us to spend time with Katie's brother John in Vermont, and brought us back to Boston where we spent part of our honeymoon in 1994. We even stayed in the same place, the Newbury Guest House!

A summary of the year can't conclude without noting a final, extra special accomplishment. Sarah was admitted to the University of Minnesota Medical School in October! As was her boyfriend Jacob. The good news followed several weeks of very nervous anticipation, given that attending in-state will save them a small fortune in tuition and living expenses compared to medical school elsewhere.

We hope you also had a blessed 2019, and will have a healthy and happy 2020.

2018 in Review

As much as Kris has enjoyed designing and printing cards every year, the process seems to start later and later. So this year we're salvaging an update but just doing it online, which in the past has been our archive. (which we encourage you to enjoy, by the way -- this goes back to 2006!)

This year's update starts with Gus, who turned one year old this January. He continues to be incredibly social and affectionate, wanting to be with us every moment. And he seems to love winter more than any other season, so some of our favorite Gus photos include him being in snowy situations.

If there's one word that summarizes the year for the human members of our family, it's travel. We were particularly blessed to have a number of opportunities to go to some fun and beautiful places. And while we have always prioritized our budget for great experiences over accumulating more things, this year was particularly unusual for the amount of travel that we did. 2018 began with a family trip to the Dominican Republican for spring break, though technically it was just 5/6ths of our family as Sarah's spring break at ASU did not align with the Minneapolis Public Schools calendar. (sorry Sarah!)

The most important event of the year was Grace's graduation from Southwest High School. Now that half of the girls are done with high school, we're bewildered by how quickly time flies! Grace finished high school with a strong GPA and four successful soccer seasons, and was excited to start college in Chicago.

Another big event this year was Kris's cousin's Peter getting married. Peter and Blair's outdoor wedding was a perfect summer event nearby in beautiful Scandia, MN, and we were fortunate to get a good photo of us as a bonus!

The second big trip of the year was Emma's soccer team participating in an international soccer tournament in Sweden. The three of us went, and it was a thrill to watch plus do a lot of sightseeing in between games.  Katie and Kris also left the U.S. early to travel to Denmark and Finland first, where we spent a few days visiting our friends Vesa and Eveliina Loikas and their two lovely daughters Veera and Alina before our arrival in Sweden.

A somewhat less flattering yet more exciting photo of us is above, after we ran the Twin Cities 10 Mile in October. We posted a respectable time and had a good time running together. Stay tuned as we ponder doing other races together in the future!

After going to the Dominican Republic and Sweden (plus Phoenix, Indianapolis, and Las Vegas for soccer tournaments), Emma had a third international trip: French Polynesia. She reached the high school age milestone in our family where you get to pick a place anywhere in the world to travel, and Katie and Kris take turns accompanying. So Emma chose French Polynesia, and the trip is half over as of today. The photo above was taken on Mo'orea, with Mt. Rotui in the background.

It was a great privilege to visit these places and spend time together. We hope that your 2018 was blessed as well, as we prepare for a new year in 2019.

2017 in Review

Happy New Year! Our transition from 2017 to 2018 was marked by badly printed holiday cards, necessitating having to reorder them. But other than that, it was a great year and pleasant holiday season for us. Here are some of our highlights!

Sarah (20) is in her junior year at Arizona State University, and because this news organization does not have a correspondent based in Phoenix, we do not know a ton of detail about what she is doing (perhaps she likes it that way). What we do know is that she had a fantastic season playing soccer, and Kris was fortunate to travel to see her play in a tournament in Boulder, CO, in October. As for academics, she is in ASU's honors college with a pre-med focus, and recently started an internship with the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. She is also pursuing a research opportunity on campus and, in the little free time she has, works at a climbing gym.

Grace (17) is in her senior year at Southwest High School. It's hard to believe that we will have two daughters in college this fall! She has been accepted to 5 schools so far (Univ. of Minn., Univ. of Iowa, Univ. of Wisc. Eau Claire, Loyola University, and SUNY Stony Brook), and we're waiting to hear from a few others before the final round of research and decision making takes place. Meanwhile, Grace played her final season of high school soccer last fall and has been very busy with her job at The Waters on 50th, a senior living facility in Minneapolis where she is a server and best friend of numerous residents.

Emma (14) is a freshman at Southwest and in the midst of her second ski season with the Minneapolis Alpine Ski Team. This means a busy schedule of meets starting in late December through mid-February, plus practice nearly every day that they aren't racing. It's an intense program, but it is incredibly fun and the results of the training are impressive. Emma is already starting to ski like a pro, and among all of the 9-12 graders is finishing consistently in the middle of the pack. Before the ski season, Emma also played soccer for Southwest, first on the JV team but was soon promoted to varsity (one of only two freshman). It was a special soccer season for us to see Grace and Emma play on the same field together.

Anne (11) started middle school at Anthony, the last Layon girl to enter its hallowed halls. She has many new friends, so things seem to be going very well for her in the social department. Academically, her favorite class is language studies, where her school has all 6th graders take 3 months of Spanish, 3 months of French, and 3 months of Japanese. It's a wonderful way to expose children to languages and cultures, and after 6th grade they choose a language to focus on for the next two years. Anne was also busy with soccer most of the year, with the highlight being a tournament win in July at the USA Cup here in the Twin Cities.

Katie (47) continues to work in urgent care for a Park Nicollet clinic in Minnetonka. She is starting to transition into clinic administration, managing the schedule for her location but still working quite a few hours in the clinic caring for patients. When she isn't at work, she is busy adopting dogs! Well, one dog, at least: Katie instigated the adoption of our new golden doodle, Gus, in March. Having a puppy has been an absolute thrill and joy, and Gus couldn't have a more pleasant personality and spirit. He is the definition of fun, full of love and energy (sometimes too much). But now that he's almost 1 year old, we see him starting to mellow... every so slightly... into a more even-tempered dog.

Kris (46) is in his 4th year at Honeywell, working as a user experience researcher and designer for building management software. In practical terms this means helping contractors, engineers, and building owners operate their buildings effectively. The software interfaces that Kris designs are installed in facilities around the world, from commercial buildings to skyscrapers and factories. The work continues to be interesting and he usually travels once a month, either to Richmond, VA (where the subsidiary that he works for is located) or to customer and tradeshow locations. When he isn't working, he's likely at a soccer field, running or cycling around Minneapolis, cooking, or shopping for records to play on his new turntable.

Time continues to fly by, often faster than we would like. And the world (and our country, in particular) seemed to be more angry and intolerant last year — definitely not a good thing. But despite this, we feel very fortunate… fortunate to have friends, family, health, and other resources that help our family live life to the fullest. So we try not to let foolish leaders and grim headlines steal the joy from our lives, and we hope you do the same. Best wishes for a peaceful 2018 — may we all find many good things to cherish and celebrate.

(and for more photos, visit Kris's Instagram stream)