Our Favorites of 2025

I'm not going to pretend that this was a good year. It started off with a great deal of sadness and anxiety, both for us personally and for many people across the country and the world. We spent a lot of this year navigating various new normals, from family gatherings without Jeremy's mom to attempting to follow increasingly unsettling news about the government (news that moved so fast that we had almost forgotten many of this year's crazy things– like, DOGE was this year? Somehow?).

But we did find times and places for joy and hope. We probably spent more time with family this year than we had since leaving Texas in 2011. We saw national parks and went skiing (or ski lodging) and succeeded at an escape room. We successfully navigated a kitchen remodel and doubled the number of dogs in our family.

And so we are wrapping up this year with a largely positive post that covers some of the highlights of 2025. (Note: We each wrote our own responses, in case you were wondering.)

Travel Destination or Experience

• Jeremy: The road trip to the five national parks in Utah was amazing. Canyonlands was my favorite, quite possibly because it was stormy and the clouds across the sweeping vistas were extremely dynamic. Salt Lake City turned out to be a bit of a dud, but aside from that everything in Utah was amazing. Even the weirdly freaky drive out from Capital Reef through the most remote highway I have ever driven. I'm talking a couple of hours with no cell reception at all and maybe a handful of cars, if that.
• Sara: How lucky are we that this is a legitimately difficult choice? In the end, I landed on Canyonlands, one of our stops on the Utah road trip this summer. The entire trip was really incredible, but this was the spot that surprised me the most (and also graced us with amazing cloud cover for most of the visit). Honorable Mention: The gondola at Telluride.
• Oscar: Arches National Park. It was very beautiful. 5/5, would recommend.

Concert

• Jeremy: Hands down the best concert this year was Weird Al. It felt like a concert I've been training for for thirty years and change. Singing along to all the songs at the top of my lungs with Oscar is something I will never forget. And after all the singing I was able to meet Weird Al in person! A close second would be the Punk in the Park weekend in Denver with Shawn and Oscar. A particularly memorable moment there was when Pennywise played Fuck Authority and Oscar asked, "Can I sing along?" Yes, little dude, let's sing along.
• Sara: Ben Folds with the Colorado Symphony. While I loved the Weird Al concert and was excited to spend a gorgeous summer night listening to Counting Crows, this show was special. Ben Folds arranged several of his songs– including some of my personal favorites– for the symphony, talked about the process and inspirations behind his songs, and took a firm stance on the importance of the arts.
• Oscar: "Weird Al" Yankovic. He was extremely funny. 5/5, would see again.

Entertainment Other than Concerts

• Jeremy: I really enjoyed seeing Taylor Tomlinson at the Paramont up in Denver. Hearing the symphony play the music of John Williams was also pretty stellar, even though they didn't play many of his most famous pieces, such as the main Star Wars theme or anything from Jurassic Park.
• Sara: This was a tough one because we got to see several fun performances this year, but I have to go with comedian Sheng Wang, whose hilarious set demonstrated that comedy can be gentle and affirming.
• Oscar: Summer camp. It was fun to be at the zoo in general. 5/5, would recommend.

Activity/Hobby

• Jeremy: I started taking taekwondo with Oscar this year. Some of the things those kids do (army crawls, bear crawls, etc.) are very decidedly not easy.
• Sara: Stitching (and shopping for stitching stuff with Summer). I have always loved cross stitch, but now I've started venturing out into other kinds of needlework (and buying more patterns and fun thread than I will ever be able to use).
• Oscar: Having play dates. It's a kid thing. For adults, it's more like a "business meeting," but still, 5/5, would recommend.

Thing I Ate

• Jeremy: For my birthday we went around the corner to the fancy Carlos's Bistro. I had a couple of very delicious lamb chops. Also for my birthday Sara got me an Avalanche cookie cake from Mary's Mountain Cookies. For those of you that don't know, an Avalanche is basically a chocolate chip cookie sandwich blown up to ridiculous proportions. The middle is delicious icing. The whole thing was about a foot in diameter and probably an inch and a half tall.
• Sara: I had an impressively huge and truly delicious wedge salad at one of the only restaurants in Bluff, Utah. That may sound like a weird choice, but their house dill ranch was amaaaazing.
• Oscar: Chocolate fondue. Maybe not a thing at your house but is at mine. 5/5, yummy. :)

Memory

• Jeremy: I would definitely say this is not a favorite memory, but my mom died this year. We all knew it was coming, but even so, it sucked a lot. I ended up spending the entire month of February in Arlington helping my dad. Prior to that I managed to wrangle my family into the same place in early January for our last family pictures while mom was alive. She was not in any of them, but she did see the pictures before she died. Family meant a lot to mom, so I was glad we were able to make that happen. And now I'm crying while writing this. Honorable mention: In April Sara received an email from the local Irish Wolfhound breeder that they finally, after a nearly three year wait, had a litter of puppies on the way. We debated a lot, but in early May we adopted the sweetest, giantest puppy and named her Nutmeg. She immediately latched onto Turtle, who is now her emotional support dog, despite the fact that she is nearly two-and-half times his size. She is pure, gigantic delight.
• Sara: Surprising Oscar with a trip to pick out our Irish wolfhound puppy, almost exactly a year after we had surprised him with a trip to pick out Turtle. We had already narrowed our choices down to two puppies when we got there, and Jeremy and I were leaning toward one– but Oscar immediately gravitated to the other one, a light brindle girl with funny little eyebrows. And I think he picked wisely, because our Nutmeg (official AKC name: Margaret Murry Day, but we only call her that when she's naughty, which is almost never) is the sweetest girl.
• Oscar: Seeing my family at Thanksgiving. I came for the food, but family was fine. 5/5, do this every year.

Thing I Am Most Looking Forward to in 2026

• Jeremy: Seeing Jurassic Park with Oscar. It's one of my favorite movies, and seeing it with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic doing the music is going to be the best possible way for him to experience it. I'm especially looking forward to one specific jump scare.
• Sara: Our trip to San Diego. I've never been there, but I have heard nothing but raves about it. And on the way, we're going to get to spend a little time with some old friends that we haven't seen in more than a decade.
• Oscar: Entering sixth grade. Gives me a sense of authority. 5/5, can't wait.