Holiday newsletter 2022

• Well, the big one…Chad, Wally, and I moved from New Castle, CO to Milwaukee, WI!
• We’ve added several real estate transactions to our resume! Sold, rented, and bought in the past year.
• Chad got a new job at Graef in downtown Milwaukee.
• We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary this September, followed by our 11th year together in November. 🖤

Winter started off with a bang. In a whirlwind matter of weeks, Chad and I decided to change our lives completely, pretty much on a whim. We were feeling a little stuck, so we jumped into an adventure that just seemed like the perfect non-adhesive recipe: we quickly made plans to move across the country once Chad went through a series of interviews and was subsequently offered a structural engineering position in Milwaukee.

After Chad accepted the job, we put our house on the market and got it ready to sell (kudos to Haddie Lopez), started skiing at Sunlight as much as possible, and spent all remaining moments cramming in quality time with our family and friends, knowing how much we’d soon miss them.

In February, we decided to make a quick trip to Milwaukee (our first time ever visiting), where we instantly fell in love with the city. During our three-day visit, we were able to tour houses with our MKE realtor (Ginger Lazovik is the best of the best) and we went under contract on a beautiful Victorian house in Brewer’s Hill.

In between hours of packing and selling most of our things on Facebook Marketplace, Chad and I visited as many people as possible. We spent quality time with my parents, Tyler, Natalie, and Nora, and found out that we were going to be an aunt and uncle again. 🙂 We got to say goodbye to Chad’s parents and grandma (and his old trusty Jeep).

We did a farewell tour in Denver, which included a dreamy matinee showing of Hamilton (the best Christmas present ever, thank you Chad!) and cramming in moments with each of our 5,280-based loved ones one last time. It was really tough to say goodbye.

During these months, Chad and I also spent a significant amount of time with our neighbors—laughing, updating, venting. They kept us sane as we rushed into a major life change, always offering advice and a beer at the garage door. Once, even gas when we ran out on the on-ramp back home to New Castle. (We miss you guys.)

We moved out of our New Castle home on February 28. I’m not going to lie: it was an emotional experience (exacerbated too, by a frazzling and horrifying moving company ordeal) that fueled a 22 hour-straight drive to our new city with no breaks.

A few favorite posts I wrote in winter 2022:

• Huge announcement
• Initial Milwaukee visit
• Farewell house tour
• My favorite New Castle memories

We kicked off spring in a new city, living in a temporary apartment on the Milwaukee River. While we were initially worried about how our very large dog would handle living in a 600 sq ft unit without a yard, Wally adjusted nicely and it became a nice habit to take him on daily walks. Though we only lived in our apartment for three months, we loved it: the location on the water was fantastic and it was walkable to a lot of fantastic places near us.

Shortly after the move, Chad started his new job at Graef and I was able to continue my business, maintaining my Colorado clients digitally.

Because we used a moving company and had issues, we unexpectedly didn’t have our things for quite some time. We mostly enjoyed our new minimalistic lifestyle, but the worst part was sleeping on an air mattress for three months. However, we realized that if we could get through that, we could do anything.

Chad and I jumped right into exploring Milwaukee and familiarizing ourselves with the culture, especially the food and drink—taking in all the cheese curds and breweries at our disposal. (Note: there’s quite a lot.)

We met up with a Colorado connection, a friend-of-friends Haley, and did a pub crawl for Saint Patrick’s Day, which kicked off a really wonderful friendship for us in MKE. For my birthday, I rang in 27 with a delicious dinner with Chad, and a weekend involving beach walks along our ocean-like lake Michigan, bowling, and fun at the Third Street Market Hall.

In April, we crashed a wedding and found ourselves in Baraboo, WI for a night with our old New Castle neighbors, celebrating the love of strangers surrounded by a few familiar faces. Later, we got to see one of my favorite bands, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, at the Pabst Theatre. A few weeks later, we caught a full-house Charlie Berens show, which gave us a full introduction to Wisconsin humor.

In May, Chad and I took our first trip back to Colorado for a quick weekend. We went to a wedding (shout out to the incredible Mitchell and Rachel for a wonderful time), saw my parents, spent time with my brother Tyler’s family, and got my first sunburn in months (the grey skies in WI are no joke).

Back in Milwaukee, Chad and I finally closed on our new house began painting and furnishing before we moved in. We got the keys to our historic Victorian home and have been loving every single moment with it ever since: it was built in 1888 and we love its charm, character, and location! We’re about a mile from Lake Michigan, a five to seven-minute drive to any part of the city, and Chad can walk 25 minutes to work if he wants.

A few favorite posts from spring 2022:

• Exploring Milwaukee
• Two months in MKE
• Happy hour chat
• Welcome to our new house

Summer kicked off in a big way and remained jam-packed and busy from start to finish. Blue skies emerged and Milwaukee woke up, buzzing with an unmatched energy of a city excited to make the most out of its beautiful weather—Chad and I included.

And so we did: a major highlight was the several days we spent lakeside, both at Lake Michigan (Atwater Beach was an instant favorite) and other lakes spread out inland, as well as beer gardens at local parks. We went to our first Brewers games and loved our experiences at AmFam Field (though you might want to call it Miller Park to the locals). We added two weekly traditions into the mix: first, Chad’s work softball league, and second, trivia with our friend Haley.

Chad turned 28 and to celebrate, we spent a weekend in Lake Geneva and had a blast learning about its rich Chicago-influenced history and their incredible mail jumpers.

Our own Brewer’s Hill neighborhood blossomed and we were blown away by the lush beauty of our surroundings. Everything turned green. The Sanger Gardens, a tucked-away public garden, became an immediate favorite.

Over the summer, Chad and I traveled back to Colorado two more times. In July, we went to Gunnison for Chad’s 10 year high school reunion. We had SUCH a fun time connecting with old friends (shout out, especially, to our dear friend Emily for being such a fantastic rock and coordinator) and riding in the Cattleman’s Day Parade (I got to, too, lol). We squeezed in time with Chad’s family, my former softball coach, D, and even my parents drove two hours to see us for a few minutes between festivities.

We came back to Colorado in August for a family reunion for a week, where we spent some time in Grand Junction and Denver. We got to see my grandparents, my brother Spencer and his family visiting from Turkey, my aunts Mary, Becky, Stacy, my uncle Jess, and my cousin Lindsay. I also was able to see my brother Tyler’s family and meet my new niece Vivian. It was also great to spend time in my favorite place (my parent’s pool, lol), and go on a hike on the Grand Mesa.

In between our travels back home, Chad and I tried to make the most of our time in Milwaukee. Some fun events included Summerfest, the Brady Street Festival, and the Wisconsin State Fair. We were also happy to host our friend Megan, who traveled all the way from Denver to see Haley and us.

Summer went by fast! Thanks to our proximity to Lake Michigan, temperatures never got too hot for us, though Chad spent many of the warmest hours doing bridge inspections all over Milwaukee and beyond. On our best days, Wally and I broke up our work-from-home afternoons with walks to the river.