Who says you can’t go home?

Somehow, summer has come and gone (again). In June, 10 weeks stretched out before us and felt like a lifetime, and now I look back on all we’ve done and cannot believe we’re beginning the next school year tomorrow.

I’ve already recapped our time in the West of Ireland in late June, but our major travels this summer were to visit family and friends all over the US. We began in California in mid-July, spending a week with friends in our most recent former hometown just north of San Diego. Sun and sand and the best of friends were just what we needed after almost five months away in Ireland.

We then moved on to visit family in Minneapolis, including meeting my baby niece who absolutely stole the show. Babies really do make everything better. After a week with family, we headed to the East Coast, spending our time boating, swimming, and showing our kids New York City. Then it was more family and friend time in Massachusetts, and we spent our last night in the US with our early-Covid clan, a group bonded together in an idyllic little town just west of Boston.  

Every stop was special and memorable, and every person we spent time with went out of their way to make us feel special and loved. It can be painful to move a lot like we have over the past decade, and it’s easy to just focus on all the friends you no longer see every day. But man, if you can focus on the positives that moving, exploring, and keeping connections can bring, you really can fill your life with days that feel like magic.

So, here’s to celebrating what turned out to be an epic summer of fun, and also filling up the fall calendar with new adventures and places to explore. Just say the word and we’ll meet you anywhere in Europe! New memories await.