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Hi all! Welcome to our 10th annual Year in Review! Hard to believe 2025 has come to a close. We’re really getting to years that sound like they’re from the future. Wasn’t it just Y2K?! Lucy is going to graduate high school in 2040!?!?! Anyway, we send lots of love from Minnesota to all of you and hope you’re hanging on in these crazy, futuristic times.
This year we moved out of the baby stage! Everybody sleeps, is potty trained, can verbally express their needs (usually at volume 11), and (what’s left of) our sanity is starting to return.
Lily turned 2 in October. She is the most adorable, independent, hilarious little ray of sunshine. She randomly bursts into shout-singing in the aisles of Target (OH MISTAH SUN SUN MISTAH GOLDEN SUN). She fearlessly joins in with big kids activities and is so excited to FINALLY be starting her own gymnastics class in January.
Lucy is now 4! She’s a little sponge, so curious and excited about the world. She’s obsessed with drawing and coloring and comes home with 5-10 pages of creations from school every day. She is the best big sister and loves playing with and taking care of Lily…at least, during the 80% of time when they are getting along.
In February, we ventured to the Bay Area to see Andrew’s brother David, his wife Yessika, and our friends there. So fun to see everybody and walk around the hills of San Rafael in the sun. It was also a treat to meet up with our crew from Australia - Annika, Andrew, Avery, and Ari. We all lived in the same apartment building back in the pre-kid Covid era, and now the kids are friends! Lucy and Avery caused quite a ruckus leaping around Trader Joe’s when they saw each other!
Dara’s cousins May and Cassie each visited in the summer! Luckily, they both love kids and joined right in on our summer routine of parades and art fairs. When they left, the girls were so sad to be stuck with only their much less exciting parents.
In June, we took our first family camping trip! Dara’s sister Hannah and her family joined us for a couple of nights up on the North Shore. It took longer to get ready than the trip itself, but was actually quite fun in the end. Throwing rocks into the water turns out to be an endless source of child entertainment (why do we buy toys?) We’re already planning next summer’s trip.
For the rest of the summer, you could pretty reliably find us rolling about town on our new electric cargo bike, or in the pool. Both girls still love swimming - especially Lily who wants to ‘do it myself’. How annoying to have parents that won’t let you drown.
In September, we headed to Boston for Dara’s cousin Aaron’s beautiful coastal wedding. Despite our rental not existing when we showed up (if you take one thing from this letter, please, please, never ever use Booking.com for vacation rentals), the girls did great on the trip and the event was simultaneously fun and chill. Lily spent the rehearsal dinner walking up to every adult in the room and asking them to give her a piece of bread. And we even got to visit the New England Aquarium, where Lucy’s highlight was seeing real live piranhas! She was talking about that for weeks afterward. It’s good to have diverse interests.
We welcomed Dara’s college friends Dan and David and their families for a Halloween visit! We had Bluey and Bingo, an ambulance, a fireman, the Little Mermaid, and Lily, who went as a Two Year Old Who Refuses to Wear A Costume. We had a blast trick-or-treating and enjoyed many impromptu dance parties over the course of the weekend.
We wrapped up the year with birthdays! Lily’s 2nd birthday was a beautiful day during peak fall colors. She is officially very into cupcakes now after trying her first one. For Lucy’s 4th birthday in November, we had a rainbow sparkle science party! The kids had so much fun wearing lab coats and goggles, pouring potions and popping dry ice bubbles!
Work-wise, we are both still at Stripe! This year Andrew invented an in-house bank (don't ask him to explain it at a party unless you have 45 minutes). His main hobby this year has been doing PT to deal with on-and-off back pain :( Dara took on a new role managing growth and developer platform data science teams and picked up more regular running, including a 10-mile race in May! She is hoping to keep the momentum going in 2026.
We were glad to see many of you this year, and hope you’ll come visit us in Minnesota in 2026!
Love,
Dara, Andrew, Lucy, Lily, and Misty
P.S. Did somebody say Misty? Here is her annual photo reel. She’s still amazing, y’all. She’s now almost 13 and starting to slow down a little, but remains our loyal and extremely tolerant sidekick. Mostly she just looks at the kids with a gaze that says, “I was here first.” We love her so much.
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