A Slice of Our Life Together

Our day-to-day life is satisfying and pretty calm. We usually get up together and often eat breakfast together. Dan’s office is just two miles away, so he rides his bike to work. Dan has a pretty high-level position at a company that values work-life balance, so he rarely works more than 40 hours a week. Sally is in school part-time to be a lactation consultant and works part-time at a children’s bookstore. She plans to take the 2012-2013 school year off to (eventually) have time at home with our baby.

Sally usually takes our dog Lily on a long hike in the mountains once a week. Dan goes to CrossFit, our gym, 2–3 times a week. In the evenings, we usually cook dinner from scratch (our child will eat really well!), and we always eat together as a family. After dinner, we clean up a bit, walk our dog, snuggle with our cats, play board games, and generally spend low-key time together. Sometimes we just curl up with our pets and read. We love having friends join us for dinner. We always go to bed together, spending time to talk over our lives, cuddle, and make plans as we’re falling asleep.

On the weekends, we run errands and take on adventures large and small: kayaking, hiking, hosting or attending parties, or visiting friends in San Francisco. We are both physically active and up for trying new things. On Saturday mornings we visit the nearby farmer’s market for local, organic veggies and fruits, as well as pastured meats. On Sunday mornings, we often attend the Episcopal church in our town. Because some of our friends and family are scattered around the country, we often have guests, which we love. (Sally even puts mints on the pillows on our guest room bed!) Some weekends we just stay home: Dan gardens or plays his ukulele, and Sally tinkers in the kitchen, creating new recipes.

We take long weekends away two or three times a year and take a longer vacation once or twice a year. Dan traveled a good bit as a child, but Sally didn’t get to fly on a plane until she was 15, so she is very eager to have our child get an early start on the great cultural exposure that travel provides.

Our Pets

We have three pets: our cats Foo and Olivia, whom Sally adopted as kittens, and Lily, a small dog whom we adopted two years ago. Foo is very social, while Olivia is a more typical cat, though she reveals her secret snuggly side when we let her under the covers of our bed. Lily is an absolute sweetheart. We don’t know who Lily’s first family was, but they must have had children, because Lily is gentle, patient and loving with our family’s and friends’ children, and she always wants to be petted by the neighborhood children on walks.