All Good Things Must Come to an End...

And so begins our last blog about the sweet Northern city that will always hold a special place in our hearts....

The past few days have been the toughest days. Saying goodbye is never easy especially when saying goodbye to our first home together, a city we grew to love and a new family which we will always love.

Brad got summoned back to his place of work to receive a random (but awesome) gift from a coworker as well as picking up a crowbar and broom so we could dismantle our ghetto fabulous couch! Upon his return from Savers he was excited to show Jenni his gift, a set of Ninja Russian Dolls a coworker found that made her think of him. They will most likely be displayed in random ninja-type locations around our new place in California, so those of you who come to our house are now challenged to find all 5 ninjas guarding the walls of Casa de J-Rad.

Besides the goodbyes we had an anxious last few days, stressing over whether or not everything would fit inside our beloved Bernie (the car). We also undertook the task of putting our mattress and box spring into extremely large and non Brad and Jenni sized boxes ready to ship back to California. After much lifting, stuffing, and sweating we successfully packed up our bed and even managed to squeeze in some other random things, such as Jenni's beloved Christmas tree (aka Tyrion), into the boxes as well, thus taking some of the stress off of poor Bernie!


Jenni said goodbye to most of her Kindergarteners from the year a few weeks ago and along with Heather, welcomed a (mostly) new group of kids to Franklin's Hideout. Jenni made an effort to not get too attached to any of the new crew so as to make the final goodbye less heart wrenching. But of course, those who know Jenni well will understand that this was a pretty impossible feat to undertake!! So needless to say her last day of work at the Y ended with many tears saying goodbye to kids who she adored and adults who she adored even more!

Jenni and her good friend from Georgia, Natalie

Jenni with her "Fargo Mom", Tracy

Jenni and her fabulous co-teacher, Heather

Jenni and her awesomely sweet friend, Stephanie

Jenni with the amazing Patty!

We spent our last night in our apartment in the same way that we spent our first night...on our not so comfortable air mattress, which Brad ended up rolling off of in the night. So that plus the anxiety of a cross-country move, the sadness of saying goodbye, and the slowly deflating mattress caused us to not get the best night sleep (thank goodness our first day of driving is only a few hours!!). 

After checking out of our apartment, we headed to Starbucks for breakfast. Then we put our Fargo theme song on the ipod (Party Rock Anthem ....see our first Minneapolis blog from October) and got on the interstate passing by the YMCA as Jenni waved with one hand and grabbed for tissues with the other. 

It's funny how one city can so quickly become such an important part of our lives, here are some of our favourite memories from the past year...

Brad's love for Menards!

Potato Days in Barnesville, MN

Angel Cups!!

Jenni's favourite Fargo house!

8th St S...the best street in Fargo

Trying on our Winter gear!

Brad getting in touch with his ninja roots

Basting Bastardo, our beloved Thanksgiving Turkey!

Thanksgiving dinner!

Tyrion, our "imp" of a Christmas tree

FM roller-derby

Roller Derby!

Getting Engaged!!!!

:)

Passage to India

Christmas Day!

Our First Christmas together!

SNOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!!

Our gangsta snowman

Walking in the snow covered park!

Under a snowy tree!

Gonna miss this place!

Snowy bison

Best little city!

Joint Birthday with Heather!

Fargo Force game!

So close!

Meeting up with our Canadian friends!

So here's to you, Fargo. Thanks for the memories, and thanks for making our first year as our own little family a truly legendary (the ND motto) one... 

Onward we go to the next chapter of our lives together...moving home, starting our careers, and of course, GETTING MARRIED :)