Jessica & Matthew

Matthew brings much stability to our family along with an abundance of random knowledge - which comes in handy for trivia nights. He has a master's degree in public administration and has worked in local governments as a planning official for almost two decades. He loves to learn, especially about history, government, and religion. Although he is not athletically inclined, his favorite hobby is baseball. He loves the St. Louis Cardinals and his favorite player was Ozzie Smith. It's not an official summer unless we are eating nachos at a game! He is always up for a road trip and likes to collect t-shirts from every national park that we visit. Matthew's Favorites: - Movie: Ghostbusters - Place to Be: In the mountains - Color: Blue - Food: Supreme Pizza - Dessert: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - Season: Fall

Jessica has a huge heart and is always thinking of ways to bring kindness to others. She encourages us to try new things and pushes us to think beyond our comfort zones. One of her biggest goals was to return to school to study cultural anthropology and she earned her second bachelor's degree in anthropology a few years ago. She has worked in non-profits for more than a decade and is currently a non-profit fundraiser. She loves to read books on historical and cultural topics. She also has a slight addiction to cookbooks! She is starting to get a green thumb and would like to grow a variety of flowers just like her grandmothers had at their homes. Jessica's Favorites: - Movie: Hallmark Christmas Movies - Place to Be: My grandparents' farm - Color: Purple - Food: Strawberries - Dessert: Red velvet cake - Season: Fall

We have a cozy ranch style home with 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, and a large fenced backyard within the suburbs of Chicago. We chose this home because of the quiet neighborhood and privacy that it provides. We appreciate the advantages of living in a major metropolitan area with access to numerous activities and the proximity to several parks and forest preserves. We are near the local schools, the community library, a kid friendly waterpark, and a children's museum. One of Jessica's favorite places in our home is our dining room. We have large window that looks out into our backyard. She likes to sit there and drink coffee on the weekends and look through her cookbooks to plan out some new meals each week. She also cherishes time gathered around the dinner table with her friends and family for get-togethers and holidays. Matthew's favorite place in our home is the living room because he likes to watch documentaries and baseball. The room is spacious with a high ceiling, lots of windows with ample light, and a brick fireplace that we hope to one day use. The room is eclectic in style with family photos, pictures of our favorite national parks, and our books. Together we enjoy being in our backyard playing with our dog. We have a fire pit and like to roast marshmallows throughout the year. We also enjoy playing Scrabble and other games together.

Roscoe, a labradoodle, became a part of our family over ten years ago. He has brought so much joy into our life and we love having him by our side. His name was Roscoe when we met him at the local animal shelter and we gave him the middle name Valentine as we adopted him in February. His favorite toy is his green ball. He loves to eat broccoli and sweet potatoes. He is always ready to take a car ride and his favorite place to visit each week is doggie daycare. Of course he loves to snuggle the best and we wouldn't have it any other way!

Although we may not look like your typical hikers, we love to go out for day hikes in the parks and forest preserves near our home. We have visited several national parks and our current favorite is Glacier National Park in Montana. The mountains were spectacular and the lakes were a pure turquois color. We had never seen anything like it before and want to return there soon. We also love to visit the centers at the national parks so we can have our national park passport book stamped. It's been quite an adventure to get our book stamped since we met. We both love history and anthropology. So, some of our favorite places to go together are to museums and historical sites. One of the first places we visited together was Cahokia Mounds and Gettysburg. For our honeymoon, we went to Savannah. We also like to continue to learn through documentaries and reading books. We have quite a collection of cultural studies, religious studies, historical and travel books. A great date for us is to go to the library or to the book store! We have a bucket list of several places that we want to travel to in the future. Jessica has a goal to visit every continent. She really wants to visit Machu Picchu in Peru and visit the Tuscany countryside in Italy. Matthew has a plan to visit every state (only 28 more to go!). He also would like to visit Norway, Germany, and Turkey.