It has been a minute.
I stopped posting here – well I guess in 2024 is what my last post says!
So many things going on in life including spending a lot of time working! And this blog was always about our adventures as a family, and I kind of put a pause on it.
I recently started writing about some of our empty nester adventures over on substack, combining it with some nervous system musings. But I thought it might be fun, for my personal record to post them here too.
But before I do that, a quick 2025 update:
Gabe was sworn in as a lawyer in January 2025. Rob flew down to go to the swearing in. He and Shannon are loving Brooklyn life.
Zandra graduated from with her Masters Berkeley and started working as a teacher and Ilyah is studying Environmental science. We went to San Francisco for her graduation and had a lovely time exploring the city, and heading to the redwoods them. We had some nice meals too!
We went to Utah too as Zach graduated from BYU and Rachael graduated nursing school. They moved to Kingston bcs Zach got into med school (Queen’s) and Rachael and started work as an ICU nurse. They did a 2.5 month trip to Asia after graduation.
Josh headed off tree planting again this summer, and graduated with his degree in Psychology from Carleton in December. He and his gf and some friends left for Asia in Jan 2026 (will be back in May)
Sam continued on at Carleton too, worked for a travel company over the summer and decided to apply to do a semester abroad in Nottingham! He is currently living it up and doing a ton of travel in Europe.
In January we went to Copenhagen to visit Jamie and Judy (they are the on a mission in Denmark – mission president). I then had a conference in Vienna, so Rob joined me for a day, and I stayed a few more. An amazing city.
That same week we went to Copenhagen and Vienna, I launched my Resilience Journal on journal, and then later in the year, I launched my Safe Space affirmation and journal prompt cards, as well as my Worry Time Pad and Program, all part of my Resilient Brilliance Brand
We took a family trip to Disneyland I February and stayed in Newport Beach.
I headed to Vancouver for another mastermind, then returned home to go directly to the Busing Family reunion which was fun. It’s so nice to catch up with everyone and see everyone making the effort to be there – so many years, so much history, so many memories and important to continue to make new ones.
In September, I hosted my first La Bella Vita Retreat in Italy (Tuscany) and it was amazing! We spent a few days in Rome first, before heading to the villa. We did days trips to Florence and Pienza while at the villa. it was pretty magical. Next one is booked for Sept 2026!
Rob joined me at the end of the retreat and we had a great time heading to Lucca for the day, Cirque Terre for 3 nights, Lake Como for 2 nights and then Milan for 2 nights. Loved every minute of it. He had been treated for Prostate cancer in July, then some job changes end of August, so the trip was much needed.
In Dec we took our now “standard” trip to Mexico (trade with out timeshare) at the Westin Lagunamar and love doing out “Mexico” routine including a lot of beach time and some yummy restaurants (Ryoshi is a fave right across the road from us!)
In Jan we headed to Portugal for a long weekend so I could check out a new location for my retreat in 2027. I found something in the Algarve and we had a nice weekend there with some friends who were visiting. We then hit Lisbon for a night and loved it.
In February we headed to Mexico again – a time share came up and since I can work remotely we decided to go for it.
In March, after my in person training for Somatic Experiencing (I am doing the 3 year program) , we decided that we wanted to seize the time we have right now – the Die with Zero approach: time, health and wealth and booked a 1 way ticket to Lisbon… and here we are….
Ill add the substack articles here to continue the story…
(And I’ll also add Rob’s 2024 Christmas poem and the 2025 one too as they give a great recap)
