Abu Dhabi

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I wasn’t sure what to expect going to Abi Dhabi.

I knew going to the mosque would require me to cover up (arms, legs to ankles, head) and in this heat, I was not looking forward to it

Luckily while shopping in the Dubai Mall the other day, I headed into Lululemon to get a pair of capri pants that I loved. The salesperson only had full length in my size. When I told her they were different than what I asked for, she responded “yes I know. They are better”.

I ended up buying them. And good thing bcs I ended ups wearing them:)

Our guide (We hired a guide for 1 day in Dubai (yesterday ) and to take us to Abu Dhabi. I always find it so so so worth it to have a guide as they can give you so many details and you don’t waste time figuring things out. We headed out to the mosque first to try to arrive before the crowds.

We had been to the famous Mosque in Casablanca, Morrocco several years ago, and it was impressive. But, I have to say this one blew me away.

I’ll let the photos speak for themselves (and sorry uploading ends up messing the order up)

We then went to the Royal Hotel and then the palace. The Palace was stunning. Again, seriously impressive!

The city itself if pretty beautiful too.

We then went to the Yas Marina Circuit where they have the formula one race. Rob is a huge F1 so this was on his must see list. We went into the W hotel where you can see the race from their viewing rooms and restaurants . It’s a fun hotel and you can tell would be a great place to view the race!

We headed back to our hotel in Dubai and went to have lunch in the Dubai marina/beach area. It was only a 10 minute walk – but when the temperature is 46+degrees celsius in the evening – 10 min is long enough!

Dubai – Part 2

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We had arranged to have a guide today to show us around everywhere.

We went to a few markets, saw some super fancy hotels, the museum of the future, the Dubai Frame…

We went to the Mall of the Emirates and checked out the indoor ski hill:

We headed over to the Spice and Gold Markets (souks)

Then lastly, we headed over to the Burj Arab – the world’s only 7 star hotel and we had high tea at the top of it in the Skyview restaurant.

We headed back to our new hotel (we changed hotels so we could get the vibe in different areas!)

We went for a walk along the marina – and when we were sufficiently drenched in sweat from the 42 degree celsius scroll, we headed back:) Our view from our hotel:

Dubai

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Back in February we decided we wanted to take a big trip. We didn’t know where, but knew we wanted to be away for 3 weeks.

Although summer has never been my preferred time to travel away, we knew that 3 weeks would work for both of us this summer.

We toyed with different ideas, but got stuck on where.

Rob mentioned he always wanted to go to Dubai so I googled what are good places to visit along with Dubai and came up with Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

We researched it all – and it sounded amazing! Aside from being super hot, everything else sounded great!

And so here we are…

The day before we were offered an upgrade for a not so totally unreasonable price.

It may have ruined us for flying for good though:)

We headed to the airport, and enjoyed a very pleasant 12 hour flight:)

The Dubai airport is very impressive, and we drove by a few landmarks right away.

We knew the jet lag would be pretty real so we decided to book 2 nights at the very famous Atlantis Palm ( you can get some great rates when you travel to Dubai in the summer bcs it is very low season bcs it is so HOT!!)

The Atlantis is impressive – including its aquarium. We watched some fish while we waited for our room and then headed to the pool and kiss relaxed.

We stayed at the hotel for the rest of the evening. It is very reminiscent of Vegas.

The next day we were still in chill mode – and the heat was pretty intense.

We went to the hotel aquarium in the morning.

We had lunch reservations at the Burj Khalifa – the second tallest building in the world.

An incredible view (this was from the bathroom!)

After lunch, we headed to the Dubai Mall. It is seriously impressive. It is divided in two: Fashion street with all the high end shops and then a more regular mall – but massive.

We then watched the fountain show and had dinner on the promenade at a Lebanese place. it was really good.

We headed back to the hotel:

Montreal and Nashville

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Well at least this blog gets some love when I travel!
I had a life coach conference in Nashville to go to the weekend after Gabe’s graduation.

But before I got to head out to Nashville, I headed out to Montreal for a quick trip.

My brother and sister in law are leaving to lead our church’s mission in Denmark for a few years, so my brother went to spend some time with my mom and sister. I decided to go bcs it is rare we are all together!

We just hung out, went for a nice dinner, and hung out some more.

We took a few pics too – although they are not the best – they serve the purpose of getting us all together.

I returned from Montreal and then headed out to Nashville.

I got to meet some of the people who have taken my Advanced Training in Nervous System Resilience and Connections, and connect with other coaches who were in my Mastermind last year. Such an amazing group of entrepreneurial women!

We headed out to Nashville and listened to some music, danced, checked out the boots, ate some Southern food and had a great time.

We also go to eat some amazing cookies the next day and meet a famous country singer (who I didn’t know, but my friends did and were excited!)

It was so nice to connect with everyone, but it was good to be home!

Gabe’s Graduation from Law School

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Wow I can’t even believe it as I write the title of this blog!

Gabe graduated law school!!

I remember his grade 6 graduation so well!

I remember how school was never his thing and it took a lot of pushing, and we definitely got in the bad books. And while maybe there are things I would do differently, I will never regret believing that Gabe was capable of so much.

And he put the effort in and achieved his goal. He did the work, he sweated it out, he sacrificed and he had success. And Shannon was a stellar partner all the way through – supporting him all the way. It’s a celebration for her too – a celebration of them together ! So lots to celebrate!

We started the day over at their place to see him get in his gown and then headed over to the law school to take some photos.

The graduation was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music so we headed over there.

Some of the shots are a bit grainy:))

It was long:) And Gabe was near the end – but it was great!

Afterwards we snapped a few pictures in the crowds then headed back to the law school where they had a reception.

(These two boys ^^^… used to hear them giggling and laughing in their room at night, and pulling pranks on their siblings… my how they have grown!)

And then there is these two^^^ love how they share so many interests together!

We the headed out for a celebration lunch/dinner with everyone! Gabe celebrated wiht a giant slice of cake!

Everyone then split up a bit and we walked for a long stretch though Central Park and then along 5th Avenue before heading back. It was so nice to just chill with these kids!

What an amazing day!!

The next day we headed out to get some donuts that Shannon recommended with her parents. We ended ups at the Swedish Bon Bon shop – so good! And then had lunch at 7th Street Burger (also so good!) before heading off!

It was such an incredible weekend!

Mother’s Day in NYC

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It was kind of nice to be in NYC for Mother’s Day and to have Zach there (that was my Mother’s Day gift to me). (Josh is up tree planting in northern Alberta this summer again, and Sam is also up in Northern Ontario tree planting).

We had decided to spend Mother’s Day separately (so Shannon with her parents and the Gabe & Zandra with their mom). So it was just Zach, Rob and me.

We had tickets to Hamilton which I was so excited about! Before that we did a bit of shopping – but then ran out of time to get food before Hamilton!

We had to get some hot dogs on the street and got royally ripped off – $40 for 3 hot dogs and a coke! Insane. Prices are so ridiculous it is annoying . It was also rainy though so we took what we could get!

We went to see Hamilton and it was amazing!! So so good!

After the show, we had dinner reservations at an Italian place in Hell’s kitchen where he had been several times before (called Becco). We had a great meal!

We went to Smackary’s cookies (names after the owner Zackary) and then walked around a bit more (stopped in FAO Schwartz).

We ended up back at Gabe and Shannon’s and hung out for a bit before heading back to our hotel.

Another highlight was getting all the messages and texts from the kids!

Zach also made me an incredible gift: He made these brains! (What a perfect gift for me – one day they will hang up a nice big home office – I was thinking I’d make stickers of them too!)

Don’t you love all the different angles and planes?!?!

It was such a great Mothers day.

Exploring New York City

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A couple of weeks ago we went to NYC for Gabe’s graduation.

He was graduating from Brooklyn law school and the actual ceremony was the Monday so we decided it only make sense to spend the whole weekend there.

It fell right on Mother’s Day so the perfect opportunity to get Zach to come join us! Rachael was in India for a Nursing school program. Zandra was also able to join us!

Rob and I flew in early Friday morning as did Zach.

We went for a little walk to check out the gorgeous city view near them, and had the BEST raspberry croissants.

The boys headed off to Queens as they had planned a whole day exploring and doing their own food tour there.

They had a great time, including using the claw machine to get some fun souvenirs (long story but basically Rob wanted to try to get one and didn’t realize the machine did not give change so they ended up having a lot of trials on the claw machine!)

Shannon and I went into the city and met up with some coaches for lunch and I CAN’T BELIEVE I HAVE NO PHOTOS!!! We had a really great time meeting up with some coaches, and then we walked along 5th avenue (stopping to sample a cookie of course) and did a bit of shopping.

That night we headed out to get some pizza.

The next morning Zandra arrived early and came over to our hotel.

We had a an early start and decided to walk the Brooklyn bridge before going to brunch with Gabe and Shannon.

We then went to meet up wiht Gabe and Shannon for brunch.

We gave Gabe a watch for graduation. He has worked so incredibly hard – it so nice for him to feel the rewards (internal and external) of his efforts! He already has a job lined up – just has to write the bar in July.

After lunch we headed into the city to walk around and headed to the Highline. It was so super busy!

Ask me if it was a tiring day, lol.

Zandra had a friend in town so she met up with her and the Rob, Zach and I went for dinner with Shannon’s parents (Gabe and Shannon went for dinner with Gabe’s mom – it requires a lot of juggling to squeeze everything and everyone in!). We went for Chinese and ended up getting the same chicken with slight variations of sauce lol.

When you travel with Zach he takes advantage of every single second, so he wanted to go walk the Brooklyn bridge at night too. Gabe and Rob joined him but I had to pass (I developed a shin splint and it was KILLING me and my ankle was swollen!) But I enjoyed the picture and the stories after!

It was a great first couple of days!

Whirlwind Italy

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I’ve been neglectful to this blog – even didn’t do any Birthday posts this year!

But I thought I’d try to keep up with some travel posts and more importantly, photos bcs that is what I skip to anyway:)

I did post this on my instagram:

I love it when the planner part of me meets the spontaneous part of me.

I’m planning something exciting for the fall of 2025 – yep- my brain thinks that far ahead.

But I realized that the planner part of me needed some more info to take some steps towards making my future dream plan come true.

Luckily my spontaneous part of me woke up a couple of weeks ago, rolled over in bed and said to my parter in crime – “Hey, do you want to go on a field trip with me?”

“Sure! When and where?” (He’s always up for anything 😍😍).

“Italy. Next weekend”.

Silence. 😂😂😂

But he’s used to my wacky ideas. He was easy to convince. (It took 2 seconds).

All the stars aligned in ways that confirmed we were meant to go (a nice airline credit sealed the deal and a stroke of luck with a drop in airline prices for a few hours ) – and we were off! 

We walked thousands of steps, drove hundreds of miles (well Rob drove, I get very sleepy in the car 😬😬 but managed to stay awake long enough to ooh and ahh over the incredible scenery), completed my “research”, and ate as much yummy food as we could. 

And I solidified my exciting plans for Sept 2025!!! 

***

So we literally boarded a flight to Rome on Thursday night. We landed around 11am their time, picked up a car and made our way to Florence – about a 3 hour drive (with traffic). Im not sure how Rob did it bcs I was exhausted!

We arrived at our cute hotel which was a bit further than anticipated – I thought I had read it as a 20 min walk – I was so wrong. I was about an hour an twenty minute.

But we did it! We had a quick siesta when we arrived in Florence and then headed by foot to the city.

It was kind of fun walking through more residential Florence – so pretty.

We checked out the Duomo – of course – how can you miss it!

We walked around for a bit, pontevecchio, outside the museums, did some wandering.

We found a cute place called Cacio Pepe for dinner – where I had Cacio Pepe (and got scolded for pronouncing bruschetta wrong – I mean I know it is pronounced Brusketta, but some it came out wrong lol).

We headed back to our hotel and CRASHED!

Of course, only to wake up so early… then fall back asleep and feel drugged when we got up. Got to love jet lag.

We headed into Florence again – this time to walk around Bobble gardens and then made out way back to the centre again . Such a gorgeous city!

Late morning we headed about 30 min outside of Florence to check out 1 Villa I was interested in. We stopped in the tiny town outside to grab lunch. Yummy pasta, but we had a bruschetta mishap again – it was not with tomatoes but with lard. Yuck!!

We headed to check out the villa and we were very disappointed. Not what I was hoping for:(

We headed back to the city, went for a quick snack – but Rob ordered a mint tea and ended up getting mint milk. We had a good laugh.

We tried to go for dinner, but it was raining and there was no parking, so we headed back to eat in the hotel restaurant. I ordered naked ravioli which I thought meant “light on the sauce” – but no, it means no pasta, just stuffing!!

The next morning, we packed up and headed into Tuscany. We stopped in gorgeous Siena , where there happened to be a Fiat 500 parade – so Rob was in heaven.

We had a nice lunch, walked around and then headed to the next villa.

We found what I thought was the villa we were going to see – but it ended up being the wrong address – too bad bcs the villa was gorgeous! But – luckily the “right” villa was even more beautiful! We could not believe it ! I am so excited to host a retreat there!

We headed back to Rome – crazy driving for Rob!

We ate a t a yummy restaurant acorss the street from our cute hotel (I had the fully dressed ravioli this time lol), went to visit fontana trevi and the Spanish steps (the crowds at both were big! Things have changed since we were here 13 years ago!)

The next morning we were up early – and did a mini full tour of Rome! Such a great city!

We headed to the airport and flew home that afternoon.

What a whirlwind but so so fun!

2023 Year in Review

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This is always a fun one to write to capture the year in review too!

2023 had a lot going on – here are some of the highlights and lowlights and everything in between in no particular order

Zandra and Ilyah’s wedding celebration

Sam’s 16 trip to England

Outerbanks for 3 weeks for working remotely

Zach and Rachael in France for 6 weeks

Josh tree planting in Alberta

LCS Mastermind presentation in Dallas

Loss of Rachael’s brother

Sam’s graduation

Lots of Netflix, prime and Apple TV

Advanced Training in Nervous System Resilience was born (3 launches!)

Canadian wildfires

Collingwood for a week

Zach wrote his MCAT

Sam started Carleton

Guest on Jody Moore’s podcast and 20 others

Took a ton of courses

Read a ton of books

Mexico trip

Gabe multiple internships

Lots of walks

Business Minded Mastermind in California Feb and June

Visit to Utah and San Fran in Feb

Reggie first time leaving the country

Many dinners out

Lots of classes, exams and papers for kids

Zach published a research paper

Zandra got a job teaching

Josh moved into new house

Decluttered the house (looks like it needs it again!)

Rob’s new toy Fiat

Everyone home for Christmas this year (first time since 2018)

Lots of podcasts recorded (52)

Lots of podcasts listened to!

Lots of FaceTime calls

Rob’s 2023 Christmas Poem

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Although this blog runs a little sparse these days, there are a few “must captures”.

Rob’s Christmas poem is one for sure:

Christmas 2023 

It all started clear another CDF year

It started with one of our New Yorker crew celebrating a birthday 

Shortly after we had Josh celebrating too

In Ottawa and studying in the capital city

He finished year one sitting pretty 

Soon he’d be in his new student house without dispute

Warding off any ill repute

Sam graduated the last to complete

He was through the gauntlet of high school so neat 

Planning began for Sam’s somewhat late 16 trip

London, Liverpool and Manchester’s factory hip

Immersed in the Brit pop hatchery young and tenda

We saw the Hacienda where there had been many a benda

We stood where Bowie became Ziggy in a back alley stoop

We covered the best of every Brit pop group 

Strawberry fields and the Cavern Club

We even enjoyed some good pub grub 

Pics outside the Salford Lads club like a group of grifters

We even met the purveyor of the famous Sifters

Heading to the warmth of summer birthdays coming fast – Leah, Zandra, Ilyah and Rachael too

My goodness they’re so many to name we are an expanding crew 

Then celebrations for Gabe, Sam and Zach 

Soon they would all 

to Fulton be back

Josh replenishing the planet with trees all around

Forest fires avoided and new money found

Sam at Kops spinning a disc or two

I think he even managed to sell a few!

Zach and Rachael oversees in France

Studying and learning, nothing left to chance.

They let him play with some patient’s ticker

Getting some medical experience couldn’t be sicker 

Then it was Zandra and Ilyah’s upcoming nuptials 

Songs and some dance school house rule

We all enjoyed meeting added family members to the pool

A magical night filled with speeches and delight

Zandra a bride illuminated the night!

A wedding and night to set their future bright 

However with the ups come the down

And we held each other and fell to the ground

We would hold on to all we could

With heavenly angels we all stood

Changed we all are

Love and support near and far

Then it was time for the last to be university bound

It was Ottawa that would solidify out Canadian education ground

And Gabe and Shannon a mock trial room makes the defence look like gumps

Our New Yorkers another year closer to real court room triumphs 

Celebrations and student transportation complete, it was Leah’s chance to be on stage!

Not surprising and to everyone’s delight, Leah and her talk were all the rage!

Leah showed them all the nervous system flop

She left the conference flying on top!

With a major launch and a business on a rocket 

Leah got a lot of extra change in her pocket 🙂

Then we were off to the Outer Banks 

To the ocean waves and sand to say thanks

We worked and slumbered in a sandbar rental

Reggie on the beach harvest moon sentimental 

And on return we planned a birthday surprise

A pair of tickets that all across the country would prize

Sarah and Swift to Toronto will go

To the world’s biggest concert show!

To Mexico to close out on our trips

We even left some pretty good tips

Slightly tanned and and feeling a lot betta

Rob got a nice Orange BARCHETTA

But not to distract, back to the Christmas cheer we want to hear 

For this let’s be perfectly clear

We are thankful for all we have and are blessed

It’s time for old St Nick to rest

Lots of love and not a flake of snow 

But regardless let’s just go! 

Merry Christmas to all

Let’s start this festive ball!