Happy Holidays 2022
Dear Friends and Family,
We hope the close of 2022 finds you happier, wiser, and closer to those you love. As we reflect on 2022, we realize that while we didn’t do as much travel as we normally do, we worked a lot toward long term goals, both for our careers as well as our life together. Jeremy worked on more narrative projects and got to go to Colorado twice for work. He even managed a snowboarding trip and a visit with his sister, Britiney.
Winter
After returning from our December 2021 trip to Iceland, tired but fully relaxed from our final soak at Blue Lagoon, we put our heads down and worked.
Living room makeover
After 10+ years, it was time to say goodbye to our tattered old brown couch and welcome in something new. It took weeks to find something we could afford, agree on, and actually get in stock, but we finally found it, got it home and set it up. Almost a dozen stores later and we still ended up with an Ikea couch…
We also bought a rowing machine to start off the year with healthy habits.
A lazy day at Crissy Field, San Francisco
Hiking in the east bay
Every day life with our pups
Spring
Spring was full of new beginnings. We witnessed our friends getting married, we paid off Jeremys student loans (yay!), and we bought a bus to convert into an RV.
Matt & Sadiya’s wedding
We headed to Fairfax, Virginia to witness our dear friends tie the knot!
Afterward, we spent a few days in Washington D.C. and explored the architecture.
Camping
In April we went camping in Fort Bragg with our friends Allie and Chris. It wasn’t the typical camping trip where we stay at the campsite and go hiking and eat only camp food. We drove into town and dined on great seafood and went for a jaunt along the bluffs in Mendocino.
We bought a bus!
For a long time, we’ve had this dream to travel more, but it’s challenging to leave the dogs behind for long periods of time. We spent the last two years talking about converting a bus into an RV and working from the road. In April, we bought a bus and have been very slowly demolishing the previous build and setting the foundations for our dream RV.
This is the Bus by the previous owner. It wasn’t insulated at all and had no bathroom, so we decided to rip it out and start over.
This is the beginning of the demolition - Taking out the furniture and the tiled floor. WHO USES TILE in a bus?!
Ripping out the fiber glass and the flooring. I now hate fiberglass.
We created diagrams of our layout on the computer, used tape to map them out in the bus, then created cardboard prototypes of the walls, the counters, and the furniture before moving forward.
We then built a new subfloor with insulation.
We Removed some windows (called “deleting windows”) and then replaced the rest with better insulated RV windows. It was a HUGE learning process. We got a lot wrong, but we fixed it and made it work.
We know, we know. This dream is an expensive and risky one. We’ve already learned some costly and hard lessons, but we’re committed to this dream and we’re fortunate enough to have the disposable income to pursue it.
Loretta’s birthday
This year, Loretta had a company event planned on her birthday, so she spent it on a boat in the bay. She missed Jeremy, but had a fun time with her co-workers.
Santa Barbara
Loretta had a bit of cabin fever, and longed for a weekend getaway. We went down to Santa Barbara and enjoyed some sunshine and beautiful architecture.
Making progress on the Book about Japan
Loretta dusted off After Effects, a program she hasn’t used since college, and spent the year animating some of her Yokai characters for the augmented reality portion of her book.
She also worked with Jeremy to develop a script for the kickstarter. She hopes that she and Jeremy will finally plan and record the content for the kickstarter video in 2023, so that she can start campaigning for funding to get the book made.
Learn more about the book
Summer
The summer was spent working and perfecting our gin-infused cocktails. Jeremy had one of the busiest summers on record and Loretta’s team at Turo saw massive growth. When we weren’t working at our jobs, we were spending weekends working on the bus together.
Mastering gin-infused coctails
While in Washington D.C Loretta tasted the most delicious strawberry G&T she ever had. She went home and learned how to infuse gin with fruit and spent the whole summer finding the gins she likes and experimenting on different flavors.
Strawberry is still the best, but peach was a close second.
Jeremy’s Birthday
As is tradition, Jeremy chose a spot in Oregon for a camping trip on his birthday. We drove up for 7 hours, got there, and set up camp.
Unfortunately we only made it one night as the smoke was so bad in the area. We salvaged the trip by staying in Fort Bragg, but it wasn’t quite what Jeremy hoped for.
Trying to salvage the trip by heading to the coast.
Fall
A minimal Halloween
We didn’t go all out this year in decorations because we’d be leaving directly after halloween to go to Finland, but we still managed to have some nice lights and a few pumpkins.
Traveling to Finland
Not many people can claim they followed their favorite hockey team to Finland for a special, international game, but we can!
We spent 11 days exploring three cities: Tampere, a lovely city on a river where the Nokia Arena was stationed. We spent a few days exploring the town, the museums and attending the game before heading on to Turku, the city with the worlds largest archipelago. In Turku, we marveled at beautiful castles and perused bustling indoor market place stalls, before island hopping and stopping for a few short hikes. The last city we visited was Helsinki, the capital and jewel of Finland. There, we explored the sea fortress, a Unesco Heritage site, where we learned all about the history of Finland as a battle ground for occupation between Sweden and Russia. The trip was a whirlwind and in true Loretta and Jeremy fashion, not so restful, but we did enjoy many nights of sitting in our private saunas, a Finnish staple.
Market Hall, Turku
A Russian influence church in Helsinki
Sea Fortress in Helsinki
Celebrating 6 years at Turo
Right after she returned from vacation, Loretta celebrated six years working at Turo with her co-workers.
Exploring Point Reyes
Over Thanksgiving Break, we dropped the dogs off at the vet for an all-day dental appointment, then headed to the coast to hike in Point Reyes (something we’ve always wanted to do, but couldn’t as the park isn’t dog friendly).
A busy December
December was tough for the both of us. We spent the first two weeks apart while Jeremy worked on a feature in Chico. Loretta stayed home and took care of the dogs.
We missed Hanukkah this year and had a low key Christmas eating Chinese food and watching a movie.
What’s next?
What’s next?
In 2023 we have so much to look forward to!
we hope to get the bus built out enough to start traveling. It wont be fully built with a shower or all the solar panels, but it will be enough to at least camp.
We look forward to witness Jeremy’s cousin Sean marry his better half, Lexi. Loretta’s oldest and dearest friend, Allie is also getting married.
In March, Loretta will be heading to SouthXSouthwest with a few co-workers to learn about the latest in the industry.
We also hope to go with Jeremy’s dad to Ireland as a belated 60th birthday present in the fall. We may travel to Denmark as well.
Loretta hopes to finally finish her book about Japan and launch the kickstarter video, so stay tuned. You can follow Loretta on Instagram for updates on the book.
And Jeremy really wants to build on the momentum he had this year on working on more narrative projects.
We sincerely hope that everyone has a sensational 2023, full of good memories made and goals achieved.
Happy Holidays!
Love you all,
Jeremy, Loretta, Zero, and Darby
