Happy holidays 2025
Dear Friends and Family,
This year wasn’t easy. It stretched us, humbled us, and asked more of us than we expected. But even in the hardest moments, we found small pockets of strength, support, and love that helped us keep going. As we close out 2025, we’re simply grateful to be here — together — and looking toward a gentler year ahead.
Winter:
A new hobby
We bought a 3d printer at the beginning of the year. It has allowed Jeremy to make more things, including terrain pieces for his Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.
A cabin near Redding
We stayed in a picturesque A-frame cabin near Redding in March. We spent a a week, working remotely, staying cozy, soaking in the hot tub under a light dusting of snow, and dealing with touchy septic toilets.
Jeremy bought a RED!
Jeremy took the next big steps to help push his career forward, which meant moving into a higher end camera and finally joining the RED ecosystem.
Spring:
Spring hiking
Jeremy set a goal of hiking at least 26 hikes throughout the course of the year. We started strong in the spring and completed our 26th hike on Thanks giving!
Celebrating Allie’s birthday
We spent time celebrating our dear friend Allie’s birthday at the Flipper Room in Concord. In addition to several vintage pinball games, they had a huge collection of psychadelic and monster art on the walls.
Ballgame with
co-workers
We had a team outting at the giants game. It was my first time ever at the Giant’s stadium. Having had a lot of challenging changes at work, we needed a day to connect. It was a lovely sunny day, perfect up in the nosebleeds in the shade.
Denmark & Iceland
As part of my ever-growing affinity for Nordic countries, we spent my birthday traveling to Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland.
Some highlights:
We hiked the mons Klint, a 6 km stretch of limestone and chalk cliffs.
We climbed a spiral tower in the middle of a forest and enjoyed 360 views above the canopy.
We celebrated Loretta’s birthday in Sweden with our Swedish friends. They made a strawberry shortcake and sung Loretta a happy birthday song.
We ate delicious Copenhagen cuisine ranging from street hot dogs, to dim sum, to classy cocktails in a swanky library themed lounge.
We soaked in several hot springs in Iceland, including a beer bath!
We traveled to a small remote island called Hrisey and hiked a lovely trail all to ourselves with no one but the many birds swooping and nesting to accompany us.
The day we flew back, we were hit with unexpected news:
Loretta’s work announced that starting in September, the flexible remote policy would end, replaced with three required days in the office. It may sound small, but it reshaped an entire future we’d been planning toward — working from the bus, exploring more of the country, maybe even moving somewhere outside the Bay Area. The loss of that vision brought a deep wave of grief. It felt like watching a dream fade overnight.
Summer:
Meeting Loretta’s
half-sister
With over a decade of years apart, it has always been a dream of mine to meet my little half-sister, Justine. She had just completed college and was passing through San Francisco so we met up for dim sum!
Celebrating friends
Our neighbors Derek & Penny celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with a big party for friends, family, and neighbors to attend and celebrate with them. We all dressed up in Night at the Roxbury 90’s attire and enjoyed drinking and laughing at their hilarious telling of their love story. Derek and Penny are pillars of the neighborhood, and we were so glad to be able to celebrate them.
Double date night!
We took our friends Rachel and Tyler to Izakaya an, our favorite Izakaya place in Concord and showed them the best Squid and Karaage in town.
The dogs’ first kayak
Last year we fell in love with kayaking and wanted to see if Zero and Darby loved it too. After a few false starts, we finally got the hang of it and had a relaxing and pleasant day on the water! We hope to buy a foldable kayak some day and take it with us on our bus trips.
A new era of hiking
Zero’s back legs are getting weaker, so hikes are typically harder, but we want him to still enjoy life for as long as we have him. We bought him a backpack and now carry him when he gets tired. He gets lots of smiles on the trail and enjoys his new human chariot.
Upgrading Aurora
This year we made big improvements to the bus. In preparation for a solar summit where we would be installing our solar electrical system (see below), we had to build out a roof rack out of extruded aluminum.
We also upgraded our plumbing/water system and installed electrical outlets throughout the bus. We finished just in time to make our 2 week journey out to the solar summit.
Fall:
A roadtrip to Colorado
On our way to the solar summit, we slow traveled and stopped in Grand Junction for a week. The big highlight was staying on a peaceful peach orchard while Loretta worked from the bus. In the evenings and weekends, we’d take bike rides into town with the dogs along the river.
Attending explorist.life solar summit
Explorist.life, one of the DIY youtube channels that Jeremy follows, was hosting their very first live solar summit. We were chosen to be a demo unit to install our electrical system over the course of a weekend.
The solar summit was hosted in Steamboat springs, Colorado. We were stationed in a large parking lot near the base of the ski resort. On the day of arrival, the sky was sunny and clear, with white puffy clouds.
Dealing with grief
We were putting the finishing touches on our solar panel install in Colorado when we got a call from my brother. My dad, Brad Robinson, took his own life just a few days shy of his 61st birthday, leaving my family reeling with shock and grief.
It seems especially cruel that just a year ago we all lost his mother, my Nana, and now I’m back here writing about losing him too soon.
If you are family or friends and this is how you’re finding out, I’m deeply sorry. My family didn’t post anything online about his death. We didn’t even have a funeral, only a small memorial with myself, my mom, brother and a few of their closest friends up in Idaho. The Robinsons are very private in their grief. I wanted to take a moment to write down a little about my dad and our complicated relationship.
A memorial for Dad
In October, we traveled to Saint Maries, Idaho to have a small memorial for Loretta’s dad with her mom and brother and a few of their friends. It was emotional, but so lovely to see how their friends showed up for her family.
Her brother Tom, her mom Sharon, and Loretta joining together to remember Brad.
Loretta’s first tattoo
There are things I’ve kept at arm’s length for years, all because of fear—fear of judgment, of failing, and in this case, the simple fear of hurting.
I’ve wanted a tattoo for so long, but I convinced myself I wouldn’t be able to withstand the pain. That I wasn’t built for it. That I was somehow “too soft.”
But when I really sat with that thought, I remembered everything my body and heart have already carried: the hellish biopsies where I had to stay awake and perfectly still, the surgeries that left their own quiet marks, the griefs that hollowed me out and then taught me how to rebuild. Pain is not new to me. And suddenly I could see the truth—I’m far stronger than the fear that kept me small.
So I did what I always do when something matters: I hyper fixated. For three months I sifted through Pinterest boards and Instagram portfolios, tested designs with Inkbox, and slowly built a vision that felt like me. When I was finally confident in the size and placement, I booked the appointment.
My artist, @mochi.tattoos, was gentle in a way that disarmed every lingering doubt. Patient. Soft-spoken. Steady. This first tattoo—a rupee from The Legend of Zelda—was meant to be a test of my pain threshold. I passed, and now that I’ve felt that strength in my own skin, I know there will be more.
Low-key halloween
With everything that had happened in September, we felt exhausted and weren’t up for the full fanfare of planning big effort costumes or dolling up the house in our usual fasion.
Instead, we dressed up as pirates/ renaissance peasants with clothes we already had, handed out some candy and then spent time at a neighbor’s house.
Sushi and Sumo!
It was such a fun date night attending the Sushi and Sumo night at the palace of fine arts in San Francisco. We learned about how the sumo exercise, the types of techniques they use to take down their opponents, and then watched a short tournament. We’d highly recommend if it shows up in your town!
What’s next?
Next year, Jeremy set another hiking goal to hike 26 unique hikes. He’s looking forward to challenging himself (and probably Loretta more) to stretching beyond our usual hiking comfort zone and explore new places and new heights.
Loretta wants to recalibrate what is most important to her in 2026. She wants to focus on self-nurturing and allowing herself to heal from long standing stress and grief from the last two years.
Jeremy has a narrative short he’s shooting in Sacramento in January, and is looking forward to being the director of Photography on this shoot with a budget and great script!
In February, we we have plans to travel to Belize with Jeremy’s mom. We’ll be traveling for 10 days, enjoying beautiful beaches, mayan ruins, and lush rainforests. We hope to continue to build out the bus and use it with the new solar panels. We’re also looking forward to our 10 year anniversary!
As we wrap up 2025, we’re reminded how meaningful it is to check in on the people we care about — to share a hug, a hello, or a moment of warmth. Life feels richer when we stay connected.
Happy Holidays!
Love you all,
Jeremy, Loretta, Zero, and Darby
