Category: Mommy Diaries

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Daily Life Mommy Diaries

What? Summer is OVER?

DSCF6597Our cousins went back to school yesterday so naturally we had to head out so as not to be distracting. I still can’t believe school has started. Okay, okay, its been going for at least a month in places like Arizona, but that doesn’t make me feel any better. I swear summer keeps getting shorter and shorter.

The kids have been excited to start their new curriculum for about a month, so I gave in and we “started” school today as well. You know, since we haven’t even finished our History book from last year and we pretty much do school year round.

On the upside, starting school today did give us a normal schedule. Looking back over our summer Sam and I are amazed at how irregular our life has been. We were in Manti for the whole month of June participating in the pageant (still have a blog post coming on that soon). July was all about attempting to see cousins in Driggs, ID while recovering from pageant and trying to figure out what our life will look like for the next year as we transition into more of a hybrid – travel family instead of a full time travel family. Turns out that looks a whole lot like living in a condo for part of the year, but we’ll have more on that in a bit as well.

After that we had the quick jog to California for our Curren family reunion at Camp Noyo (blog post about our time there 2 years ago), hanging with cousins at their house afterward for the weekend and then bam! Summer is over.

We didn’t even go backpacking. Honestly, I feel a little robbed.

We are now headed up the Oregon Coast for a bit, will loop through Northern Idaho and Bozeman to see friends, check on said condo in Driggs, and then head south for the winter (and some backpacking!). We are excited for cooler temperatures and a slower pace of life. I got my workout in today, the kids did school, Sam easily worked a bit extra, and Rachel even made cookies.

So while this summer was a little crazy and my head is still spinning, we have a lot to look forward to over the next few months. Can’t wait.

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Daily Life Mommy Diaries

“Home” as a Routine Not a Place

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We spent almost the entire month of June in Manti, Utah participating in the Mormon Miracle Pageant. As we were packing up to leave I had the overwhelming desire to go “home.” Since we leave full time in our Airstream, our home is always with us and I had to stop for a minute and think about what exactly that meant.

We are comfortable in our 188 sq feet of space. Some days it feels a little tight, but given the option we’d rather sleep in our beds over staying inside someone else’s house. We cook, clean, work, do school, and all other normal home-like activities in our Airstream and none of that had really changed while we were in Manti. Well, except maybe the cooking part. It was just too dang hot to even fry eggs for breakfast.

So if our living accommodations hadn’t changed, where was this longing for “home” feeling coming from? As Sam and I talked it over we realized what we were missing were our normal routines. Pageant was a lot more time consuming than we had original thought, so there has been a noticeable lack of school work, exercise, eating healthy, outdoor exploration, blogging, and Airstream improvement projects over the last month. We’ve been going to bed long past midnight and having breakfast at 10am. What we were really missing was just our normal every-day life.

I’ve always believed that we can make any place feel like home  – that its more of an attitude, a sense of belonging for our kids, and a comfortable pattern that we live by rather than a particular dwelling. Our experience this last month reinforced that idea. While changing things up (or going on vacation) can be fun for awhile, we need to have boring, normal days just like anyone else!

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Backpacking Biking California Hiking Mommy Diaries On the Water Outdoor Adventures Rock Climbing Utah

Join Me at REI’s Outessa Summit This Summer!

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In the last two years of traveling we really haven’t made an effort to attend any conferences or workshops. Pre-travel I would attend at least one photography workshop a year, and Sam would often have 2-3 tech conferences he attended. All part of keeping up our skills, networking, and getting inspiration for new projects or ideas. Conferences were also a way to get some dedicated “me time” in and I’ve missed that a lot!

This year we’ve decided to remedy our imbalance. I’m feeling a little stagnant and definitely ready for a weekend away where I can focus on my needs and projects without guilt or interruption. There’s just something about have at least 24 quiet, magnificent hours all to myself that lends itself to increased satisfaction and productivity when I get home. Sam already has a few tech conferences he’s been missing so we’ve added those to the calendar, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted.

As I searched around for blogger conferences or something along those lines (since photography isn’t my main focus at this point) a friend mentioned REI’s Outessa Summit. I knew instantly I wanted to attend.  After some discussion with Sam about logistics, travel schedules, and plans for the rest of the year we both agreed that this would be really good for me.  Even better, through some other connections I was able to talk with the co-founder, Julia Stamps Mallon, and volunteer as a photographer/blogger for the event in exchange for discounted admission. I’m looking forward to an awesome weekend of outdoor recreation and sharing it with all of you!

Outessa Summit is a women’s only weekend getaway at either Kirkwood, CA or Powder Mountain, UT. With over 200 activities to choose from, professional guides and mentors, plenty of healthy, fulfilling food, and beautiful mountain scenery I’m completely stoked for this event! I’ve signed up for the Powder Mountain event that will take place from September 9 -11, 2016 in Eden, UT. They are also setting up “Camp Outessa” where you can bring your own camping gear to sleep, but they provide showers (most appreciated!) & bathrooms.

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After registering, you’ll be able to log in and sign up for classes. While I would love to mountain bike ALL day, each type of sport is limited to one class so that everyone gets a chance to participate. I think this limitation also encourages women to sign up for activities they normally wouldn’t try. Have you always wanted to try rock climbing but don’t know how? What about trail running? Nervous about backpacking, kayaking, or even just how to cook around a campfire? They seriously have classes for all of the above!

I’ve signed up for an intermediate rock climbing class, intermediate mountain biking, GRID foam rolling, making healthy granola bars and snacks, a night trail run (Hello! NOT a runner!) as well as an ElliptoGO class. My goals are to hone and develop my skills for activities I already love while trying out some new sports as well.

After breaking into classes for most of the day, everyone comes back for a family-style dinner in the evening, campfire chats, and s’mores.

I’ll admit I was a little hesitant at first about the “women only” designation. I’ve never been one to need a girl’s night out, or feel more comfortable hanging out with my girlfriends rather than my family. Sam is, and always will be, my favorite choice for an outdoor adventure partner, even if it sometimes is logistically inconvenient for both of us to be away. However, recently I was able to go on a ride with a friend from Lehi who loves to mountain bike, as well as hike with Alyssa from Kidproject.org (and all of ours kids!). I’m learning there’s something powerful and comforting in finding like-minded girlfriends who love to be outdoors as much as I do.  So even though it may be a little outside my comfort zone, I’m looking forward to making connections with other women like me – those who love and live in the outdoors as much as they possibly can.

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Event Details:

REI Outessa Summit: Powder Mountain, Utah
Friday September 9 @ 8am – Sunday September 11 @ 5pm
Registration Link

REI Outessa Summit: Kirkwood, CA
Friday August 19 @ 8am – Sunday, August 21 @ 5pm
Registration Link

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Mommy Diaries Utah

Still in Pajamas at Noon

DSCF5617I really do like having a loose, pre-determined schedule. Our days are usually loosely planned out (school/work, exercise, lunch, tablet/quiet time, adventure, dinner, bed) as well as our general plan for the next few months. If you look at our Travel Schedule you’ll see we have a loose plan through the year 2017. I think I just like to know what our options are both short and long term. Somehow I convince myself I’m more productive if I plan things out rather than just waiting around.

However, there are days where we are still in our pajamas at noon and there is no schedule.

This week had more than a few of those days. Somehow having a set place to be at 5pm has made the rest of my day completely unproductive. Its like a crutch. “We can’t go out and explore because we have pageant practice.” Or, “I probably won’t have time to get any editing done, we have pageant practice.” Its a ridiculous mindset, but something I just can’t seem to get over.

I’ve also found myself checking into Instagram and other social media sites less often. I had these grand plans to come to Manti and we would get all caught up on blogging, Airstream projects, and everything on the “to do” list. So far a week has gone by and I feel like I have gotten next to nothing accomplished. The kids have done well in school (we are finishing up a few pesky subjects from last year still), Sam has gotten work in, but looking back I’m struggling to see what I’ve done. Usually our days our defined by what we go see, which hike we did, or if we earned  Jr. Ranger Badge. And now we are just…normal. Which I figure is mostly uninteresting to our social media crowd so therefore there is a severe lack of posting. It also makes me lazy.

I’m not sure I can handle being normal or uninteresting or even lazy. Far from relaxing, I seem to be stressing out.

Perhaps this is the reason most of all I’m scared to STOP traveling full time. That days will blend into weeks, then months and it all becomes a blur of the same, routine activities over and over. That sounds like my own personal version of purgatory. I think we’ve become addicted to new, exciting, and even difficult day to day living. Anything less feels a little empty.

Its also hot. We don’t have air conditioning and I think the heat is zapping all the energy right out of me. But those are just excuses. In my head I know that if we just get out the door everything seems to work itself out. So here’s the deal. This week I’ll be more proactive about getting out with the kids and exploring. There are beautiful mountains not far from us (escape the heat! go hiking!), a fabulous rock climbing canyon, and the cutest, small town of Manti to explore. We’ll go to swimming lessons, play in the splash pad, and get up the canyon for a picnic lunch. I’m going to enjoy the time we have to sit for the next few weeks, not stress about what we aren’t doing an fully live in the moment.

Then we are going to start moving again.

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Daily Life Mommy Diaries Utah

Our Spontaneous Plans for the Month of June

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Sometimes the best plans are the most unexpected ones. Our original spring plan involved visiting the Very Large Array in NM, heading through Flagstaff and Page, AZ, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and then driving north. Instead, however, we decided to spend more time in Arkansas, and take a direct route from New Mexico to Moab to meet up with some traveling friends. One of my favorite (and least favorite) parts of traveling full time is the certainty that plans will change.

Our new route took us through Blanding, UT where some Northern CA friends had just relocated last November. We love these friends, and it was great to catch up, see their new small-town life and get reacquainted. They have six kids still living at home which provided plenty of opportunity for games and play dates.

While we were there, my friend Janae, casually mentioned she had just signed her 10 and 18 year old daughters up to participate in the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, UT and they were still looking for more participants. Immediately, we thought, “no way we can make that work” but after our traveling friends made the decision to skip Moab and head to Idaho we realized we didn’t have any pressing commitments for the month of June. Our thoughts immediately became, “why not?”

Following our sign up, we raced north to Sandy, UT to take care of some housekeeping items, visit with my family, and get some truck repairs done. We needed to be in Manti by Sunday, May 29th for an opening fireside devotional and then rehearsals which started June 1st.

For those who are not familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka “Mormons”, the Manti pageant follows a fictional young couple in their search for religious truth in the early 1800’s, the events surrounding Joseph Smith and his translation of the ancient record, and the depiction of Jesus Christ visiting the people in North America after his crucifixion and resurrection as recorded in the Book of Mormon.

We are excited to share our faith and testimony with the thousands of people that come to see the pageant every year. We will be participating in large group scenes together as family and this will be a learning experience for all of us! Rachel is also going to learn how to square dance for a scene with the Mormon Pioneers, and we will all get a “road school” lesson in theater, production, working in large groups, and performance.

We have settled ourselves into an RV Park for the entire month of June (a first for us!) and plan to still work, school (and sleep!) during the day while attending rehearsals in the evenings. The pageant performances run from 9:30-11:30pm and many of our rehearsals are also very much past the kids’ bedtimes.

While I’m nervous about being in one place for so long, not having air conditioning (our spot is only a 20amp electric hook up!), and being up late at night, we think the experience for our family will be worth it. We’ve learned that mixing things up once in awhile is a good thing and are excited for this opportunity.

"Manti Temple"
Photo Credit http://www.jarviedigital.com/