Category: Travel

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Driggs Skiing WanderLog

Are We Officially Ski Bums Yet?

At what point do we hit official “ski bum” status? In the last 5 weeks we’ve gone 11 times for a total of about 44 hours including the 20 minute drive up and back. I think that officially counts as a part time job right? No wonder we are so tired! 🤣 Its been fabulous to watch our kids (and Sam) progress so rapidly. The kids finished up their wintersport ski school classes, and the older two are excited to try out some blue runs this week from the top of the mountain!

A couple of observations about skiing together as a family:

1️⃣ No skiing two days in a row. It takes a lot of time to get all of us dressed and up to the hill, uploaded, and then skiing. As much as we’d like to spend all our time on the slopes someone has to work to pay the bills and clean the house (maybe not that last one).

2⃣ Let the instructors take the kids up on the lift for the first time. I took Rachel (who had a panic attack) and then Cara whom we thought was ready. She really just screamed the whole way down even though she skied between my legs the entire time. 😆 At least she was smiling on the way up, right?!

3️⃣ It’s gonna be like mountain biking – divide and conquer. Rachel and Andrew are ready for some harder runs, but an adult needs to stay back with Cara. She’s gaining speed and confidence but is definitely behind the other two. And that’s okay.

4️⃣ It’s awesome but expensive. We bought our season passes early last spring before the prices went up but renting equipment (hoping to buy used at the end of the season for next year) ended up being more than we thought. See #1 for why we can’t just ski all the time.

5️⃣ Moms who take 3 kids up the the slopes by themselves should get a medal. Just saying…

Aside from skiing we are trying to make it through our school curriculum while digging ourselves out of the financial hole that living in Hawaii for 4 months created. It was worth it, but wow! We are a bit short on cash these days. Good thing skiing is paid for, so now its the cheapest thing we can do for fun!

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California Idaho Montana National Parks Oregon WanderLog

Summer Wrap Up and Fall Plans

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After our busy spring schedule, I made the conscious decision to not blog over the summer and it was such a relief! We’ve had a fabulous couple of months back in the Airstream and thoroughly enjoyed spending quite a bit of time with family and friends as we’ve explored.  At some point, I hope to be able to do detailed blog posts on the places we’ve been, but for now I thought I’d do a quick summary and also let you guys know what our plans are for this fall.

Canadian Rockies Loop

Last summer as we were hanging out with my brother’s family in Grand Teton National Park, we started scheming about a great Canadian Road Trip. They had always wanted to rent an RV and do some extended traveling, so we tossed out the idea of going up to the Canadian Rocky National Parks. It stuck. We reserved campsites as soon as they went online (somewhere around March) and generally had our path planned in advance. Totally different for us as we usually fly by the seat of our pants, but we really enjoyed it! I had a few moments where I was frustrated we couldn’t stay longer at one park or another but overall our schedule was pretty spot on.

We started at Glacier National Park, and then drove up through the parks to the Canadian sister site of Waterton Lakes National Park. Both parks definitely had a similar feel, and of all the National Park townsites (towns right in the National Parks) Waterton was my favorite. Just a super cute, not crazy busy downtown area with shops and restaurants.  We hiked, we canoed (all the things!) and generally kept ourselves WAY too busy. I feel like we were in “go” mode all the time but we definitely got to see quite a bit of the parks!

Paddling St. Mary Lake – Glacier National Park, MT
Hiking to Iceberg Lake – Glacier National Park, MT
Hiking Red Rock Canyon – Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta

Next stop was Banff National Park where we camped at Two Jack Lakeside. It was gorgeous! Banff was definitely a busier park, but we tried to get out early and since it was light until at least 10pm we were out late most days as well.

Lake Moraine – Banff National Park, Alberta

We parted ways with my brother as they headed up to Jasper and we joined Tanya Koob from (www.rockiesfamilyadventures.com) on a 2 night backpacking trip in Yoho National Park. This was our first hut experience and it was a blast! We loved having a dry place to hang out (it poured rain the first night), a full kitchen, and a roof over our heads at night. Next time I’d bring pancakes instead of our normal freeze dried meals, but that’s about the only thing I would change. We met some amazing Canadians and all had a blast with our Back Country Olympics.

Stanley-Mitchell Hut – Yoho National Park, British Colombia

We rejoined my brother up in Jasper for two nights, and after they left we had another 4 days to just chill and enjoy the park. It was incredibly relaxing! After our backpacking trip, the kids were all hiked out so we went ice skating at the local rink, and did a white water rafting trip with Maligne Adventures on the Athabasca River. Sam and I also snuck in a date night up the Jasper Tramway and hiked to the peak. The views up there were incredible and I always love doing outdoor adventures with Sam!

We drove down the Icefields Parkway on our way south. The views along this drive are amazing. We stopped at the Athabasca Glacier, but you can’t really get too close to the glacier, and after scrambling on one during our Yoho backpacking trip it really wasn’t all that exciting. We also managed to squeeze into a road side parking area and do the short hike up to see Peyto Lake. All of the stops along the Parkway were super crowded so we didn’t stop to see much else. Totally worth the drive though!

We then spent 5 days in Fernie, B.C. I had heard years ago that it was a good mountain biking town, and it definitely did not disappoint! We also met up with Leanne and her family (www.borntoadventure.com) and the kids had a blast hanging out for a few hours. We learned that Canada really does have difficult trails – everything feels like its straight up without switchbacks. The kids did great though when we finally realized everyone does better when we split up. Cara still struggles and needs easier trails, and the other two like rides a bit more advanced.

Our trip into Canada was surprisingly not stressful. We have a credit card with no foreign transaction fees, and with our T-mobile plans we were able to hotspot and get work done. The only painful part was that we didn’t exchange cash from the beginning which made doing laundry complicated.

Oregon Coast, Camp Noyo & the Eclipse

We crossed the border north of Sandpoint Idaho, and spent an evening hanging out with the McCartie’s at their homestead. We met them on their RV trip a few years ago and loved to see them happily settled on their gorgeous property. I’ve always said that meeting people is one of my favorite parts about traveling and having friends all over the country is a bonus!

At the last minute we made a decision to divert to the Oregon Coast instead of continuing on to Bend, OR as planned. The temperatures were projected to be in the 100’s and that just didn’t sound fun at all. We found out our friends the Bareneckers were settled in a quaint state park and that sealed the deal. We enjoyed hanging with them for few days, and the kids had a blast playing together!

Sam’s family does a reunion at Camp Noyo every summer, and even though the scout camps are no longer running, we are still able to go in for a week every summer. Its really our happy place. Bridge jumping, paddling, outdoor movie nights, shooting range, lots of games, good food and family. Definitely my idea of a vacation.

On our way back to Idaho for the solar eclipse, we stopped at Lake Tahoe for the weekend to see our friends the Erickson’s. They are our outdoor adventure friends from Utah but had been spending the month in Tahoe renting a house. They also has just purchased an Airstream and were about to set out north for their first extended trip! We have kids pretty much exactly the same gender and ages and they get along really well. Movie nights, beach time, and bike rides. It was a great weekend!

After a quick stop in Salt Lake City to see my family and for Sam and I to escape for a night to celebrate our anniversary we made it back home to Driggs, ID! We had rented out the condo, so we camped for the week in my brother-in-law’s backyard. A bunch of the Curren side came up for the weekend as well as a lot of my sister-in-law’s family. We had a great weekend hanging out, and the eclipse on Monday morning was absolutely one of my favorite experiences ever. Being on the line of totality was incredible and something I will never forget!

 

Fall Plans

In less than a week we will be on Oahu, HI. I still can’t wrap my brain around that. We are pretty much packed, and now just need to winterize and store the Airstream, and make the trek out to San Francisco to catch our flight on August 30th.

We are still ironing out school for the 2017-2018 year, and while everyone else seems to be starting the new school year this week, we are still finishing up last year! It seems we take quite a bit of time off during the year to play.

Sam is teaching a computer science class at BYU-H, and we are renting the townhouse of a friend. I waffle between being incredibly excited to experience a new part of our country, and trepidation for having to sit still for 4 months. It will definitely be a challenge, but overall I think we will grow in ways that we haven’t been able to experience for the last 4 years on the road.  I have so many plans to get caught up on ALL the projects, but realistically you’ll probably find us at the beach.

Aloha!

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Re-Entry Selling Our Stuff

Storage: What We kept and What We Shouldn’t Have

When we sold our house in Lehi, Utah 6 months into our travels, we got rid of mostly everything. What we kept was stored in a 5ft by 10ft storage unit and we have added a few things from our travels over time. We recently emptied it out on our way to set up a condo as an AirBnB in Driggs, Idaho and have some thoughts about what we kept.  We figured it could be useful for anyone considering what to keep and what to lose as they set out on a full time travel adventure.

Stuff We Kept in Storage

Tools

Sam kept most of his small hand and power tools. They were compact and easy to store, and he wasn’t going to be able to recover enough money from selling them to make replacement easier. The only larger tool he kept was the planer. And a collapsible ladder. Gone were the table saw, band saw, shop smith, and other large tools. Keeping the smaller tools has been handy while setting up the condo, and the pain of storing these was low. Sam’s brother eventually grabbed the planer and took it up to Driggs where he has a garage/workshop and that’s been super handy to have around as we’ve made furniture.

Kid Toys

The kids were very willing to give up some of their toys, and these we gave away or sold at garage sales. There were some toys that they really wanted to keep. Recognizing this, we told the kids they could keep anything they wanted, and we’d store it. They didn’t realize that they’d be years older, and mostly not interested in the same toys (Barbies come to mind).  With the exception of the wooden train tracks (which are my favorite anyway) & possibly the Imaginext Castle & Aircraft carrier the kids have not been very interested in the toys they kept. We are NOT sorry we kept these, as the decrease in child stress as we transitioned to travel was totally worth it.

We did keep a bucket of baby toys as I have quite a few younger nieces and nephews, including a small-ish plastic kitchen set. I figured its always nice to have a few things around to keep babies and toddlers entertained. These are coming in handy as now we can advertise the condo as “baby friendly”.

Family Pictures

We had a decent appreciation of good photography prior to travel. We had a collection of nicely printed family pictures: canvas wraps, nicely framed photos, and mounted prints. As we are setting up the condo as a rental, we are not hanging them up. Part of me is sad, but I’m sure our renters don’t want a 20×30 canvas of my children on the wall. We may make some changes after Hawaii, when we plan to spend more time here but mostly I’m not sure what we will do with them. There are a few I still love but are too personal to put in a rental space, so we may just keep our favorites for some future date and throw away the rest.

Yearbooks and other Mementos

A small number of boxes contain things like high school yearbooks and items from childhood adventures. These will stay in the garage. I’d like to come up with a better way of preserving these memories, but until I do, we’ll keep them.

Folding Chairs and Storage Tubs

We kept some folding chairs and extra storage tubs that we didn’t have contents for. Some of the tubs have worn out in storage and developed cracks. We’ll throw these out and use some of our spares instead. We wouldn’t be hurting if we hadn’t kept the extras. The extra chairs have come in handy as we’ve had visitors to the Condo, but folding chairs are pretty inexpensive and it would have been fine to just buy some.

My Old Office Decorations

Just a few months before we left for the house swap never to return, I had redone my office downstairs in the Lehi house. It was perfect. I painted one wall a deep shade of purple, had white furniture and then brightly accented decorations all over the room. It was a happy place and I loved being in there to edit photos and work on my photography business. I didn’t keep any of the furniture, but I did keep my favorite small rug, a vase with bright pink & yellow gerber daisies, and some bright storage bins. It made me smile when I pulled them out of the storage tub and they’ve actually all found a place here in the condo. Its been perfect.

Pots & Pans

We’ve had our set forever and its still in great shape. Since buying a new set can be slightly prohibitive (even just picking out which one I want!) I’m glad we kept these. Its been great to have cooking gear from the get-go without any effort.

Select Comfort California King Bed

For our wedding, Sam’s parents bought us a California King Select Comfort bed. We love it. They are crazy expensive and easy to fold up and store in the original boxes (which we’ve always kept – makes moving really handy) so it was a no brainer to keep. Its the only bed/mattress we kept though and I’m happy about that. It was also really strange to go from a smaller-than-a-double bed in the Airstream, to a Cal King. I think I got lost the first few nights.

Holiday Decorations

We did garage sale quite a few of our holiday decorations, but there were also a lot I made and loved. Ironically, we are going to Hawaii this year and won’t be here over the holidays, but I’m still glad we kept them. We have some seasonal decorations for spring/summer, some for Halloween and then Christmas. We’ll see how they fit into our lives before we decide what to keep.

Games

We kept quite a few games, and have actually switched them out in the Airstream a few times. We are avid game players and I’m not sorry we kept the ones we did. We’ve added a few group games and they are stored on a shelf in Rachel’s closet. We’ll leave them out for guests to use and continue to swap out which ones we want in the Airstream.

Stuff We Lent To Family & Friends

We loaned out quite a few items to friends before we sold the house and were able to collect them during our mad dash to load up the moving truck. Various family members babysat our TV, entertainment center stand, waffle maker (double Belgian flip – my favorite!), bread maker, some framed photos, an IKEA chair and two dressers, a lamp, and some miscellaneous kitchen dishes. My sister got married a few months before we needed to gather things and no longer needed our stuff; pretty good timing. While these items would not have been too painful to replace, having them is a nice bonus. They weren’t worth the space to store however, so I’m glad we had good people to watch over them.

Items We Are Happy We Didn’t Keep:

Furniture

Our 2400 square foot house is vastly different than the 1300 square foot condo. While I loved our large, oval, pedestal dining table in the house, there’s no way it would have fit in the condo. Same with a lot of the bookshelves, couches, chairs, and other furniture. We are different people and love different things now, plus its honestly a lot of fun to switch things up.

We did manage to pick up a really comfortable $50 couch from my mom’s neighbor which we transported in the moving truck. So much better than any couch we could have stored. See? Things work out. We also did the Costco run of all Costco runs and picked up three mattresses (two twins and a queen), in addition to paper towels, toilet paper, flour, sugar, and other miscellaneous items. Loading them in the moving truck was a fantastic way to transport everything up to Driggs.

Everything Else

As I sit here and type, there’s not a single thing that I think “Oh, I wished we would have kept that.”  Maybe its been too long and I don’t remember, but perhaps that’s also a testament to how much stuff we really don’t need. We’ve been very deliberate about buying items for the condo, making sure we really need it and that it serves a purpose. Okay, we probably didn’t need to buy an Instant Pot, but its sure been fun to have.

Stuff we kept, but shouldn’t have:

The Armoire

When Sam was a kid he finished a large, freestanding armoire. They used them to store clothes in their small home, and for most of our marriage we’ve used it as a game closet. Super handy. Except the stupid thing is ridiculously heavy and huge. We had thought we’d bring it up in the condo, but after moving it up from Utah we have no desire to do so. Our rooms are fairly small and it would take over the space. We’ve since listed and sold it, but not having to lug that thing around would have been much better!

Clothes

Sam and I each kept a bin of clothes that we didn’t want to part with, but didn’t want to bring in the Airstream. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this process, its don’t keep things that don’t bring you joy. Going through my bin it was easy to donate most everything I kept. If I don’t want it in the Airstream, why would I want it elsewhere? I think in hindsight we could have kept quite a bit less.

Photography Business Supplies

I ran a boutique business with cute packaging, welcome packets, and had samples to show at client consultations. Since I wasn’t sure what the fate of my photography business would be, all my supplies went into storage. While I still love photography, I have no desire to take on clients so now I have a large box of paperweights. Sigh.  Its just one more thing I have to deal with and get rid of now.

Books

This one is hard. We’ve had a bit of a “roving library” with all our books stashed at my parent’s house in Sandy, UT.  When we went through to visit (every 6 months or so) we’d swap out books. I also have a love for used bookstores. There are some books we simply couldn’t get through the library Overdrive system to read on the kindle and I searched for used copies in various states. Now we have boxes of books, some which I’m sure the kids won’t ever read again. We need to go through them and decide which ones to sell back to a bookstore, and which are our favorites to keep. It’ll take time and I’m not exactly looking forward to it.

Conclusion

Overall I feel we did pretty good. We don’t have a ton of excess stuff, and most of the items we kept have been useful upon re-entry. We have spent quite a bit of money outfitting the condo. By the time we are done we estimate close to $10,000. We are doing a really nice job as we want to AirBnB the space, so  I’m sure it could be done for less money otherwise. We knew it was coming and our main purpose for hanging out in the southwest last winter was to work a ton, live cheap, and save money.

The more you get rid of, the more you have to buy on the flip side, but if you add up the storage costs over three years I feel like its a pretty good trade off. Plus, the freedom of not owning a lot (or even having it in storage weighing on your mind) is amazing and we would definitely do it all over again!

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Re-Entry

The Good and Bad of Temporarily Living in a Sticks and Bricks House

We’ve been in the condo for over a month. With less than a month to go before our re-launch date, things are getting pretty serious around here. We still have a mile long list of projects to accomplish, a two night canoe trip in Grand Teton, plus friends & family coming to visit. We’ve been able to get a lot done over the last 6 weeks, however, and being in a “sticks and bricks” house definitely has its upsides as well as its downs. We are making the most of it while still getting excited about our travel plans for July & August.

For fun, I thought we’d detail out some of perks of condo life, as well as some of the things we most miss about the Airstream. Ready?

Same View All the Time

The view here in the Teton Valley is beautiful. Even a quick bike ride to town affords amazing views of the Tetons. But… the view is always the same. We miss having a constantly changing back yard, where the view is sometimes a stream, sometimes a forest, and sometimes a desert.

Takes More Effort to Get Out

I wrote over a year ago about how I Don’t Trust Myself in Suburbia. While I feel that I’ve made some progress since then, the struggle is still real. Its so much easier to stay in, let the kids read or watch something than load up and get outside. In the Airstream, adventure is literally outside our front door and the options are always changing. We can walk outside in the evenings and go on a short walk, and the next week that walk is something new and completely different. Sure, we can head out of our condo front door and go for a walk, but that walk is going to be the same every time. I think I’m addicted to new places and get bored easily.

We’ve been making a concerted effort to put the projects on hold and get out and explore. We’ve camped over in Grand Teton at Jenny Lake, had my parents up for the weekend, hiked in the Big Hole Mountains, canoed a small piece of the Teton River,  biked into town countless times to visit the library and park, and most recently attended the Jackson 25th annual Kids’ Free Fishing Day.

The adventure is there, we just have to be willing to throw on the packs, grab some snacks and GO.

Overwhelming Projects

In hindsight, I think our project plans were a bit ambitious. Building furniture, buying ALL the things, and trying to organize everything we brought out of the storage unit has been completely overwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, we are all for a good home improvement project but we like them a little more spread out. We’ve got two bed frames welded and finished, but still need bunk beds, nightstand frames, a dining room table frame, and need to finish the wood top of the table plus two more nightstands. Oiy. We are super grateful for my brother-in-law who has taken so much time to help us with these projects. Yes, we could have just bought furniture, but where’s the fun and satisfaction in that? Plus, this furniture is going to be indestructible.

In addition to that, we still need to fix the Airstream floor from the rot we discovered while in Manti last summer. We did a temporary patch job, but need to replace a larger section under the table. We’ve pulled the gaucho out to rebuild it as the slide mechanism has been going. Plus, lots of little touch-up items that we’ve just been putting off.

Not Planning

Full-time travel requires planning. Not only are the activity options different everywhere, but we need to find a place to go when it’s time to move along. When you do need to plan something in advance, you have double planning duty. After 3 years of constantly planning, 6 weeks of NOT PLANNING has been pretty refreshing.

Rachel Gets to Bake

Even as I type this, Rachel is cooking something up in the kitchen. Recently she’s become obsessed with baking and loves experimenting with different recipes and frosting decorations. It hasn’t been so good for my waistline though, and partially triggered a 21 day Sugar Detox for me! I do love her enthusiasm and I’m grateful we can encourage a hobby she so obviously loves.

Awesome Library & 3D Printing

The local library system here in the Teton Valley is excellent. The kids enjoy being able to ride the library by themselves. They host fun activities, including a Mother-Daughter book club and writing groups. The library also has a 3D printer available for use, which Sam has taken advantage of during our stay.

Stable Friends & Church Teachers

Cara is flourishing at church. This was one of our biggest concerns over the last year as she’s really been struggling. She was scared to be dropped off to her class and left alone with a roomful of complete strangers. I totally get it. It’s nerve wracking to always be the visitor even for me. Having 6 weeks of the same teacher, the same kids in her class, and knowing where her class is has been wonderful for her. At the Teton Kids Fishing Day, she was even content to stay with her group, and didn’t need one of us right nearby!

Bedroom Door that Closes and Locks

Having a bedroom door that locks is definitely the best perk of living in the condo. In our Airstream, we have a couple of curtains we can pull that separate us from the kids. When you pull them back, the latch kind of “pops” so we call it our “early warning system” if uh, certain things should be going on. Also, its kind of hard to snuggle during the day or morning when you pack up your bed and stow it for the day. In the condo, not only do we have a bed that just sits out we have a door. That locks. Blissful.

There are pros and cons to every lifestyle and the trick is knowing what your tolerance levels are. We’ve enjoyed the downtime here at the condo (well, busy downtime), but are also anxious to get back on the road and start exploring again!

Categories
Daily Life WanderLog

Executing the Crazy Plan & No Time to Blog

We are still alive! I promise. I know I’ve been slacking on blog posts, but we have just been so darn busy with projects that it’s hard to keep up. The last couple of weeks have been rewarding, frustrating, and exciting all rolled up together. I’m learning to not take myself too seriously and we are trying to fit in some exploration in the cracks.

Sam has been outlining our plan over on Instagram so I thought I’d repost and share here so you can see our step by step execution of Crazy Plan 2017.

Crazy Plan Step 1: collect all the things. When we sold our house a few years ago, we got rid of all our furniture and most everything else. The remains we put in a 5×10 storage unit or lent to friends who wanted to use our stuff while we were gone. Yesterday we collected all the things (and some additional new supplies) at 7 different locations around the populated section of Utah.

Crazy Plan Step 2: Drive the moving truck to Driggs Idaho. After years of towing our Airstream, driving _behind_ the Airstream is an odd feeling.

See the Tetons amidst the mountains? Beautiful views here.

Crazy Plan Step #3: Make an AirBnB. Last September we bought a condo here in Driggs Idaho during The Great Nomadic Idaho Land Rush of 2016. We rented it out till about now, when we will spend the next few months making it into a cute AirBnB. This turns out to be quite a pile of work, especially when you decide to build bed frames and other furniture from scratch.

Crazy Plan Step 4: Park our shiny house in my brother’s driveway as we take advantage of his hospitality and his workshop. I plan a few changes and repairs that are hard to accomplish whilst living in it. All this, on top of the workload for the condo.

Crazy Plan Unexpected Step: get a tow when the lock tumbler breaks and you are unable to start the truck after a hardware store visit.

Crazy Plan Step 5: Buy a ton of steel to make furniture, and cut it to size. Employ slave… er… child labor.

Also, begin to seriously miss living in your tiny shiny house.

Crazy Plan Step 6: Order ALL THE THINGS. All you normal people likely take this for granted, but the ability to order something online and have it show up on your doorstep a few days later is amazing. We normally do mail drops when we visit friends (thank you all!) but often end up sending to a UPS facility or something similar. You have to drive to an obscure section of some town, bring the right identification, show up during proper pickup hours, and pee in a cup for a DNA test to get your packages.

Next time you pick up an Amazon box off your doorstep, pause and appreciate how awesome it is.

Crazy Plan Step 7: Get to welding furniture. The welding is being done by my awesome brother @freshaire_dad, captured here in all of his sparking glory. So grateful that he’s willing to sacrifice his time and talents for this project.

Crazy Plan Step 8: More Sparks. Get good at working a grinder with a flap disc to smooth out the surface welds. This requires much less skill than welding, but is still pretty darn entertaining. I also enlisted Rachel into this project. Home school for the day was metal shop.

Crazy Plan Step 9: Install a remotely managed keypad door lock on the condo. This will be useful for managing short term rental access.

Crazy Plan Step 10: Take a break. We spent the last three days with friends on a river trip in Labyrinth Canyon of the Green River.
A few months after we began our full-time travels, we returned to Utah to sell our ‘sticks and brick’s house. During our work, we realized the difficulty of suddenly stopping after after much travel. We took a travel break then, and did so again during our execution of the Crazy Plan.

This trip, organized by @themoreweexplore, was perfect.

After our river trip, Sam flew to California for a business conference and the kids and I have been hanging out at grandma’s. We’ve been getting school done while I also run all sorts of errands. Excited to get back to Idaho next week and continue on!