Categories
Selling Our Stuff

Re-Entry

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Imagine running into your ex-boyfriend, while on a date with your husband. Awkward, right? That kind of happened to us, but with houses.  We had planned a later arrival date, but our Realtor called Wednesday evening (well, texted actually) that we had a great offer on the house but they wanted to know by Friday night. We knew we had to at least LOOK at the house before agreeing to sell, so we raced across Nevada with only a quick overnight stop at the Bonneville Raceway. We pulled up to the house in our Airstream Friday before noon and I probably felt more dread than anything else. I knew what was coming. After a quick photo, we parked alongside the house and the kids jumped out of the truck and ran inside.

I walked in a bit more slowly and then proceeded to cry. I couldn’t help it. So many good memories, so much happiness in the house. The kids ran gleefully from room to room excited about seeing everything they had left behind. Cara pulled out every. single. toy. in her room and ran up to me with a huge grin on her face to show me them one by one. They were so happy. Rachel had been asking for days when we’d get back as she could barely contain her excitement. Toys! Friends! The House!

After a quick lunch (more tears from me) the kids ran off to a friend’s house and played their little hearts out. It was Spring Break here, so friends were out of school and readily available. Happiness. Love. Excitement. Joy.

On the other hand, I wandered around in a bit of a daze all afternoon completely overwhelmed by all the stuff we own and need to get rid of. Wow. Why did we even by that? We don’t really NEED it do we? Such conflicted emotions. Do we NOT sell the house? Do we stay? Is this really where we want to raise our family?

It took us until about dinner time to have our hearts and  heads agree that we did really want to sell the house. This is not our path. Ours is a bit more…windy. As much as we have loved living here, love our neighbors, and are happy to have a short stay, we are ready to move on. The kids agree. As happy as they are, they are also excited about the next phase of our life and totally on board with selling everything and moving back in to the Airstream. *whew* The only one that is having a few issues is Cara. She told me the other morning that she wants to sell the Airstream and keep this house, but “move it to a campground”.  🙂

For Sam and I, we remembered why we bought and loved this house, but also why we “broke up” (the ex-boyfriend), and the more we are here the happier we are with the Airstream (aka husband) and our decision. Great metaphor, huh?

So now comes all the work. We’ve known it was coming, but I didn’t really expect to feel so incredibly overwhelmed. We are taking it one day at a time, one room at time. Planning a HUGE yard sale (in about a week and half!) and working on the improvements to the bedroom in the Airstream. Until then, we’ll play, dream, build, and try to get back on the road as soon as possible!

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Categories
Faith Selling Our Stuff

A Fresh Start

Weeks ago while attending church with a friend, there was a table outside the Relief Society room (women’s meeting room) with some extra handouts from weeks past. Many times teachers will give little handouts with quotes, or other reminders of their lessons as a way to encourage us to think about the messages in the upcoming weeks. This particular one was very applicable to our situation, so I asked if I could have one. I now have it in my thought journal and see it weekly.

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There IS something incredibly hopeful about starting over. In January 2014, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf wrote a First Presidency Message titled, “The Best Time to Plant a Tree”. He refers to computer hard drives and how clean and fast a new one is before it gets cluttered and begins to slow. In comparison, our lives can be like that. Not only our spiritual lives, but I believe also our physical lives. We can have so much stuff, so many activities, so many distractions that we forget what is really important. We forget that our family relationships and our relationship with God come first.

Elder Uchtdorf continues, “An old proverb says, ‘The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.’ There is something wonderful and hopeful about the word now. There is something empowering about the fact that if we choose to decide now, we can move forward at this very moment. Now is the best time to start becoming the person we eventually want to be—not only 20 years from now but also for all eternity.”

How true that is! We have decided that we want to be different. We want to be simple. Focusing on memories and relationships instead of material things. To that end, we are selling 90% of our earthly belongings, including the house so that we can travel more freely. As I look over the house, over everything we have found, bought, made, and acquired over the last 10 years, some of it is hard to let go. But, I just tell myself that there IS something hopeful about a fresh start, and when we settle down it will be exciting, new, and deliberate. I can’t wait.

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This Week on Instagram

This Week on Instagram: April 5-11, 2014

This Week on Instagram April 5-11 2014

Wow! What a week!! We started last weekend in Petaluma, CA with Sam’s family watching General Conference. We finished up the shelving project for our upper cabinets, and then headed out on Monday over to Skyline Wilderness Regional Park in Napa, CA and had some more cousin time. Tuesday afternoon we met up with Heather & Jeff of adventureswithaudrey.com for some hiking and sorbets. So fun to meet some new friends!! After a little grocery shopping, and a drive over the Sierra Nevada Mountains we hung out with Sam’s aunt in Reno on Wednesday evening before pushing all the way across Nevada on Thursday (boring!). We found a sweet boondocking spot near the Bonneville Speedway for Thursday night, took some epic photos, and then made it to our house in Lehi Friday afternoon.

Like I said, What a week! More on re-entry, our plans, and details, details, and more details next week!

Categories
Airstream Meetups

Airstream Meet-Up: ADVODNA

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While in Petaluma, CA we had the opportunity to meet up with another Airstream family! These meetups are seriously one of my favorite things about traveling. Dave & Ann (and their daughter Wynne) own a little farmlet on the outskirts of the city and invited us out to see the animals, and check out their on-going Airstream renovation. Not new to adventure, these two drove the Pan-American highway from SF down to Panama (pre-kids). Now, they are renovating their 2005 25′ CCD Airstream in preparation for new adventures after the arrival of baby #2 in July 2014. In the above photo, their new Airstream is on the left, and they just sold their smaller Airstream on the right. Gotta make room for more kids!

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We got to feed the sheep and chickens, and the kids LOVED gathering eggs from the hen house. Dave & Ann sent us home with fresh farm eggs and they were delicious! Sam and I have begun talking long-term plans and we’d love to someday end up on a small farmlet with chickens, bees, and maybe a few other animals. Seeing their property and how peaceful it was totally fueled that desire.

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About a week later we got together again this time out at the KOA where we were staying. We had a hot dog/marshmallow roast, played on the playground and had a great time!

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We hope to catch up with them later in July when we are back in California, or once they get on the road. They are talking about driving to Alaska next summer and we just might have to get on board with that!

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Categories
Featured Destination National Parks New Mexico

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

I’ve wanted to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park for months, so when we dashed through Southern New Mexico on our way to Disneyland it was definitely on the short list. It didn’t disappoint.

When We Visited: January 2014

Ages of Kids: 8, 6, 3

Where We Stayed: Brantley Lake State Park. About a 30 minute drive.

Best Tip: Get the kids audio tour wand. It was SO worth it. We probably should have gotten 2 instead of making them share, but we were being cheap. We learned a lot about the discovery of the cave, the exploration, the formations, and other interesting facts. Hunting down the numbers and then punching them into the wand easily kept our kids entertained.

2nd Best Tip: Walk down and ride the elevator out.

When we went to get our tickets, the ranger asked if we had visited any other caves within the last 6 months. We did a quick calculation in our heads and realized that we had been to the Luray Caverns in VA last October, and yes, that was less than 6 months ago. In order to keep the bat population healthy, and prevent White-nose syndrome you can’t take any equipment, clothing, or gear from cave to cave without washing it in HOT water first. Uhhhh…. So, we switched out our backpack, assumed we had all washed our jackets, and sat down on the floor to get started on our Jr. Ranger Badges while the ranger whisked away our shoes to give them a scrub. 30 minutes later we finally were able to head down to the caves.

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Carlsbad has an elevator system that will whisk you down to the main chambers, but we opted for the longer, walk-in entry. It was beautiful! Carlsbad is one of the most decorated caves. It is beautiful! We learned all about stalagmites, stalactites, columns, straws, popcorn, and other fun facts. The only problem I had is that our kids generally like to talk above a whisper and because everything echoes we had to keep telling them to be quiet. Total downer for everyone as I hate constantly getting after them, but I didn’t want to ruin the experience for all the other tourists down there.

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There are many ranger led tours you can get tickets for, but all the kids have to be at least 4 years old. Since Cara didn’t qualify, we opted for  the self-guided tour instead. Coupled with the audio tour wands, it was the perfect experience. Our kids did great walking down and and around the two largest caverns, but by the end they were pretty worn out!

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After our cave tour, we rode the elevator back out and then grabbed our lunch from the car and enjoyed the view and our late lunch. The view from outside the caves was also pretty nice, but fairly windy on the day we went. We also visited outside of bat season, so we’ll have to return to see the bats in action.

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