Categories
Daily Life

Long Drive Today and I Have a Headache

Today has been a bit of a crazy day. We are headed back to Utah, and drove from Napa, CA to Reno, NV over the Sierra Mountains (arguably one of my favorite drives ever). At just about 4 hours spent in the car, its a bit of a recent record for us. Add to that another few hours tomorrow in back to back driving days and we are all going to be exhausted! We are such driving wimps.

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Therefore, I’m tired. I also had a Cherry Coke Zero that is doing some crazy things to my head. Huge headache, I’m kind of cranky, and seriously exhausted. I’m totally blaming it on the “cherry” as Coke Zero and I have always gotten along just fine. We also got an offer on our house today which means we have to make a decision I’m not sure I’m ready to make. We really weren’t expecting this until more like the end of June. Kind of bumps up the schedule and changes the plans a bit.

We are, however, courtesy parking high above the city in a beautiful development near Sam’s aunt, and she has the most amazing view. Always look for the silver lining.

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Categories
Inside the Airstream

Inside the Airstream: A Quick Tour {2014 Edition}

For some reason, taking photos of the inside of the Airstream and posting them has been really difficult for me. When I show off my living space, I just want it to be perfect. Totally unrealistic, but I want everyone to see it the way its in my head -not necessarily the way it looks everyday. So, I finally just did gave up on ideal and did it. The kids were off at the park, we were packing up to leave so everything was semi-clean and I just snapped a few quick photos. We are about to drastically change up the bedroom area, and I wanted photos that represented this first 6 months of our traveling anyway.

Our Airstream is a 2008 International CCD 27FB in cilantro (color and type of decoration). The International designation gives it the shiny interior (which we LOVE), plus the cabinet style (I believe).  It is 27 feet long (technically 28′) with a Front Bed, meaning the bed is up by the hitch, and the door is in the rear with the dinette.

Here is the kitchen looking back to the bedroom. The kitchen may look small, but it does the job. 3 burner stove, about a half size oven but I can still fit a 9×13 pan. Not tons of counter space, but I manage. We mostly just try and do simple meals.

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The front bedroom where the kids sleep. We are taking out the queen bed and putting in a U-shaped configuration of beds (once for each kid) as soon as we get back to Utah. Like next week. The bed also lifts up for storage underneath which we’ll have with the new beds as well. The nightstands can go. I hate that they just get piled with all of the kids’ stuff. Probably my fault though since I want the bed to look “pretty” and not cluttered with their random pillows and stuffed animals. 🙂 I think Sam will also build another shelf for the homeschool supplies (paper, folders, extra books) back here as well. The kids also store their books up there, and we’d love to do a different type of bookshelf for them.

Edited to add: See our bedroom remodel here!

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Close up of the hallway. A/C unit on the ceiling, although we’d prefer to stay in climates/areas where it is not needed. Along the hallway, the fridge/freezer and shower are on the left, the pantry and bathroom on the right. The small cupboard above the freezer has spices, flour, sugar, and our 1 pyrex, 4 cup measuring cup. Yes, I only have 1.

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Looking the other way at the dinette and door. You can see the cabinets up above where we installed the shelves that Sam just built while staying with his parents. LOVE them. So happy with the way they organize those tricky cabinets. Also LOTS of windows. Definitely helps the space feel bigger and bring in a lot of light. The couch on the lower right is the gaucho, were Sam and I sleep at night with our bedroll. We do all fit around the table. 2 on the left, and 3 on the right with the outermost person kind of sitting on the corner. Andrew sits up against the window on the right side since he’s left handed.

IMG_6044-EditThere it is! All 188 square feet of blissful, traveling awesomeness. I’ll try and do posts later about toy storage, what’s in the kitchen, the closets, etc. As we get back to Utah and really organize and bring other items we’ve been missing (and lose some we don’t use) a lot of that will change anyway.

Categories
Finances & Money

How Much Does It Cost To Live in an Airstream: March Summary

How Much Does it Cost to Live in an Airstream March 2014

Another month! I like that these monthly financial summaries give me a bench mark as well as accountability. Another month down, another month still financially stable. Its exciting!

I’ll detail a post later on about how I budget in general (because that’s not really Airstream life specific) but just know that these are not ALL of our expenses. Not even close. These are just the ones that are fairly Airstream specific. We still have health insurance, life insurance, entertainment expenses, loans on the Airstream and truck, HSA contributions, children’s savings, mortgage and utilities on the house in Lehi… You get the idea.

But aside from all that, most people want to know what it’ll cost in the Airstream. The biggest differences for us are the camping fees, higher gas spending, higher groceries, laundry, and occasionally the higher eating out (only because we never really ate out before).

Here are the numbers. I thought I’d try a spreadsheet this month for easier visualization:

Untitled-1 copyConclusion? We are doing great! Well within our budgets. I couldn’t be happier. The next few months will be a bit different as we are headed back to our house in Utah (to sell it) but are planing a Southern Utah trip for May.

 

Categories
Faith

Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints General Conference Wrap-Up

I am so grateful for a wonderful weekend spent with family listening to inspired leaders! There were so many times that I felt the messages were meant just for me. Over the next 6 months, we plan to read, review, and study all of the messages given. I’m always amazed at how quickly the talks are posted online at lds.org. We can read, watch, or listen there, and I also download them onto my phone using the Gospel Library app – which makes reading and studying super easy.

I’m grateful for the knowledge that God speaks to His prophets. I’m grateful for the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and that I have direction and purpose in my life.

Here are two of my favorite quotes from the weekend:

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Categories
WanderLog

Pizza, Date Night and San Fran

This Week on Instagram March 29 - April 4 2014

Travel Dates: March 29 – April 4, 2014

California has been blessed with quite a lot of rain this last week. Although it makes venturing out difficult, we are grateful many prayers have been answered for the needed moisture! We’ve had a great week hanging out with Sam’s family. A visit to the BEST pizza place in existence, trips to the city, grandma snuggles are just a few. I was sick at the beginning of the week so we didn’t get much done Monday or Tuesday, although somehow I managed to take the kids to the Children’s Museum where we played with clay and stop motion for over an hour.

We also earned the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park Junior Ranger Badge, ate ice cream at Ghiradelli Square, made some new Airstream friends, Sam got in a few work projects, and we visited Uncle Jake at the White Cap store he manages in the city.

Grandma invited the kids over for a sleepover, which allowed Sam and I to attend a session at the Oakland LDS temple, go out for a delicious Mediterranean dinner, and buy new shoes at REI!