Base Camp - A Ski Bummin' Adventure!

A dream came true for my dad this month.  He became an official ski bum with his "baby".  I think my dad has always been a ski bum deep down inside but for Mom to join him in this lifestyle for a few weeks was a dream come true.  First, remember my school bus blog post about a year ago? (click HERE to refresh your memory).  Well, the "heart" of that bus + a 1967 Dodge Travco became a ski bummin', mountain huntin' travelers dream.

Meet BASE CAMP... or you can call it BC (which i'll be referring to it as in this post).

Dad (and MANY other helpers) put lots of hours into making BC a reality.  Many repurposed items were used to restore it.  My favorite was an old door off our house used as the storage door on the outside.  Isn't my dad so creative?

For the auto geeks that read my blog (Jonas)... the engine is a DT466 International Navstar.  The main donor (drivetrain and axels) is a 1996 Navstar School Bus. (Yep, a yellow one)

The first trip Base Camp went on was in it's "under construction" phase.  Dad had "the trip of a lifetime" on this trip and turned a 20 year dream into reality (more to come on that later).

Here she is on her FIVE state ski bummin' adventure.  Yes, that's a 1966 Honda 305 dream.  It's true, you meet the nicest people on a Honda.

The ski bum's.... fresh into bummin. Yes, that's a Canadian Tuxedo with a Denim Diva ready to shred it up.

From Ashby, MN to Aberdeen, SD to Reiter, SD to Bozeman, MT to BIG SKY, MT (Ski State #1)

(to meet up with some temporary bums)

From Big Sky to Yellowstone to Jackson Hole, Wyoming (ski state #2) for some "Ho Back" Mountain skiing.

From Jackson Hole to Park City, Utah (ski state #3) for some big city skiing.

From Salt Lake through Moab, UT to Glen Canyon from the top end of Lake Powell following the Colorado River over 300 miles to Kremmling, CO (a favorite hunting destination).

A visit with Kris & Susan along the way!

From Kremmling, CO to Summit County to Keystone, CO (ski state #4) for some Mary Ida style skiing.    Here is a picture of them with a statue of Max & Edna Dercum the founders of Keystone.

From Keystone to the Black Hills to see faces in rocks and to the largest bar in the world at Sturgis.

I know you're excited to know what ski state #5 is!  From Sturgis, SD to Duluth, MN to ski Spirit Mountain for some down home skiing.  That's right friends 4,020 miles later and after 4 states of BIG skiing (saving the best for last errr first) Spirt Mountain, MN made the cut to complete skiing five states in one trip!!

You get to sign BC's wall after a memorable outing.  The first was a very memorable one for dad... after 20 years of archery hunting elk... his 5X5 dream came true!  

The second was celebrating Easter by Lake Superior.  "Like wheat that rises green, Love lives again." Thank you, Jesus.

To be continued...

Friday Free Day!

Robby & I both had the day off today!  We took a home buying class this morning, ate a yummy lunch at the Northern Waters Smokehaus and spent the afternoon on the trails at Snowflake with our friend's dog Beckett.  It was only his second time skiing with us and he did awesome!  Such a good pup!

Happy Friday Friends!

Always by my side

Tonight in church during worship we sang a new song by Chris Tomlin.  I love Chris Tomlin... the lyrics in his songs are so powerful and full of so much truth.  This song "Angel Armies" really stuck with me so when I got home I googled it and found the story that goes with the song.  The story creates  such a beautiful picture of the husband singing a prayer for his wife.  It reminds me of my uncle Stanley who has written a number of songs for his wife and family.  The song he sang at our wedding was actually written for his wife (maybe someday i'll get him to record it!).  I could sit around a campfire for hours and listen to the Balgaard Brothers/Cousins sing and play their guitars. 

I struggle with anxiety and worry and not always trusting God with what's next in life so the lyrics in this song spoke directly to me.  Robby on the other hand is the most calm, laid back, rarely worried person.  There is not one doubt in my mind that God created us for each other.

"I know who goes before me, I know who stands behind, the God of Angel Armies is always by my side."

My "WE'RE DEBT FREE!" Scream!

When we first got married we sat down and looked at our student loans and probably thought... okay we'll pay them off month by month for the rest of our lives.  Doom and gloom.

About 15 months ago we attended the Dave Ramsey "Financial Peace University" that was being offered at the base.  I love Dave... he is totally blunt, slightly insensitive, completely hilarious, and speaks financial truth into thousands of lives.  Some people probably hate him, but I love him.  He totally opened our eyes to financial freedom and I will be forever thankful for that.

During our class Dave taught us about getting Gazelle Intense about becoming debt free.  This really stuck with me and here is the only video I could find on it.  He uses the example of a gazelle as a person and a cheetah as debt.  I love how fired up he gets.

I love how he says "you can wander into to debt, but you can't wander out.... you need to run like your life depends on it."  So, we made some adjustments, cut our expenses, took on a second job, delayed buying a house and threw loads of money into or loans every month for 15 months and i'm happy to FINALLY be able to do our Dave Ramsey scream (since I know It's unlikely i'll get on his radio show).... WE'RE 100% DEBT FREE!

Our goal... to never have debt again (except a morgage).  To be able to give freely, invest wisely and save up for that nice (never, ever new) shiny car.  And hopefully to be a stay at home mom one day without all of those bills!  (And no, i'm not pregnant... just checking if you read down this far)

"This is not a game, ... Debt has become a part of who we are. It's become that spoiled child in the grocery store with their lip stuck out: 'I want it. I want it. I deserve it because I breathe air.' And, well, that's an uphill climb in our culture right now, to go against that and say, 'Hey, let's be grownups here. Let's be mature, learn to delay pleasure, save up and pay for things.'"

Thank you Dave!

Winter in March

Oh how I LOVE winter in March!  I love the pretty heavy snow and enjoying the last few ski outings in decent temperatures.  We had such a fun weekend! We were pretty much all outdoors this weekend and it was awesome!

We started out the day waxing our equipment and watching the snow fall.  We were soooo excited to get out on the slopes.  P.S. This is the waxing stand my dad built for me out of an ironing board.  Isn't it sweet?!?  I love it.

Robby packed our lunch and put labels on them to tell the difference.  I like extra peanut butter on my PB&J.  Isn't he cute? 

After a long and very fun day of skiing in fresh snow!  I'm disappointed I didn't get any pictures on the slopes.  The only thing that could have made the day better is being on a real mountain instead of a spirit mountain ;)  The fresh snow was awesome though!

After skiing we hit up the Anchor bar... which apparently has been voted best dive bar many years in a row.  It was on Diners, Dives and Drive-ins.  The burgers are ahhhh-mazzing.

Sunday morning view of the lake off our deck.   It was soooo pretty after the snowfall.

We hit up our annual tradition of cheering on the Beargrease Sled Dog race.  I can't capture in a picture how excited these dogs are to race.  It's so fun to watch!

This dog was so excited he kept jumping over the other.

Snowball fight (with the biggest snowballs we could find)!

We made snow angels... he must not have tried very hard because his looks a little disfigured.

Overall... an awesome weekend!!

My life saving friend

I don't know if you know this but my best friend has saved a life.  For real!

Mary + Chipotle + Beth + heimlich maneuver  = life saved

Mary = life saver

Beth = lucky friend

I was at the American Heart Association luncheon and they showed us the new hands only CPR video.  I thought Mary should watch this since she seems to find herself in the most crazy situations.  I can totally imagine her singing the song while doing chest compressions can't you?!

Mary this video is for you...

Laugh your way!

Robby & I went to a marriage enrichment weekend at Cragun's Resort in Brained.  It was really nice to get away and relax.  The program was called "laugh your way to a better marriage".  The speaker was really funny and entertaining but also had some really great points.  I think I finally discovered something I never knew about Robby... his "nothing box".  This stupid box has been driving me nuts for years... and now I get it!  Here's a clip and at around 4 minutes he explains the "nothing box".