One Year in Wyoming

This week marks one year since we moved to Wyoming. And one year in, we are still very happy to be here. I would guess the majority of people out there would say that Georgia and Grenada (the places we lived before here) are more beautiful than Wyoming, but we are Westerners at heart and feel much more at home on these wide open plains.

Things we love about living in Wyoming:

- The wide open sky. Georgia may have had hundreds of thousands of tall, beautiful trees, but they blocked off the sky and I only saw a handful of sunsets during our two years living there. Here in Wyoming, you can see the entire sunset from anywhere. Sunsets are my favorite.
- The sparse population. We just aren't city folk. I think there are only something like 500,000 people living in this entire state, and that sits just fine with us.
- The prairie. All that wide open prairie is what makes Wyoming feel so desolate as you're driving through, but it also feels really peaceful to live on the edge of the prairie and be able to see miles of tall grass and antelope stretching out in front of you.
- The antelope. They are so cute! I love their big, fluffy white bums. We see herds and herds of them anytime we drive into town. Really gonna miss those guys when we're gone.
- The country folk. Lots of cowboys and people who love their quiet Wyoming home. They are big rodeo fans here, which is fun. It's a good culture full of kind people.
- The trucks. This kind of goes with the last one, but EVERYONE owns a truck. Literally, like, everyone. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that nearly HALF of the cars on the Casper streets at any given time are trucks. This works out great for us anytime we find a new piece of furniture at the thrift store, or when we needed to get all the supplies to build our fence. There's always a ward member or neighbor with a truck who's willing to help you out. And since everyone has one, you can ask someone different every time and not feel guilty about it (ok, we still feel a little guilty).
- The close proximity to Utah. 7 hours is still a long drive, but not nearly as long as the 29-hour drive from Georgia. We love being able to visit family and have family visit us pretty often.
- The cool weekend trips. Casper is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but there are some really great destinations 3-4 hours away in any direction. We've got Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, Rocky Mountain national park, Devil's Tower, the Grand Tetons, and more.
- The affordability. Specifically in the housing market. Three cheers for being able to buy a house here! And with the way the market's going, it looks like we'll be able to sell for a profit when we move. Gas is also really cheap here. It's been right around $2 a gallon the majority of the time we've lived here (that's been rising lately, but it's still cheaper than everywhere else).
- The low taxes.
- The dryness. For the first time in half a decade, I can curl/straighten my hair and expect it to last for days.
- The perfect summers.

There are also a few things we don't love: the never-ending wind, the lonnnnng winters, the lack of family in our state . . . but the good absolutely outweighs the bad. 

(a photo from last summer right after we moved here)

Oh, and to give some updates on my last post:

(1) There have bene no more attempted break-ins. We got our security cameras up and running last week and we all feel a bit more at ease now. We also like knowing that we can check in on our house when we're out of town now. Jared is done working nights so I won't have to sleep alone and be paranoid anymore.

(2) We haven't heard anything back from the Evanston job opening. I'm inclined to think they've either already filled the position, or they're just not looking for a first-year resident intern who still has two years of training ahead of him. In the meantime, Jared's applied to a position or two in Washington to test the waters up there. We aren't planning to sign in Washington anytime soon, but we want to see what the pay is like and if they offer loan repayment help up there. It'll probably be another year before we sign anywhere. We're going to keep our eyes peeled for any other Southern Wyoming positions that may open up, while also keeping an eye out for anything exceptionally interesting in Washington, where Jared's family is. All we know is that we ant to continue creeping closer to family after we're done with residency. 

(3) It is officially summery in Wyoming now! Hopefully that means we'll be going on lots more local adventures and I'll have more interesting blog posts ahead. Jared has Tuesday and Wednesday off this week (he's in a new ER rotation where Tuesday and Wednesday are his "weekend"). We're thinking about driving up to Sheridan and exploring the Bighorn Mountains.