July 4th and our 6th Anniversary

What a great week! Jared was given Thursday off to celebrate the 4th of July. I know this is just a given for most people, but it's a big deal for us. In medical training and the medical field in general, you feel like you hit the jackpot whenever you get the day off for a holiday. 

To start off our Independence Day, we were excited to take Jack to our town's parade and festivities in the park. Unfortunately, we did a poor job planning out his naps for the day and we ended up missing the whole thing. Oh well, we'll take him next year and he'll enjoy it more then anyway. We ended up just playing in our yard while Jared mowed the lawn in the sprinklers. I guess that's the one perk to owning an oldschool push mower--you can mow in the sprinklers. I got some shots of Jack doing his favorite things: playing with rocks and looking at tractors.

After Jared spent the rest of our holiday morning trying to fix the window that just broke on his car, we knew we needed to kick it into gear for the afternoon to turn our holiday around. During Jack's afternoon nap, me and Jared started the new season of Stranger Things. I'm very impressed with us for being able to pace ourselves and watch the whole season in 4 days instead of just one. This was my favorite season yet. Maybe because we mostly watched it during daylight hours instead of when it was dark out. The last season gave me nightmares because I was pregnant, we only watched after it got dark, and we were living in Decatur, GA. Aka, where most of Stranger Things is filmed. Here's a pic of me at Hawkins Lab:

(Fun fact: when we were living in Georgia, we accidentally went shopping at the mall where most of the third season of Stranger Things is filmed. At the time we had no idea it would be the location of the next season. It's actually a pretty dead mall. There's a JC Penny and a Hot Dog on a Stick like in the movie, but all the other stores were different and there was like no one there. Almost all the malls we visited in Georgia were pretty dead. Poor malls.)

When Jack woke up, we threw on our swimming suits and went to explore Edness K. Wilkins reservoir. It's a cute lil reservoir with sandy beach all around it. I was worried it would be packed, but we went late enough in the day that it really wasn't at all. I love Casper. I love that we can go to the only little "beach" in town on the 4th of July and still have tons of personal space to spread out. 

After an hour of playing on the playground and in the sand (it was a bit cool for swimming), we went to a lil' barbecue at a fellow resident's home, the Balls family. Lots of residents and their families from Jared's program were there. Your medical peers become family during these training years when everyone's far from home. Jack was in heaven. There was a swingset and slide, tons of people to charm and steal food off their plates, and a bunch of other little toddlers who he sat and chalked with like a big boy. Wish I'd gotten a picture of that one.

After an hour or so, we took Jack home and put him to bed, then watched some Stranger Things and enjoyed the fireworks that went off at 10:00. There are no fireworks allowed in Casper (too dry), except for at the Event Center. Luckily we had a great view of those fireworks from the street by our house. There were fireworks in the south sky, a beautiful lightning storm in the north and east skies, and the prettiest big crescent moon in the west sky. It was one of those perfect memories I hope to never forget, watching fireworks and the lightning with Jared and Savvy, with the smell of oncoming rain in the prairie around us.

Two days later, we celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on July 6! Jared got me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers, with a peony and stargazer lilies and tulips and roses. For him, I finally printed out all our favorite Grenada pictures and put them in our banana leaf GND photo album. Luckily it was a Saturday and Jared didn't have to work. We spent the day cleaning the house, taking Jack for a walk by the Platte river, and eating waaaaay too much Cold Stone ice cream. Next time we'll split something.

In the evening, Jared won husband of the year by getting a resident friend and his wife to babysit while we went on our first date in months. It was definitely the most legit Casper date we've ever had. We started out at a Mexican restaurant. It was amazing to be out to eat without a wiggly toddler. I actually enjoyed all the waiting involved with the food and check. Very relaxing.

Next we got some cash and headed to the Central Wyoming Fair and Rodeo, which I didn't even know was going on! We didn't hit the rodeo this time, but we did go on a couple rides at the fair, which neither of us had ever done before.

We started out on this rickety old ferris wheel. I don't know when we got so old, but we were both terrified during the first couple rotations! It didn't even go that high? After the first two rotations we were able to relax and enjoy the sunset happening right behind us, and as it got darker all the carnival lights came on.

Next we went on the bumper boats and felt like a couple'a kids. Jared even won me this little stuffed fish below. At this point it was time to head home. It was the most perfect anniversary! Last year we celebrated our anniversary by taking our colicky baby to an old diner in town and splitting a little hamburger because Jared's paychecks hadn't started coming in yet and we couldn't afford anything else haha. Also I was in pain the whole time because I still hadn't recovered from giving birth. Woof. This anniversary was definitely a huge level-up on that one.

Here's to many more amazing years of wedded bliss ahead! I'm so proud of all me and Jared have accomplished together. The hard times have only brought us closer. We're a pretty great team. I love my giggly guy who makes sound effect in the operating room and whose favorite tv shows are kid cartoons. He may be the older one in our relationship, but he keeps me young.