Dottie Days

Everyone needs a Dottie in their life. Dottie was my college roommate during our first half of college. She's one of my closest friends. She flew to Utah from Texas just to come to my baby shower last year! She always shows up for me and everyone else and I really admire her for that. She's a true Texas belle. 

A couple months ago, Dottie found out she had a long weekend for Easter, so she booked a flight to come see lil' ol' me in middle-of-nowhere Casper. She had never met bb Jack before, and this was a great time for her to meet him. He's a lot of fun now that he's walking around. He's also a lot of trouble, but we'll let that slide. Dottie flew into Denver from Houston (it's really expensive to fly directly into Casper's airport), and then she rented a car to drive the last 4 hours of the trek. 

She arrived late Thursday afternoon. Jack woke up from a nap right as she got here. He was pretty grumpy but by later that evening he had warmed up to her and he loved playing with her all weekend. Now he can even point her out in pictures when we ask, "Where's Dottie?" We spent the first evening just relaxing, making an incredible quiche together, doing face masks (shoulda snagged a selfie), and watching Jeopardy. Dottie is awesome at Jeopardy. Me, not so much.

Her timing for coming to visit could not have been better. Jared had 2 WHOLE DAYS OFF (basically just a normal weekend, but he hasn't had one of those in months) where he could watch Jack while we hit the town. On Friday we explored downtown Casper. We started at Lou Talbert's enormous cowboy store, and then explored some local boutiques. Dottie treated me to my first ever gel manicure (life changing--I will be doing this anytime I go on a long trip in the future), and then I treated her to a shake at Rialto's--an old-timey shake and soda shop. I got a lavender Italian soda. 5 out of 5 stars, would recommend. We had dinner at The Hangar in Bar Nunn and then relaxed at home.

On Saturday, Jack wore the world's most adorable outfit that Dottie brought him. It's a pair of black skinny jeans with suspenders and a long red shirt. It suits him so perfectly. If Jack was a color he would be red. We all went to Casper's art museum together and were the only ones there the entire time. On a Saturday, I might add. Maybe this should have clued us in that it's nothing to write home about, but at least I can say I've been now. It would have been a fine free activity, but when we got there we found out there's a $5 entrance fee. Dottie sneakily paid for us while Jared went out to the car to grab his wallet. There was a fun little kid's play section. Jack was mostly entrance in climbing the stairs to the off-limits second floor. I liked the art exhibits ok, but I wish there had been more variety. More fiber art, please!

In the evening, Jack and Jared went to get some fence supplies (Jared is building us a fence) while me and Dottie went to the mall. It was so so fun. I don't think I've done a mall trip like that since before I got married 5 years ago. We hit every single store that looked interesting (good thing Casper's mall isn't very big), and we tried on so many clothes. I snagged a couple of shirts I loved that were less than $5 each. We got boba drinks, did the massage chairs, and felt like middle-aged women. Then we grabbed some Easter eggs at Target on our way out so we could do an Easter egg hunt with Jack the next day.

We started Easter Sunday at church. Jared had to work a 24-hour shift from Easter morning into Monday. I'm so glad Dottie was there to help me wrangle Jack and pick him up for me since I had strained my back the day before. She was shocked at how active/exhausting he was. I was impressed that it was such a "good" week and I only had to take him out once to avoid a tantrum! He was still allll over the place, but I guess I've gotten used to it. 

After Jack's post-church nap, we indulged him in a little Easter egg hunt. We "hid" a couple inside, and then we placed a dozen more out on the front lawn. Jack would pick one or two up and put them in the basket, and then he'd want to take them out and throw them across the room one at a time. Once we went outside and he figured out there was chocolate in the eggs, he took to throwing them all immediately in hopes that they would break open and chocolate would spill out. I'm glad we did it. Dottie gets all the credit for this year's hunt--it didn't even occur to me to hide Easter eggs with Jack being so young, but it was fun.

We watched a couple movies and I made a ham dinner that I hoped we could take Jared at the hospital so we could all eat together. Unfortunately, he had a couple new admits show up right around dinner/Jack's bedtime, so we put crazy Jack down and ate at home. Usually I handle plans falling through due to doctor stuff pretty well, but it was hard this time with it being a holiday. Dottie was nice enough to send me off to see him later that evening when things calmed down at the hospital.

This morning was Dottie's last little bit of time in Casper before she had to drive to Denver to catch her flight home. We took some pictures together and Jack got a kick out of rolling her luggage around the house.

We are going to miss Dottie! I didn't realize how much I needed a weekend of true girl time. It has been way. too. long. It was refreshing to feel like a girl again and treat ourselves to face masks, manicures, chick flicks, and malling. Dottie even showed me how dating apps worked and let me swipe left on a bunch of profiles, which I've always wanted to do, haha. Next time we will have to go visit Dottie in Houston! It's going to be tough to decide if I want to go along and actually enjoy my time there, or bring Jack so he can play with Aunt Dottie. I guess there's plenty of time to decide. We love you Dottie!