It's been another lazy week. Our favorite thrift store had a big sale on puzzles, so now we are puzzle people--something we've never been before. It's kinda weird that that's what we're doing with our free time. Both Jared and I thrive on being productive and working on projects. We've both been in a bit of a mid-summer funk lately. It feels like we should be out enjoying life since summer is so short, but we're kind of trapped at home right now, not wanting to do anything in the evenings.
We did spend an afternoon at the nearest little pond (McKenzie Lake) with Jack yesterday. It was the most "normal" lake experience we've had since Jack came into our life. We were even able to lay on a blanket on the beach for a few minutes while Jack scavenged for sticks to throw in the water. Only lasted about 5 minutes before he had us by the hands dragging us up and down every little bump in the ground, but it was nice while it lasted. Jack was running across the parking lot when all of a sudden a little puppy showed up and wiggled his way under Jack's hand. Caught him off-guard but it was so cute! Jack loves dogs but has never interacted with a tiny Jack-sized pup before.
We also got to go to a fancy dinner last night. It was just for family medicine residents and their families (we were the only ones to bring our kid though--next time we'll get a sitter), and it was completely paid for by the residency program. Good thing, too, since the dinner was at the fanciest and probably most expensive steakhouse in town. Jack was pretty wiggly the whole time, but it was a best-case scenario that we were put in a little booth with just one other resident, and everyone else was at a table next to us. Jack stayed trapped in the corner with his ipad and table scraps. The popcorn shrimp, coconut lemonade, cajun steak, and lobster mac n' cheese were the best I've ever had. Thank you U of Wyoming Family Medicine Residency! I've never felt like such a legit adult in all my life. Afterward when we got to the car, we realized we had lost one of Jack's shoes in the restaurant. Jared went back to get it and Jack was so deliriously tired and wouldn't stop doing this cheesy, toothy oompa loompa grin as he tried to loudly pass gas. Real sense of humor there, kid.
And here are some ordinary snapshots from our ordinary week. The first is a shot of the thrifted outfit I found Jack this week. Our thrift store has a deal where you squeeze as many clothes into a grocery bag as you can fit and it only costs $12. Usually I come out of there with 12-15 items total (for everyone in the family), so it's a great deal.
We did spend an afternoon at the nearest little pond (McKenzie Lake) with Jack yesterday. It was the most "normal" lake experience we've had since Jack came into our life. We were even able to lay on a blanket on the beach for a few minutes while Jack scavenged for sticks to throw in the water. Only lasted about 5 minutes before he had us by the hands dragging us up and down every little bump in the ground, but it was nice while it lasted. Jack was running across the parking lot when all of a sudden a little puppy showed up and wiggled his way under Jack's hand. Caught him off-guard but it was so cute! Jack loves dogs but has never interacted with a tiny Jack-sized pup before.
We also got to go to a fancy dinner last night. It was just for family medicine residents and their families (we were the only ones to bring our kid though--next time we'll get a sitter), and it was completely paid for by the residency program. Good thing, too, since the dinner was at the fanciest and probably most expensive steakhouse in town. Jack was pretty wiggly the whole time, but it was a best-case scenario that we were put in a little booth with just one other resident, and everyone else was at a table next to us. Jack stayed trapped in the corner with his ipad and table scraps. The popcorn shrimp, coconut lemonade, cajun steak, and lobster mac n' cheese were the best I've ever had. Thank you U of Wyoming Family Medicine Residency! I've never felt like such a legit adult in all my life. Afterward when we got to the car, we realized we had lost one of Jack's shoes in the restaurant. Jared went back to get it and Jack was so deliriously tired and wouldn't stop doing this cheesy, toothy oompa loompa grin as he tried to loudly pass gas. Real sense of humor there, kid.
And here are some ordinary snapshots from our ordinary week. The first is a shot of the thrifted outfit I found Jack this week. Our thrift store has a deal where you squeeze as many clothes into a grocery bag as you can fit and it only costs $12. Usually I come out of there with 12-15 items total (for everyone in the family), so it's a great deal.
^^Jack NEVER snuggles like this. Ever. So we thought this was a special swing bonding moment. Turns out he had just skinned his knee going down the slide on his tummy and was in horrible pain. Oops.
^^From our trip up past Squaw Peak when we were visiting Utah last month. There's a new spectacular view around every corner in Utah, which is one of the things I love most about it.
Jack has been testing us all lately. I thought it was just teething making him so high-maintenance, but now his teeth have popped through and he's still the same screamy Jack. I'm resigning myself to thinking that this is just how the toddler years are going to go. At least he's cute.
Oh! An Evanston update. Jared called the hospital in Evanston about doing a rotation there in the Spring, and they were elated. Now the resident coordinator here in Casper just needs to call the Evanston team and get everything finalized.
That's pretty much it. An old buddy of Jared's from Arizona, Scott Esplin, came to have dinner with us last night with his family. They're living in Ft. Collins and happened to be in Casper for work. I haven't met one of Jared's childhood friends in years, probably since we got married. It was fun to see them reconnect and talk about their friends and memories. Good times.
There's an adorable little ice cream shop in the middle of the park, and a lovely little river cutting through, too. Jared waited in line and got us a huckleberry ice cream to share by the river, where Jack mostly ignored the ice cream because he was too content throwing rocks in the water.
We tried to walk back to the car at this point, but there was a little baby hill on the way that we couldn't pull Jack away from, so we walked up and ran down it a few dozen times.
Next we stopped for an early dinner on the cute little downtown strip. We ate at 3:30 to avoid the rodeo crowds, which was a good choice. Mom and Dad will be happy to hear that the place we ate at was Cowboy Cafe. They have a couple other locations in Wyoming, and the food was SO. GOOD.
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 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.
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.
I get super weird when guests come to visit. Not when they're actually here, but in the week leading up to it. I stress about all the home projects we NEED to finish before the guests arrive. (None actually need finishing. Our home is great and mostly decorated by this point.) Usually I pick the biggest, most complicated project to finish and I'm not able to finish it in time anyway. I also stress about the meal schedule and all our snacks, and will they even like fig bars and greek yogurts? Guess I better run to the store one last time for ice cream sandwiches in case they need easy dessert access, and also a bag of red peppers in case they're trying to eat only raw foods.
Then the day before the guests arrive I get even weirder. Usually the house is in shambles that day because I've spent my whole week trying to take on random home decor/organization projects that are only half finished and absolutely won't be done in time. I know that I SHOULD be spending the day doing laundry so I can get the guest bed all made, and cleaning the house so I'm not stressed out the day they arrive. But of course, usually I use this time to remember one final project that MUST be finished before they get here or the world will completely fall apart!!!!! (It won't. Not even a little.) So I don't even start doing the laundry or cleaning until 4 hours before they get here, and of course Jack is at an age where really nothing gets done unless he's asleep. It's a huge adrenaline rush and I become a big sweaty mess. When all's said and done and the guests get here, I'm able to chill out and be fine. But man, those few days before are an unnecessary whirlwind. Which is so weird because I'm generally the most low-key, chill person on the planet. I'm excited to hit my 30s. That's when you stop caring what people think of you and your house and your snack drawer, right?
This last week, my best friend Julie and her husband and baby came to visit. (Julie, if you're reading this, hey girl! We miss you!) They were only here for one night--they were driving home to Idaho Falls from a family reunion near Mt. Rushmore. The project I decided I "needed" to do before they got here was making a shelf I designed for the guest room to hang my weavings from. It's a really cool shelf--all black, spanning the entire length of the room, and with a hundred or so holes on the bottom of it from which to hang weavings from S-hooks. On top I'll display plants and family pictures. I'm excited to see it installed, but it has been a beast to construct. The day before Julie got here, I realized there was no way I could get it finished in time and I was able to drop it.
But then, when I woke up Thursday morning, knowing full well they'd be here by early afternoon, I was like, "The world will END if we don't have a recent family picture displayed prominently on the wall in our living room!!!" Don't ask me why I thought this. Julie is very chill and wouldn't have noticed or cared either way. We do have a large photo of me and puppy Savvy in the living room, but no large family pictures or pictures of my actual human baby. I've been self-conscious about that for a while but never gotten around to printing a nice family picture. And by this point, the most recent nice family photo we had was taken 7 months ago for our Christmas card.
Jared's work shift wasn't going to start until 9:00 a.m., so when Jack woke up I threw some bright happy outfits on everyone and marched us out to the prairie with my trusty camera tripod. I snapped a couple pictures, hoped for the best (no time to actually check--Jared had to go home and get ready for work), and when Jack went down for his morning nap I found the best one and edited it. The final result is the picture you see above. Turned out pretty cute, right? In this instance it worked out great that I'm a crazy person before guests come. If I weren't, this lovely family photo would never have happened. And Jack's growing so fast that I'm glad we captured his classic one-year-old toothy grin and cowboy boots before he's outgrown them.
We had such a wonderful time with Julie, Brandon, and baby Davis that night. Jared had to go to a fancy residency dinner, but afterward he came home and we played board games together and chatted. I wish they were able to stay another day so we could have shown them the prairie and talked more about what's going on in their lives. It's definitely harder to have deep conversations now that we both have needy babies. Luckily, they're hoping to be in Utah for dental school soon and we're planning to settle down back in Utah after Jared's student loans are paid off. Hopefully our paths will cross in Utah for at least a year or two. Julie's the type of best friend that's easy to have and to pick up where we left off after going years without seeing each other. I'm so grateful for her. I'm also grateful for all you other guests who have come to see us. Without you, our home would never get decorated, so you the real mvps.
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