Utah is giving us life! Me and Jack came down last weekend for a low-key one-day Roper family reunion. It was the perfect time to get out of Wyoming since Jared's been working 100 hours a week and now has some Covid patients (as of the day after we left). Yay. Tim was nice enough to fly to Casper to make the drive with me and Jack. Made the 7-hour trek go by much better than it would have alone! Here was our last prairie sunset with our favorite guy:
I haven't had a day as fun as the reunion in years. Like, since before Jack was born. It was SO FUN. There were some extreme swings, an enormous waterslide, a tractor pull for the kiddos, a sketchy tree boardwalk, and a pond with a zipline, high dive, and rope swing. And the best part of all, Jack is now old enough that he was able to keep fairly self-entertained playing with his cousin Asher so I could actually enjoy myself! Nothing better than little boys in bucket hats. (Note Jack in his favorite "Guicky Mouse" shirt)
It was amazing to catch up with some family I haven't seen a long time, and to just be out in the middle of nowhere up in Cornish. I think I cried a little on the drive home, it was so pretty. Leave it to Utah to have a neverending supply of beautiful places that I've never been before.
Jack loved riding the tractor pull. All of these "rides" were probably handmade by the owner. Nothing fancy, but everything was so so fun. We all agreed that this was the best family reunion yet, despite lower numbers and a few extra precautions due to Covid.
Other than poor Benson's broken arm (he went flying off one of the extreme swings), it was a perfect day. I can't wait to make it back again next year with Jared!
Another week of residency down, several dozen to go! I'd start a paper chain countdown, but I've learned from experience that that is NOT a good idea for this sort of thing. I made a paper chain counting down Jared's first semester of med school in Grenada, and it only made me miserable when I'd cut off one piece every day and it didn't look any shorter overall. It's actually super weird to think back on that memory, remembering that at the time it felt like the end of training would literally NEVER come (I remember sobbing when I calculated that we were only 1/96th of the way done), and now we're practically finished. And that memory weirdly doesn't feel that long ago.
Anyway, it was another busy week for Jared. He did have Saturday off, and we spent a couple hours at the Edness Kimball Wilkins reservoir in the afternoon. Jack loved playing in the sand and going on the "boat" with us (an inflatable raft). His favorite part was chasing the birds away and yelling, "Go away birds!" and then as soon as they flew away he'd start screaming, "Birds! Come back!" Toddlers.
And on the note of fun outings, Jack is VERY excited for our "outing" to the Roper reunion later this week. He has several dozen meltdowns every day that we can't go to grandma and grandpa's house "now" (or Nana's house, or Asher's house, or the Thanksgiving Point farm--there are daily meltdowns about all of those too). Tim is going to fly up to Casper so he can drive down to the reunion with me and Jack. Thanks Tim! It'll be so nice to have some company other than our Raffi Radio CD on repeat.
(*sorry the format is weird on my blog's home page. Blogger made some changes and I think I'm going to have to adjust my formatting/HTML to fix it, which I haven't done in years. I'll give it a go next week. For now, you can scroll down and click on the title "Holidays Weekend" to read the post like normal.)
This is probably the roughest summer schedule Jared's had during any of his 7 years of medical training. Covid, many 24-hour shifts (including over the 4th of July), jail shifts until late several evenings a week after he's ALREADY worked 12-hr days, 5:30 wakeup calls, verrrrry limited vacation ability. Actually, probably no vacation ability at all until summer's over. The two things getting me through are that I've had 7 years to get accustomed to missing holidays (it truly doesn't feel like that big a deal anymore, which is nuts considering how soul-wrenching it was at first), and the knowledge that this is likely the last year we'll have to miss the big stuff! I'm proud of us. Instead of getting down about spending the 4th of July alone and barely being able to squeeze in a one-hr anniversary date together yesterday, I've been able to smile and feel nostalgic as we're making our way through this year of "lasts" before Jared finishes residency and takes his first DWT (done with training) job next summer.
Anyway, here's the real post. Jared was lucky enough to get off a few hours early on July 3rd, so we headed up over Casper Mountain to explore some trails on Muddy Mountain.
^^Looks like sweet lil Jack snuggles. Actually just a toddler refusing to walk on his own. Gr8 times.
My favorite part of the hike was sitting on this shaded bench for 15 minutes while Jack egged Savvy on to chase squirrels up trees.
^^When Jack decided he's actually terrified of squirrels and came running to Dad for safety.
We treated our afternoon together as our Independence Day celebration and finished up with some ice cream from Dairy Queen. If anyone's looking for a good business opportunity, open up a fast food franchise in Casper! The lines are always insaaaaane here, on any day of the week, at any place, at any time. If we had more money and more time here, we're convinced we could get rich off of bringing in a Chik-fil-A, or heck, even starting a soda shop or snow cone shack in the summer.
The next morning, I took Jack to the Bar Nunn July 4th parade. I really wanted to get a picture of him waving to the fire trucks while they tossed fistfuls of candy his way, but unfortunately, one of the first floats that went by was topped with a guy dressed in a horse costume and it freaked Jack out (homie hates costumes). He started sobbing uncontrollably and sprinted to the car yelling, "Jack, car, home!" We stayed for the rest of the 5-minute parade since this is our last year here and I wanted to see it, but Jack would not leave the car for any amount of candy thrown his way. He still talks about the scary parade horse daily. This is the only picture I have from the parade haha:
After the parade, we spent most of the day at home. It was super hot out and I didn't feel like taking Jack somewhere bound to be crowded on my own. We did roast hot dogs over our fire pit on the patio for dinner, which makes me a cool mom. Jack was a big fan of this, even after Savvy ate his first hot dog right off the stick.
This is probably the roughest summer schedule Jared's had during any of his 7 years of medical training. Covid, many 24-hour shifts (including over the 4th of July), jail shifts until late several evenings a week after he's ALREADY worked 12-hr days, 5:30 wakeup calls, verrrrry limited vacation ability. Actually, probably no vacation ability at all until summer's over. The two things getting me through are that I've had 7 years to get accustomed to missing holidays (it truly doesn't feel like that big a deal anymore, which is nuts considering how soul-wrenching it was at first), and the knowledge that this is likely the last year we'll have to miss the big stuff! I'm proud of us. Instead of getting down about spending the 4th of July alone and barely being able to squeeze in a one-hr anniversary date together yesterday, I've been able to smile and feel nostalgic as we're making our way through this year of "lasts" before Jared finishes residency and takes his first DWT (done with training) job next summer.
Anyway, here's the real post. Jared was lucky enough to get off a few hours early on July 3rd, so we headed up over Casper Mountain to explore some trails on Muddy Mountain.
Jack surprised us (and destroyed Jared's back) when he willingly spent the first half of the hike in the hiking pack, which allowed us to make a decent pace. There was no destination to this hike, just a fun little walk through fields of wildflowers in the mountain.
We treated our afternoon together as our Independence Day celebration and finished up with some ice cream from Dairy Queen. If anyone's looking for a good business opportunity, open up a fast food franchise in Casper! The lines are always insaaaaane here, on any day of the week, at any place, at any time. If we had more money and more time here, we're convinced we could get rich off of bringing in a Chik-fil-A, or heck, even starting a soda shop or snow cone shack in the summer.
The next morning, I took Jack to the Bar Nunn July 4th parade. I really wanted to get a picture of him waving to the fire trucks while they tossed fistfuls of candy his way, but unfortunately, one of the first floats that went by was topped with a guy dressed in a horse costume and it freaked Jack out (homie hates costumes). He started sobbing uncontrollably and sprinted to the car yelling, "Jack, car, home!" We stayed for the rest of the 5-minute parade since this is our last year here and I wanted to see it, but Jack would not leave the car for any amount of candy thrown his way. He still talks about the scary parade horse daily. This is the only picture I have from the parade haha:
After Jack went to bed, I enjoyed a quiet few minutes in the prairie across the street, where I watched the sun set to the west, a lighting storm brew to the east, and the Event Center fireworks explode to the south, all beneath the full moon. Jared called during the fireworks and we chatted while we watched them "together" before he had to rush away from the hospital windows and back to a patient. I really miss holidays with family, but there was definitely nostalgia experiencing this last beautiful prairie 4th of July alone. One of those things that can feel sad in the moment, but is almost romantic when you think back on it years later. After the fireworks I went home and helped myself to a Dr. Pepper float because it was America's birthday and I had to. And then the caffeine kept me up til 3:00 a.m., oops. 'Murica.
Last night, Jared and I celebrated our 7th anniversary. Poor guy is a zombie with these 80-100 hour work weeks, so I took the reins this year and did the best I could. We only had a small window to see each other all day, from 7:00 when he got home until 9:00 when he crashed hard because they work him to death in the hospital. I dropped Jack off at a kind friend's house for a play date and then rushed home to get dinner on the table and hiking clothes laid out for Jared. As soon as he got home we scarfed down our enchilada soup and booked it up to the mountain to do the prettiest hike in Casper: Bridle Trail. I wanted to do something outdoorsy that we couldn't do with Jack, and this steep hike fit the bill. Unfortunately we didn't have time to do the full loop, but we made it up to my favorite lookout and then enjoyed the hike/drive home during the prettiest time of night, when we're usually stuck at home since it's after Jack's bedtime. It was nice to spend a minute with my guy.
I'm beyond excited to see what Jared cooks up for our anniversary next year to make up for lost time. He will have just finished his residency and won't have to work at all for a few weeks! We may not have much money yet, but at least we'll have time. Maybe a small getaway? Yes?? I can dream. I'm also excited to build our forever home in Utah (probably a decade from now), and make it so cozy that my parents will jump at the chance to come hang out at our place while the kiddos sleep so Jared and I can get out and go on evening hikes together more often. Right mom??! Haha--we'll have to get a hot tub or massage chairs or something luxurious to make it feel like you're the ones having a date night out. These are the things I dream about.
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