rapid city, sd

update:
Josh and I have moved on from casper to the black hills of south dakota. not going to lie, I was terrified of south dakota. I mean, the homeland of Dances with Wolves? Seriously? Not much going on in this dear town.
However
I have changed my tune. We took the scenic route here, through a couple different national forests and state parks, which ran through the Black Hills. The Native Americans have inhabited the Black Hills since at least 7000 bc, but this mountain range is famous because of the dense forest that is so easy to get lost in.
and....
MOUNT RUSHMORE!!
I have to say, I don't understand why anyone would come up with the bright idea to start carving some random presidents' faces into a random mountain range in random south dakota, but I'm pretty sure I wrote Mount Rushmore down on my bucket list for Mrs. Riley's senior project. And I would hate to disappoint 18 year old Liz. 


...

back on subject.
I'm really impressed with South Dakota! It is absolutely gorgeous here, and because we're so close to Mount Rushmore, it's a total tourist trap. There's a water park in our hotel and every other hotel in a 25 mile radius. There's at least 7 mini golf joints, go carting, museums, Bear World, Reptile Land, seriously. It's a very fun and old town that Josh and I have loved so far.

four faces in stone and my best friend by my side

we went to mt rushmore and played.

look at this GEM. I get to nanny this adorable girl and her sister for part of the summer <3

and a shameless drop of my amazebeans wedding picture. this summer is amazing 100% because of my man

casper, wy

whhhyyy. whyyy wyoming whyyyy.
just my little take on the classic John Mayer song.
update:
josh and I currently live in casper, wyoming.
in a hotel.
which is fiiinnneeee. LOVE it really. we've been living in hotel for... 5 weeks now?
yep. five weeks.
it takes some adjusting, especially because my body and my heart and my brain and everything is telling me NEST NEST NEST. I want a home and I want it to be ours, but for now this is what we have and honestly I couldn't be more grateful.
Josh LOVE what he does, and that makes me so happy. when papa's happy erybodys happy.

wyoming is actually pretty beautiful.

this is from our drive out, tornado formed a couple minutes after we saw these clouds

josh works from 11:30 until around 10ish every day, saturdays are longer. while he's out, I'm in the hotel. I had to learn how to stay positive and entertained, so I taught myself to knit!

it's going to be a blanket. just you wait and see!

 I try to have dinner made 3 times a week or so, but it's really difficult because we only have a mini fridge in the hotel room. I brought a crockpot and a griddle from home (thank heavens for wedding presents!) josh's favorite is fajitas.

I should get extra points for creative use of an ironing board.

 SUNDAYS glorious sundays. no work on sundays. we always find a meeting house and just go to the 9 am ward. we stay for the first hour, and take the rest of the day to unwind from a long hard week. there are some manly men out here who like to spend their sundays hunting and fishing, i'm totally out of my comfort zone but i've learned to take it all in stride. our first sunday in casper we went shooting, I spent the majority of the time moo-ing at the cows. last sunday we went to the North Platte River. I soaked up the sun while the men caught my dinner
and it was beautiful

don't be fooled, the water was about negative a trillion degrees

it's been hard for sure, but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. josh and I have been able to have some great adventures so far, and we're not even halfway done with the summer. I've met great people and learned so much about... guns. we're both having the time of our lives, and the best part is that we can spend it together.

i'm hard pressed for entertainment so I throw a party whenever I can. I made josh a CROCKPOT CAKE for our monthiversary and he thought I was the biggest dork

then we got dressed up and went to see the fault in our stars. josh sobbed his eyes out and I pretended not to notice