We made it, and Caroline's first Fourth!

Well, we made it to the middle of nowhere! (Tyler hates when I call his hometown that ;) The flight was uneventful-- Caroline didn't cry at all, which was a welcome surprise. We even met a nice lady on the first flight who let us into Delta's comfy VIP area during our long layover.

I absolutely love the house that we're renting here. Voila la maison:

It has huge bright windows, nice wood floors, two bedrooms upstairs, and an open floor plan on the ground floor with a big kitchen and a screened-in porch. LOVE IT. I don't want to go back to our tiny dark apartment in Connecticut... I'm going to be so spoiled here. We even have internet because the schoolhouse across the street (ah, I mean, dirt strip) has unsecured wireless. Don't tell on me, now.

So, we spend our days hanging out with my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law and her two little girls. Living about two feet away from the in-laws is a little close for comfort sometimes, but otherwise, I am in heaven here. We're in the middle of the beautiful badlands, it's sunny and warm, I have a mommy friend, and I hang my cloth diapers on a clothesline outside:

What more could you ask for, really??

Yesterday was Caroline's first Fourth of July. The Fourth is always a big event here-- I am pretty sure the town's population (normally around 100) increases by about 5-fold because they have a parade, a rodeo, a dance, and fireworks. Caroline napped through the parade, but she looked awfully cute in her little Fourth of July outfit, which matched her cousins:

We ate good food and hung out with all the other family babies at my SIL's house. After Caroline was in bed, MIL watched her so that Tyler and I could drive out in the badlands with BIL and SIL and watch the fireworks from above the town. The lack of law enforcement here meant that our neighbors were setting off enormous fireworks directly above our roof all night long, but somehow Caroline slept through it all.

Speaking of lack of law enforcement, I'm about 90% sure there is a squatter living in the abandoned school bus in our backyard. (We have another abandoned school bus in our front yard, of course, but that one appears to be squatter-free.)

Otherwise, not much to report. Hope your summers are going as well as ours!