What I will miss (and do miss) about Laramie

I really thought I'd feel more of a tug of my heartstrings toward our Laramie house when it came to leaving there in December. That's where Wells was born. It was his first home and his first bedroom and his first everything.

But I think I will miss Laramie in general, not just the house. The house is fine, but we still own it so I mean, we could always go back, technically.

*ETA* I actually have really good memories of Laramie so I'm glad that that's where we have a house, just in case. I even jokingly told Scott that we could always live in that house and build on property outside of town. Wyoming wouldn't be the worst place to retire from the Army. But because of water issues and the constant fires, we likely wouldn't settle there.

I was frustrated with ColoradoWyomingColoradoWyoming for a few reasons but the good of Laramie in general actually outweighs the good in Colorado to me. Laramie is small-town living and, I hear, has a fantastic school district. I'm a little disappointed I never got a chance to experience the schools and I'm almost bitter that I spent four teaching years in Colorado instead. Every time I would push Wells in his stroller past the local elementary schools, I would wonder what it was like to work there. If we'd been there longer for a 3 or 4 year duty station, I likely would've sought out good childcare and tried to get into the school system.

But, moving on...

1. It was a very convenient place to live.
Everything was right there, not too far away. The downside was that there wasn't much included in that "everything". But I put verrrrry few miles on my car while living there. Cheyenne was 45 minutes and had shopping and things to do and Ft. Collins was less than an hour and had the same.

2. The trails.
The walking was what kept me sane. In the summer, it wasn't unbearably hot, though I always went early because I was either very pregnant or had a newborn and the sun is pretty intense at 7,000 feet elevation. It was just so easy to exercise there.

4. The doctors/hospital.
Honestly, the only hiccup was that the lactation consultants were overbearing, but that was probably my own fault: if I was fine with doing formula, I should've told them that. But since I had no idea what to expect, I tried it their way first.

I saw someone post on Facebook about how impressed they were that their doctor (here in Pennsylvania) called them with test results about something. In Laramie, my doctor called me regularly herself to give me test results and follow-up after appointments. It was the standard of care that I, sadly, became used to and now it's not like that and I'm just feeling meh about it.

I loved my doctor. I loved Wells' doctor. I didn't even mind the dogs' doctor/vet. I loved the nurses. I loved that, when we took a newborn class in June, it was just us and one other couple. Basically, I would live in Laramie for the medical care alone.

5. The weather was pretty pleasant.
I mean, windy and cold in the winter and there was the occasional severe storm in the summer. But no humidity and the hottest it ever got in the summer was maybe 85 degrees and those were outlier days. It was normally in the 70s. In Colorado Springs, it was easily over 100 degrees most of last summer (I wasn't there, but Scott was, working on the house.)

July on the UW campus

 

 September 2018 with a 2 month old vs. September 2017, when we bought the house. Same mirror. We obviously had no idea we'd be having a baby in Wyoming. 

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As we've found, there's good and bad to every place.
Alaska was cold in the winter and felt far away from everything but the people were amazing.
Missouri was actually really good to us and we liked the state/area itself.
Laramie had more good than bad, as you can see above.
To me, Colorado had more trials and troubles than I thought it would. I would give almost anything to give the dogs acreage to run on right now though. They had gotten too, too, too used to that luxury.
Pittsburgh is fine and good, but it's definitely not for us long term.

Next, we'll be going to another army base for only a year or so, so it'll be like trying on another state only to see how it fits.