Making a town your home

Part of the difficulty of moving to a new town (and especially to a new town in a whole new state) is having to acquaint yourself with what the area has to offer. I mentioned a few days ago how we went up to Vedauwoo to explore, and how making attachments and memories in a new area helps cement a bond and make it feel like home.

Well part of that isn't just exploring nature's offerings. It is also getting to know the businesses and locations within the town or city itself. Earlier this summer we visited the Capitol Building a couple of times, but our exploring was limited by the fact that we were living in Colorado, and were only in Cheyenne periodically. Now that we're up here for good, and now that the holiday chaos has subsided, we're beginning to get to know our new home town. 

Yesterday, I had an appointment to get my hair cut. Any girl can tell you, getting your hair cut for the first time by a new stylist is one of the scariest things you can do! 

Exactly

Luckily, it went well, and my hair is back to it's glorious, manageable, no-longer-looking-like-a-homeless-hippie self. After my mini glam session, I met up with The Husband and kids and stopped by the pet store in the mall.

Bad idea.

Terrible.

The worst.

So. Much. Cute.

Like, mind-boggling, heart-bursting, can-I-please-have-all-of-them kind of cute.

See, she gets it!

There was this adorable purebred husky puppy, 16 weeks old. One brown eye, one blue eye. She was gorgeous. She was also $999!

Then there was a purebred German Shepard puppy. He was gorgeous. $1299!!!

There were also purebred Golden Retriever pups. Also $1299.

In the smaller puppy section, there was this itty bitty black Chug (chihuahua-pug). He was only 9 weeks old. Couldn't have been more than two pounds. And I fell in love with him. But he was $800!

I didn't know dogs were so freaking expensive. And I'm not really a dog person either. But I think I've been converted.

Needless to say, I see a puppy in our future!

See?!?! Heart-exploding levels of cuteness. He must be mine. Oh yes, he must be mine.

Anyhoodle, after falling in love with dogs that I can't have right now, we roamed the mall for a bit so the kids could spend some of the Christmas money they got. And all I can say is, why the hell are Hex Bugs so popular?

Because they're a little creepy.

Especially when they go zipping across my kitchen floor and I just catch this glimpse in my peripheral vision and my heart jumps into my throat. I mean, despite the fact that I know that we don't have cockroaches, but there's always this split second where I panic slightly.

Ugh.

But my kids love Hex Bugs, and so as of yesterday they tripled their collection.

Yaaaaaayyyyyy…….

After that, we swung by and picked up my cousin so she could watch the kids while The Husband and I went on a date for our anniversary. We went to this restaurant called Poor Richard's. We've driven by it about a million times, and to be honest, the curb appeal isn't great. I had completely written it off as some skeezy dive. But then we were told time and again what a great place it was, so we decided to be brave and check it out.

And dayum!!!

So delicious!

Husband had a seafood sauté thing, and I had the vegetable primavera penne. Holy crapballs. It was crazy levels of yummy.

Very interesting atmosphere too. It kinda had an old English/pre-revolutionary war tavern vibe to it. Suffice it to say, I think we found our "place".

After that we went to see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire… which was awesome!  Good day, good date night, good times had by all.

All in all, I'm starting to feel more at home here now. And it's nice.

(Of course, there was a concerning thing that happened when we dropped my cousin back off at home, and that put a slight damper on the evening. You know when you know too much, and it makes you worried for someone, but you know you can't get involved? Yeah.)