i’ll give you $5 if you can name that song and artist.

the 4th of july 2006 was one of my most memorable holidays, ever. ’twas ten years ago exactly that i was spending my first summer in rexburg idaho. i was attending 1 of 2 years at byu idaho and it was actually a really wonderful summer.

i had a few roommates i liked {a rarity during those years} and we had some guy friends we’d become pals with that we used to get into trouble with. that particular year, we all decided to see the fireworks down in idaho falls. in the early afternoon, i noticed my stomach was hurting a little, but i blamed it on junk food {that was beginning of like 3-5 years of eating LITERALLY whatever i wanted} but around about 8 p.m. i realized something was horribly wrong.

by 10 pm i was in the emergency room. i ‘d never experienced pain quite like i was feeling, and my sweet friends waiting in the hospital for me nearly all night. it was actually quite entertaining for them, as you can imagine the characters that come to the er on the 4th of july in rural idaho.

turns out i was having a gallbladder attack and would need surgery later that summer. my mom had her gallbladder removed right after she birthed me, and the surgery is common with pregnant/recent postpartum women. so that, combined with my aforementioned note about my eating habits, made for some annoying questions about my pregnancy status. but ANYWAY.

the 4th of july is an an interesting holiday. it seems to be beloved by many, and revered as a summer landmark of sorts, signifying both the passing of time and the sanctity of the season. i’ve always thought of summer as a sacred time. it’s like the days come and go in a different way. the world is awake and alive for longer than usual each day. the air smells different. the breeze is warm. everything has a little bit of mystery, and intrigue.

fast forward to 2016. matt is in the THROES of his capstone project at school and i am, well, catching up on my favorite summer show, royal pains {short synopsis: adorable, jewish, brooklyn-ite er doctor gets fired from hospital and becomes concierge doctor to the rich and famous in the hamptons. google it. you won’t be sorry}.

but, he took a break for the 4th of july {funny how hardly anyone calls it independence day and we just refer to it by the date???} and we went hiking up in the unita mountains. the uintas are a sub-range of the rockies and lie within the ashley, wasatch-cache and cache national forests. interestingly, they are the highest peaks in utah, and the only major range in the contiguous united states with an east-west orientation.

one of the coolest things about the uintas is that they have more than 1000 lakes hidden throughout. we decided to take advantage and hike to weir lake to spend some time fishing {well, matt fished. i…sat there}.

it was such a fun day! we were exhausted {more than we should have been. we have GOT to get to the gym} and stopped for tacos at a special place in park city on the way home. i will always eat a taco, but this place has some history.

it was actually the restaurant where we ate in october 2014 on a trip with friends {see post ‘story of us’}. we hadn’t started dating, but i remember being so excited when matt met up with us {he’d been at a data science conference most of the day} and we ended up talking the entire rest of the day and all through dinner.

we were basically falling in love. duh.

xoxo,

cait