The Best Time of Your Life

May through Aug 2005 was the best time of my life.  I'm not sure if life will get any better than those few months.  Jess and I agree on this point wholeheartedly because in the summer of 2005 we fell in love.  Life aligned creating the perfect situation.  We both had expendable income that we didn't have to work too hard for.  We got off work early every day and we had near endless free time.  We even had free maid service and cable.  It really was the perfect summer. 

We both lived in a run down military hotel.  Our room doors faced each other.  In the afternoon we would meet up after work and hike.  We tried every restaurant in town and spent the weekends traveling all over Arizona together.  The weather was perfect.  Every Sunday afternoon huge thunderstorms rolled over the mountain and drenched the desert.  It was the summer we fell in love and it was perfect.

Some of my favorite memories of that summer included hot dog roasts by a shallow mountain lake, many trips to the drive in movie theater and chasing forest fires for the fun of it.  We were absolutely free and we got married just a few short months later.

Today Jess stayed home and helped me pack.  We also deep cleaned JAC's bedroom and Jess helped me move furniture so I could vacuum up long lost Cheerios.  It was a simple day but by mid afternoon thunderstorms rolled in and we both felt nostalgic for Arizona.  Tomorrow we are flying to Texas.  The combination of thunderstorms, desert, the promise of warm weather and lots of free time together has me excited.  We're even planning several trips to the drive-in movie.  Of course we're also taking our kid-free trip to the mountains and I can't help but feel like in some strange way we have re-created Arizona.  Maybe I'll plan a hot dog roast to make the whole picture complete.