cowboy take me away

August 2024 - Caroline and Charlie Wilder are 23, Riley is 2 months.

At 23 Caroline is a lot more grown up than she had expected. But she was never a party girl or a career woman. She has friends, she got good grades in school, she loves her job as a teacher, but the most important thing has always been her family. She left her family far away in Minnesota when she left for college, but now she's made her own - her husband and her baby daughter, who she gave her maiden name, Riley.

She and Charlie met in college. They lived in the same dorm, and they both played soccer. She always had a crush on him, but she never expected a popular soccer star would fall for a girl like her. But fall he did, and he proposed one spring afternoon in the quad.

They got married right after college and moved out to the country. They live on a farm on the other side of the highway from Providence - far enough that it feels like another world, but close enough to commute to work. Right now the farm is small, a few apple trees and some vegetable plots, but Caroline dreams of growing enough to start their own fresh produce store.

For now, though, they're both focused on other things. She teaches at Providence Elementary School, which for now is the only school in town. The high school kids have to be bused to another town, but they're planning to build a high school here in a few years, and Caroline is hoping to get a job there. Charlie is pursuing his dream of being a soccer star. He makes the All-Star team just a year after he joins the league.

But whenever she gets a chance, Caroline spends time researching farming techniques. She and Charlie are both midwesterners - he's from Iowa - and they both want to make this farm a success.