Memorial Day Weekend

Thursday before Memorial Day, I (Abby) got a call from my mom saying she and my Aunt Pam were looking for plane tickets to fly me home for the weekend. My mom knew Paul had to work at Lowe's all weekend and I didn't have any plans so would obviously prefer to be at home seeing family. Thursday afternoon I got a call at work that my Aunt Pam found a direct flight into Des Moines for a reasonable price and my mom and dad were planning to get the ticket for me to come home! I was thrilled and it was a weekend I'll never forget! What a blessing! Thanks so much, Mom and Dad...and to you too, Aunt Pam, for finding it!

Here are some pictures from the weekend. I got to babysit my niece, Leah, a good portion of the weekend because Nick and Erica were in the process of moving out of their house. I enjoyed every second of it!

Leah showing off her shades

My mom, Erica, Leah, and I met my aunt Pam, cousin Melissa and her son, Kaden for lunch.
Pictured here is Melissa, Abby, Erica, Leah, and Kaden.

I think this will be the next Gerber Baby icon...too cute!

Eating rice cereal. I think she had to get hosed down afterward!

Aunt Abby had a hard time saying good-bye to Leah! They had such a good time together!

Master Paul Graduates!

As the heading explains, Paul graduated from Denver Seminary this weekend with his masters in philosophy of religion. He explained to me after the ceremony that I could now refer to him as "Master" since he received his masters degree...we'll see about that! Paul's parents drove from Iowa to celebrate with us and we had a great time with them. We enjoyed going out to eat several times, taking the light rail downtown, and spending a day at Rocky Mountain National Park. Here are some pics from the weekend, including a little video of Paul's moment of fame!

More pictures...

Paul's brother, Mike and sister-in-law, Jill gave Paul this snazy new tie for his big day!

Finally, no more student life for the Hoveys!

Paul's parents celebrating with us

The three amigos! These were some of Paul's closest buddies in his program.

At Rocky Mountain National Park

The elk were everywhere!

When we first pulled into the park, we were stopped by some park rangers waiting for these mountain goats to cross the road. I think we sat in our car for 20 minutes...they were taking their fine time!

Family picture overlooking one of the ponds at Rocky Mountain National Park

Paul had this habit of climbing up onto about anything he could while at the park! We had to keep a close eye on him!

Paul and his dad

Paul with his parents

When we were leaving the park and exiting Estes Park, there were Elk right along the side of the highway in a residential area. Of course, we had to pull out our cameras again!

Selah Gala

Last Saturday night, Paul and I went to a dinner/dance event called the Selah Gala. It is an annual semi-formal gathering at Hudson Gardens (near the seminary) that is designed for seminary students to reflect and celebrate the closing of another year. It was fun to see many friends all dressed up and "attempt" to dance!

At the Selah Gala

Paul just completed his last week of classes and has finals left next week. Fortunately, he doesn't have much for finals so the end is near! We are both very excited to to move on from "student life". Many people are celebrating with cook outs on campus so we will enjoy attending those in the next couple weeks. Graduation is in one week and we are excited for Paul's parents to join us for that!

No new updates on the job/move front. We recently found out that we'll be able to stay in our apartment on campus through at least July so that should buy us some more time to get our next life move figured out. Most of our friends will leave campus end of May, but we are thankful that some of our neighbors we know will be staying.

Hope everyone is enjoying some warm spring weather! We miss all of you back in the Midwest!