Avalanche Game!

For Christmas Abby gave Paul tickets to an Avalanche game at the Pepsi Center downtown Denver. This was the first professional hockey game the Hoveys experienced, having great seats to see plenty of close up views of elbows, shoulders, faces, you name it meet the glass. We were amazed that the fights broke out less than a minute into the game and consequently the players sent directly to what Abby liked to call "time out". Paul enjoyed teaching Abby the meaning of various calls and helping her understand the ins and outs of the game. Although the Avs got creamed 6 to 1 by the Blue Jackets, we still had a great time!

One of the many fights observed

Abby taking it all in! Notice the winter coat still on...it was cold close to the ice!

They had this crazy light show and dramatic music before the game and after every intermission before the Avs would come in.

Leah Nicole Glew

To honor our new little niece and the start of the nieces/possible future nephews on Abby's side of the family, we decided to give Leah Nicole her own blog posting! Leah was born Dec. 1st weighing 7 lbs 3oz and was 20 in. long. She was the main event at the Glew Christmas this year, managing to make it into almost every picture that was taken. We treasured our time holding her as much as possible as we knew next time we would see her she'll have grown quite a bit. Aunt Abby became pretty attached and wished there would have been some way Leah could have come back to Colorado with her and Uncle Paul. Maybe in a few years she'll be ready for a slumber party with her Aunt Abby and Uncle Paul.

Enjoy some pictures of precious little Leah!

Aunt Abby and Leah meet for the first time
I think we have an attached aunt on our hands!

Uncle Paul and Leah

Leah is wishing Aunt Abby and Uncle Paul didn't live so far away.

Family Christmas photo...this year a wonderful addition!

Happy New Year

Okay, so for the two of you who still read our blog... we're back! And our new year's resolution is to update our blog more frequently. Well, we had an eventful fall. Paul got through another semester of seminary... only one to go! We are both excited and anxious to see where God leads us next.

Let us catch you up on a few things that have been happening for us. Abby has been enjoying her job. I don't think she'll ever tire of helping the elderly! We've been enjoying Colorado and missing home. We had several opportunities to enjoy beautiful creation... driving over mountain passes, spending time with friends in the mountians, enjoying the unique colors of gold the aspens bring with fall, and hiking on some of the nearby trails. We've also enjoyed several visitors, and we will welcome more if you want to come. Time is running out!!! :)

We've been keeping active at church. Paul sang and played djembe for the worship team when they held a concert in a local park. He even broke out his acting skills for a skit at church! We've been blessed to be involved in two home groups through church. They are very different from one another, and we learn alot and are blessed by the people in both.

We just got back from an all-too-short visit to Iowa to see family over Christmas. It was great to see everyone, including the three infant nieces on Paul's side of the family, and the newly born niece on Abby's side, who is the first of our nieces and nephews on that side of the family. It was great to spend time relaxing away from the intense schedules we had been "enjoying" before we left. Abby in particular was thoroughly blessed and refreshed by her first extended break from work.

Paul continues to work at Lowe's, and will be spending plently of his winter break studying as he prepares for his comprehensive exams at the end of February, and for a class he is going to be teaching at church in March/April. Happy New Year to all!

Abby's friend from Luther College, Jenny, and her husband, Joe, stayed with us for a night in October and had breakfast with us before they continued to CO Springs to see Jenny's family.

We spent a weekend with close seminary friends up at a condo in Silverthorne for a quick getaway from Denver.

Abby's mom came to visit in October. They had a lot of quality girl time together while Paul was busy studying.

Beautiful fall colors!

At Hudson Gardens located right next to the seminary.

Abby's PT friends, Sara and Tanya came from Iowa for a weekend visit. Paul was amazed that they were able to talk constantly for about 72 hours!

We stayed here for Thanksgiving and were blessed to get together with several friends on campus who were also spending Thanksgiving in Denver.

We made our first turkey together...a success!

Opening presents from Abby's side. Notice the box that says "sort of breakable" for the old dishes thrown in to add weight to the gift. Thanks to Abby's clever mother!

At Paul's family Christmas.

Paul with niece, Brittney, waiting anxiously to open gifts.

Formal Christmas 2008 picture

Paul attempting to read to niece, Cassidy.

Summer Summary

Hello all. Its been some time since we last posted (again). We have had quite a fun-filled summer. Here's the quick summary. In June Abby's family came out to visit and we spent a few days up in the Breckenridge and Winter Park areas riding trains, shopping, hiking, and sightseeing. We also went to a Rockies game.

Getting ready to shop in Breckenridge

At the Continental Divide

Leadville Train

Paul and Dad working many long hours on this puzzle back where we stayed.

Winter Park Ski Resort

We went back to Iowa over the fourth of July weekend for Paul's younger brother's wedding, for which Paul played his trombone. It was a quick trip, but it was great to see some family, albeit for a short time, and the Iowa landscape again. We are also happy to report that we finally made it round trip between Iowa and Colorado without a breakdown - all it took was a new car!

Abby teaching neice Alyssa how to tie bows on the chairs to help decorate

All of our neices and our ONE nephew.

Before the wedding

Paul played next to his brother, Matt, in the brass quintet

The happy couple

We celebrated our birthdays after that. Paul is now 28 and Abby 26. We combined our celebration dinner and went to Olive Garden.

In August we went back to Iowa again for Abby's cousin's wedding, in which Abby was a bridesmaid. Again, it was a quick trip, and we wished we could have seen family more. We enjoyed staying with Abby's grandparents and Abby was able to even get away with some of the girls from her mom's side of the family for a quick afternoon. Paul got to visit some college friends in the area while back. We also got to see a lot of cute babies! Paul finally got to meet the Mulligan twins, who are very happy, giggly, fun babies. We also saw Paul's friends Lindsay & Zack's son Ethan and Paul's niece, Gracie, when we stopped for the night in Omaha at Bess and Bob's home. It was incredibly hard to leave so many people we love so much.

Cousin Melissa helping Abby with her nails for the wedding
Abby's mom's side of the family having some girl time
The beautiful bride, the bride's sister in law, and cousin Abby
She was GORGEOUS!
What a fun day!

We spent our 2 year anniversary in the car driving west back to Colorado. YAY!!!... well, at least we were with eachother ;-) We are planning to get away this weekend to officially celebrate...as if driving through Nebraska wasn't enough!?!?

We have been taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University through our church this summer on Tuesday nights. We have enjoyed both his humor and his stories of insight and practical wisdom on how to be financially successful - getting out of debt and building wealth, and giving like no one else. Its been a great help to us, and we highly reccommend it to anyone!

Paul also finished summer Greek, and is now staring down the barrell of another school year. He has one more year to go, and will be graduating (Lord willing) next May. No, we don't know exactly what we're doing after that, but God will let us know in his good time.

So, thats the summer summary from the Hoveys.

Remember the Hoveys?

Sorry its been so long since we've last posted. I'll try to catch you up on the life of the Hovey's as quick as possible. Since March we've had a variety of events happen in our lives. Abby and I sang in the Easter choir at our church. We made a trip to Breckenridge to sight-see in the beginning of April (they still had Christmas decorations up, but it was still snowy, so it fit the scene). We also got to go to a Denver Brass concert, which was a treat for me, since it was the first brass concert I've been to since leaving UNI.

Breckenridge
Breckenridge

Breckenridge

Mid April Abby and I bought a new car! We purchased a 2008 Toyota Camry. Abby has been enjoying it to drive to work in during the week. The MPG is great. It is red and will be a good car for road trips later this summer.

Abby's cousin Laura came out to visit at the end of April. They went to Rocky Mountain National Park, Red Rocks Park & Amphitheater, and did some shopping together. We all went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science as well.

Museum of Nature and Science
Museum of Nature and Science

Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park

Abby surprised her family by coming home to visit Mother's Day weekend. She got to see some of her in-laws and a lot of her family, and Stephen and Carrie's (who were in our wedding party) twins. I was unfortunately left behind studying for finals that weekend. I finished finals and played my trombone at Denver Seminary's graduation ceremony.

Some of our favorite neices!

Paul's parents and his oldest brother's family

Stephen and Carrie and their precious twins!

Paul studying for finals...

This summer I am taking Greek I and Greek II, though I am only auditing, which means that I sit in on class, but don't have to turn in assignments or take exams. That also means I won't recieve a grade for it either. Greek will be very beneficial for me since I want to end up in a church where I can do some preaching, even though it is not actually a part of my degree program. Otherwise I have just picked up some more hours at Lowe's for the summer months. Abby continues to work, enjoying her time helping people to heal and stay active, though if her commute were a little shorter she wouldn't mind.

We're looking forward to Abby's family coming to visit next week. We'll also be coming back to Iowa in July and August for family weddings. My little brother is getting married in July and Abby's cousin Laura is getting married in August. So we have a couple road trips to make!