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!

Happy belated Easter!

Happy late Easter to all! We missed seeing family at Easter this year but felt extremely blessed by our community here at the seminary. We had about 13 people over to our little apartment on Easter and enjoyed good food and fellowship. There were four kids here that were under the age of 4 so they kept things active and provided good entertainment. Thank goodness their mothers brought toys for them, as we are not necessarily a kid friendly apartment at this point. Here are a couple pictures of us with our favorite little neighbor boys that live next door. They have truly become family to us!

Abby and Jonas. Jonas just had his 2nd birthday!

Paul wrestling with Gabe...Gabe requested it!

This is what it looked like here the third weekend in April. We ended up with about 10 inches of precipitation, rain and snow combined. The snow started falling Friday and didn't stop until late Saturday. Abby was barely able to make it home from work Friday and it was the first time in the two years we've lived out here that she said she would have enjoyed having four wheel drive! Paul had to push the Camry into it's parking spot when Abby got home. Guess it was better than getting stuck out on the roads. The good part about this time of year is that the snow doesn't stay long....you'll see what I mean with the pictures below!

Friday, April 17th at 3 PM

Sunday, April 19th at 3 PM

Paul is studying hard as he only has 3 more weeks left of school! Paul's parents are coming out for graduation so we are excited to share in the celebration with them. This is a very bittersweet time for us as we've enjoyed our time out here, especially living on the Seminary campus and getting to know so many wonderful people that have been our family away form home. Still, we are excited to see what God has in store for our future...we're hoping he reveals that soon! As of now, Paul does not have any job leads. We would appreciate your prayers during this time of many unknowns. We'll keep you updated!

Iowa Visit

We were fortunate to make it home to see both sides of our families over Paul's Spring Break. Here are some pictures from enjoying home! We flew into Chicago and Paul's parents picked us up so we spent the first half of our time at their home outside of Maquoketa and then it was on to Clinton to visit Abby's family.

Kris and Dave have two dogs, Doc and Stoney. Here is Abby giving Stoney the attention he was begging for. If you look closely in the left hand corner, you will see a cat's tail. Abby had originally called for the kitty to come so she could pet it but Stoney wheezled in instead!
Paul and Doc playing tug-o-war

A beautiful sunset enjoyed on the Hovey farm. We love being out on their farm enjoying the quietness, beauty and nature all around us!

Switching over to Abby's family. Kris and Dave drove us down to Clinton to spend time with the Glews.

Our niece, Leah, is now 4 months old! We had a great time listening to her coo, watching her smile, and just cuddling her as much as we could. She even decided to roll over for us while we were home...this was only her 2nd time!

Uncle Paul and Leah. Leah liked Uncle Paul's glasses!

Aunt Abby and Leah enjoying some cuddle time and kisses

A GREAT family pic! This is Abby's brother, Nick and his wife, Erica...the wonderful parents behind this beautiful little girl!

Aunt Abby and Uncle Paul getting one last pose with Leah before they had to leave and come back to Colorado.

Happy Spring!

Greetings from Durango, CO where we are spending part of Paul's spring break! (By the way, the date above is wrong...it is really Monday, March 23rd as I write this.) Paul finished his comprehensive exams at the end of February and passed with flying colors. Now he just has to finish off the rest of the semester and he will officially be a Denver Seminary grad! We thought we should take advantage of one of Paul's last breaks as a student before he goes into the working world by getting away for his spring break. Abby even took the whole week off from work!

As some of you may know, almost 3 years ago, we took our honeymoon in Durango. For Abby's Christmas present this year, Paul surprised her with a few nights at the same place where we honeymooned. We have been enjoying our little cottage in the woods and have ventured out to do a little hiking and explore the town of Durango and beauty nearby. We woke up this morning surprised by snow on the ground. It is absolutely beautiful and something we haven't seen much of this winter so we welcomed it! Today we are staying in where it is warm and doing a little reading...I guess for Paul it would be termed "studying". Tuesday we'll head back to Denver and then Wednesday morning head back to the Iowa to enjoy family for a few days.

We brought food to cook a few of our meals in our kitchenette but forgot there was no oven so here we are improvising our meal on the stove!

Animas City Mountain trail near Durango

Outside our cottage on this snowy morning

Our cottage in the woods where we are staying

Here are some highlights to report since our last posting:

*Abby went back to Iowa for a quick visit at the end of February to see family while Paul studied hard to prepare for his comprehensive exams. Abby couldn't believe how fast her niece, Leah was growing and savored every second with her.

Here is one of Grandpa's attempts to make Leah smile! She really likes Grandpa's voice and gave him most of the smiles.

Aunt Abby and Leah

One of our new favorite pics of Leah

*We have enjoyed the mild Colorado winter and have gotten to enjoy many walks/hikes outside. One of our recent favorites was at Deer Creek Canyon, just outside of Denver. We went on a 7 mile hike with friends, Rob and Darla. Rob is another philosophy major that Paul spends quite a bit of his class time with.

*Abby transferred within her company to a facility in Littleton that is MUCH closer to home! She is now working about 5 min. from home, rather than 30. She continues to enjoy working with the elderly in an outpatient setting.

*Paul began teaching a worldview class at our church the beginning of March. His wife is even enrolled in the class and is one of his best students! :) She seems to always have lots of questions trying to digest all of this worldview stuff; it's a good thing she lives with the teacher and can have one on one tutoring sessions if needed.

Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning signs of Spring!

A Taste of Iowa

Abby's dad took Amtrak from Iowa and came to visit this last week. The purpose of the trip was to escape the distractions back home in order to complete some of the demands of his summer coursework. So needless to say, Paul and Dennis spent a lot of time in the library together while Abby was at work. Dennis picked a great week to come, as four of the days he was out here were in the upper 60s! So the study breaks were spent outside on the trails enjoying the rays! We also got in a couple hikes together and were spoiled by a few good meals out! He was a very easy guest to host and fun to have around!

Our wonderful guest for the week!

We took a hike at Deer Creek Canyon, just 20 minutes away and had a great time. Unfortunately it was a bit muddy as you will see below but we didn't let that stop us!


Notice the pants rolled up due to the mud. Nice fashion statement, boys!

This is what we saw the majority of the 3 mile hike!

Abby and her dad enjoying a break with Denver in the background.