Long overdue update...

Where has the summer gone? I can't believe the last time we posted was in May! Well, things have been pretty eventful for the Hoveys this summer. In June, Abby's parents came out to Denver for a visit for about a week. We enjoyed going up to Rocky Mountain National Park with them and staying at a vacation home in the mountains near Estes Park. We also enjoyed going for several bike rides on the trails around Denver...Abby's parents even brought their tandem bike!

We both celebrated our birthdays in July and enjoyed catching some beautiful fireworks in our back yard at the seminary over the 4th. We spent most of the 4th of July weekend furniture shopping! Although we have greatly appreciated our "loved on" furniture that people handed to us when we got married, we were excited to finally have our own bed and living room furniture. We also now have our own washer and dryer...no more quarters and no more walking out in the snow/rain to do laundry.

At the end of July Abby's mom and Aunt Pam came out to Denver to help us move to a new apartment. We are officially off the seminary campus now and living in an apartment not too far away in Littleton. It is a great location! We are only about 1-2 minutes from a grocery store, pharmacy, hospital, several restaurants, and most importantly, Abby's work! She loves being so close to work and has gotten spoiled coming home for lunch so many days. Paul is only about 10 minutes from Lowe's so his commute is nothing to complain about either.

So, many of you probably are wondering what our future plans are now that Paul has graduated from seminary and you are assuming Paul doesn't want to work at Lowe's the rest of his life. Well, we've had something or I guess someone influence our plans a bit. Back in June, we found out that we have a little Hovey on the way. Yes, we're having a baby! Abby is almost 15 weeks along and is due February 10th. We are very excited about the news and have agreed the best thing would be to stay out in Colorado at least until the baby is born. Paul will continue to look for ministry opportunities in hopes that we can be a bit closer back to home eventually, God willing. In the meantime, Paul would love to find a job out in Denver that meets his interests and gifts a little more than Lowe's. Abby continues to love her job.

We will try to do better keeping this updated, especially regarding baby Hovey. We would love to hear from you anytime, and know that you are ALWAYS welcome to come visit us in Denver.

Abby's parents arrived in June three days after we found out we were expecting so we had fun telling them the news in person.
After the baby announcement! I don't think Abby's parents were in the door 15 minutes before we just had to tell them the news.

Out on the deck at our vacation home by Estes Park

The view from our deck

At Rocky Mountain National Park

At Rocky Mountain National Park

At Rocky Mountain National Park

Back at our vacation home

Family pick before coming down the mountains

Our vacation home was located up pretty high. This is a view from the closest highway.

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!

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.