Labor Day Weekend Trip

We were fortunate enough to be able to make a quick trip home over Labor Day weekend. We had planned this for quite some time as we knew this would be the weekend we would celebrate Paul's Grandma and Grandpa Hovey's 60th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, we've come to find out that to fly anywhere into Iowa at any given time costs an average of $500 a plane ticket! You would think we were going to Europe! Since plane tickets into Omaha were 1/5th that much, we opted to fly into Omaha and drive across Iowa in a rental car. Hey, at least we got to skip driving through Nebraska! We saw Abby's brother, Nick, his wife, Erica, and our niece, Leah as we drove through the Cedar Rapids/Marion area. They were headed out of town that same night so it was a quick visit but we loved every second with them! Uncle Paul even got to help teach Leah how to eat some puffs. We then headed onto Clinton where we saw Abby's parents for a couple hours and enjoyed going out to eat and doing some maternity clothes shopping. We then parked at Paul's parent's house that evening where we stayed most of the weekend to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa Hovey's 60th anniversary. We had a great time seeing all of Paul's siblings, their spouses, and all of our nieces and one nephew. We enjoyed bon fires, good food, great conversations catching up with everyone, and the beautiful Iowa countryside! We even got a professional family picture taken outside that turned out very well! It was hard to come back to CO after such a short visit but we are always grateful to see family no matter how long or short our visit is.

Abby continues to feel great in her second trimester! Hard to believe she is almost 20 weeks along...that's half way through! We continue to have fun brainstorming names, reading books, taking notes from well experienced parents, and feeling the baby kick for the first time! We plan to find out the gender of the baby October 8th if Baby Hovey decides to cooperate.

The leaves are starting to turn colors out here and that crisp fall weather is beginning which we both love! We have tried to take a lot of walks on the trails close to our apartment to enjoy the season and hope to schedule a weekend getaway trip in the next few weeks.

Grandma and Grandpa Hovey 60 years and going strong!

Our niece, Gracie, playing outside

Our niece, Alyssa, getting help from Uncle Paul while she tries getting around in her flip flops at Maquoketa Caves.

Our niece, Leah. Nick, Erica, and Leah plan to come out for a visit in October and we can hardly wait to have more than a couple of hours with them! We think Leah may be walking by then so we're anxious to see all her tricks!

We met Abby's parents at Flapjack's in Maquoketa Monday morning before we began our trek back to Omaha. It was hard to say good-bye after such a short visit!

16 weeks and feeling better!

Abby is officially at 16 weeks pregnant and is greatly enjoying the welcomed changes of the second trimester. She has noticed a return of energy and the feelings of nausea have greatly decreased. Abby has even been inspired to do more cooking, cleaning, and finishing unpacking boxes to get settled into our new apartment. Paul has embraced these changes, to say the least! We continue to have fun looking at baby names and reading up on parenting books and what to expect. We met with a group of 4 other couples from our church last night who are expecting within the next 6 months so we enjoyed sharing notes on our experiences with pregnancy! Abby noticed the presence of her first "baby bump" this last Monday. Her patients have also been pointing it out. Abby was able to go "shopping" for maternity clothes at a church friend's house last Sunday and found some great clothes to borrow. She is very thankful for this as we have had our eyes open to how expensive all the maternity clothes are! We toured Littleton Hospital a couple weeks ago and have decided this is where we will deliver Baby Hovey. This hospital is only a couple minutes from where we live which puts Paul at ease. As of now, most of our friends and Abby's patients have guessed that we're having a girl, but of course they have nothing to base that off of! Still fun to get everyone's opinions. We will find out in October! Here are some pics of the Hovey's baby bumps...

Abby at 16 weeks...not too much to show yet but the pants no longer fit the same!
With all of Abby's food aversions, Paul tries to make up for it having her lacking cravings and working on his "baby belly". No, he really hasn't put on weight...he's just got a flexible tummy I guess! :)

Paul and I went on a hike at Mt Falcon Park last weekend, a park only about 25 min. from where we live. We tried to get an early start as it warmed up quick that day and the trail wasn't too shady! We have also enjoyed going for some bike rides together and are thankful Abby feels up to doing these things again!

Mt. Falcon Park

We saw this friendly little guy on the trail we were on. You have to watch where you're stepping as these snakes blend in pretty well!

Paul and I on the trail

We're headed home over Labor Day weekend for a quick trip. Paul's Grandma and Grandpa Hovey are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary! We are very excited about going home and celebrating such a special occasion!

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!