A Few More Pics

Here are a few more pics of our sight seeing:

At the Royal Gorge

View of the Royal Gorge Bridge from the gorge's bottom

A sweet shot of the moon in broad daylight from the top of Pike's Peak

Looking down from Pike's Peak

Us at at the summit of Pike's Peak: 14, 110ft above sea level! It was probably about 40 degrees out. Brrrr!!

We've made it!!

We arrived in Littleton, CO, last Monday night around 5PM. Though its been a crazy week the apartment finally looks like home instead of box city. Paul's parents spent the week helping unpack and sight seeing with us. We spent Monday night and all day Tuesday getting furniture moved into place and unpacking all our belongings. Wednesday and Thursday the four of us went to see the following sights: Red Rocks Park & Amphitheater, downtown Littleton, the Royal Gorge, Garden of the Gods and Pike's Peak.

We have been blessed to meet many people who are also living on campus. We've been out walking and bike riding on the rec trails behind campus, and are getting slowly but surely acclimated to our new home and altitude. Paul starts back to work at Lowe's Monday and Abby starts her next clinical Tuesday. Paul will start class on August 27th. We've said it before and we'll say it again: visitors are always welcome! Here are some pictures from our time so far. Enjoy!

Nick and Erica helped us move out of our old apartment, as did Paul's parents, oldest brother Matt and friend Chris

The mighty moving van, parked in front of Paul's sister's home on the west side of Omaha

Paul and his parents (much happier since the truck is now empty)

Red Rocks Amphitheater

The four of us at the Royal Gorge

We're leavin' on a Penske, don't know when we'll be back again...(cue cheesy music)

It's official! We're heading to CO! We're planning to pick up the Penske truck tomorrow morning at 8 AM and packing up! Please pray for safe travels! We'll be in Denver moving into our apartment on the Denver Seminary campus on Monday!

Eventful Couple Weeks

Hello! We've had quite a few things going on for us. First off, on June 30th our friends Ashley and Chris helped organize and host a going away party for us at the city park in Iowa City. We had a great time catching up with those who could make it while playing bocce ball & frisbee and enjoying some great eats! While we realize that not everyone could make it, we were blessed by those that did.

The following Sunday we spent some time with Abby's family in Marion at Nick & Erica's house after a busy day of church, brunch with a friend and spending some time at the Iowa City Jazz Festival. It was good to see Dennis & Melanie (Abby's parents) one last time before they went to Kansas City for the month of July.

This leads us up to some sad news. Dennis and Melanie had brought the family dog, Sugar, with to have Nick and Erica watch while they were in Kansas City. Sugar had been recently diagnosed with congestive heart failure. That night his condition worsened and he passed away early in the morning. It was a heavy blow to the family as Sugar was 15 years old, so many fun memories and experiences were wrapped up in their lives together. But he was happy right up to the end, even as his condition was overcoming him. They were able to take him and bury him near the Glew's old home near Delhi, IA. We were thankful to have one last night with him as a family and miss him greatly.
We were also able to go to Cedar Rapids with Nick and Erica to watch 4th of July. We enjoyed the live music, games and of course the fireworks.

Finally, this weekend Abby's cousin Melissa came to visit. Abby and Melissa spent the weekend doing some packing, and of course made plenty of time for shopping, watching a movie, and chatting! Melissa even treated Abby to a birthday dinner at Old Chicago. Melissa teaches in Texas but has been home back in Iowa for the past month. Abby was blessed to have some time with her before she heads south again.

We continue to pack up for our move to Colorado. Our guest bed is now a storage shelf for empty boxes waiting to be filled up with books or kitchen supplies or photo albums or any number of things we have crammed into our apartments. Our move out date is July 21st, coming too fast! Keep us in prayers as we move through this exciting yet turbulent time. Thanks!

SURPRISE!!!

This last weekend Abby's cousin got married to his beautiful bride in Montana! The best part was, nobody knew Abby was flying out to attend the wedding so she had the opportunity to get a lot of shocked reactions as she popped out here and there surprising everyone. The wedding was beautiful and the dancing at the reception was quite entertaining...not to mention the beautiful scenery that surrounded us. It was a blessing to spend time with family and an encouragement to see two people with hearts for God be united as husband and wife. Paul was unable to attend the wedding but will be able to attend the Iowa reception in July.

Grandma's 80th Birthday Bash

This weekend we went to Maquoketa and celebrated Grandma Simmons' 80th Birthday with friends and family. It was good to see all of Paul's family again, especially since this is probably the last time we'll see all of them together before we move to Colorado. There was plenty of food... too much actually. And we all bonded over Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution on Playstation 2 (well, most of us... the Hovey males anyhow). Sadly we didn't have much time to celebrate Father's day with Paul's dad before we had to leave so Paul could get back to work. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

1 Month and Counting

Above is a scenic picture of the Rockies that Abby and I took while on our honeymoon in Colorado. In a little over a month we will be heading out west to start a new adventure together in Denver, CO. Paul will be returning to Denver Seminary and Abby will continue to finish up her clinicals. While excited to make the move, there is plenty of packing to be done and good-byes to be said. Until the move, Paul will be finishing up his time at Lowe's (26 days of work, but who's counting?) and Abby will be finishing up her first clinical.
We're planning on using this blog as a way to keep in touch with those we love, so please feel free to post a comment and say hi and keep in touch!