Celebrating a Year of Wedded Bliss

This past Saturday was our first wedding anniversary. We had a splendid day together, celebrating God's gift of a happy first year of marriage. It started off with Paul surprising Abby with breakfast in bed. The menu was omelets with ham steak, bacon, toast, coffee and milk. Then we went on a walk in the nearby botanical gardens and enjoyed eachother's company. After lunch we went down to Colorado Springs for a few hours to meet up with Abby's friends Joe and Jenny and Jenny's sister Karin. They took us to 7 Falls Park which has a beautiful waterfall and scenic overlook down into Colorado Springs. After this we went home, got some Papa Murphy's take & bake and watched our wedding video. The day fully concluded after some ice cream from Coldstone's. It was a wonderful day. We were sad to see it end, but we praise God for our marriage and hope to continue on in His grace together for many years to come.

At 7 Falls
Joe, Jenny, Karin, Abby & Paul

Beautiful Colorado, Incredible Creator

Look at this beauty and tell me there's no God. For a reference, read Psalm 19.

Rainbow over the chapel
This is the other end of the rainbow overlooking one of the apartment buildings. We never did find the pot of gold.
Sunset from the trail behind the school.
That's just gorgeous.

We had some visitors this past weekend! Iowa visitors! Abby's brother Nick and his wife, Erica, came out to visit us. Though it was a short trip we made the most of it. We went to Red Rocks. We took in a fine Colorado sunset at Clement Park. We also visited Washington Park in Englewood (or as I now pronounce it, En-GLEW-wood), where we had an in-vehicle picnic due to rain. We took the light rail to downtown Denver and walked the 16th Street Mall. We also found a new Mexican restaurant called the Lime. It was quite tasty! We also spent some time exploring Aspen Grove Shopping Center, which included some fine back massages from the chairs at the Sharper Image store. We were very blessed by their visit and were sad to see them leave. But one thing we don't miss is the Iowa humidity they went back to!

Two incredibly cool guys enjoying the sunset over the lake at Clement Park

Photo Op on the lake

The in-car picnic at Washington Park

Waiting for the light rail to come pick us up at the EnGlewood Station

The girls, wishing they were tight with Thomas the Train (they'd be on the OTHER side of the fence if they were that cool!)

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!