Life in CO.

Unfortunately...

2010-04-28T20:54:00.000-06:00

Portland State University: Denied.

Onto bigger and better things.

Growth

2010-04-22T21:00:00.009-06:00

Since 2010 began, I have been stressing about grad school applications. Here is the verdict thus far.

University of Washington: Denied

University of Denver: Denied

Azusa Pacific: Denied full time, looking into part time, but it is a 4 yr. commitment in LA....enough said.
Portland State University: Waiting, waiting, hoping.

It feels good to get that out there. There, I typed it. After hearing back from three of the schools, a couple thousand tears have been shed accompanied with a much needed personal day from work to process all this drama. Growth is happening through this disappointment. Why does disappointment always seem to bring growth? Why can't growth just happen on its own?

This has caused a lot of soul searching. A lot of wondering where God's hand is in all of this. A lot of reliance on friends and family, especially reliance on Chad and his strength(PS. Chad is and has been great with/through all this). I think that the most growth has occurred in our relationship and how we submit and love one another. God is good and is teaching us how to deal with disappointment, how to grieve our hopes, and how to move on from despair to hope and joy.

In more exciting news, we went on our first substantial bike ride last Sunday which left me huffing and puffing up many hills. It was a delight to be outside enjoying nature together.

Also the night before the epic first bike ride, we made some great homemade pizza. So great that we made it again on Monday night. :) So easy and so delicious. Seriously healthy and seriously yummy.

Meet Marty!

2010-04-10T15:38:00.002-06:00

Marty was brought home today. Marty is Michelle's new touring bike!!!! We are very excited for his arrival and all the new adventures we will be going on. Welcome to the family Marty!!

The In Between

2010-03-26T16:50:00.003-06:00

Here is a little update on our lives in the past few months. Sorry to ignore you all for so long. We have been to NJ and back. Had Mom and Dad A and Cara come visit. Traveled to Texas for a friends wedding. Eaten many veggie burgers in order to find some good ones. Took down our Christmas tree ornaments, although a bowl of round ones are still atop the TV. Bought a basket to put magazines in because we get those now thanks to a great Christmas present. Put a lot of miles on the Mazda. Finished Grad school applications. Filled out FASFA forms. Paid bills. Helped our friends move into their first home. Gotten haircuts. Chad turned 24. Waited to hear from the Grad Schools. Have been diligent in working out for the month of March. Dreamed about our future together and where that will take us. Slept some. Ate some. Laughed a lot. And enjoyed each others company. That is it for now. Hopefully we can post some pictures soon for your viewing pleasure.

Winter Camping!

2010-01-24T10:38:00.002-07:00

Chad is off camping for the weekend with the guys out at Lake George about an hour and 1/2 west of where we now reside. He bought a 22 for his birthday and was very excited to test it out on his camping trip. He will be home later this afternoon, hopefully with stories and pictures.

I have had a relaxing weekend of laundry, chick flicks, shopping, and delicious foods. This morning I got up with all intentions of going to church and then enjoying the afternoon making food and researching our possible new homes when I hear from different grad schools. Well, now I will be researching early and eating earlier due to my lack of turing off the headlights after yestedays shopping excursion. The car battery is dead. Like real dead. The motor won't even turn over. Needless to say, I am excited for Chad's arrival home.

Blessings.

Pictures of Our Place!!!

2009-12-08T09:30:00.005-07:00

The view when you walk in the door.

The kitchen. The sink is just to the right.

The laundry room is just to the left of the stove. The view from the couch. The door to our room and the bathroom is just right of the bookshelf.Our closet is just through the bathroom.

This is our new place of residence. :) Enjoy.

We Moved!!!

2009-12-07T14:17:00.002-07:00

The clocks are hung, the TV in place, the tree up, and the bed made. We are officially no longer living 3/4 of a mile west of downtown Colorado Springs. We are now residing in our cute, new to us, one bedroom apt that is about 15 miles north of our old apt. Our new apt. is styling. We will post pictures as soon as I take them. We have crown molding, a cover over the florescent light in the kitchen, double sink vanity in the bathroom, garden style tub, and a walk in closet. The only downfall so far is that we have two drawers in the whole apt. and we have elephants living above us (I hope I get to meet them someday!!).

Here is some other news and things that have been happening in our lives. I, Michelle, recently started working back at the daycare full time as a Rowdy Rhino's teacher( 2 year old classroom). It is very exhausting at first, but also rewarding. Last week I taught them how to say please in Italian and now they use Pour Favor more than they use Please...ITS AWESOME!!!

My sister Amy and Steve are welcoming Summer Anna Boyd into their family as of last Wednesday, December 2. She was 7lbs. 11 oz. 20. 5 inches long. Right now Summer is still residing at the hospital due to complications with the birth. Hopefully she will get to go home at the end of this week. I know that Cadence is anxious to meet her since no siblings or little ones are allowed in the hospital due to swine flu. Boo!!!

Mom Achterhof had surgery the day that Summer decided to join our world and is recovering at home. We are so thankful that God has provided in all of these circumstances.

Ross is back at his parents home in MI because he is unable to work at the school until he is fully mobile again. So he will get to enjoy the chilliness of MI til January 4, I believe. We are so glad that Ross is healthy and happy and well, ALIVE!!! We are hoping he can return to CO soon to help build a better relationship with this mountainous state.

Chad...I love him. His big toe is not in very good shape due to him acquiring frost bite the weekend of Thanksgiving. It is just plain gross and I will spare you the details. If you want to see a picture maybe text him and he can send you a picture via email or text. Needless to say, we think he toenail needs to be removed for proper healing to occur.

This is life as we know it right now. Blessings.

The Last 36 Hours!

2009-11-28T21:06:00.003-07:00

Update on the last 36 Hours:

Chad and his cousin Ross left our apartment around 4 am on Friday to go hike Mnt. Belford and saddle to Mnt. Oxford. They got up the well packed summit on Belford with great success. Once they got to the top Chad wanted to continue on and saddle to Oxford whereas Ross was ready to head back down and rest. So they mutually decided to meet at the car at the trailhead. It took Chad about 2 1/2 hours to get down and figured that Ross would have the car warmed and waiting for him. To Chad's surprise when he reached the trailhead Ross and his stuff was no where in site. Chad searched for Ross' footprints and found that there were none coming down so Chad went up in search of Ross. It was dark when Chad began to climb back up to the summit of Belford. This was Chad's best choice because he had no cell service until he was higher on the mountain. I recieved a text from Chad around 6:30 pm, which was the first time that I had heard from him since noon when he called me to let me know that it was cold, but they had summitted Belford. Upon receiving another text from Chad around 7:15, I called the sheriff and started the chain of phonecalls with the authorities. We left Colorado Springs to head to Buena Vista while this was occurring. After about a 2 1/2 hour car ride we reached the trail head. At this point, Chad had come back down the mountain and we were both a mess both physically and emotionally. Thankfully God provided Frontier Ranch, a Young Life camp, where we could spend the night and allow Chad to warm his toes. Our friends Gary and Kevin headed out around 2:30 am to go looking for Ross because search and rescue did not want to start searching until 730 am. They could hear some noises on their hike but couldn't place them because Ross was without a flashlight to signal them. Those of us that were left at Frontier Ranch were at the trailhead again at 7:30 am with search and rescue. Chad was then diagnosed by one of the search and rescue men with frost bite on his toes. We decided to leave Chad at the trail head and the girls would go search for cell phone service and Gary and Kevin. While driving the 7.5 mile drive to cell service WE FOUND ROSS on the side of the road. I couldn't help jumping out of the car screaming and crying. We then took him back to the trailhead to confirm with search and rescue that we had found him and to get his wound dressed. He had 5 in by 5 in open wound on his upper, outer right thigh. This wound had been open since the night before. Luckily Ross did not have any severe frost bite or any other injuries. We headed to Leadville hospital and got the boys looked at. From here, we transfered Ross to Salida hospital for surgery this afternoon. His surgery took about an hour. The doctor said that the wound did touch his muscle but did not go to the bone. He has been stitched up and is being kept over night to be monitored for pain and infection in the wound. Chad's toes have begun to blister and he will lose a lot of skin on his toes. Please pray that the doctor will have good news tomorrow and that we will be able to take Ross home with us. Please keep praying for wisdom and peace of mind for our family and friends.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

2009-11-26T10:33:00.002-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! We are so blessed. Today I (Michelle) got to wake up early and go to Bible study and upon waking up so early got to see the beauty of the mountains as the sun was rising. The mountains were an orange/red hue of goodness. Thanks God.
Thanks so much for those who love us both near and far away. We are thankful for our first year of marriage and our first year in the mountains. It has been such a blessing to live in CO and explore and learn new things together. Thanks to all of our family members and friends who have supported us in our decisions.

Blessings to everyone today and everyday. Much love.

Check Out Our One Year Anniversary Pics!!!

2009-11-22T07:57:00.003-07:00

Our dear friend Joanna is an awesome photographer. This past Wednesday we had a little photo shoot for our one year anniversary. It was so much fun and we are forever grateful to her for doing them. So check them out on her blog. These are just a few and we will have more later.

http://jcuamba.blogspot.com/

SURPRISE Happy 55th Wedding Anniversary!!!

2009-11-11T18:41:00.003-07:00

We will add words later but for now here are some pictures from our surprise visit to Michigan for Grandpa and Grandma Van Den Berge's 55th Wedding Anniversary and our 1st Wedding Anniversary.

Happy Halloweenie!!!!

2009-11-04T14:24:00.003-07:00

We Halloweened it up as a couple straight out of the seventies!!!! What a fun night!

Rummikub, Speed Scrabble, Ticket to Ride, and Kings Corner

2009-10-19T09:05:00.004-06:00

Grandma's visit to CO was filled with gaming. As she was leaving, we realized that we didn't do the typical things we do with visitors. Her arrival to CO brought lots of ice on the roads and the trees. This meant that we didn't leave the apartment for the first 24 hours of her visit. Finally we decided to venture out on Sunday evening after missing church in the A.M. do to the conditions. We were going in search of church and found it in the most beautiful place, Woodland Park. We didn't find a church building but found God in the sunshine and warmth. We decided to take advantage of the sun that was inhabiting the mountains and went for a drive to Cripple Creek, an old deserted gold mining town. The drive was beautiful and allowed us to see the collegiate peaks off in the distance. We then drove back into the clouds of Colorado Springs and spent the night gaming. (Side note: we started gaming at 9:15 a.m. Sunday morning...this weekend was definitely an ode to gaming).
Monday and Tuesday left us Chad-less during the days so we filled them with searching for friends, paychecks, yummy places for lunch, apples, pumpkins, red Oranje Koek pans, apartments, and making a beef roast, apple sauce, blankets. I loved having Grandma here to teach me how to make beef roast and a ton of other good foods. Because our days were so packed with goodness we neglected to take lots of pictures (mostly my fault because...yea, just because). So here are a few from her last day in the Springs.

That's A Long Peak

2009-10-06T21:07:00.004-06:00

This past weekend we visited Estes Park, about an hour northwest of Denver. We climbed Longs Peak to about 13,500 feet, where we had to turn back due to inclimate weather. We made it a total of 11 miles...quite a feat for my wife and myself included, especially considering the temperature.
Here's a few of our friends we met along the way. The elk were grazing along the road up to Longs Peak, and the bird is one of many Alpine Ptarmigans.

The New Due, Dew, Do....The New Hairstyle!

2009-09-30T08:52:00.003-06:00

Here are some pics of my new hair. I loooove it!@!!!! Thank you Joanna, you did a fantabulous job!!!!
The husband being not too fond of pictures.....
The back!!!!
Thanks for looking..:)

Where the Boat Leaves From

2009-09-22T17:39:00.006-06:00

This is the evolution of cars. Considering the ridiculously cold weather we have had, we figured it was time that I upgrade from a modest bicycle to a not-so-modest vehicle. In reality, I am upgrading to a '98 Camry with 178k miles, and the wife is upgrading to a not-so-modest vehicle.

THE FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON!!!

2009-09-21T15:43:00.003-06:00

Today we had our FIRST snow. I got to watch it flutter down while sitting at work and watching moms come in with their little ones all bundled up like little marshmellows. This is going to be a loooong winter!!!! I'm getting excited to ski now but hopefully the monstrous amounts of snow will hold off for a while. Who thought that we would be seeing snow before the end of September. OH COLORADO!

The First Snow! CHARLIES 55!!

2009-09-17T08:41:00.007-06:00

Happy 55th Father! You are an old man. We hope that you have a great day and are still feeling 29 at your birthday party tonight. We so wish we could be there to celebrate. Hopefully Cadence can make up for our absence.
Above is the beauty that was before us this morning as Chad went to work. The first snow fall on top of Pikes Peak. We have yet to see our first snow fall at the apt. which we are very thankful for. The weather is definitely beginning to feel like fall and our flowers are dying because of it. :(

Beyond the happenings of today we recently got to have Nate, Dave, Curtis, and Luke visit us for a wonderful Labor day weekend! Lots of beers, games, and fun were had by all. We were eternally grateful to Chris and Sarah for letting us borrow their car. It saved us a trip to Denver and a lot of car rides with lap seating only. We really should have posted right after their visit to give a more detailed account, but something is better than nothing right. You can see in the picture of the boys that Pikes was still snow free while they visited...Kind of a fun change to see.

Last weekend we got to help the Nuismers move into an awesome house near where they were living before. Chad and I have contomplated moving in with them and splitting rent because of the massive amounts of space they now have in their care. Going from a two bedroom apt. to a three bedroom, three bath, two living roomed, two stall garaged house with fenced in back yard is awesome.

That is it for now because the keyboard is not cooperating...more later.

Gaining Altitude

2009-09-03T17:36:00.009-06:00

I, Chad, look forward to the day when flying and hiking is my full-time job, assuming that day will come. Maybe not though, because what would I do leisurely? Hike and fly some more?
Two weekends ago, Chris and I volunteered (although we like to think we ran the show) at the Rocky Mountain Regional Fly-In, an air show in Broomfield. Anyone could fly their personal aircraft in for the day or even a few hours. Our job was to direct planes where to park, although we inherently gained the responsibility to prevent meandering civilians from getting run over. We quickly discovered that a wide variety of personalities exist in pilots. Those who know they are cool because they can fly an airplane will let you know in a hurry. I like to think that when I become a pilot (emphasis on the "when"), I will not be that hard-hearted. However, I will probably think that guys walking around in orange t-shirts on a 100-degree tarmac waving their hands are ignorant morons as well...I'm making no promises.
Needless to say, we had a great time. We coordinated with about 100 single-engine (one twin) planes and pilots throughout our lengthy 14-hour shift. Our air-strip was shut down for the afternoon air show, which gave us a nice three hour break for free food and a splendid show.
The very next weekend, I continued in my "discovering Colorado" by climbing Pike's Peak with Scott Nuismer. Pike's Peak sits at a humble 14,110 ft above sea-level. It's about the 30th highest mountain in the US, and one of only 53 in Colorado. We climbed the Barr Trail, said to be the most popular hiking trail for any 14er in the US. Round-trip, this trail stretches to about 26 miles and has a 7,500 ft elevation gain, the greatest of any 14er. Most people hike the entire trail in two days; however, we are young and had wives to get back to, so we planned and hiked it in one day. The trailhead is a mere 10 minutes from our apartment, so it was an easy choice. This, by far, is the farthest I have ever walked or hiked in a single day in my life, and will likely be the last. Needless to say, we were o' so sore.
I'm hoping to continue this exploration of Colorado's mountains, especially before the snow falls.
Michelle is still here and doing well. I will have her post sometime soon. She would have loved to come hiking with us, but the ankle, although fully healed, would likely be a little tender after 26 miles.
We also went to a concert downtown featuring Joe Nichols, a famous and well-known (to most people, so I am not most people) country singer. He sang like an angel, and best of all, it was free!
Peace

HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY MOM ACHTERHOF!!!!

2009-08-12T15:56:00.004-06:00

Mom Achterhof is 50 today!!!! We hope you have enjoyed your time getting to be half a century old and will continue to enjoy the days and years to come. We also hope that jam will continue to be made in the years to come :) Happy Birthday!

Its FRIDAY!!!

2009-08-07T07:52:00.002-06:00

Enjoy today. This morning my eyes were tearing and nose was sneezing due to the brightness of the sun. Thanks God for the sun. :)

Beginnings and Endings

2009-08-03T13:09:00.002-06:00

This past Friday I completed my last official day of work at the daycare. :) After I gave my two weeks at the daycare it seemed to take forever for those two weeks to end. I will miss the kids and their families and especially Lisa, the teacher that I aided for. On Friday morning I was greeted with some quiches for breakfast and then an ice cream sundae party with my kids in the afternoon. It was really a great day.
Saturday, we spent the beautiful night with Chris and Sarah enjoying the sunset on their roof, eating lots of yummy food at The Fresh Fish Co., and some Frisbee in Wash Park. Definitely a great time.
Sunday came quickly. Chad was at church at 7 to do sound for the church services and I was at home preparing to go to church and then to my first day of training at Cool Cuts 4 Kids. Church was great because we are starting a new series for the next 10 weeks. I'm starting to feel the winding down of summer and the rush of the beginning of fall. Training went well on day 1 and today I have day 2 of training from 3 to 6. I like these training hours because they are allowing me to debrief the daycare by taking walks, tanning by our pool, and even make some pork BBQ. Life is great today.

Revived

2009-07-23T21:42:00.008-06:00

Hello friends, family, followers, and strangers. The last three weeks have been a blessed break from our weekly routine. It was nice to finally tell everyone about our life...in person. The goal of our trip was to cram as much time with family, friends, and bag-toss in as many places as possible. Now that we are back and able to breathe again, I think we succeeded. Sorry to everyone we missed while we were home, but between eating six times a day and getting our fill of water and the beach, we kinda ran out of time.

Before I go on with our notable vacation, let me back up two weeks.

In order to take advantage of the free airfare for children under 2 years old, Mom K, Amy, and Cada the Cadence Boyd (by the way, today is her birthday...Happy Birthday Cadence!!!), came out for a long weekend visit. We had a nice time showing them how life works here, and Cadence helped us realize the best part of Colorado Springs was right downtown.

Per Michelle's birthday request, Mom gave her a blue betta fish...beautiful fish; Pablo was his name. Tragically, just a week later, Pablo wouldn't respond to my poking, and he was no longer blue. I thought it was a betta trick but was quickly mistaken. We still have to find the receipt.

The next weekend was July 4...and 5. Ideally, we would have spent the long holiday weekend barbequeing with family, but were content with going to art festivals and watching fireworks. The Air Force Academy put on a decent show (still think Tulip Time wins).

The following weekend marked our homeward bound. We flew into a humid Chicago at 11pm and were happily greeted by Chris and Emily. Our 3am Holland arrival made our 7am alarm clock seem extremely early, but time was-a-wasting. We headed to Grand Rogue campground north of Grand Rapids and met Stephen and Carolyn, Ben and Erin, Ryan and Jenda, and Marcus, our long-lost Rosewood friends, for a great weekend. Michelle skipped out a few hours and met with Misty and Megan as well, which was supposedly much-needed time with friends as well. The weather was perfect and times were had. We miss you all already.

Monday was a beach and food day. We have said it before and we will say it again, we miss the water. It's cliche we know, but we took the beach and water for granted. Needless to say, we took advantage of every opportunity.
We met with Anna (one of Michelle's friends), and Curtis at SixOneSix for the best lunch I have ever had. The five course meal consisted of sushi, a massive scallop, chicken barbeque flatbread (invented by Curtis himself), a main course, and sorbet...it all sounds a lot better when a chef says it, but that's beside the point. Three hours later we met Dave/Dad and Sue/Mom Walcott at Goog's restaurant to eat again. We miss them a lot, so that was a fun meal. We then headed to O'Charleys for more food and 50 cent beer with the siblings and Nate.
Wednesday night was spent at my parent's for a picnic with the Achterhofs and VDBs. Thanks to my mom, we were able to spend quality time with both sides of the family.
Thursday was another beach, food, and O'Charley's day.

Our short week in Holland was close to perfect (Emily, just buff it out and you won't even notice).
Thanks to everyone for spending time and energy to make us feel at home again (tear).

The next leg of our vacation was spent in New York state. We spend Thursday night in GR with Curtis, who willingly and happily took us to Uncle Joe and Aunt Tilda Knol's home at 5am for our early departure. The 10 hour ride from Holland to Watkins Glen goes suprisingly quick when you sleep. This was only made possible by the wonderful Knol family who graciously took us in for the journey.
At the KOA Kampground, we met more than 70 Sytsema family members for the semi-annual/annual reunion. Although short, the time spent with the Kuperus and extended family was a blast. Saturday we went into Watkins Glen, a small village at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. The area is beautiful wine country sprawled with hundreds of vineyards and a great vacation destination. We hiked through the breath-taking state park, which is a gorge cut out by the river. From the entrance to the top is about a 500 foot elevation gain, with the trail alongside the waterfalls and amazing rock features. The lush vegetation and waterfalls strongly resembled Belize and Costa Rica. We clearly see God's hand in everything here in Colorado, but it is amazing how everywhere you go, he reveals himself in a different and stunning way.
The rest of the day was spent with the Sytsema clan, pretty well focused on bag toss the entire night until the darkness forced us to retreat to campfires.
The next morning we had the traditional Sytsema church service, led by "Pastor" Rich. The afternoon was spent playing games and reminiscing. I had to be in Syracuse for my 8pm flight, while Michelle stayed and extra day and flew from Newark.
Overall, the time spent with our family and close friends was the breath of fresh air we needed and looked forward to. Life in Colorado is wonderful and we feel very blessed here, but the times we spend at home are priceless. We hope you all had as much fun as we did, and we cannot wait for next time.

Peace

Our entertainment while the ladies came out to visit was watching the duck grow. We figured we had to have something if we can't keep fish alive.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!

2009-06-21T13:18:00.004-06:00

So we just talked to both of our daddy's and wish that we could be spending this gorgeous day with them (right now it is 75 and sunny here!) Much love to all the dad's out there, not only our biological ones, but all those who have walked beside us to make us who we are today. Thanks for all the love and support. We hope today was enjoyable. God Bless.

Click It For More Recent Photos!!!!

2009-06-09T21:55:00.001-06:00

http://w549.photobucket.com/pbwidget.swf?pbwurl=http://w549.photobucket.com/albums/ii368/michellekuperus/2493bbc9.pbw"

A Long Time Coming

2009-06-09T19:30:00.000-06:00

Where do I begin?
Life has been full of excitement over the last month. I, Chad, started a new job three weeks ago as a property accountant for Griffis Blessing, a property management firm downtown Colorado Springs. It feels great to finally have a job that requires some sort of thinking (not that spraying trees didn't require any thinking). I finally enjoy the work I do, which is a blessing (pun very intended). Not only is it a job I enjoy, it is 2 miles from home, allowing me to ride my bike and us to remain a single vehicle household. Now that I have a desk job, I have to actively excercise. It keeps me young and makes me feel like I'm in middle school again. So long as the 'ol Camry keeps truckin, that's the way it will probably remain, at least until the weather turns sour.
Speaking of the weather...about four weeks ago, the weather took a drastic turn what seemed like overnight. Almost every afternoon around 2 o'clock, we get a short burst of thunderstorms, pretty instense ones at that. After having a few months of near-perfect weather, we started to miss the Michigan storms. Needless to say, we are pretty impressed. (sorry if this is choppy, but the Detroit/Pittsburgh game is getting most of my attention)
We trust you all had a great Memorial Day weekend, because ours was great. Dad Achterhof flew out Saturday night to see his awesome children (and pick up his truck). We spent a lot of time driving through the mountains, allowing him to test out the V8 power. Colorado continues to amaze us at how much there is to see. We've been here for almost over 6 months and have seen only a small portion. Before he left for home on monday, we had an early breakfast and drove to Buena Vista, about 2 hours west of Colorado Springs. We took a different route back along the great Arkansas River (an unbelievable drive). Just west of Canon City, the tallest suspension bridge spans between a huge gorge created by the Arkansas, appropriately called the Royal Gorge Bridge. We were able to find an amazing overlook without paying the $24 a person entrance fee. Needless to say, it was a great use of gas and time.
The very next weekend we continued the entertainment by camping with five friends along the Arkansas just north of Buena Vista. Aside from camping at Pictured Rocks in Michigan, this rustic piece of land gets my vote for the best. The guys we went with are big into fly fishing, so I also learned how to fly fish. In hindsight, it is much harder than it looks. Although I got the hang of it after a few hours, it took a lot of getting used to. I blame it on having to use my right hand. This was a great weekend filled with community and awesome friends.
This past weekend was spent with our great friends Chris and Sarah.
Michelle is still working at the day care, and oddly enough, busier during the summer than during the school year. We are looking at buying her a bike; she's very jealous that I get to ride mine every day :)
This coming weekend we are planning to go camping again, this time with a few couples from church.
Then, a week and a half later (24th, my wife's birthday), Mom Kuperus, Amy, and Cadence will be flying out to visit for a long weekend!!!
Two weeks after that, we're comin' home! (both homes...in a week...yea we don't waste time). It will be 7 months since coming home, so it is an overdue trip. We'll be spending the first weekend with my Rosewood brothers, the week in Holland, and the next long weekend in upstate New York for a Kuperus (Sytsema) family reunion. We are exstatic and hope you will all be around.
Now I must get back to the game, but hope you are all doing well.
See you soon!!
Here's a clump of pics from the past few weeks. I think they are all self-explanatory.

Nice form (nothing like baseball, football, or throwing with your left hand)

Mt. Columbia is below, Mt. Harvard is above, over 14000' each, both of which we will climb this summer.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T19:39:00.000-06:00

Here's a Happy Mother's Day shout out to all you amazing mothers out there. We love you all and hope everyone treated you like saints as you deserve.

The First Time We Left Colorado!!

2009-04-29T19:39:00.000-06:00

At the beginning of last week, Chad starting talking about going to visit Ross in Phoenix, AZ and so we gave him a hollar with a few dates. Because Chad's job demands good weather and CO seems to be having our share of snow storms lately we decided that now was better than ever to go visit Ross before their impending hot summer weather. So we left last week Friday night around 9 and arrived in Flagstaff , AZ early Saturday morning after an hour pit stop for sleep. Just the way we like to travel, quick and sleeplessly.

We met Ross there and then headed north to the Grand Canyon, which was absolutely amazing!! We were stunned by the beauty and the cold windy weather that greeted us there. Our first self timing picture almost turned into a loss of camera do to the speed of the wind currents. We really enjoyed the beauty of the Grand Canyon, but do to the winds were ready to call it "just another hole in the ground". From the Grand Canyon we drove back to Phoenix to explore Ross' crib (which is also awesome). Phoenix was ready for us with cacti and palm trees. Chad and I were in our glory. We went out for some much needed burgers (after our domestic peanut butter sandwiches on the trail) to a great sports bar called ZIPPS in search of some hockey to watch, but alas to our sorrow the Red Wings were not playing. After our delicious dinner we headed out in search of every sports stadium in Phoenix (thats what I get for traveling with two boys.) We saw ASU's campus as well as the University of Phoenix stadium where the Super Bowl was held a couple years back. Right next the to U of P stadium was an outdoor mall with awesome fountains and such so that was fun to walk around in and to just experience a bit of the night life in Phoenix.

Sunday morning came early, but granted us some much needed showers and so dilectable pancakes made by our lovely host Ross. They were awesome. We then said our good byes, farewells, adios' and headed to go meet up with Chad's friend Zach. It was great for the boys to catch up and for us to enjoy one last nice meal before eating fast food on the way back to good ol' CO. We both agreed that the drive from Phoenix to Flagstaff was one of the most beautiful drives we have ever been on. We arrived back to CO around 1:30 am on Monday morning after we hit snow about 5 miles after crossing the border from NM to CO.

Chad and I decided that we could live in either NM or AZ if the heat wasn't so outrageous in the summer. The views were astounding. We are so glad that we took this quick trip and hope that we will be visiting there again soon (and by soon I mean probably in the fall after the heat has passed).

PHOENIX!!!!!

2009-04-24T19:04:00.000-06:00

We are traveling to visit Ross this weekend and see the Grand Canyon. Pray for safe travel on this quick trip! We are so excited!!!!!! Love you all and we will definitely post pictures upon our return. Until then, Adios Colorado, Hello Arizona!!!!!!

It's Been a While

2009-04-12T20:27:00.000-06:00

Yes we are still alive, and have had an amazing few weeks with friends and family. I'm just going to expand on our week of April 3-10ish because it was so great, and I'll let you make up what we did in the other weeks that we haven't updated.

It started with the arrival Chris and Emily that friday. We got creative and had a mini barbeque on our porch for the first time with my new Weber grill and some amazing hamburgs. We obviously know what we are doing. We spent some quality time that night catching up and went to bed excited about the weekend.

The next day, Chris and I went to Prestige Auto to finalize and pick up my dad's pick up, a 2004 Dodge Dakota, which I must remind everyone is an excellent truck, a very nice truck, dad, it's nice...no need to rush.

About 9 people from Michigan on spring break also came out for the week, so Angela VanDrunen and Blake came with us to Golden, just west of Denver for a tour of the Coors Brewery. It is the largest single-site brewery in the world, so we could not miss out, (Michelle and I for the second time) not to mention there are free (large and delicsious) samples at the end of the tour. After the tour, we hurried back to the b.ball game and to host the 15 people that would be coming to our apartment for pizza and apps that night. It was a great night...a little overwhelming, but overall great to see some familiar faces from the homeland.

We woke bright and early the next morning for an early start to our day at Copper Mountain. I think halfway through the day, Chris said, "Michigan sucks, this is way much better!" He was so excited to be in the beauty that he forgot how to speak. Needless to say, it was a great day.

We were all quite whipped after a day of skiing and tree exploring, so we took off for our hotel at Winter Park. It should have taken about an hour to arrive, but due to the traffic on I-70 from everyone returning from skiing, it took about 2 hours. Copper Mountain is right along the interstate, but Winter Park is about 25 miles north of the interstate up windy roads and switchbacks to a more secluded area (I think Emily wants to move after being in Winter Park). We went to the grocery store to pick up a few things, and a guy ran up to us asking for a tire iron. Supposedly Dodges don't have standard tire irons, so as the girls shopped, Chris and I helped him change out his tire, to which he responded with a $10 tip.

We had a great dinner at a knock-off Charlie's Pit Bar-B-Que Restaurant and retired to the hot tub at our hotel and our two bed, incredibly-small-heater hotel room.

The next morning was unnessecarily early, as we thought the resort opened at 8 instead of 9, and our hotel being right across the street made killing time a little difficult. This is us getting ready out of the back of my dad's really nice truck, and trying to figure out how to prevent the sunkist from exploding in the cold weather. It turns out we did not have to worry about that as it was about 50 degrees and sunny all day. I think halfway through the day, Chris said,"Copper sucks, this is way much better!" Copper doesn't really suck, it's just that we had a more enjoyable time at Winter Park. It's a much larger resort, so we had plenty of space to explore through the trees, powder, and plow our own trails. This was, by far, the most fun I have ever had skiing in one day. So, VDB's, I think we found our next January ski location.

Here's just a few of the snapshots from the day.

On top of the world.

"Wicked air man! You look like a turtle"

"O look, frost"

Thursday Dinner!

2009-03-26T17:41:00.000-06:00

So we just ate an awesome meal of pork tenderloin and steamed carrots over a bed of rice. It was delicious. I got the recipe off the internet and its definitly a keeper.

Also here is a picture or two of our lovely wildflowers that are starting to grow. On Saturday we went hiking and there were people out everywhere cleaning up their yards and it made me want to grow something so we got some dirt and a pot and planted the little seedlings. I hope they are beautiful in bloom.

Banquets, Homemade IHOP, BBQ's, and VAIL!!

2009-03-23T21:26:00.001-06:00

Our weekends never cease to be jam packed with activities with our bestest of friends and the beauty that is Colorado.

This weekend began on Friday night, of course, with a church banquet. The banquet was a celebration for the end of our stewardship campaign that we have been going through for the past nine or so weeks. Chad got to do sound for the banquet. It was definitly fun to sit next to him and watch him try to discern what buttons and nobbs needed to be moved to create the most appealing sound. It's not every day that I get to see my man work, besides when he is cooking in the kitchen. The campaign looked at teaching, giving, prayer, and many other topics to help us find out how we can better serve our community and church. We went through this all ultimately to raise support to start building on a piece of land that the church bought numerous years ago. Right now we go to church in the basement of a strip mall and are anxious to be moving to and creating a place for the community to call home. The first stage of the building will be called "The Life Station" and will have an auditorium and a gym. It will be open all week to give the youth in the community a safe place to hang out and be themselves. The building will then grow in time and with the continual growth and support of church members. So after the banquet we helped with some clean up and then headed home for a nights sleep after a long week of work.

Saturday came into swing with some scrumptious pancakes and sausage. Here is Chad's Pikes Peak Pancake which is always a welcome change to the cereal and bagels. Saturday afternoon we went hiking before heading to our first BBQ of the season, actually the first BBQ that we have been to since we've been married. It was hosted by our small group hosts from church. It was nice to enjoy the nice weather, 70ish, and the delicious summer foods. We ate and ran because Sarah and Chris were awaiting us in Denver.

We were headed to Vail for the night because Chris' dad so graciously got them a room because of our intended ski trip. Because of our lack of cheap lift tickets, we decided to forgo skiing and to explore the back mountain roads. We got to eat at a cute restuarant called the "Log Cabin" in Frisco, which is a small town that you drive through on the way to Breckinridge. Frisco had some fun book stores and a sweet photography studio by Todd Powell. We then followed the awesome Colorado roads over the Hoosier pass. This trek allowed us to see a couple 14ers, Lincoln and Quandry peak, up close as well as others in the near distance.

Overall this weekend was a blast!! Our weekends seem to fill up so fast that we never have time to just sit and relax. We love it. There is no better way, for me anyway, to take advantage of our weekend than enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful life that God has given us.

Where's Waldo?

Thanks for reading.

Mom and Pop A

2009-03-15T19:55:00.000-06:00

This weekend we had our third multi-day visitors. You would think after two weekends of sight seeing with past visitors, we would have seen everything in the area; however, that was not the case. We managed to find new things to do every day, except Charlie's Pit Bar-B-Que, which a "must experience" for every visitor.

They made their long awaited arrival thursday night. After a homemade dinner by Michelle, we took them downtown to see the surrounding area. The next day, we sent them off exploring while we were at work making trees beautiful and children smarter. They were able to see Garden of the Gods, Focus on the Family, and other things we had seen before. We drove up Cheyenne Mountain, just enough to where they could see down on Colorado Springs, but before mom was ready to feed the bears. As I was turning the car around, they supposedly saw a bobcat descending the mountain and disappear into the woods, just before padre could snap a photo. So Michelle, wondering where it went, wisely went after it. We then had a wonderful dinnner at the Mason Jar and a fun filled night of Ticket to Ride.
Saturday was our only full day together, so we squeezed everything in we could. The day started with a great trip to the United States Air Force Academy, about a 15 minute drive from our apartment. We walked around the visitor center and watched a brief video teaching us about the academy, in which I decided I should have screwed Calvin and learned how to fly airplanes and skydive. The building to the right is the campus chapel, designed to look like jet wings, and obviously the focus of the academy. In addition to the great location and study subject, they have two 18 hole courses, which also added to my bitterness.

After our visit to the academy, we headed to Manitou Springs for a little shopping and yet another amazing lunch at Charlie's. My dad kept telling us we couldn't go to a chain restaurant, so I hope he's satisfied with the small mom and pop restaurants we took them to. There's definately no lack of small restaurants like that, so we enjoy finding small treasures like the Pit Bar-B-Que. We then made our way downtown to the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center. It's one of three centers like it in the United States. The facility in San Diego is adapted for summer outdoor events, the facility in Lake Placid, NY is geared toward winter sports, and the Colorado Springs facility is for most summer gym/pool events. The athletes have a half day on Saturdays, so unfortunately, we didn't see anyone training. It was still cool to see and know that this is where the country's best athletes come to practice and train.

After our exhausting day, we went to our local and trusty Target, where they bought us a nice blender for a house-warming gift, in which we later made amazing fruit smoothies: Thanks mom and dad!

So once again, we had an awesome time with our visitors. It's great to have so many people wanting to see what we're doing, and hopefully will now understand why we moved here in the first place. It's not easy being away from all the people we love, but we feel very blessed to live in a place where all the things we love to do are right at our doorstep, almost literally...except for water of course. That's one thing I know we will both miss this summer: beaches, boating, swimming and the like. Aside from that, we love it here and believe this is where God has called us to start our life together. It has been an awesome learning experience. So thank you all again for the love and support.

But for now, we are going to get settled in for another few weeks while we wait impatiently for our next super-cool guests coming the beginning of April. Wootwoot!

Supposedly Colorado Springs was voted most pet-friendly city in the US, so we got some pets.

It's Finally the Weekend!!

2009-02-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

This week has brought on some craziness. Chad started a new job this week. He is working for Tru Green, a chem lawn company. The way I understand it, he will be spraying trees and such to kill the little tree life sucking bugs. We are very excited that he has gotten out of the apartment every day this week!! But with this new job comes car complications. This week I have been sleeping in the car after dropping him off early and then he has been starting to walk home when he gets done. I have found him at the corner of a side street and at a gas station. It's like a new scavanger hunt everyday. Where will he be today?
Luckily by the end of the week he had met some of the guys at work and found this amazing man (to me anyway) who has offered to carpool with Chad. Thus leaving me to our bed for another hour. We are so thankful that this has worked out. Now the scavanger hunts on the road will hopefully come to an end.
My job has been going well. I got to work a little over time this week with a couple teachers falling ill and another teacher going on maternity leave. That has been good and I was glad to get into work early instead of sitting in the car for two hours just waiting and calling people and sleeping. Sorry to all of you who got the random phone calls right before I had to go into work. I loved all the call backs though, if that is any consolation.
We are taking it slow this weekend to try to recooperate from our crazy week. Some hiking and cooking will definitly be in order. Hope all is well with you all. Sorry no pictures this time. Give props to Chad for the last posting. I am still quite impressed. We would love to hear updates from you all. Please shoot us an email. Much love.

Mom and Pop K

2009-02-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had our second weekend visitors, and it was great. It took them a little longer than expected due to weather delays, but when they finally arrived friday night, it was on.

Our saturday was filled with showing them the area. We started the day visiting the Focus on the Family international headquarters, which is 10 miles north of our place. We killed some time while the fog lifted, then headed to Manitou Springs, where we had an amazing lunch at Charlie's Pit Barbeque...I think I still have the taste in my mouth. We then headed to Garden of the Gods, for the fifth time or so, but we still love it every time. That night, Michelle and I went and saw Brian Regan, a hilarious comedian that we had bought tickets for a while ago, with Scott and Betsy, which concluded our Valentines Day in style.

Sunday was nothing short of busy. We went to church, had an early lunch, and immediately left for the summit of Pike's Peak. Due to high winds, the road to the summit was blocked off at about 12,000 feet. However, the ride was still remarkable. When we left Colorado Springs, the temperature was a balmy 50 degrees...at 12,000 feet, it fell to 15 degrees with a windchill of no more than 0. Needless to say, we did not spend much time outside the car. The first picture is stopped at a reservoir at about 10,000 feet with Pike in the background, the second is at 12,000 with a view of the restaurant at the peak. On our way back, we stopped in Manitou at the cliff dwellings, which are ancient indian homes cut into the rock. That night, we had bible study, so dad and mom went to Pueblo to visit a friend and his family who came to Colorado from Sussex.

Monday was another packed day. Michelle was able to take off work, so we drove into the mountains an hour and a half to Cripple Creek. This is a booming metropolis of 1400 whose economy is sustained almost entirely by casinos. The town was the central location for the gold rush and was at one time a large city. Today, there's literally nothing but casinos, a few homes and shacks. The reason we went in the first place was to attend the annual ice festival. Unbelievable! I was most impressed with the castle: an ice sculpture we carefully determined to be at least 17 1/2 feet tall. The detail and craftsmanship of the sculptures was like I had never seen before. We were royaly impressed. Why it is at Cripple Creek? Who knows. Probably to attract more tourists than just the gambling addicts. The sign to the right was posted on the door to a restaurant, so we decided to have lunch there because we knew our money was going to a good cause.
We left the ice festival impressed, and decided to explore the area a little. We took a detour to another gold mining town called Victor. We were amazed at how desolate and old everything was. There were gold mines scattered all over the mountains, like the one to the right. We decided we would all go insane if we lived there. On our way back, we saw a dirt road with a sign and arrow toward Colorado Springs. I knew there was a road that connected the springs to Victor through the mountains, and this was it, so we took it all the way back. We estimated it was about 25 miles, driving through beautiful countryside. In some spots, the road narrowed to one car length with huge drop offs on either side. Much of the road was cut through ridges, so coming around corners was interesting as we could not see if anyone was coming in the opposite direction. We made it back alive, and had a great night filled with food, ticket to ride, hand and foot, and food.

So that's a short version of what we packed into a weekend. We had an amazing time with them and wish it could have lasted longer. But I guess some people have to get back to work.

Parties, Potatoes, and Pickles!!!

2009-02-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

So life has been quite crazy out here the past few days. This past weekend was filled with fun things!!!

Work has been going well for both of us, enough so that I got bored enough one night to make my craving for mashed potatoes into a party. On Saturday night, this past weekend, we had 12 people at our apartment for a MASHED POTATO party. We had the obvious potatoes, as well as, chicken, jello, salad, green bean casserole, and brownies with ice cream. It was really a great time of community which is odd because after inviting all these people over I realized that almost everyone that was coming knew no one else except for Chad and I. But it turned out great and really got to have some great community with an awesome group of people.

After having such an awesome party there is always the clean up aspect. It took me 1 1/2 hours to clean the dishes after church on Sunday. Chad was helping out in the sound booth at church so I got to do them all by myself. He was very lucky not to have participated. I've attached some pictures of the lovely pile of dished before they were washed. :)

On Sunday evening after a well deserved nap, Chad and I went to our first Bible Study meeting. At church we are going through a stewardship campaign and everyone is encouraged to join a Bible study for the 10 to 12 weeks of the campaign. Bible study was also a great time of fellowship and just a great time to talk with other people that are trying to grasp and understand the same things that we are from the teachings at church.

And now we are back to the grind of the everyday week, although this week is extra special because it is Valentines week. We are excited to go see Brian Regan this weekend for Valentines Day, but I think we are most excited for the arrival of my parents into Denver on Thursday night. We are looking forward to showing them around town and are really just excited to share life with them for a few days.

Thanks again for all your prayers and comments they are much appreciated.

They Got Us!!!

2009-01-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

No not the cops or the IRS! KING SOOPERS! Its the grocery store just down the hill from our apartment. We went there tonight for some mayo to make potato salad and we ended up buying a lot of fruit and other food that was on sale. Isn't that how it always works? Either you are hungry at the store and buy everything or they have awesome things on sale (and you secretly decide to freeze everything and never eat it) so you buy everything....They get us everytime!

Anyways, today was my, Michelle's, first day back at work after two days off due to an inconvienent bout of strep throat that I contracted from one of the little kiddies at work. Oh well. It was nice to have Chad nurse me back to health and to spend some time with him after one full week of work. (I know, I am a HUGE wus). ;)

Now in the words of Chad....

Hello all my homies. Yes she is correct about the wus part; let's just say I was happy when she went to work today :) I love her o so much.
I'm not much for words but work is going well when we have it. I was told that I'm one of the most effective sellers they have, which was good to hear after only a week of work. Hopefully the success continues, and although I do not fully enjoy what I am doing, I am very thankful to have a job to go forward with. I call it a job, but it hasn't really felt like a job, as I work from home and do things on my own time, which I enjoy thoroughly. It's nice to be able to work, apply for jobs, eat, listen to music, sit in a white-t, and eat all at the same time.
I have been networking with people in accounting, GIS, and engineering fields, so hopefully someday something will fall into place. Until then, I will keep saving homes for people who don't know how to budget.
Thanks for listening.
We love you all.

Basically Amazing!!

2009-01-21T19:22:00.001-07:00

So this week has started off well. Work has been going well for both of us as far as new jobs go. Chad has enjoyed working from home this week. And I have enjoyed his working from home also because that means he makes us some awesome dinners. On Monday he made us a chicken and tonight he made us beef stew. Both were incredibly tasty!!!!

He has definitly been doing more than his share of work around the apartment and in the kitchen since he has been working from home. Work at the daycare is going well too. The kids are definitly testing their boundaries. Hopefully that will end soon. But it is fun getting to know all their little personalities.

Today, I had a surprise at work. Chad rode his bicycle to my work just in time to meet me for my lunch hour. We got to spend some great time together and enjoy the 67 degree weather, what a blessing. He usually works all day, but it hasen't been very busy for him the last few days so he was working in a different way. It is a 30 mile round trip bike excursion to and from my work, constantly going up and down hills, so he worked hard today.

What a blessing!!! We could not be more thankful for the blessings in our lives.

WE HAVE JOBS!!!!

2009-01-17T11:44:00.001-07:00

FINALLY, after having a full time job of job searching we have both found something. Chad is working for a company that helps people who are going to be undergoing foreclosure of their homes. They help them get better rates on their loans all over the U.S. He is actually working right now, from home!!! So I have retreated to the bedroom to write this blog post.

I have also started a job at The Goddard School. It is a daycare for kids ages newborn through kindergarten. I am working with the oldest kids ages 5-7. It is definitly an eventful day everyday. I have only worked one full day shift and have already had a child almost puke on me and have had lots fights to break up. This will definitly be an interesting job.

But now Chad and I are headed up to Denver to go watch the Calvin vs. Hope game with some alumni at a Tavern. I had received an email about a month ago about the game and decided that it would be a good distraction from job searching and a good place to meet possible alumni that could employ us. But with jobs under our belt we can enjoy the time and just have a great afternoon. After the game we are planning on going out to the Melting Pot with Sarah and Chris and Sarah's parents for Sarah's birthday. We are secretly going to celebrate Chad's too. He will be 23 on Sunday!!

Thanks for all your comments on our blog. It makes posting worth it. Much love to everyone. Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Back to Reality...(job searching)...After Complete Awesomeness!

2009-01-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

We just spent a great weekend of fun, game playing, and adventure with my little brother Dan and his girlfriend Ashley. We went to Helen Hunt Falls which was an awesome little trip through the mountains to see the frozen falls and we also drove around the Broadmoar Hotel which is quite the site. Its a large hotel which averages over $300.00 a night. It has a huge golf course and is located near the Cheyenne Mnt. Zoo. Dan and Ashley got to experience the awesome $1.50 theater as well. We went to go see "Australia", a very good, but long movie. It was such a great movie that I think Dan dreampt about it that night. We also strolled around Manitou Springs one day and went to a Penny Arcade that they have. That was so much fun and a lot of entertainment for little money which is always good.

They had lovely sleeping quarters on our new couch and our pull out chair. They helped us pick out a coffee table and made our living room workable and appealing from the expertise of Ashley who is currently going to school for Interior Designing. Thanks Ashley, It looks great.

We were definitly sad to see them go after a weekend of awesomeness and continual fellowship. Thanks for the fun and encouragement you two. It means the world to us!!

Here are some pictures from our weekend. We had weather from 60 degrees all the way down to below freezing with some lovely snow. Oh Colorado weather. It always leaves us guessing!!

A Little Somethin' Somethin'

2009-01-04T20:47:00.001-07:00

We Did It!!!!

2009-01-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

So today we finally did it. It took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the top of Pikes Peak Incline. Here is a description of the incline from the local newspaper called the Gazette. "The Manitou Incline marches 2,011 feet over 1.02 miles. It's a nasty, awful, grueling challenge - easily the toughest workout in the region, maybe the state."

I, Michelle, was definitly ready to give up before we even got on the trail because the trip from the car to the trail head had already caught me out of breath. Oh the thin air up here. But Chad challenged me and got me up the trail after many breathing breaks and water breaks. I think he probably could have made it in a half hour if I was not there to slow him down.

The view made all the work worth it, as well as the intense bonding of climbing at a steap incline. We think that we probably could see out over 50 miles or more once we reached the top..(we are considering that to be a low estimate). It was quite beautiful and quite an accomplishment.

It was quite slippery as the trail was covered with ice and snow where the sun doesnt shine. So I definitly had a few spills on the way down. We took a trail of switchbacks down the mountain which was long and entertaining. It is called the Barr Trail named after the man who created it.

These pictures are quite entertaining for us to look at after hiking for so long and being sore beyond belief. Overall today was a great warm day of 59 degrees that was well spent with each other experiencing God's goodness.

Our First Christmas!

2008-12-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

We spent our first Christmas, literally our first one together, at Copper Mountain Ski Resort. Scott and Betsy Nuismer were our accomplices's. It was awesome!!! The lifts were about 10 minutes up and the ride down was at least 20 minutes. Much better than the typical Michigan or New Jersey skiing with the slow lifts and the short, short runs....And we can not forget about the views. Driving in was gorgeous because we went from no snow to tons of snow piled up on the sides of the roads. It's amazing. And riding the lifts up to 12,000 ft. also left us with some awesome views and also some fears of height.

After skiing our brains out, we went to Ron Clarksons house, the main pastor at Colorado Community Church with Scott and Betsy Nusimer. What a great time to spend playing games and enjoying community on Christmas.

Making Salsa and New Friends!!

2008-12-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

First things first...This is OUR view of Pikes Peak when we walk out of our apartment. Not too shabby if we do say so ourselves. And here is our First Annual Christmas Tree picture. We are excited to actually have one!!!!!

Now, back to business. This week has been full of more job searching, but also some relaxing. Job searching is so stressful especially without any hookups whatsoever. This weekend we have gotten to hang out with my friend Sarah and her husband Chris who got married the weekend after Thanksgiving. It was great to hang out with them, being recent newlyweds themselves and also being connectionless in Colorado. So they came to our place on Friday night which was the first time we had met her husband Chris and the first Chad met either of them, but they are great. And since we had such a great time, after I had breakfast with my friend Hailey in the morning, we drove to Denver to spend the evening at their apartment. It's about a 51 minute drive if anyone was wondering...

Today we went to church with Hailey, Scott, and Betsy and then came home and talked to Chad's family over the webcam. It is kind of weird using the web cam but also nice to see familiar faces while talking to them. Then Chad decided he wanted to make some salsa. It turned out great. We love Sundays because we don't attempt any job searching and just get to enjoy each others company.

Life in the mountains is treating us well. We are excited to spend our Christmas Day skiing with Scott and Betsy!! Hopefully we will have lots of fresh powder and sunny weather.

Much love.

We are now "Official Citizens" of Colorado!

2008-12-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

These past 24 hours have been eventful enough for us to type about them!!!! This morning we went to go get our Colorado Licenses. Chad said that is was his fastest experience at the Department of Motor Vehicles. We then continued to search for jobs, which is our new full time job. But last night we got a break from our very rigorous work schedule to go see the "Holly and Ivy: Winterwonderland" Air Force Academy Band/Orchestra play at the Pikes Peak Center. It was a free concert that we found in the newspaper after a long day of job searching. It helped us get into the Christmas spirit and to get out of the apartment. But back to today, we got some pictures in the mail from the wedding and the honeymoon that we had ordered a while ago. That was a surprise that allowed us to be distracted by picture frames and thank you cards for countless hours. What a blessing in disguise. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we go insane with job searching and try to keep off each others nerves with the clinck clancking of our computer keyboards.

Playing Rummikub!!!

2008-12-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

Today has been a rather successful day. Michelle got two phone calls from two different salons that she had applied to and has some interviews on Monday. Hopefully all will go well. Chad kept his nose to the grind stone most of the day in search of more jobs. We spent the morning lounging and job searching and getting in a few games of Rummikub. Rummikub has become our new favorite past-time. When nothing is going on or if we are sick of job searching then a round of Rummikub is all it takes to get us back on track. After a lazy morning we went to Garden of the Gods and saw the Kissing Camel rocks with Scott and Betsy Nuismer. It was awesome hiking off the trail a bit and fun to watch their weiner dog/puppy climb up the mountainside. On our way walking out of the park we saw an 8 point Buck about 10 yards away from us, at the most. And it scurried away with a doe. It was enormous and awesome!! After enjoying the afternoon outdoors we went to the Nuismers for pizza and a movie. Faith and Derek also joined us for dinner. They have become fast friends with the Nuismers upon their move here and we can see why. They are a great couple. So after a night of fun and laughter, we can thank God for all the blessings of the day. But we are most thankful right now for the game of Rummikub or steadfast companion.

We finally have internet!!!

2008-12-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

Chad and I have been living without Internet and jobs in CO for about a week now and are loving it. The apartment is kind of set up with some things on the walls and some furniture in place thanks to Dad Achterhof and Mitch. We have currently been searching high and low through many thrift stores and an indoor flea market for a desk for Chad's computer and some end tables. The living room still needs a little work. We have already had three different dinners with dinner guests. It is fun to be cooking in our place and to have a place to call home, especially when we can look outside and see the lovely Rockies. Living here will definitely take some adjusting beyond the high altitude. We both love and miss our families. But this is a great place for us to grow together and to really find out where we are headed as a family.