We have settled into our new apartment in Denver! Well, officially Westminster, CO in Northwest Denver. We flew up here for a few days back in the middle of June for an apartment hunting trip and it was very successful! We are really lucky to have some of Jeremiah's extended family in the area so we were able to stay with them and borrow one of their cars. Our first full day we went to ten different apartment complexes and had some good options... Small and expensive, but that's what we expected for the area. The second day we looked at a couple more places including a couple of condos. One of the condos was our largest, nicest, and somehow least expensive option! We both really liked this option and had a great conversation with the landlord while we were there. But we were a little apprehensive because it seemed too good to be true and we didn't want to fall into any traps. We talked it over with our families and did our best to verify that this was a legitimate deal and our last day of our trip we went back to checks few things, solidify our decision, and ultimately put a deposit down on the place! Success! We were really excited to have a place to call our own!
Our move-in date was July 1st so that meant we didn't have too much time left in AZ! Thus began night after night of time with friends and family! It was the best! Over the past couple years we have really established some awesome friendships that were hard to say goodbye to. But we plan to keep them up as best we can while we are in CO! Most of these goodbyes happened over food so we simultaneously got to eat at some of our favorite AZ-only restaurants too! We will miss you, Oregano's.
Anyway, the goodbyes were difficult but we managed because it was also really exciting knowing we were leaving to establish ourselves in our first apartment and together as a couple! Also, I knew we would be seeing my family just three weeks later, so that was a big bonus.
Friday, June 30th we rented a big 16-foot Budget Rental truck and managed to fill the entire thing! Who knew we already had so much stuff?? We packed in a couch, dining room table and chairs, china cabinet, stools, desk, dresser, bikes, and lots of boxes. Both sets of our parents as well as Nathan helped us load up so it really didn't take too long fortunately. Saturday morning we took off bright and early! Jeremiah and I packed up our cars (which were also stuffed full) with a few last minute things and met over at his parents house. Jeremiah and his dad drove the rental truck, my parents were in my car, and Jeremiah's mom and me in Jeremiah's car. We had a little caravan with the rental truck in the middle and with a few stops along the way for gas and food, no major bumps in the road, 14 hours later we arrived in Colorado Springs! Phew! It was a long, tiring day but we made it! Jeremiah's great aunt and uncle live in the Springs so we had a beautiful home and really comfy beds to stay in that night. The next morning Ralph and Jan provided a really nice breakfast for us and a couple other family members stopped over so we had a relaxing morning chatting with everyone! At about 9:30 we hit the road again for the last hour and fifteen minutes up to our apartment. Not bad at all compared to the day before! Once we arrived we pretty much immediately began unloading everything! Our apartment is on the second floor so it was a little tiring and somewhat tricky (aka our couch was nearly impossible, thanks to our dads for the help with that!!). We pretty much just dumped everything anywhere in the apartment so Jeremiah and I could slowly but surely get things situated.
Also notice I chopped most of my hair off!
That same night that we moved in we went over to Joy and Michael's house (some of J's extended family) for a Fourth of July party! It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of delicious food! After that we dropped my parents off at the lightrail station so they could get to the airport. It was strange saying goodbye! The next morning we joined J's parents, and some other family for breakfast and took his parents to the airport soon after that. So then it was just us and our new apartment!
The next few days we nonstop unpacked/organized. It was tricky finding a place for everything, but we somehow managed! We made trips to the store here and there to break up the unpacking as well. Since moving here we have also gotten my name changed at the bank, I got a Colorado driver's license (which was a bit of a headache with all of the documents we needed), gotten a gym membership a two minute jog from our apartment, tried a couple new churches, and other misc important things. We've also done a few more fun things as well! We live right around the corner from Waterworld, a huge water park here in Denver so we spent a very fun day there. We also spent a full Saturday at Rocky Mountain National Park with Jeremiah's great Uncle Bill! It is so gorgeous! I'd been once before a few years ago, but the scenery was just as incredible this time around. We drove around a big loop that takes you to different lookout points and walked around/took pictures at many of them. We also dipped our hands in the Colorado river, had a wonderful picnic lunch prepared by Bill, and took a shuttle bus to Bear Lake where we walked the loop around it. We finished the day off at a yummy dinner with Bill as well. It was an amazing day exploring the mountainous side of the state and spending more time with Bill than I ever have. Plus it reminded us that we just moved to a gorgeous place!
One other thing that I have been up to here since we moved is a little part time job! I work MWF from 9-1 at a company called Wunderkin about 25 minutes from us! So it's not a lot of time, but it's a little extra money. Wunderkin is this company that makes little girls' bows that my sister loves. Heather knew that they were located in Denver and needed some help packaging and shipping the bows. She gave me the email of the owner of the company whom I emailed basically asking if they could use my help and she said, sure come in Monday! So I started that a couple weeks ago and it has been a good use of my time, since I would otherwise not be doing much productive until school starts.
Most of you probably know from reading that Jeremiah turned down a full time offer at Stryker in Phoenix so that we could move up here to Denver. Which meant that we were moving here without him having a job. So after a lot of persistence in the job search/application process, Jeremiah found out last Wednesday that he got a full time offer as a Mechanical Engineer with Lockheed Martin!! He and I are extremely excited! I just know that they are going to be so happy they hired him, because he is so talented and such a hard worker. He can update on more specifics of the job in his next post, but he will be starting in a few weeks after they have completed a background check. That means we have a few weeks of minimal obligations and lots of exploring to do!
That's it from us Colorado Dwights for now! As I said, our apartment is all put together so any and all visitors are more than welcome!
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