Mid July we had to say goodbye to our green BMW. We hope the Platts Family get great use out of it! They were our replacement family in the ward. Loved the short time we had to get to know them.
Our dear friend Norburt invited us to the restaurant and cooked us a wonderful German breakfast to bid us farewell. We single handedly financed his new car I am sure and he has single handedly outfitted our new home.
We started our journey to the states by taking a shuttle to Frankfurt and spent the night. WE showed up early at the airport to get the last remaining seats, flew 9 hours to Denver, then got delayed a few hours on our flight to Salt Lake City due to lightening. The Lord blessed us with the reunion of one of Bruce's missionary companions who was a great help in hauling our sleeping boys on the plane to Salt Lake.
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After getting 4 hours of sleep, Bruce and I woke up to catch another flight that would take us to Dallas to pick up our car. After layovers in Denver (weren't we just here?) and Albuquerque we found our car and hit the road. Through a miracle, we made it to Amarillo to spend the night, then forged ahead the next day and made it to our new home in Colorado.
This was our first view of our home from the highway. As we were driving by, Bruce made a comment that there were some huge houses up on the hill. Upon further investigation, we discovered this was our hill, and we found our house. Bruce got a good laugh.
Second view of the house
View from the back deck
Since a portion of our household goods were stuck on the East Coast, we had some time on our hands, so I decided that it was a great time to change our ugly USED kitchen cabinets
Bruce was a little unsure about my idea of glazing, but he was more than willing to help me out. After all, what could we lose? After all the hard work, this is the final product, and I can definitely live with that!
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We headed to Salt Lake to pick up our orphaned kids and headed up to Idaho where we attended a funeral (the 2nd in one week). Afterward, we headed to Downata Hot Springs for the Hoggan-Campbell family reunion. It just ended up being a Hoggan family reunion with one Campbell just coming for the day. The others were still grieving for their father and not ready to participate.
That afternoon a thunderstorm rolled through that nearly blew the tent away. This is Joe and Becky's attempt at saving it. Good job Allen for helping!
Joe entertaining us with his newly acquired guitar skills
Since it got blustery, we stayed away from the pool and let the kids do water balloons instead. That kept them occupied for quite sometime.
Jon and Tricia feeding baby Jack
WE got an encore, only Becky was much better.
Baby Emma, Amy, and Austin
The Patriarch!
The next day was filled with swimming and water slides. During the meal breaks, the favorite past time was feeding the horses in the pasture.
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After the family reunion, we stayed in Salt Lake a few more days to visit with my family. During that time, we planned a birthday party for Gideon to celebrate his 6 years of being a part of our family
Cousin Pile!
I am in love with this wonderfully cute not so little boy!
The best part of any birthday is the presents, right?
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We headed on home to Battlement Mesa and introduced the boys to their new home.
One of their favorite features is the Master bedroom tub. They bathed in it for the first 2 months, then we finally gave them the boot to their own bathroom.
The only improvement to the yard we have done is to haul in more dirt and improve the grading and drainage of the backyard. Anything more and we would have to submit our entire landscape plan to the Battlement Mesa Committee for approval, but who has time for that?
Bruce piled some dirt under the deck and that became their "sandbox" for the next few weeks. They spent hours digging in the dirt. It is every little boys dream to have a backyard full of it and nothing else! Note the backpack full of golf balls. Our boys have become young entrepreneurs by selling them back to the golfers. These they have found in our yard and in the sagebrush. They do quite well for themselves too.
Alas, summer had to end and school began before we were ready for it. Now that school has been in session for a month, they are getting accustomed to their new teachers and school. Allen is excelling in reading and his nose is stuck in a book every moment he gets. Gideon is now used to first grade and is doing quite well at his sight words and expanding his own reading skills.
Allen now is a Bear in the Cub Scout program. His den had an end of summer pack meeting at Harvey Gap just outside of Rifle. The boys swam and made mud pies and got good and dirty. It was a great adventure!
For Labor Day Weekend we enjoyed having Joe and Caleb at our house. Joe was such a blessing to have in our home. He served us the entire time. Our home got more clean and organized in a 24 hour period than it had for awhile. With the new business starting up and starting a new life, putting our house together has been on the back burner. I teased Joe and told him he was my other husband because he was working on my "honey do" list for his brother. For fun, Joe brought along his go cart. We had some great times taking it for spins around our loop. Thanks Joe! You really lifted all of our spirits!
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Whenever I experience a big change in my life, for survival purposes I have to block some other things out. I feel I live only in a partial reality and just keep plugging away hoping that things will improve. Our days have been filled with delivering fliers door to door as a family and then just Bruce and I. We have worked hard on organizing the office and trying to bring things together for opening day and then for the open house. AS I serve Bruce and try to help relieve his burden, I do not get so bitter at living in such a mess of a house. The Lord is teaching me patience. When I serve others, I find the greatest happiness and eventually, things will get done.
Fortunately for me, I have some great helpers. Lincoln is my pal and it is such a blessing to have him around everyday while the other 2 are at school.
Did I mention that we threw soccer in the mix of our lives? Not to mention, that I am the soccer coach for Allen's team? Like I said, when I am in the service of others, I find myself the happiest and suddenly, life doesn't seem so bad anymore.
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Today I feel such a renewal on life. I feel like some of the harder things to bear are much easier now and I have more of a hope for things than I have in awhile. I have been flying by the seat of my pants hanging on for dear life as things have been thrown at us and as life seemed to be driving us instead of the other way around. I am learning to gather strength from our trials and learning to put my faith in my Savior that He knows what He is doing, even though I haven't got a clue. Thank you to all our family and friends for their prayers and love during this transition in our lives.
3 comments:
I'm so glad you finally got a minute to sit down and blog. I loved all the photos, you are amazing to take on so much change and I think you are doing a great job. Opa isn't doing well so that is why Hyrum is in Utah, I know his parent appreciate him being there right now. Keep on posting, we love hearing from the Hoggan's
I love your house! I think it's beautiful! The boys are growing so fast! I can't believe that our babies are going to be 9 this month and next. It doesn't seem like it was 11 years ago that we were all adjusting to college life! I miss you guys! Good luck with the practice!
love you Amelia and admire all that you do.
Call when you can
801-815-3474 we need to catch up
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