One year later...

I have to apologize in advance. This post is going to be VERY picture-heavy. Today we celebrate the one year anniversary of our move to Denver. One year ago today, we pulled up in front of our rental house (which we were locked out of) and began unpacking in snow. Today I'm happy to report, we're moved in and it is 64 degrees.

We've had a lot of great experiences since moving here, and this post is to honor those experiences.

Simon potty trained the week after we moved here!! 

We've spend many mornings at the Denver Zoo. 

...and the Denver Children's Museum. 

We still miss our old friends very much, but we've been very blessed to make new, wonderful friends.

We watched the fireworks together for the first time ever as a family. Arvada has GREAT fireworks! 

Our new home: This is the home we plan to be in for many, many years. We're so happy we found this wonderful home!

The Lake: The lake is where we walk, play, and chase geese.

We took Simon to an amusement park for the first time, and realized he's a daredevil. 

Swim Lessons:

Simon finally realized his dream of being Buzz Lightyear... at least for Halloween night. 

Ringling Brothers Circus! 

Getting visits from family, even though they are far away. 

Toy Story on Ice/living close enough to see the Piviks regularly. Simon loves Buzz Lightyear and his cousins, so this was a very memorable day. We're so grateful to live close enough to see my sister and her family so  often!

Our field/coyotes. We live across from a city-designated "open space." This means, it will remain undeveloped. It happens to be home to two coyotes. We look for them each morning, though it's harder to find them in the spring.  

 Simon started preschool!!! I wasn't sure about putting Simon in preschool since he has another year before Kindergarten, but in the end, I felt this was the right choice for him. I'm SO glad we did this. He loves his friends, teachers and learning new things. 

Simon finally ate ten new foods!! This took nine months, but Simon finally completed his sticker chart by eating ten new foods. 

Lucy turned one/we love Dave and Shauna! We are so blessed to have Uncle Dave and Aunt Shauna living in the same town! They celebrated Lucy's first birthday with us!

Simon turned four! We're happy to report, we had perfect attendance from the Sunbeams at Simon's birthday party. Since it was his first birthday here, we decided to go all out and held it at the local swimming pool. 

Christmas! Simon participated in his first Christmas pageant as a shepherd...

and we felt tremendously blessed to  host Jacob's brother's family, Jacob's parents and my parents for Christmas. It was WONDERFUL! We're very grateful to live so close to Tim and family. Again... Simon loves his cousins!

Our first winter in Colorado was VERY snowy, but we enjoyed it. Perhaps it's because Arvada is OCD about plowing roads. It made it much better.

Our first family vacation! We've taken trips to visit family, but this is the first time we left town as a family purely for a vacation. Of course, we went to Disneyland!! 

And the best part about this year: being together as a family!!! For the first time in many years, we get to be together almost daily. We all live in the same house, and Jacob never has to travel for work. 

Though we miss friends, family and many things about Provo, we're very happy to be here in Arvada, CO. It's a beautiful place with wonderful people. We're very happy to call this place home, and hope to for many, many, many, many, many, etc, etc, etc years. We've already made lifelong memories here and we're excited to see what else is in store.