summer crazies

Ok, brief updates: Jess is done with boards! whoopee! This is just round 1 of 4,... but it's good to have these ones behind us. He should get results soon. He's back in Denver again now, for a 2 week long 3rd year orientation course.

And yes, we are still buying a house. slowly. very, very, slowly. blah.... Our closing is set for a week from today, but I'm not confident that it will stay there. It sure does seem difficult to get people to do their jobs! Lord willing though, we'll be able to move in when Jess gets back from his class at the end of the month. We have all of our furniture and pain colors picked out,... we just need a house to put them in!

Jess had one week off last week and we went camping up on the Grand Mesa while he was home. It was so nice to get up into the mountains! The dogs had a blast chasing chipmunks to their heart's content, and Lola made it the whole 11 mile Crag's Crest hike! She was a rock star. Here are some pictures:

And my favorite picture from the whole trip:

I definitely still feel the absence of Jude when we go out and do things like this, but it doesn't usually cause the same intense pain that it used to. I think I'm learning to be content with the blessings that I have in the here and now. 

Hopefully new house pictures will be coming soon! 

Blessings on you and thanks for reading!