New Chapter

I thought that since we are starting a new adventure in our lives, I would start blogging so that everyone can keep up with us now that we have moved to Denver. I apologize for the corny name of this blog. It came to me today while we were out rafting and it just kind of stuck. Anyway, I am getting a little ahead of myself. This whole moving process has been a big headache. About a month ago, Matt and I came out to Denver to find a house and for me to interview for the job I wanted. I got the job, and we thought we found the perfect house to rent (so we have more time to look for a house we want to buy). After about three weeks of trying to get the owner of the house to give us an official move-in date so we could sign a lease, the realtor we went through informed us that the owners no longer wished to rent the house. And since we had already booked our move with a moving company, we had no choice but to try to scramble and find something to rent online. To make this story short, no one would rent houses to us sight unseen and the ones we wanted got rented before we could get applications in.
And so began the grand adventure...moving to Colorado without an address. While our stuff was packed and riding around on a moving truck, we said our goodbyes in Kansas City and drove to Manhattan to pick up my brother and his friend, who wanted to come along for fun. We drove out late Sunday night (the 6th) and stayed in a dingy Super 8 motel because we knew they took pets. The Manhattan Super 8 is immaculate compared to the one we stayed at. But since we we made it to Denver Sunday night, we were able to put in an application on an awesome house, purchase some camping supplies and head up to Golden Gate Canyon State Park on Monday. The boys had a fun time hiking after we all set up camp, but Matt and I were too tired to hike so we took naps. It was so nice to be in the cool crisp, fresh moutain air. We managed to start a fire and cook some hot dogs and make it a nice evening.
Tuesday we were able to move into the house, and we figured it would be boring for the boys to just hang around all day while we took care of stuff, so we dropped them off in downtown Denver and they rode the light rail around all day. In the mean time, Matt and I set up bills and fought with the moving company all day over the phone since they charged us an extra $1200 over our estimate and threatened not to deliver our stuff unless we paid in full. (By the way, DON'T use Nationwide if you are moving, it's a scam.) Then my car battery died in the parking lot of a coffee shop where we were using the wireless internet so we had to walk a mile in the rain to get Matt's car to jump mine. By this time, I was thinking nothing would go right, and what was I doing here when things were perfectly fine in Kansas City.
We managed to get to the house in time to sign the lease with all of the money we needed for rent, deposits and the moving delivery. Our stuff was delivered that evening and then things got better. We spent most of Wednesday moving stuff in and unpacking. We took Brennan and Seth to the airport for their trip to Manhattan. This is funny: Brennan used an expired beach pass as his I.D. to get on the plane since he doesn't have a license yet. The airline attendants were really laughing at this because he was flying to Kansas using a beach pass. Matt and I had a good laugh as well.
Thursday was more unpacking. We also got groceries and cooked our first meal here. It was so nice not to eat take out food. We took Pongo for a long walk and checked out some houses for sale. (All were way over our price range, but it's fun to look.)
Today was the best day yet. We decided to rafting so that we could do something fun before I start work Monday. The only trip available was a supposedly calmer ride down the Arkansas River that stops just short of the Royal Gorge. (The big rapids are actually in the Gorge.) HOWEVER, I managed to fall out of the raft TWICE in these "calmer" rapids. Matt pulled me in both times. The second time was scarier because our guide couldn't get the boat to shore so she asked me to get out and anchor the raft when we got close. Well, we didn't get close enough and I was hanging on to the back of the boat for a good 30-40 seconds before Matt could pull me in. I was so scared we would go over a rock and I would be knocked away from the raft or squashed between it and the rock. It's funny because when I went on the more expert trip through the Gorge a couple years ago, I didn't fall out once. I think I'll request to sit in the front of the boat in future trips since I think that has a lot to do it it. I didn't have anything to hold on to in the back.
Well, I think that's about all for now. I better save some things for future posts. I'll try to take and post some pictures of the house soon!