2020 Newsletter

As we celebrated the birth of a new year this past January, gathered with our friends, we had little idea what this year would bring. The word "coronavirus" was one that had been bandied around for a couple weeks but not given any serious consideration. We had never worn masks; "social distancing" was nothing more than an obscure oxymoron. Our hearts were cheerful and our future bright. 

When we rang in this year, we had a great many expectations for it. Jason had just started a new job and hadn't yet realized that the free lunch didn't make up for the monotonous hours spent at a desk. I was starting my last semester of college and looking forward to attending baby showers, graduating, and celebrating my 21st birthday before welcoming baby Oliver to our family. We tentatively planned on moving to Lehi around October to be closer to our jobs and have our own apartment. 

 

The naïve excitement of someone who has never worked a desk job before ;) 

 

Apparently "tentative" was the key word there, though we didn't know it at the time. 

Since we got married, Jason and I have toyed with the idea of moving out of state after I graduated from college. I've always wanted to experience the world outside of the Utah bubble; he's already had the experience and wants to be close to his family. But mostly, we both have a strong desire to do what is best for our family, and we both believe that what is best is not always what is easiest, funnest, or most convenient. We have also found that what is best for us will not always make sense to our families or make them particularly happy with us. 

The faces of some not particularly happy people

A move to Colorado was the compromise we settled on. I would get to experience life outside of Utah and Jason would still be close to family (two aunts and uncles in the Denver area, and only an 8 hour drive or 2 hour flight back home). However, we didn't imagine the opportunity to move would come so soon. 

Two weeks before Ollie was born, Jason's Colorado family was in town for his grandma's funeral. He casually mentioned to his aunts, who are both property managers for the same company, that if a maintenance position opened up he would like to apply as he was getting restless with his job at Vivint and felt he was more inclined to working with his hands. 

Visiting with Grandpa Olson after Grandma Olson's funeral

One week later, we got a call saying that a maintenance position had opened up; Was he serious about applying? He said yes, but we didn't tell our families yet since we knew they wouldn't be excited about us taking this baby away (who hadn't even been born yet). 

Jason applied for the job. An interview was scheduled for May 22. However, that interview was rescheduled when our little boy decided to make his debut on May 21, three weeks earlier than expected. The following Tuesday, I woke up with a fever and chills, so Jason interviewed for the job while simultaneously rushing me to the ER and taking care of our howling five-day-old baby. 

She doesn't look it, but I promise Grandma was more than happy to babysit
while we we enjoyed another day at the hospital

Jason got the job. Four weeks later, we packed everything we owned into a moving truck and drove to Lakewood, a suburb twenty minutes outside of Denver, where we stayed with Jason's aunt and uncle while we waited for our apartment to become available. On September 15th we moved into our new apartment with the help of Jason's family and even a few ward members whom we'd met only a handful of times. 

We won't be ready to move again for a very long time.

Much to everyone's chagrin, we LOVE it out here. We love the lakes and the parks (lots of good fishing and pretty walks). We love our ward, who have welcomed us with open arms--at a distance of six feet of course. We love the views, Denver's cityscape to the east and the Rocky Mountains to the west. Jason loves his job doing maintenance and renovations at three separate apartment complexes. I love my new jobs teaching piano lessons (though I do miss my old students), doing online SAT tutoring and essay writing with high-schoolers, and of course, raising little Oliver, who I adore.

And like it or not, we love having a little bit of space to figure out what kind of people we're going to be, what kind of parents we're going to be, without feeling so much pressure to follow exactly in our own parents' footsteps--though of course, there are many MANY ways in which we look up to our parents and hope to be everything to our children that they were to us.

We often talk about how blessed we've been. It is obvious to us, though maybe not to anyone else, that we are exactly where we are meant to be. For reasons we don't understand yet, the Lord has called us to Lakewood, Colorado, and right now, that is what is best for our family: me, Jason, and Oliver. We miss our friends and family in Utah every day, but we know we're where we're supposed to be, doing what we're supposed to be doing. We're so so happy here, and though 2020 has been hard between the politics and the pandemics, it has been the best year for our small family, and we couldn't be more grateful for it.