We are officially Denver residents!

Byron and Hansel and the Kansas sunset

We're in Denver! We have an apartment! We love it! Wait, there's so much to catch up on.

We got almost all the way through Kansas before calling it quits on day one of driving. Everyone talked a lot of crap about driving through Kansas, but I actually loved it! The first part is through big rolling hills and there's horses and farms everywhere (I now realize that "horses and farms" aren't nearly as big of a selling point to other people). It also helped that the sun was setting, which made everything look even more beautiful. I loved Kansas! Don't judge me.

We stopped for the night in Wakeeney and set out early the next morning to get through the last four hours of driving.

It is VERY windy in Kansas.

 We didn't see much of Wakeeney besides this sign since we stayed approximately 20 yards from the interstate. Billy dutifully drove the last part of Kansas, which is where it actually does get horrifically boring and flat. I was pretty surprised that after crossing into Colorado, this didn't change. We didn't even see mountains until we were driving into downtown Denver!

I was envisioning more mountains, less dead grass.

 It was also really cloudy, as you can see, so unfortunately I couldn't get any cool pictures of the Rockies as we drove in. Honestly, we could only see their outline it was so hazy outside. We didn't even see them until a few days later, when I screeched "OH MY GOD MOUNTAINS!!" while driving around looking at apartments. Confession: I definitely envisioned them still being snow-capped. In August.

Despite not being picturesquely covered in snow (there will be plenty of that to come, I'm sure), the Rockies did not disappoint, and neither did Denver.

We were staying with (read: sleeping on an aerobed in the living room) of one of Billy's future classmates, Simon. We didn't know anything about him besides that he was probably not a serial killer since he'd gotten into gSchool, but we were thrilled to find out that Simon is awesome! He and his roommate, Michael, were amazing hosts and we were SO lucky to get to stay with them. Without even knowing us, they welcomed us into their house, introduced us to their friends, and told us to stay as long as we needed and eat whatever we want! We could not have asked for a better introduction to Denver.

Simon and Michael's awesome house!

 As you can see, Simon and Michael live in a really cool, big old house. There are a lot of them in the neighborhood we were looking in, but we ultimately settled on a more up-to-date apartment (we really wanted A/C and a dishwasher). The week of apartment searching was exhausting emotionally and physically, but after four days of blood, sweat, and tears (predominately the last two-Denver's having a heat wave and the rental market is BRUTAL) we found the perfect place!

We loved staying with Simon and Michael, but we are even more in love with our new apartment! The furniture may actually be here soon, but even with just what we had in the car, it feels a lot like home already! 

 We toasted our first night with the wine we got in Indianapolis and settled into our aerobed, now in a different living room. But at least the living room is ours!