Meet Jessica, Matt, and their family! Jessica and Matt first met when they were in elementary school living in a little town in Illinois. They reconnected through Facebook in 2016. Matt was living in Illinois when they began dating and Jessica was living in Castle Rock, Colorado. They dated long distance for the first year and a half of their relationship They loved traveling to visit one another but as things grew more serious Matt made the jump and moved to Colorado in late 2017.

 

Matt is a skilled Heavy Equipment Mechanic and Certified Welder. Jessica was working in the Early Childhood Education field as a preschool teacher at the time and eventually went on to earn her Director's Certificate in ECE and was hired as an Assistant Director at a large center in Castle Rock. Jessica had a son, Braxton, from a previous relationship. When Matt moved to Colorado and they discussed where they would live, they knew pretty quickly that they wanted to purchase a home on property. They began house hunting in 2018 and found their home in Kiowa, Colorado!

 

Matt loved the idea of building a huge garage workspace and wanted plenty of room to drive all of his toys around the property. Matt and Jessica also had friends living in Elizabeth at the time and had always loved visiting them and experiencing the small town charm of Elbert County. Jessica also grew up with a strong love of horses, so the potential of having her own horses on our property felt like a dream coming true. They felt extremely lucky to find their slice of heaven on 5 acres in Elbert County.

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Matt and Jessica grew up on the eastern side of Illinois along the Mississippi River. He did not grow up raising animals but his family loves animals, especially dogs! Jessica's family also did not have livestock, just the average family dogs and small critters. But she was always begging her parents to let her take horseback riding lessons and to get her a horse she could call her own. Eventually they gave in and let her start horseback riding lessons just before high school, she continued riding throughout high school and then purchased her first horse in 2007. Her first horse was a painted sorrel gelding named Copper.

 

During Jessica's senior year of high school, she did an internship at Warren Performance Horses in Franktown, Colorado. It was one of the best experiences of her life. She wanted to study Equine Breeding Management and had hoped to go to Colorado State University. She completed her internship at Warren Performance Horses and then graduated from Castle View High School in May of 2010. She then decided to take her general education courses at Pikes Peak Community College and took a few Equine Science courses there. But fear of turning her passion into career she decided she was not going to pursue Equine Breeding Management and instead turned to Education instead. She transferred to Metropolitan State University of Denver and started working towards a degree in Elementary Education with a focus in Art. 

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Matt graduated from United Township Highschool in May of 2010 and went on to work full time and earn his welding certifications at Blackhawk Community College. He then was hired on with Alcoa (now Arconic) in 2011 and continued his education at Blong Technical Institute to study Mechanical Engineering. He worked for Arconic as a millwright and general mechanic until he moved to Colorado in 2017. ​

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Their first year in their new home was so much fun. They dove right into the "country" way of life! They started with chickens and goats that first summer and a barn cat named Maggie. Maggie turned out to not be a feral barn cat and is actually a lazy fat house cat. Skeeter and Pudge came to Serendipity from Jessica's mom, who breeds her goats (Phoebe and Lily) for dairy purposes. Jessica and Matt moved Braxton to a local school and started spending more time in their new community. They welcomed their first daughter, Logan Layne, in January of 2020. Their second daughter, Sawyer Lynn,  followed shortly after in May of 2021.