California Visit

Ashley and I surprised our friends and family back in California with a visit last weekend. Well, mostly my family because Ash's mom picked us up at the airport on Wednesday night.

Thursday afternoon Ashley's mom met my mom for lunch in Sunnyvale, and Ash and I tagged along. We walked in any my mom was SO SURPRISED to see us! We had a great lunch and it was good to catch up. After lunch Ash and I just hung out and then went over to my brother's house and surprised him. He couldn't believe we were there!

Friday Ashley drove with her mom down to Monterey to pick up some cake samples for our wedding, and I went to eat lunch with a few of my friends. Friday night we met with Greg Dawn, the guy that's going to marry Ashley and I. We had a great 2 hour visit with him and we are really looking forward to May 14th next year!

Saturday was a whirlwind. Ash and I ate brunch with a few friends and then made our way over to my brother's house and met him and his two daughters at a park. Lola is 2 years old and his newborn Camilla was born on September 18th.

Lola is very photogenic!







I like taking kid photos from down low, to get a view of how they see things in the world.




Sometimes, however, it's cool to get a view from above.




Welcome to the world, Camilla!






More Lola at the park.




Down the slide.




Time to head home for nap-time, my brother Scott pushes while Lola rides shotgun and Camilla naps in the backseat.




Well, tries to nap anyways.




Almost home, Lola wants to try to catch me as I run backwards.




Lola tells the paparazzi that that's enough photos for one day.





Back in the house, Lola takes her turn holding Camilla.




Then my turn.




After hanging with my brother, it was off to San Leandro in the East Bay to visit with our friend Evelyn, then back down to Los Altos to take Ash's mom to the airport in San Francisco...All in a very long but fun day.

Woke up early on Sunday to catch our flight back to Denver. Take-off, headed to a stop over on Los Angeles.




Initial decent down into Los Angeles.




It's amazing to me how many houses and buildings there are in Los Angeles.




Downtown Los Angeles. You see the Staples Center in the lower left, downtown in the middle, and you can barely see Dodger Stadium in the upper right corner of the photo.




Hollywood Park Horse Racing Track on decent into LAX.




The thing I love most about taking off at LAX is how you fly really low over the beach and ocean. What a spectacular view.




You can barely see the Rose Bowl towards the bottom of the photo. Looks a lot smaller from this high up!





Somewhere over Northern Arizona.




Snow-capped Colorado Rocky Mountains.





View of Aurora, Colorado on final decent into Denver International Airport.




Two Frontier planes waiting to take-off.




Arrival at the gate in Denver.




Inside the terminal.










And finally, what's a trip to the airport without seeing a bunny hiding in between cars in the parking lot!




So we are here this week and then next Wednesday we head to Michigan for Thanksgiving. We are so excited for holidays!