Mile High Life

Outdoor Adventures

2011-11-14T16:47:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Ashley and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather for the holiday weekend and venture into Boulder and go on a hike. We decided to go up to Chautauqua Park in Boulder. We recently had some snow, but most of it had melted.

The park is at the west end of Boulder, and it offers some beautiful views of the city.

This is a view of the University of Colorado's Folsom Field on the campus of the university.

I feel like if we had gone up to this spot before the first snow, this photo would have been so awesome with all the changing colors of the leaves on trees.

On Saturday, Ashley and I went to the CU/Arizona football game. The game started at 12:30 and it was very windy all day. It was a cold wind too, blowing as fast as 85mph!

We had some good seats behind the end zone.

Windy!

Some images from the game:

It's been a while since CU won a national championship.

After halftime, our seats were in the shade making it even colder. So we moved to the other end of the field to get in the sun.

A quick photo of us before we left the game because it was so windy.

We are headed to Michigan next week for Thanksgiving!

Bahia de los Suenos, California Del Sur, Mexico

2011-10-28T10:40:00.001-06:00

Ashley's mom Melissa and step-dad Dan invited us to join them for a weekend trip down to their house in Mexico. What an awesome trip! Ashley and I took a morning flight to Phoenix where we met Melissa and Dan to take a flight down to Cabo San Lucas.Taking off from Denver.About to take off from runway 7L in Phoenix. Notice all the Southwest planes waiting behind us on the left. A quick two hour flight down south and we finally arrived in Baja California, Mexico. What beautiful water and white sand beaches! Bienvenido al Aeropuerto Internacional de Los Cabos!Dan walks down the outdoor stairs after getting off our plane. I wanted to take a photo of the plane but a guard quickly told me that wasn't allowed.I had been awake since the previous day because I had to work, so after the two hour flight to Phoenix, two hours down to Cabo, and another two hour drive to the house in Bahia de los Suenos, I was exhausted. Their house is SO beautiful and offers some fantastic views of the Sea of Cortez.A sweet infinity pool makes you wonder where the pool ends and the ocean begins.Currently their property consists of two guest houses, so that's where we stayed at. Dan and Melissa stayed on one side, and Ash and I stayed on the other. In between the two houses is what is called a palapa. It is a is a covered, open-sided structure. The cover is typically made of dried and woven palms from palm trees. Dan and Melissa's palapa covers a table as well as a barbeque area.View from the back patio near our two room spot. The house seen next door used to be owned by former NFL player Kyle Turley. Thursday morning Ashley and I went to go play golf at Bahia de los Suenos Golf Course. It's a very beautiful course hidden in the desert. This is the view from the 2nd green.Ashley took some golf lessons earlier this year, and we went to the driving range a few times recently, but this was her first round of golf. She did a GREAT job!Why am I so happy?This is why... Out of the bunker, right next to the cup!The 14th green.The 18th hole.Several years ago, Bahia de los Suenos used to be called Bahia de los Muertos, which is Bay of the Dead. When they decided to build a community and resort in the area, the developers decided that in order to make it more enticing for potential residents and visitors, they needed to change the name of the area. So they changed it to Bahia de los Suenos, which translates to the Bay of Dreams. You can see why they chose that name.Back at the house after a long, hot round of golf, there was not better place to be than the pool overlooking that bay.Dan noticed an Osprey flying around their house, and it was quickly determined that the bird was showing off its catch, a rather large fish. Apparently osprey like to flaunt their food, and so he (or she) made several passes. You can see that half of the fish is missing, so I don't know if it was eaten or somehow got lopped off.That night we went out to a very nice dinner at the resort just down the road.Friday morning I woke up before sunrise so I could capture some cool morning photos. I lucked out on this one because I really like how the bird if sort of flying through the sun.This is a still-in-progress community, so there are only a few houses that have been built and completed. Here are some of the waterfront properties that surround the bay.Apparently this house has multiple elevators in it. Crazy!Hanging on the boat as we drive around the bay.Dan and Melissa's neighbor's house.Dan and Melissa's house. The two guest houses on the lower level, and the garage is on the upper level.Ashley reeled in a needle fish that we quickly cut out and threw back in the water.Melissa and Ashley.I like how you can see the shadow of the cloud over this island.While driving the boat around the coast, we came across a few pelicans. We docked the boat to eat some lunch. Here is Dan pulling the boat onshore.We had a quick lunch and then got ready to get back on the water and head back to the house.It's amazing how BLUE the water is here.Another view of the largest house I've ever seen.Saturday morning we took the kayaks and a paddle board out to the beach. Here I struggle to stand up on the paddle board.It took a while, but I figured it out!Rain is very rare in this area, so I'm sure the locals appreciated the LITTLE bit of rain they got throughout the day.Dan on the paddle board.Attached to the golf course pro shop, is the 1535 Restaurant. Since there are few visitors and even fewer residents there, it was no surprise we were the only people in the restaurant besides the workers. Their food was great!After eating some appetizers, I decided I wanted to kayak back to the house, so I hopped in and 37 minutes later, I was in front of Dan and Melissa's house. That's me the little orange dot in the middle of the photo. It was so much fun!Night shot of their palapa.Sunrise Sunday. It was going to be a long day for me because I had to go into work later that night.One of the bedrooms in the guest house.This guard shack is manned 24/7. I bet hours if not sometimes days go by between times the guard here has to manually raise and lower the bar to get in and out of the community.A long winding road awaited us on the way back to the airport.So long Cabo San Lucas, Mexico! Ashley and I had such a great time, and we look forward to coming back down with Dan and Melissa sometime soon. Thanks so much to them hosting us down there. They have such a beautiful house!Next month we head to Michigan for Thanksgiving and back to California for Christmas.

Arizona Vacation

2011-09-27T08:56:00.001-06:00

Sorry it's been such a long time since I last updated our blog... Not too much stuff has gone on since we got back from Scotland. We did move to a new townhouse that we are renting in Broomfield, a few miles closer to Boulder but more importantly gets us out of apartments. Thank goodness!Ashley and I headed to visit our friends Chelsea and Ryan Pearce and their daughter Riley in Arizona last weekend and we had such a good time. Although it was very hot (high of 107 on Thursday!), we did make it out to my old college stomping grounds Arizona State University to walk around and see how much it has changed since I graduated in 2001. Thursday night we had a great dinner at their house. Friday night we picked up Ryan at his work and drove to downtown Phoenix to see the Arizona Diamondbacks play the San Francisco Giants. It was cool for me to go to the stadium again because I hadn't been inside since I stopped working for the Diamondbacks after their 2000 season. For those who don't know, I was their batboy from their inaugural season in 1998 through the 2000 season. It was such an awesome experience, and 11 years later, the stadium is still pretty cool. I was VERY glad to see that they opened the roof for the game, seeing as it's closed 90% of the season because it's so hot in Phoenix in the summertime.The Diamondbacks were trying to clinch the National League West while the Giants were holding on to slim hopes of even making the playoffs. We got some cheap seats up in the upper deck behind home plate, but the view was really nice. Matt Cain started for the Giants and pitched a great game.Aubrey Huff of the Giants taking a swing.The game went by REALLY fast! It was a low scoring game and the Diamondbacks ended up winning the game, 3-1. 2011 National League West Champs. I was happy for the team that I used to work for, but I'm a die-hard Giants fan, so I was bummed to see the all but eliminated from the playoffs. (They were eliminated officially the next day)Chelsea and Ryan Pearce after the game. Thanks again for letting us stay with you!One really cool thing I learned on this trip was that with Arizona being in the middle of the desert, people have to deal with scorpions around their houses. Chelsea and Ryan have their fare share of them in their backyard, so Ryan goes around the perimeter of their house almost every night with his blacklight flashlight, looking for them. The interesting thing is that when you shine the blacklight on the scorpion, they glow! Check it out!Each of those photos is of a different scorpion that we found in a search of his yard. Saturday morning we woke up and just basically hung out. I wanted to take a few photos of their awesome chocolate lab Red. Ashley and I have been talking about getting another dog sometime, and I think after meeting Red, we were convinced that we want to get a chocolate lab.We had a great trip back to AZ, and were so glad we could hang with Chelsea and Ryan for a few days. Next up, we head to Mexico in mid-October! Can't wait!

Honeymoon in Scotland

2011-05-31T11:07:00.007-06:00

WOW! What a whirlwind 3 1/2 weeks! I apologize ahead of time for this extremely long photo blog post, but I figured this would be the ONE time I can post a ton of photos. This post will take you along on our trip overseas to the beautiful country of Scotland. We had such an amazing time!

Before I get started on our honeymoon, I wanted to post a video of our 1st dance!

The day after we got married, we stayed in a hotel near the San Francisco Airport called the Hotel Sofitel.

Cool reflection in a small lake near the hotel.

Our plane at San Francisco Airport that took us to New Jersey.

SFO after takeoff.

San Francisco is such a beautiful city from above.

Right before we got into the clouds I was able to get this really cool photo of the Bay Bridge and the surrounding San Francisco area.

After BARELY making our flight connection in New Jersey, we took another long flight to Glasgow, Scotland. Here is the line for customs at the airport.

Outside the Glasgow airport.

We finally found the rental car place and after taking a few practice laps around the lot to figure out how to drive the car on the other side of the road and the other side of the car, we headed towards our hotel. This is the Central Rail Station in downtown Glasgow.

Our hotel we stayed at is the Grand Central Hotel. It was by far the nicest hotel we stayed in on the trip.

Cool building.

This building is where the Glasgow City Council meets. We took a tour of the building the next day, so more photos from the inside later. Stay tuned! :)

Some more cool spots in Glasgow...

On our first day, we were completely tired and our body clock was all messed up so we finally checked in to our hotel around 3pm and slept from 4pm until 6:30am the next day. When we woke up, we walked around Glasgow some more.

Here is a bridge crossing the River Clyde.

Small car.

We went back to the city chambers building, but due to a scheduled protest, they had cancelled the tour for the day.

Free is good! This is the Glasgow Modern Art Gallery and it was really cool inside.

Looking up from the bottom floor.

Another bridge crossing the River Clyde.

The Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. Very cool shaped building.

Walking towards Glasgow University, we crossed this cool pedestrian bridge.

Safe to cross.

Beautiful Kelvingrove Park near the university.

Very cool quad on campus.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum as seen from campus.

Last shot of campus.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum was also free. NICE!

Gotta get a shot of a Glasgow PD sub-station.

Stopped for lunch at a cool Italian place.

Outside our hotel.

One of my co-workers is from Scotland and his sister still lives there, so we met up with Christina McNiven and her boyfriend Matt for dinner on our last night in Glasgow.

After dinner they dropped us off at a bar near our hotel called the Horse Shoe Bar. Upstairs, they had karaoke. So of course I had to drop "Bust A Move" by Young MC on them. They loved it!

The next day we went to Edinburgh, but before we left, we FINALLY got a tour of the city chambers. Very nice on the inside!

Tour guide Nicole on the left.

Outdoor small diagram of Glasgow's city centre.

Headed to Edinburgh in our cool car!

Our hotel in Edinburgh was right in the city centre.

Bagpiper street performer.

The Edinburgh Castle was closed by the time we got there, so we walked around the outside of the castle. We went back the next day to go inside.

Woke up the next morning to go on a walk to find a Starbucks.

The Scott Monument before it started pouring rain. I went to the top later in the day!

Stairwell at our hotel.

Walking to the castle we passed a red phone booth.

Watch out for the police!

Views from the Edinburgh Castle.

Aimed right at the Scott Monument.

Inside the castle there used to be a prison.

The castle is situated on "The Royal Mile" a popular street in Edinburgh.

We walked over to the Scott Monument. They gave me a certificate that I climbed up the 287 steps to the top. Fun facts about the monument: first stone laid on August 15th, 1840. Completed in 1844. Height to the top: 200 feet.

View of the Edinburgh Castle from the top of Scott Monument.

Soccer stadium.

More views.

Shadow of Scott Monument on the ground.

That hill off the the right is in Holyrood Park, where we would next.

Small staircase down.

Over in Holyrood Park, near the Scottish Parliament, is a huge hill that people can walk up. This guy takes in the view.

Right after we took the above photo, a girl yelled, "Uh excuse me... can you please help me?" To my utter shock, we looked down and a woman younger than us was climbing up the SIDE of the very STEEP side of the hill and not up the path we were walking! CRAZY!!! I helped her up and suggested that she take the safer route down the mountain.

Views from where we stopped climbing.

Thumbs up for heading down to safe ground.

Ultra-modern Scottish Parliament building. It got a lot of grief from the locals because they thought it was an eyesore to the rest of the city which is steeped in historic buildings. I can see how they would feel that way. It's a gorgeous building though.

The hill we climbed.

Can't remember the name of this palace.

Parliament chambers.

Spectator chairs.

National War Museum.

Time for a break!

View from our hotel room on our last night in Edinburgh.

On our way to St. Andrews, we crossed the Forth Road Bridge. Next to it is this awesome looking rail bridge.

Rail bridge.

An example of the roundabouts all across Scotland on the highways and the city streets. You drive in turn left and take whichever exit you need. We were headed towards Glenrothes.

Scotland is so GREEN!

So we get to the small town of St. Andrews that only has three main streets, and we come across what could possibly be the funniest street name ever!

Grabbed a bite to eat at the Victoria Cafe.

Then we headed over to the golf course called simply "The Old Course". It is basically the OLDEST course in the world, and is home to British Open every couple of years. It has a TON of history and it was such an awesome experience being able to see it. We went on Saturday and there were players on the course but we could kind of walk around and watch them play. Sunday the course was closed and no one could play and it allowed the public to go on the course and walk around. More of those pics in a bit. These are from Saturday.

18th green.

Putting green in the foreground, North Sea in the background.

1st tee box.

One really cool thing is they have a miniature golf course right next to the regular course. We didn't play but it is really cool to watch how people putt on the large hills at the course.

Some parts of the course are private.

After visiting the course, we walked over to St. Andrews University, where the famous William and Kate met several years ago. Very cool campus.

Next we went over to the ruins of the St. Andrews Cathedral.

Ruins of the St. Andrews Castle.

A really cool, spontaneous thing happened after we passed the castle. On the campus of the university, it was the last day of finals for many of the students. We came across a groundskeeper and he said that it has been a tradition of the school for 20-30 years that after the last final, the students must cross thru this quad where fellow students who have also finished their finals wait for their friends so they can throw water on them. Sounds fun, but it was raining and cold that afternoon, but it didn't deter folks from participating. They came with various sizes of containers, from water bottles to huge plastic containers to wash their friends.

This girl got water first, then a friend got her with a container of flour.

The next morning, we got up and on one side of the city it looked gloomy, and where we were at it was sunny and clear.

I told you earlier that St. Andrews was closed on Sunday. So here are some images from our walk around the course.

The famous bridge on the 18th hole.

Groundskeeper mowing the green.

Dog chasing the groundskeeper.

Deep bunker.

18th tee box.

Angry bird!

After leaving St. Andrews we took a short drive up north to a city called Dundee. When we got there we at a place called The Town.

On the eastern tip of the city, there is a castle called the Broughty Castle.

The River Tay is in Dundee as well.

The view from our hotel room. The ladies at the the Hilton Dundee hooked us up with a "Honeymoon Upgrade" (which we were lucky enough to get throughout our trip!) and they gave us a two-room suite.

The Tay Road Bridge.

View from atop a hill in Dundee.

One really cool thing about Scotland is how long it's light outside. The sun usually sets around 9:30pm, and it doesn't get completely dark until around midnight and then it starts getting light again around 4am. This photo was taken around 11pm.

About 20 minutes north of Dundee is a castle called the Glamis Castle. Along the way I stopped to take a photo of some of these guys.

The long driveway to the Glamis Castle.

On the castle grounds, they have a herd of Highland cattle.

The property where the cattle are is huge, and there is plenty of grass, but this one really wanted the grass on our side of fence.

After leaving the castle, we headed 100 miles north to Aberdeen. This day, by far, was the most windy! The entire rail system in Scotland shut down for the day because of sustained 70mph winds. We had stayed at the Hilton in Dundee, and the ladies there were nice enough to call ahead to the Hilton we were staying at in Aberdeen and the service staff was nice enough to place two towels in the shape of hearts on the bed.

Some sights in Aberdeen.

Came across the Aberdeen soccer stadium.

After leaving Aberdeen we had the longest distance to drive on the trip to the west coast. Along the way we stopped at the infamous Loch Ness. Seeing how big that thing is, I have NO idea how anyone could've spotted the Loch Ness Monster.

Along the Loch Ness, there is a castle called the Urquhart Castle.

Then we drove through some mountains to get to the Isle of Skye.

A short distance away from Isle of Skye is a castle called Eilean Donan Castle.

Rain then sun brings out some beautiful rainbows.

Isle of Skye bridge.

On the long drive back down to Glasgow, we came across this rock garden.

Ashley did an awesome job the entire trip with navigation and directions.

One of the two Glasgow soccer stadiums.

The People's Palace at the Glasgow Green.

Crosswalk bumps.

Stayed one more night at the Grand Central Hotel.

The other soccer stadium on Glasgow.

Huge police department.

The end of the trip.

Our last night we met up again with Christina and Matt and shared with them our trip.

Nice to know Scottish security let this dude through!

Good-bye Scotland! We had so much fun!

Thank you for taking the time to take a look at our photos. We had such an amazing wedding, and an awesome honeymoon. Thank you to all our family and friends for making it so special!

Ashley & Brian's Wedding Weekend

2011-05-18T09:44:00.017-06:00

WOW! What an incredible weekend Ashley and I had last weekend. Currently we are in Edinburgh, Scotland. I wanted to share some photos from our weekend in Monterey where we got married on May 14th. I apologize in advance for the amount of photos, but it is such a beautiful area, I had to post a bunch!

We flew into San Jose on Wednesday, along with all our bags and Ashley's wedding dress, which she carried on.

When we got to her mom's house, she had this really cool sign on the front door.

On Thursday Ashley and I, along with family and friends, took the train down to San Francisco to go the afternoon Giants game.

We got off the train at the end of the line, right near the ballpark.

My friend Tom and I after the train ride.

AT&T Park is one of the most beautiful ballparks in the country.

Giants' pitcher Matt Cain pitched an awesome game.

As part of the ticket package, we got a mention on the scoreboard! We are in the middle row 5th name down from the top.

More images from the game:

The Giants won a nail-biter 3-2!

McCovey Cove, just over the right field fence, where left-handed hitters can try to hit the ball into the water for a home run.

Friday morning, my brother and I, along with my two other friends John and Jeremy, went to go play golf at a really nice course in Monterey called Pacific Grove Golf Links. The drive into Monterey is so beautiful!

Ashley's Uncle John stands in front of a sign pretending that he is PGA Teacher of the Year.

Some images from the round of golf.

18th hole tee shot

While taking photos on the 18th tee, which is right by the street, someone drove by this dude and honked their horn at him, and in turn he decided to shoot them with his finger gun. Very funny!

After golf, we had to hustle to the hotel to get changed up and then head to Pasadera Country Club for the rehearsal. My thanks to Emily Lynch for snapping photos of the rehearsal! She did a great job!

My groomsmen:

Our officiant Greg Dawn talks to Ashley and I about the ceremony.

More images from the rehearsal.

After the rehearsal we went to a restaurant called Montrio Bistro in Monterey. The food was great! Ashley and I thanked everyone for coming, and I was getting nervous so I decided to treat everyone to a rendition of "Fastest Rhyme" by Young MC from back in the day. For some reason I have that dang song still memorized!

WEDDING DAY! May 14th comes and I wake up and take a look out my window of the hotel, and it's a beautiful day! Some clouds and a threat of rain later though!

The weather held up, and it was a beautiful day. Thanks again to Emily Lynch for taking some great photos!

Ashley's brother Christopher is in the Army stationed in Germany and he came and I was so glad he walked my grandma down to her seat.

My brother walks my mom down.

Ashley's step-dad Dan and her mom Melissa.

My beautiful wife-to-be Ashley being walked down the aisle with her brother Ken.

More images from the wedding.

Husband and Wife!

The reception was so awesome, we barely took any photos. Thanks so much to everyone for coming!

On Sunday, we woke up and Ashley and I took a walk down to Cannery Row.

We had to go back to Pasadera to pick a few things up. It is such a beautiful place.

After a whirlwind weekend, we needed some comfort food, badly. So where else did we go? In-N-Out, of course, and I crushed a double-double.

And that's the end of of the best weekend in our lives. Ashley and I are married now and currently on an adventure in Scotland. I can't wait to share with you all photos of our trip. Scotland is so much fun! Thanks to everyone for a great wedding weekend!

Giants Fail to Sweep Rockies

2011-04-21T07:16:00.002-06:00

Ashley took a half-day off of work on Wednesday and we both went to the series finale of the Giants and the Rockies. There's something awesome about daytime baseball. You could tell by the crowd size though that it was mid-week. Most of the upper deck was empty.

I can think of MUCH worse places to play catch than the sweet visitors bullpen, where you see Buster Posey warming up Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain.

Large fountains in center field.

Aaron Rowand crosses home plate for the Giants first run in the first inning.

Inside pitch to Aubrey Huff.

Giants starter Matt Cain had a rough outing.

Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki tried to lay down a surprise bunt in the first inning.

Reining rookie of the year Buster Posey in the on deck circle.

Tulo on deck as he watches Carlos Gonzalez step into the box.

Some more images from the ballgame.

One of the dangers of sitting so close is that a broken bat can go flying into the seats, as these guys found out.

Still not sure what exactly this is supposed to be. HAHAHA!!

Final out of the game.

We were really hoping to see Brian Wilson pitch, but the Giants got crushed so we were relegated to seeing him walk in from the bullpen.

This is our last Rockies game as an engaged couple! Only a few more weeks to go til Wedding Day!

The stadium emptied pretty quickly since the weather was pretty chilly.

Bachelor Party

2011-04-12T16:36:00.003-06:00

This past weekend I had my bachelor party back in California. First of all props to my brother Scott for setting everything up! It was such a fun weekend.

I left Thursday evening and flew in to San Jose. The Bay Area has been slammed with rain this winter/spring and it shows in the foothills around the area. They are so green!

Scott picked me up and we went to hang at his house in San Jose. Friday morning we got up and headed to San Francisco to meet my buddies for the San Francisco Giants home opener against the St. Louis Cardinals. We parked our car at the hotel and took at cab to AT&T Park.

Two of my friends, Pat and Jeremy, were already inside of the bar next to the stadium called Public House, so we stood in line waiting to get in.

After a few drinks, we headed in to the ballpark. Here's John and I as we get pumped for the game to start.

We had bleacher seats in the outfield and they were awesome. Great view of the ballpark and the action on the field. Here the U.S. flag is shown prior to the national anthem.

Giants stud closer Brian Wilson ran the World Series Champion flag out to right field prior to the game starting.

Another view from our seats.

Jeremy on the left getting pumped as the Giants look to close out the game, and Pat on the right.

From left to right: Scott, Jeremy, me, Pat, Tom and John.

The Giants won in extra innings, and most fans stayed till the end. 45,000 hit the streets after the game.

Great name for a bar: The 21st Amendment.

Group shot with the guys.

So we're walking the streets of SF and this random group of people come up to us and say they are doing an online scavenger hunt and need to perform various tasks. One was to have a member of their group do a push-up contest with someone on the street. So I volunteered to take this dude on.

Needless to say, I crushed him! Hahaha!

Tom doing the pop-a-shot at a bar in SF while Jeremy looks on.

Scott taking his turn.

After a loooooooong night, we woke up the next morning and headed down to Half Moon Bay to go play some golf. I love driving through downtown San Francisco. It is so beautiful.

I like how many streets in SF have working trolleys for people to ride for free.

Cool church in SF.

We finally get to Half Moon Bay Golf Links and get ready to tee off. John, Tom, me and Scott played. Thanks Scott for hooking us up with a discount to play!

John, who shot a 90 (which is awesome!), tees off.

John, me and Tom with the Ritz-Carlton in the background.

The Ritz-Carlton is a very swanky hotel right on the beach.

Yours truly getting ready to blast one off the tee.

How can I concentrate on playing golf with such beautiful views?

Scott and I.

Tom and John.

On the tee at #15 or 16.

So my new camera only has a two-second time delay (I think), so I propped the camera on top of the golf cart and tried to run over the group to take a phone near the 17th tee. Didn't work out too well.

So a nice lady walking by helped us out.

Such a beautiful course.

John teeing off on #17.

Tom:

Scott:

I FINALLY got a par on the 18th hole and overall, it was such a fun round of golf! This is the view just off the green on the 18th hole.

Thank you again to all my buddies for coming last weekend. I had a great time! Almost only 30 days left until our wedding! We are all so excited.

Good-bye, My Friend

2011-03-26T09:39:00.004-06:00

It is with tremendously heavy hearts that Ashley and I made the excruciating decision to put down our dog Cali yesterday. For the past several months she had been suffering from severe arthritis, and we recently found out she had cancer in her back right leg. It is never an easy decision to make, but one that Ashley and I felt was the right thing to do.

I got Cali back in the Fall of 1998, and from the beginning, she was such an awesome dog. I tried to teach her how to swim, and at first she wasn't having any of it. So I had to get in the lake myself, and finally coaxed her to come in with me. After a few seconds struggling, she finally figured out how to use all four legs. It was just one example of how we would help each other over the years.

It's funny to think back on her life. There were so many funny moments. She was there for a lot of good times, and a few bad times too. She lived with me in Arizona, California, Texas, and now Colorado. Not too many dogs are so well-traveled.

One of her favorite things to do was chase after an aerobee frisbee. I'd roll it on the ground past her and she'd run after as fast as she could to get it, bringing it back like a loyal retriever is bred to do.

Almost a year ago, we noticed that Cali was having some trouble "holding it" before we took her out on walks. She would have accidents in the apartment here and there, and at first we weren't too worried about it. We sought the advice of a good friend who is a vet, and he told us that sometimes when dogs get older, they lose the ability to control themselves in that area and it's not uncommon for older dogs to have accidents. So for a while we were patient with Cali, knowing that she didn't mean to do what she was doing, and it always seemed like she was embarrassed when it would happen.

Back in November, we took her to the vet because I noticed a rather large growth on her back right leg. The vet initially thought it was just a benign growth, but after attempting to drain it, he thought it might be something more serious. Around Thanksgiving, he called with the test results and advised that it was in fact a cancerous lump on her back leg. At that point, Ashley and I both felt that it would cause her too much stress to do any type of surgery so we decided to just monitor her and make sure she still felt good.

In February, we began to see that Cali was having more and more trouble getting up and down our stairs of our apartment, along with not really moving too comfortably around our place. She would valiantly make the effort to go on walks, but they became increasingly more painful it seemed. Add to the that the more frequent accidents she was having in the house, we returned to the vet in Aurora for advice. He told us that Cali had two things going on: 1) she still had the cancer in her back leg that at some point may spread to other parts of her body and 2) she had the severe arthritis in her back legs. He prescribed one week's worth of medication, advising that it wasn't 100% that the drugs would work, that they may just make her feel a bit more comfortable. They did not really help her overall comfort level, so Ashley and I had to have another talk.

On Wednesday, March 23rd, Ashley and I sat down to talk about Cali. It's not a conversation I wish anyone to have. It's tough to talk about putting your family pet down, because she's so much more than a pet. She's a major part of the family. All aspects of our lives revolved around Cali. And on one hand, she seemed healthy and really wanted to go on walks, but at the same time it was really painful. So we decided that on Friday, March 25th, we would send her home.

My mom recently told me "True love is letting go." And I believe that. We were releasing her from her pain and sending her to a place where she could run free, and be with her Mom and Dad, and at the same time, be able to look down on us and watch over us.

So on Friday March 25th, I took Cali to meet with Ashley for lunch at the park we always go to. Cali seemed so content. How do you explain to a dog that they are going home? I tried to tell her, but tears got in the way. We just hugged her and told her how much we loved her.

Ashley got off work at 3:00, and we took Cali down to Aurora where the vet is located, and we took her to a park for one last walk.

We gave a her a few throws of the frisbee that she loved to chase so much, and then she brought it back and just lied with it around her neck, another thing she loved to do.

The vet called and told us he was back at the office. That was the toughest drive we've ever had to make. We got caught at a red light for two cycles and we felt like it was God giving us a few more minutes with Cali. I originally didn't want to be in the room with the vet but the more I thought about it, the more I felt that it was the right thing to do. I wanted Cali to know that we loved her and we were going to be with her telling her everything was going to be okay and that it was time for her to go. The vet could not have been more supportive of us. He gave us all the time we needed to say our goodbyes and we layed on the ground with Cali as she went home. She was so peaceful and through many tears, we said goodbye.

The company that comes to take Cali to her final resting place is called Whispering Winds, and I think that is such an awesome name. I now feel like anytime the wind blows, it's Cali whispering to me that she's okay and she's watching over us.

I'm not going to lie, we miss her really bad. And I'm sure it's going to feel like that for a while. But when the time is right, I know Cali will send us towards another dog to make part of our family. But just know that Cali is always going to part of our lives.

This morning when I woke up I went out to get the paper like I always do, and I decided that I wanted to go take a walk around the complex, like I did for so many years in the mornings when I took Cali on a walk. So I grabbed her chain and spent a few moments talking to her, telling her how much I love her and how much we miss her. I hope she found time to listen to me and wasn't too busy jumping into lakes upstairs.

We love you Cali. Always.

Denver Nuggest host the Boston Celtics

2011-02-25T13:17:00.002-07:00

I recently got a new camera, a Canon 7D, primarily because the digital camera I have been using the Canon 1D Mark II, well, needed to be replaced. Especially since we are headed to Scotland for our honeymoon in May, I wanted to have a good camera to take some cool pics. I decided I wanted the first photos I took with the new camera were going to be of my trusty pooch, Cali, who is 12 1/2 years old.

Last night Ashley and I went to the Pepsi Center to watch the Nuggets take on the Celtics. It was amazing how many Boston fans there were at the game. Ash and I agreed that they must be like the Yankees and the Cowboys, who all have fans across the country.

Ash got discounted tickets from her work, and we were sitting up in the nosebleeds at the Pepsi Center.

Tip off between Boston's Glenn "Big Baby" Davis and Denver's Nene.

Nuggets' guard Ty Lawson drives between Boston's Rajon Rondo (left) and Kevin Garnett during the 1st quarter.

Denver's Nene (left) and Boston's Kevin Garnett fight for position on an in-bound pass during the 1st quarter.

Ty Lawson holds the ball with both arms as he drives to the basket around Rajon Rondo.

Denver's Al Harrington winces after going up for a rebound in the first quarter. Soon after I took this photo, a dude who worked at the Pepsi Center, who saw me from three sections away, came up to me and told me that I had to put away the lens I was using because it wasn't allowed in the arena. I was using a telephoto lens and I knew that they weren't allowed, but I snuck it in anyways. Hey I wanted to take cool pics!

So at halftime, Ash and I moved over to the opposite side of the court, sitting in the top row of the arena. Can't find me now Pepsi Center worker!

Boston's Delonte West got Denver's J.R. Smith to bite on a pump fake, and after Smith came down near West, he jumped into him and got the foul called on Smith.

Nuggets' Chris "Birdman" Andersen rips a rebound away from Boston's Kevin Garnett during the third quarter. Andersen, who had a battle with drug use early in his career but has since cleaned up and plays great ball for the Nuggets, has the most tattoos I've ever seen.

Nene and "Big Baby" got into it a little bit after Nene threw Garnett to the ground fighting under the backboard. Cooler head prevailed and no technical fouls were issued.

Denver head coach George Karl draws up a play during the final few minutes of the game during a timeout.

After being shown on Jumbotron, Ash found where Tim Tebow was sitting along the baseline. He's wearing the white hat. Must be a tough job being the guy sitting behind Tebow to protect him from crazed fans rushing up on him.

Gotta be pretty hard to shoot a three pointer with a hand in your face, as J.R. Smith found out when Boston's Ray Allen blocked his view.

This was one of the first videos I shot with the camera. I think it's so awesome that you can shoot video through still camera. this is shot with my 100mm-400mm telephoto lens at the end of the game. Denver's Kenyon Martin drains a three pointer to seal the win for the Nuggets 89-75.

Ash and I have less than three months until our wedding! We are so excited and can't wait for May.

California Christmas 2010

2010-12-27T06:08:00.006-07:00

Ashley and I made our annual trip back to California for Christmas, and we had a great time. On Wednesday morning we flew in and her mom Melissa and her step-dad Dan picked us up and we drove straight down to Pasadera Country Club in Monterey to do our food tasting for our wedding in May. The food was awesome, and we can't wait to share that day with all of our friends. Here are some teaser pics of the venue.

View from the back, where the outdoor dance floor will be located.

I really like this photo with the country club in the background.

On Christmas Eve, I took my grandma to get her haircut, and while I waited for her to be done, I drove past the old house that my brother and used to live in in Los Gatos. We lived there for almost three years. Here's a photo of the house back in December of 2006.

Soon after I moved to San Angelo, Texas, my bro moved out of the Los Gatos house and it was torn down. Here is the same plot, four years later.

This bar in downtown Los Gatos called The Black Watch is home to the hugest kamakaze I've ever seen. One, and you're done.

This year on Christmas Eve, my mom hosted all of us over at her house for dinner. At 2:30 we all met at the cemetery to say hello to my dad and do our annual balloon release. My brother Scott and his wife Vida brought their two daughters, Lola and Camila. Here's Lola saying hello to Grandpa Tim.

After the cemetery, we loaded everyone up and we went to El Camino Hospital, another tradition we've done for almost 20 years. We all bring over trays of snacks, candy, and other goodies and put one in each waiting room on every floor and at some of the nurses stations to hopefully bring some holiday cheer to everyone's day. The best part, though, at the end of every floor, we take the balled-up aluminum foil and try to make a basket in the can adjacent to the elevator. Here's Scott attempting a shot. He won overall but we all had a great time.

After the hospital we all went back to my mom's house for dinner and some presents.

Ashley with Camila.

Camila hanging out nearby while we ate dinner.

My mom holding Camila while Lola opened a present from me and Ash.

Christmas Day was a rainy one. I woke up and went over to my brother's house to hand out for a little while before I went over to Ashley's mom's house. Lola and Scott were playing together throughout the afternoon.

Here's my brother's dog Biggs crushing his Christmas present. A new rawhide bone.

Even though it was raining, we found a small window where my brother and I could take Biggs and Lola on a walk to the park. Here's Biggs bringing back a chew toy.

Lola trying to figure out the umbrella.

Me trying to get Biggs to look at the camera, but he was too locked in on the chew toy.

Lola taking her turn throwing the toy to Biggs.

Time to head home because the rain was kicking up again.

I headed over to Ashley's mom and Dan's where we had an awesome fondue dinner and present exchange. We headed back home early Sunday morning because I had to work Sunday night. We had a great time and we look forward to an awesome 2011. Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving in Michigan 2010

2010-11-29T09:05:00.003-07:00

Last week Ashley and I made our annual trip out to Michigan for Thanksgiving. Her step-mom Amy lives in Fenton along with her little brother Jake and little sister Casey. We flew from Denver to Chicago where we met up with Ash's brother Ken and his girlfriend Bobbie. From Chicago we flew to Flint, which is a lot closer to Fenton than Detroit is. Amy and the kids picked us up and we headed back to house. Early Thursday morning we woke up and began preparing for turkey dinner. I was in charge of peeling the potatoes and Ash got the green beans ready. People started trickling over around 1:30, and I was hard at work getting the world-class mashed potatoes ready.

Ashley's Uncle John with his daughter Sam, before the big feast. We don't hold it against them that they both went to Michigan State! :))

Ashley's little sister Casey makes sure the knives and forks are up to par before eating.

Ash's Aunt Mary and cousins Sam and Shannon. (More Spartans!) Sam graduated last year and this is Shannon's freshman year.

It took some rounding up, but post-meal we were able to get a group photo together.

Uncle John, Ash's step-mom Amy, and her boyfriend Mark.

Me just acting silly in what was supposed to be a girls-only photo.

It has become somewhat of a tradition post-meal to head down to the basement of Amy's house and play what we like to call "Thanksgiving Pong". It's basically beer pong but instead of using beer in the cups, we use water in order to let all ages play.

Jake felt like it would be more fun to play with someone's phone.

Water pong does have its exciting moments I must say, shown here by the dominating duo of Amy and Ash's cousin Sara.

Sam's boyfriend Ben, who is a 5th year wrestler at Michigan State, puts his gameface on to try to take down Amy and Sara.

Ash's cousin Katie (who we previously visited in Boston) and her boyfriend Nathan.

Ash, Aunt Mary, and Shannon.

Ash and I trying our hand at Thanksgiving Pong. We did not fare well.

Casey provided musical entertainment on the karaoke machine.

Ken's girlfriend Bobbie along with Jake back upstairs for some yummy dessert.

Ash's cousins get together to chat and catch up.

Ash and Jake.

Friday morning Ash, Ken, Bobbie, Casey, Jake, and I headed to the New Calvary Catholic Cemetery to visit Ash's dad and grandma.

Friday was also John's birthday so we all headed over to his house for some home-cooked grub. It was delicious!

Ken watches Casey play with some cards.

Some horsing around.

Ashley, Ken and all their cousins.

Happy Birthday John!

Saturday morning the sun popped out for a bit and the fall colors are always pretty.

Ashley, Casey, Ken, and Jake in front of Amy's house.

These are my two favorite photos of Casey. She decided to play in the leaves for a little bit.

Back at the Flint Airport, headed to Chicago, then to Denver.

"Runway 2-7, clear for takeoff."

Lake Michigan on the right, Chicago on the left.

O'Hare was very festive.

On the plane back to Denver before I tried to grab some Z's prior to having to go into work soon after we arrived.

We had such a fun time and it's always great to see Ash's family. Thanks again to Amy for letting us stay at her house and for hosting an awesome Thanksgiving dinner. Next trip is back to California for Christmas. That first day back we are going down to Pasadera Country Club to do our food tasting for our wedding. Less than 6 months to go!

Colorado Avalanche game

2010-11-18T13:47:00.003-07:00

Back in Mile High Country, Ashley and I decided to head to a Colorado Avalanche game. They played the San Jose Sharks, so to be fair, we didn't really care who won since we're both originally from the San Jose area. The Avalanche play at the same place the Denver Nuggets play, at the Pepsi Center in downtown Denver.

It kinda felt like that scene in the original Vacation movie where Clark Griswald got to Wallyworld and, not realizing that it's closed, says "First ones here...First ones here."

We normally buy the cheap seats in the upper deck but these seats for some reason were really cheap on StubHub, so we were pretty close to the action. Here are the teams warming up before the game started.

The flexibility of hockey goalies is amazing. Here is Avs' backup goalie John Grahame stretching before the game.

Opening faceoff between Avs' Matt Duchene and Sharks' Logan Couture.

Before the first minute is over, the Sharks had put one one in the back of the net.

Shooting some hockey made me remember how much I used to love shooting sports back at the San Angelo Standard-Times in San Angelo, Texas. But thankfully San Angelo didn't have a hockey team when I was there because it's almost impossible to follow the puck!

Ash and I.

Some game action shots.

Sharks' Logan Couture made great facial expressions as he drove the puck down the ice.

The Avs were down 3-1 starting the 3rd period, but scored two goals, including the tying goal with only a few minutes left in the game.

I like how when they score, all five guys on the ice skate past the the bench and get congrats from all their teammates.

Two minutes into overtime the Avs scored and their come-from-behind victory was complete.

And the crowd goes wild!

We found a nice guy after the game to take a photo of us.

Waiting at a long light to cross the street, I figured I'd put the camera on the ground and take a time-lapse photo.

We had a great time at the game, and can't wait to head to Michigan next week for Thanksgiving!

California Visit

2010-11-16T07:49:00.002-07:00

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!

Boston Trip 2010

2010-09-10T09:52:00.003-06:00

Okay before I start, I just want to fore-warn that this is going to be a long post. I'll keep the stories short and just put up the photos so you can check them out.

Ashley and I left Denver on Sunday the 5th and took a non-stop flight to Boston. I had to work the night before, so I was pretty tired once the almost 4 hour flight was done. We picked up our car, and headed to our hotel. Right out of the airport, we entered this REALLY long tunnel.

We went out to eat and then headed to our hotel in Burlington, MA, which was about 20 miles north of Boston. Ashley's cousin Katie lives near Boston, and she is currently in grad school at Emerson College. She was off on Monday and Tuesday and did and AWESOME job giving Ash and I a tour around Boston. We met Katie at her house on Monday morning and we took the the subway called the "T" to downtown.

Our first stop was a park called Public Garden.

This is one of Emerson College's buildings. It's crazy that it's right in the middle of downtown Boston.

After walking around for a bit, we headed down this brick alley to eat some lunch.

More walking and we saw some street performers. This was in front of a place called Quincy Market, where this dude was juggling his hat for a large crowd.

We then went to a popular pier where boats were dropping people off and picking people up to go on whale watching tours. Here's Ashley and Katie and Katie and I.

One thing that's really cool about downtown Boston is that there is a great mix between modern buildings nestled close to old churches, as the below photos shows.

Boston is the capital of Massachusetts, so we had to take a quick walk around the state capitol building.

The Freedom Tour is a 2 mile walking path that runs all around downtown Boston. Lots of history is on the tour, and we hit most of the famous spots.

You can't go to Boston without visiting the original "Cheers" bar, which was the inspiration for the longstanding television show.

Me and the crew.

Gotta have a cheers at Cheers.

After we left the bar, Katie had to take off so Ash and I walked around Harvard Square, which is near the famous college. Below is a beautiful park called John F. Kennedy Park.

On the campus of Harvard, folklore has it that if you rub the shoe of the statue of Harvard founder John Harvard, it will give you good luck. Looks like we weren't the first to do so.

Entrance to where the first building of Harvard was built.

On our way back to the car, we walked past a FedEx Kinkos, and this dude looks like he is LOVING his job.

Tuesday we woke up and hit downtown again before picking Katie up. Here is the Boston Garden where the Celtics and the Bruins play. To the right is an awesome looking bridge.

We picked Katie up and went downtown to grab a bite to eat. We ate and drank what the place is called, Fajitas and Ritas.

More walking, and we stopped in a park near the North End to eat some ice cream.

Paul Revere's House... $3.50 each for a tour. We were happy with just looking at the outside of the house.

One thing that I like most about Boston is the architecture of the all the buildings. Especially in the North End.

Ash and I.

Another old church near a HUGE modern building.

As many of you know, I'm kind of a library geek. Currently I hold 5 different library cards. This is the Boston Library. One of the most beautiful buildings I've seen, inside and out. Check it out.

We then proceeded to infamous Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, for their game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Of course I had to buy a Red Sox t-shirt.

Me prior to my first view of Fenway Park's field.

I always enjoy the "First" look at a stadium I've never been to. Fenway didn't disappoint.

View from the top row in dead-center field.

This is one of my favorite photos from Fenway.

One of the really cool things at the ballpark is that on the left and right field foul pole people have signed their name and date and who the Sox were playing. In left field they've even signed the foul portion of the "green monster".

This is the right field foul pole. There will be a very funny photo later in this post of a situation involving this foul pole.

The seats at Fenway are very old school. Wooden and they don't even have cup holders!

Daisuke Matsuzaka warms up prior to the start of the game. He wouldn't last long as the Red Sox got beat bad, 14-5.

It was really interesting to see that when Matsuzaka starting warming up, there was a large group of Asians who were taking photos and video of him. Baseball is very popular in Asia, and when their players come to America to play, they have a large following here as well.

Standing room only seats in the upper deck down the 3rd base line.

Tampa Bay pitcher David Price warms up prior to the start of the game. He pitched awesome and easily got the win.

The sun sets and the Rays are cruising.

View from the bridge between the seats on the Green Monster and the upper deck seats down the 3rd base line.

Upper deck view.

One really cool thing in the upper deck is they have a hallway that has EVERY Sports Illustrated cover that has featured someone on the Red Sox framed.

One of the last manually operated scoreboards in the big leagues.

Okay, now comes the funny right field foul pole story. So it's the bottom of the 6th, we're getting ready to leave, and Katie says "What the heck is that guy doing?" I look over and see a guy climbing the foul pole! Apparently he wanted to find a clean spot to sign his name, so he decided to climb up and sign with his pen. Bad idea.

It wasn't long before he climbed down and security was waiting for him to escort him out of the stadium. Hope that was worth it.

We left soon there after and as we were walking back to the "T", we came across these three dudes playing their buckets to a large crowd. They were really good!

Wednesday Katie had class and her internship, so Ash and I were on our own to explore. First stop was Boston College and we found an open gate and so we hit up their football stadium. I was just going to take a photo from the stands but I saw a guy walking on the field so I figured it'd be cool so I went down to the 50 yard line.

More buildings in downtown.

Back on the Freedom Trail is Bunker Hill Monument Park. The monument has a spiral staircase to the top, but it was under renovation so weren't able to go up.

We headed over to Harvard's football stadium and we lucked out twice. 1) we found an open gate and 2) they were having practice.

Harvard's stadium is VERY old. The pillars surrounding the field and the seats themselves are just slabs of concrete.

In addition to practice, there were several people using the stands to exercise, like this guy who was sprinting up the stands and jogging back down.

Being on the East Coast, we had to go to the beach. So we hit up Carson Beach in South Boston to hang for a little bit on our Thursday, our last day in Boston.

Being a former newspaper worker, I always like to go check out the local newspaper. Here's the HUGE Boston Globe building.

Very large printing press.

We had such an awesome time in Boston. Thanks to Katie for touring us around. Next trip scheduled is Michigan for Thanksgiving. Sorry for the long post. Hope you enjoyed!

Outdoor Adventures

2010-07-31T10:04:00.004-06:00

One of my good friends Jeff Wick, who I met while working at the San Angelo Standard-Times in West Texas, came to visit us here in Denver for a few days this past week. He went on a "Father-Daughter Trip" with his 6 1/2 year old daughter Ella, spending time in San Angelo, New Mexico, and finally up here in the Mile High City. Next trip we hope to hang out with the whole Wick clan, including his wife Chrystal and their soon-to-be 1-year-old Deacon.

On Thursday we went down to where the Denver Broncos play and tried to get out to look at the field the but person at the team shop wouldn't allow it. Bummer! So we went over to a park called Confluence Park, where we spent several hours swimming in the little rapids they had there. Here's Jeff riding down, hoping to not get beaten up by rocks underwater.

The dude above Jeff was riding the rapids ALL DAY long. It definitely wasn't his first time doing it, that's for sure!

After swimming, we needed to dry of our shorts so we walked over to a nearby REI where Ella found a "bouldering" rock. She slipped off her flip-flops and proceeded to climb up to the top, no problem!

Jeff joined shortly thereafter.

After a LONG walk to get to the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver, Ella found one of the many pianos placed along the mall where anyone who wants to come stop and play some tunes.

Friday afternoon brought us up to Boulder, where I work. We stopped off at the PD for a quick tour (where we saw a guy getting arrested in our lobby, right when we walked in!). Then we hit up Pearl Street Mall for a street performer and lunch, and then we hit up Eben G. Fine Park, where the Boulder Creek is rapidly flowing. We found a rock where it was safe to jump in the water, and Jeff took the plunge first.

After successfully landing, Jeff told Ella to put on her life vest, and to jump out as far as she could and hold her legs like a cannonball and he'd catch her after she landed in the water. Not sure if at this point she was fully convinced that this was a good idea.

But after some reassuring words from Jeff and I, she took the leap of faith....

And Jeff was there to quickly pull her out of the water, which by the way felt very very very much like melted snow. VERY COLD!

Afterwards, she was glad she did it!

So at this point, I was like "Okay, Jeff did it, his almost 7 year old daughter did it, now I guess I need to do it!" So with a good luck low five from Ella....

and a thumbs up to the camera...

I landed safely in the freezing water.

We had a great three days, and Ashley and I were sad to see them head back home, but we look forward to the whole Wick family to come back next year! (And anyone else that wants to come visit us between now and then!)

Colorado Rockies Baseball Game

2010-06-10T00:04:00.006-06:00

Ashley and I decided to go to a Colorado Rockies game today (Wednesday). They were playing the Houston Astros (who have the one of the worst records in the National League), so tickets were pretty easy to come by. I didn't work and Ash did, so I decided to walk to the light rail and meet her downtown. Here are some pics on my trip.

This is the front of our apartment complex. It's a pretty nice place.

Just to prove I walked, I took this photo of my shadow as I walked on the sidewalk to the light rail station just up the road from our apartment.

After about a 15 minute walk, I made it to the RTD Station. The trains there take me right to downtown Denver.

After purchasing my $3.50 one-way ticket, I headed up to the train station.

For a June afternoon, the temperature was pretty warm, so after taking this photo, I took shade shelter before the train came.

The light rail stop had "door" painted on the ground to let its riders know where the doors to the trains are located. Very helpful!

First one on the train.

I wish I could tell you what this structure is, but I tried to Google it and couldn't figure it out.

This huge blue bear appears to be peeking into the Denver Convention Center in downtown Denver. After researching the bear, I found it is a piece called "I See What You Mean", and it stands 40 feet tall.

After getting off the train, I only had to wait a few minutes before Ashley came to pick me up and we could go park.

I did have a quick second to take a photo two of the many very tall buildings in downtown Denver.

Being from the Bay Area back in California, Ashley and I are partial to the San Francisco Giants and AT&T Park, but Coors Field is a close second being such a beautiful ballpark with downtown as a backdrop. This is shot from the top row of what they call the "Rock Pile". These are $4 tickets and if you don't mind getting baked in the sun, it's a great spot to watch a game.

Two pre-game show dudes talking shop on FSN Rocky Mountain.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a BETTER bullpen in the big leagues. And this is the VISITOR'S bullpen. What an awesome place to warm up and watch a game. You have real trees and a huge waterfall. Really cool!

The Rockies bullpen is to the left, and has no special amenities or attractions.

One really quick funny insider story...Back when I was at Arizona State going to school, I worked for the Arizona Diamandbacks as their bat boy (Ashley called it being a bat man, because I was in my 20's when I did it). So traditionally, the youngest relief pitcher in the bullpen had to bring the coffee and the snacks (ie. gum and sunflower seeds and candy, etc) out to the bullpen every day before the game started. But the players didn't make the rookie just bring it out normally, they made him bring it out in a bright pink bag so as to embarass him. Well, 10 years after I stopped working with the D-Backs, it's good to see that the tradition still lives on in Major League Baseball. Here you can see Rockies relievers Randy Flores (from left), Matt Bellisle, and Matt Daley walking out to the bullpen before the start of the game. Notice that Daley is wearing a nice pink HELLO KITTY backpack, surely loaded with game-time snacks for him and his teammates to munch on during the game. Hope you enjoyed that little side-story....

It's very funny to me that it takes five groundscrew guys to water the infield prior to the start of the game. The reason they do that is because they don't want the hose to drag on finely manicured infield.

Everything has to be perfect in the big leagues, even the pitcher rubber on the mound is cleaned with a rag prior to the start of the game. Sometimes, if it's really dirty, they'll spray-paint it white to make it look good for TV.

Long gone are the days of using actual chalk to line the first and third base lines. Nowadays Major League Baseball teams use white paint, as seen here as the groundscrew paints the left hand batters box.

And the Rockies take the field!

The Rockies scored one run early, as Melvin Mora slid safely by Astros catcher Humberto Quintero.

After three innings we decided to get some snacks (no I didn't have to wear a pink backpack) and we moved further down the third base line in the upper deck for a different view of the game.

Rockies' Jonathan Herrera speeds around third base to score the tying run.

The "Rock Pile" was packed because they did half off tickets, so they were only 2 bucks and lots of people took advantage.

In the 7th inning, we moved down to the lower level and found some empty seats (they were not hard to find.)

The game was tied going into the bottom of the 9th inning and the Rockies were threatening and during a pitching change for the Astros, this fan got up and danced hoping the hometown team would walk a way winners.

Even the Rockies mascot "Dinger" got into the act trying to pump up the crowd.

It wasn't to be though... In the top of the 10th inning, the Astros loaded the bases. Before the first pitch was thrown to Carlos Lee, I PROMISE I said to Ashley "Watch this dude hit a grand slam." No joke, the very first pitch, he lines a homer to left field and it puts the Astros up to stay 6-2.

Lee is congratulated at home plate by the guys he just drove home.

Colorado did get one runner on in the bottom of the 10th, but they went quietly and what was remaining of the crowd headed for the exits. (Most people started leaving before Lee's homer even landed in the outfield seats in the top half of the 10th.)

A while back Ashley and I found this secret parking garage near the Pepsi Center that only charges a flat rate of $5.00 after 5:30, so we park there every time we go downtown to see an event. Shhhhh...don't tell anyone about it!

We had a great time at the ballgame, even though the home team lost. Starting Thursday, I go to my regular night shift at the Boulder PD, working from 8:00pm - 6:30am. It's only 4 days a week, which will save me 80 miles per week in gas. I'm looking forward to my trip back home next week to see my fam and to go to the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach with my brother. It should be awesome!

Memorial Day in Breckenridge, Colorado

2010-06-01T09:54:00.005-06:00

Ashley surprised me with a weekend trip Breckenridge for the long holiday weekend. I got off work at 4:30 on Saturday and we drove west. Minus a quick and intense hail storm in the Rockies, we made it to The Lodge at Breckenridge. What a beautiful view out of our room!

Down in the lower left corner of this photo you can see where we ate our continental breakfast Sunday and Monday.

Saturday night we crushed some food at the Breckenridge Brew and Pub. For a holiday weekend, there were a lot less people in town that we thought there would be.

Sunday morning after we ate breakfast we walked around downtown Breckenridge. Even though it's June, there is still a decent amount of snow in the mountains. You can still see the runs at the huge Breckenridge ski resort.

I just liked the way this small waterfall looked in the camera.

Here you can see one of the lifts up to the ski runs at Breckenridge. It's kinda funny to see when there's not any snow on the ground. I didn't realize that there are several different locations that you can get on the mountain for skiing. This resort is A LOT bigger than the ones I'm used to back in California.

Hey I'm ready to go! Now all I need is some snow and a board!

Ashley and I really do want to get get some engagement photos done, but until we find someone to shoot them for us, we just have to settle for me setting the camera on a tripod, using the 10 second timer, and sprinting to get in the photo.

Hanging out with a HUGE bronze dog outside of a store in downtown. The city itself is VERY dog friendly. Everywhere I looked people had dogs with them. It made me miss Cali but she was in good hands being watched by one of my co-workers.

Snow was still fighting the losing battle against summer temps on the peaks of the mountains surrounding Breckenridge.

Sunday night we ate a steakhouse in downtown. On the way we passed this bridge that had a steady stream running under it.

Monday morning after breakfast we got somewhat dressed up to take some more photos of ourselves. More of me setting the camera up, and then running over to get in the shot. These were shot on the balcony of our hotel.

Check out time was 11:00am so we headed back towards home. Before we left though, we stopped near this huge lake to take some more photos.

After leaving Breck, we decided that we would drive to Black Hawk, which is in the mountains on the way back home. We thought it was just going to be a small town with one tiny casino, but it turns out it's like a mini-Vegas high up in the mountains!

HUGE Ameristar Resort and Casino in the foreground.

So Ash and I went into the Golden Gates Casino with about 9 bucks in cash between us and so I put $5 down on a blackjack table and won on the 1st hand! So we cashed out (now with $10) and walked over the Ameristar Casino across the street, fresh of my hot streak, we ended up winning $16 more bucks and walked away huge winners! Here's Ash holding all her benjamins!

Overall it was such and awesome trip (even though it is REALLY hard to breathe up in the Rocky Mountains!). Ashley and I had a great time. This is going to be a busy month for the both of us. In two weeks I am going back to California to go the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach with my brother and Ash is headed to Michigan for a friend's bachelorette party. We are still planning the wedding for next year, and I'm going to meet with a photographer and DJ.

We are still encouraging our West Coast friends and family to come visit us! Maybe a photo of the beautiful mountains can convince you to come see what Colorado has to offer!

Wedding Update

2010-05-26T10:35:00.002-06:00

I know that it's been way too long since I've updated this blog...so here goes. We are knee-deep in planning our wedding for May 14, 2011! We are so excited! We chose Pasadera Country Club in Monterey, California.

Pasadera is such a beautiful site. It is a private country club in the Monterey Valley, nestled at the foothills of a beautiful mountain range.

This is a one of the two potential sites for the ceremony. This is the bag drop but it would be closed off for our ceremony. An option would be to have the ceremony in the front here and the reception in the back.

Here is another view of the front area. This is the view of what Ashley and I would see while standing for the ceremony.

This is what would be our backdrop if we chose to do the ceremony in the front of the facility.

The other option would be to have the ceremony in the back of the facility, near the golf course. We want to have the dance floor outside, so that's going to be in the middle of this photo, so the ceremony would be off to the right side of this photo, with the mountains as the backdrop.

The building on the left is where the reception dining will be, and the outdoor dance floor will be on the lawn. (weather permitting!!)

Ashley and I are both so excited for this ceremony. We just got our "Save the Date" cards in the mail today so we should be sending those out soon!

Ashley and I are headed to Breckenridge, Colorado this weekend after I get off work on Saturday evening to spend two days there. Neither of have been there before and so we are looking forward to that adventure. Hopefully I'll get some good pics so I can post them here and not update my blog only every 3 or 4 months!

The Flatirons Mountain Range

2010-02-27T21:41:00.003-07:00

Driving into Boulder 5 days a week takes me forever. Ashley and I live in South Denver, and it's about 40 miles door-to-door to my job at the Boulder Police Department. One thing that gets me through the drive is the beautiful Flatirons Mountain Range abutted against the city of Boulder. On the drive up U.S. 36, there is one final hill you go up and then as you reach the top, a scenic view of the city of Boulder emerges with the mountains as a backdrop.

Look slightly to the north, and you can see the layout of the city and it's several tall buildings as well.

Specifically, the Flatirons Mountain Range are a popular symbol of the city of Boulder. The logo for the Boulder PD is the mountain range. This photo was shot a few days after a snowstorm. I can't believe it's almost March and it's still snowing! (Supposedly people around here say that March is the snowiest month of the year.) Two weeks ago it took me 2 hours to get home from work because everyone was driving 5mph in the bad road conditions. Ashley and I can't wait to move closer to our jobs in September.

San Francisco

2010-01-25T11:09:00.004-07:00

Ashley and I made a trip back to California last weekend to check out some sites that potentially can host our wedding. While we were driving from one place to another, I inadvertently made a turn onto the Bay Bridge. So we decided to make the best of it and go on to Treasure Island, which offers spectacular views of downtown San Francisco.

Ash took this photo from the passenger side of the car.

I took this one from the driver's side.

Like I said, Treasure Island is a great place to take some photos of downtown San Francisco, but it also offers a great view of Alcatraz, the former prison off the coast of SF.

Nothing more beautiful than downtown SF and the iconic Transamerica Building.

Another shot of the Bay Bridge before we headed out to another site.

Although we got to see everything we wanted, still no winner yet for wedding site for us. Some frontrunners, but nothing solid yet. And it was POURING rain all weekend. Hope we can find someplace soon so we can set a date!

Christmas in California

2010-01-02T15:28:00.004-07:00

Since I got the job at the Boulder Police Department, and it doesn't start until January 11th, I decided to go home to California for almost two weeks. Ashley wasn't able to come out until Christmas Eve and had to leave on that Sunday. It was a rushed visit for her but we both had a great time. The day before Christmas Eve my brother wanted me to take some photos of his daughter Lola and him so he could print them out and give them as a gift. Lola is so cute! She is about 17 months old.

Since learning how to walk, it's really hard to keep her in one place, even for one photo! She wants to explore and always learn.

I can already head the conversation. Lola: Dad can I pleaaaaaaaaaaase get a blackberry???

Up Up and Away!!!

Even on Christmas Eve Eve, my brother still had to knock out a last email before the new year.

Scott says that Lola really likes airplanes, so often after work he takes her to a softball field near the San Jose Airport and watch as planes prepare to land.

Giving a ride on Uncle Brian's shoulders.

On Christmas Day Scott, Vida and Lola came over and Ashley joined us to exchange some gifts. It was fun watching Lola open up the presents that Ashley and I got for her.

Among other gifts, Lola got a Dora doll from my mom, and she was really excited to play with it.

Uncle Brian's attempt to put Lola's hair band back on her head.

Lola really enjoyed playing the keys on grandma's piano.

On Saturday after Christmas, Ashley and I went to the San Francisco Zoo with our friends Courtney and Budge from Redding, CA and their son Parker. It was a pretty cool zoo, and this bird was amazing. A very nice zoo worker talked with us for about 15 minutes about this bird that's from New Zealand I think, and even scientists aren't sure about everything relating to this bird.

Ashley and Courtney

Courtney and Budge's son Parker. He's a month older than Lola.

Coincidentally my brother and Vida wanted to take Lola to the zoo, so we met up with them halfway through.

It was so cool watching Parker and Lola interact with each other. Looks like Lola way checkin' Parker's Cheerios snack pack.

Puddle Time!

After hanging out together for about 15 minutes, Parker and Lola decided to give each other a hello kiss. So cute!

Budge is an avid photog like myself, so it's always fun to talk about different photo techniques with him. It was so good to see Court and Budge. Hope to see you guys soon!

Big black gorilla was crushing some trees for lunch.

Ashley had to leave on Sunday and I headed back on the 30th. What a great 2009. A lot of changes. We left Texas to start a new adventure, and we got engaged. On the last two days I was in CA I looked a few potential sites for our wedding. Nothing jumped out at us yet, but we are still hoping to find a place that we can do it in September or October of 2010. Hope everyone has a great new year!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-18T17:59:00.004-07:00

Ashley and I decided to head downtown Denver last night and take a look at the awesome light display on the City and County of Denver Building. Check it out!

The large pillars remind me of the Tom Green County Courthouse back in San Angelo. It looks so cool all lit up.

The stairs were constantly changing colors, and I liked these colors the best.

Even Santa had to stop and take a look at the beautiful light display.

A steady crowd of people came to check out the display. We'll definitely go check it out again next year.

I leave to go back to California for the holidays tomorrow and Ashley will be joining me on next Thursday. I did get the job offer from the Boulder Police Department and I'm really excited to start that job on January 11th.

Hope everyone has a great holiday season! See you in 2010!

Thanksgiving weekend in Michigan

2009-12-02T09:50:00.003-07:00

For as long as Ashley and I have been together, we have always gone to see part of her family in Fenton, Michigan, about 45 minutes north of Detroit. We left Denver on Wednesday morning on a nonstop flight on Frontier. Frontier Air Lines is cool because they have DirecTV on their planes, as well as cool animals on the tails of the aircraft.

Thanksgiving day was really awesome. I helped Ash's Uncle John deep-fry one of the three turkeys we had at dinner. A bunch of family and friends came over to Ash's step-mom Amy's house, who is always a great host to the annual get-together. I was too busy having a good time catching up with everyone to take any pics...next year I will!

On Friday Ashley and I took her little brother Jake and little sister Casey to this place called BounceU down in Brighton. It's a place to take kids where they can climb and bounce all over these huge air-blown bounce houses and various other things kids love. We all had a great time.

Although it was "technically" against the rules, Jake thought it would be cool to do a somersault down one of the slides....oh to be young again!

We spent a good two hours at BounceU and I'm not ashamed to say I was more wiped out than the kids were when it was time to leave.

(A little side story...we asked Jake where he wanted to go get lunch and he said "pizza". So we went to Pizza Hut near his house. We sit down and ask Jake what kind of pizza he wanted and he says, "I want chicken fingers." haha good thing we were at a Pizza Hut/Wing Street where we could get him what he wanted.)

Saturday morning Ashley, Amy, and I took the kids to a cider mill near Fenton. The kids quickly found a playground where Jake enjoyed the rope swing.

Ash helped her sister go for a ride on the rope swing as well.

At one point Jake thought it might be fun to ride on my back while I rode on the rope swing...

We always enjoy coming to see Jake and Casey when we go out to Michigan. They are such great kids.

On Sunday Ashley's Aunt Mary and step-mom Amy planned to throw her a bridal shower at Amy's house. So Ash's Uncle John and I took Jake to the Detroit Zoo for the day. On our way down, John pointed out to me a huge Ford factory that had recently shut down. He didn't think that it would ever re-open. The zoo, for a Sunday, was not very crowded at all. Jake posed near every animal he could find. He must have known that I'm a University of Texas football fan because he threw his horns up for this photo.

Cool Croc!

Even animals gotta eat! This one decided to eat some grass.

One of the coolest parts of the Detroit Zoo was the Australian Outback Adventure. Inside this gated area, there are probably 15-20 kangaroos running free, with no cages. There is a main walkway through the exhibit, and if a kangaroo comes near you you're supposed to stand still until it moves away. But all three of us though it was really cool how they got so close!

After picking up some food we made it back to the tail-end of Ash's party and I got to quickly catch up with her college friends (from left) Tiffany, Linde, and Courtney.

So after a long weekend it was time to go. We first want to thank Ashley's step-mom Amy for always opening up her home to us to allow us to stay there for the weekend. We always have a great time with her family and friends.

I have always been a huge fan of the University of Michigan football, so we always have to make a pit-stop in Ann Arbor on the way back to the airport to check out the Big House. Back in 2003 Ash and I went to the Michigan/Ohio State game where they set the record for attendance with 112,118.

Every sports fan has to go to a game at the Big House at least once in their life. It's something unforgettable to see. Construction to the Big House has been ongoing for several years and a new press box and luxury suites are two very noticeable changes you can see on either side of the field.

This is the ramp that the home and away teams take to get down to the field.

After grabbing a quick lunch in downtown Ann Arbor at Good Time Charley's, it was time to head back. Ann Arbor is such a beautiful college town. Especially when the leaves have recently changed.

We are already looking forward to our next trip to Michigan. Thanks again to everyone for such a great trip!

Dowtown Denver Library

2009-11-24T09:52:00.003-07:00

One thing I really enjoy is reading books. For Christmas in 2007 Ashley gave me a journal to write about all the books I read. It's a great way to keep track of what books I've read and how many I've read in that particular year. In 2008 I read 24 books. I have crushed that number so far this year. I've read 28 so far. My favorite authors lately have been Michael Connelly (no realtion, unfortunately), Robert Crais, and I recently stumbled upon another author I like James Patterson. Currently I'm reading a series called "The Women's Murder Club", which is a series about a woman who is a Lieutenant in the San Francisco Police Department. I think I really like this series because it takes place back near my hometown and it's really easy to follow the different locations throughout the book. So I went to the downtown library for the first time, and it was really cool. I had to park in this parking structure near the Civic Center Cultural Complex, which includes not only the library but the Denver Art Museum and the Colorado History Museum. I was very impressed with the way the Denever Art Museum was built. It looks so cool!

The odd-shaped building immediately made me think about the downtown Seattle library, which Ashley and I visited in 2004.

While walking to the library, I came across these guys washing the windows on this really tall building. Having lived in San Angelo for almost three years, where there aren't any really tall buildings, it was really cool to see these guys. Not the job for the faint-of-heart, though!

I thought the library was really cool. It's very tall and very modern looking. For a weekday, it was very crowded.

Ashley and I leave tomorrow to head to Fenton, Michigan for our annual trip there for Thanksgiving. It's always a great time because we get to see some of her family, including her little brother Jake and little sister Casey. We'll post some pics of our trip when we get back. Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

First Major Denver Snowstorm

2009-10-28T19:40:00.007-06:00

WOW! That pretty much sums today up. We woke up and saw a TON of snow on the ground. We have had about three or four previous snow days, but this time it was sticking to the ground and the streets had to be constantly plowed today.

Ashley and I had to use our new ice scrapers to clean off our cars. It wasn't too bad though because it was just snow and not ice on the windshield.

Ashley's truck filled up almost completely with snow. We tried to clean it out but by the time we got back from errands, it was pretty full again.

After we cleaned our cars, we headed out to run errands.

My car was covered by the overnight snow. It has been snowing non-stop all day long.

The City of Denver workers were busy plowing all streets around the city.

I took Cali to a nearby park to play in the snow. I came across this park bench that was covered in snow.

This is Cali's first time in the snow. She really likes to run around and chase her frisbee but she also loves to eat the snow! Someone needs to tell her that eating snow will actually make her more thirsty!

The snow continued through the evening and is supposed to continue all day Thursday.

This is the first video I've tried to upload to the blog. I know it's not awesome but at least it shows the snow all over the ground!

I had to stop and fill up some gas, and saw that the snowfall looked really cool against the street light.

So a little update on our lives: Ashley got a job with Adams County. Her first day is next Monday. She will be responsible for interviewing prospective foster parents in Adams County. It's a different job than she had in San Angelo, so she is excited for the new challenge. As for me, I had an interview at the Boulder Police Department for a Records Specialist position. The first part of the interview was basically a pre-employment interview where they just ask basic questions and then I had to take a 80 question computer multiple choice test. Then they emailed me today asking me to come back next Wednesday for an oral board interview, where I will be in front of 3 to 4 people firing questions at me. There are two positions and at least three people interviewing. The job sounds really fun. There will be a good amount of assisting officers and detectives with their investigations, something that really interests me. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things go well next week.

I do miss photography. I can definitely tell from my photos these days that I'm rusty. Part of me is sad to put a photo job in the rear-view mirror, but who knows what the future holds.

We haven't really planned too much of our wedding yet. It's hard because we really want to get married in California but we don't really have any opportunities to go try to find some places. Hopefully during the Christmas trip we are planning back home, we can find some time to pick a spot. We are hoping to have a wedding in the Fall of 2010. But it all depends on if the spot we like is available.

Another round of snow on Thursday!!!

Birthday Trip South to Colorado Springs

2009-10-17T13:58:00.004-06:00

I had my 31st birthday yesterday, and Ashley and I took a day trip down to Colorado Springs. It was a quick hour trip down. Before I left San Angelo, a former co-worker at the San Angelo Standard-Times named Paul Harris, who used to freelance at the Colorado Springs Gazette, had been telling me we had to go eat breakfast at The Omlette Parlor. So we got there and read about the history of the restaurant. Apparently it used to be someone's house way back when, and has been a restaurant for decades. It was an awesome local place to eat.

I like how it says "probably" and then it's crossed out, claiming to have THE best omlettes in the West.

It was my birthday so I had to absolutely CRUSH my breakfast...two pancakes as big as my head!

After breakfast we drove to see the building that houses the Colorado Springs Gazette. Since working at the Standard-Times, I always find it fun to see what other newspaper buildings look like. This building in Colorado Springs looks a lot bigger than the San Angelo paper. The scenery with the mountains as a backdrop is always a plus.

We decided to check out the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo after stopping by the paper. Ashley and I love going to zoos. We thought that the Denver Zoo was so cool, but after spending the day at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, we may have to re-think which zoo we like better. The zoo is built at the base of a huge mountain, so a lot of the exhibits incorporate the natural habitat of the mountain. First stop was the giraffe area. We couldn't believe how many there were and how close they got to you. for a dollar you could get three crackers to feed them.

I can't believe how long their tongues are!

Close up of a furry mouth.

Oh how we love the "hold the camera up ourselves and take the photo".

The zoo was on a huge mountain so it allowed for gorgeous vistas. This was taken on the way to see the tiger exhibit.

A family rides the air tram down to the bottom of the zoo. The changing colors of the season are clearly evident in the background.

Oftentimes when we go to a zoo it's a 50/50 chance that the animals are actually doing anything or just laying down. Luckily when we went to see the tigers, one was swimming and the other was walking around.

So cool to see the tiger playing around, at one point trying to eat a branch on tree.

Intense stare of the tiger.

Leaving the tiger exhibit we walked to the grizzly bear exhibit. There were two and they were wrestling. It was really cool because the viewing glass was right where they were playing in the water.

Another pic of the two of us taken by one of us.

A goat was standing on this steep pile of rocks.

We walked in to the hippo exhibit at the perfect time because the worker there was about to feed them. He held out a head of cabbage while the two hippos were in the water. Within 20 seconds, they smelled the food and came up into the cage. The worker gave a head of cabbage to two kids, each getting to toss it into the mouth of the two hippos. Both made it in and the hippos chomped the cabbage and the whole thing was gone in under a minute. It was so cool to see!

As you might imagine, I totally loved hanging out with the giraffes, so before we left, we made one last stop back at their exhibit. Some of them were sprinting around and it was very interesting to see how such large animals can still move quickly.

I made a new friend while in Colorado Springs. We'll probably hang out again soon.

Ashley took the camera and came up with this creative picture of the giraffe's feet.

The wildlife wasn't restricted to the inside of the zoo. Several deer were hunting for food amongst the trees in the parking lot of the zoo. Very cool to be able to get this close!

Had a great birthday trip to Colorado Springs! Looking forward to our next trip!

Man's Best Friend

2009-10-07T19:13:00.005-06:00

Cali has been my dog since about 3 months after she was born. I got her when I was a freshman at Arizona State University in 1999. She has lived with me in Arizona, California, Texas, and now Colorado. When I was first trying to think of a name, my brother suggested Cali. (Although he'll tell you that he wanted it to be Kali.)

Cali is probably the best "apartment" dog. From day one, she has always been really calm inside the small confines of apartment living. She's very content to just follow me around all day, switching from the family room to the bedroom and back.

This is a photo shot from right behind our apartment complex. It shows the John F. Kennedy Golf Course, a public 36-hole course here in Denver. I haven't played it yet, but I really want to.

So every day I take Cali out to a group of softball fields called Kennedy Ballfield. She loves to chase after her frisbee called the Aerobie.

Cali does this really funny thing whenever we go play with her frisbee. She'll chase it down, and bring it back and then flop on the ground and roll on top of it. I think it's to scratch her back, but she only does in when we play with either a ball or the frisbee. It's very funny to watch!

Being a black lab, I really enjoy seeing the gray coming in on Cali's face. Her chin has been gray for a while, but now it's starting to spread to her cheeks and near her eyes. She just turned 11 years old! But she still is very athletic and loves to play outside.

The great thing is that a dog will always let you know when they're tired. After playing for a half hour, Cali lies down on the ground and enjoys the nice grass. Back in San Angelo, where it seems like it's always over 90 degrees, there aren't very many places that have nice grass. I think Cali enjoys the grass here in Denver. I can't wait to see how she reacts to the snow. By the way, we are forecasted to get some snow anytime between tomorrow and Sunday.

Had to end it with a funny picture of Cali. 11 years, and still going strong. She's the best dog.

Engaged!

2009-10-01T10:07:00.004-06:00

Ashley and I got engaged yesterday! I took her up to the Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park, CO, which is about 75 miles north of where we live in Denver. I tried to keep it a surprise for as long as I could and all I would tell her was that we were going on a "magical adventure". Before we got in the car at our apartment, we saw this really cool insect sitting on the rear of an adjacent car. COOL!!

So we drove the hour and a half up to Estes Park, CO and were immediately amazed by the beautiful colors inside the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was mostly cloudy, but the Fall colors were in full effect.

Our first stop after entering the park was to Sprague Lake. It has a 1/2 mile trail around the lake, and when we first got there it was raining but it stopped soon after. Here's Ashley and I near the lake.

During a small gap of sunshine, there was a beautiful reflection of a nearby mountain on the lake.

Tripods are always good for not wanting to take the shot where one of us is holding the camera. You have no idea how many photos we have where I'm holding the camera up high and it looks like I have a double chin!

Then we moved on over to Bear Lake where we had lunch. A tiny little squirrel-like animal was pestering us at first but soon after we moved, we were able to enjoy a little picnic with a view.

Back on the main road, we saw a bunch of cars pulled to the side and we soon saw what all the fuss was about...a HUGE elk was grazing on nearby grass. It was amazing to see such a big animal up close!

My whole plan was to propose at the top of this mountain we were going up on Trail Ridge Road, but that was foiled when, at two miles above sea level, it started POURING snow! It was so cold outside I couldn't bring myself to make Ashley go outside while the wind was howling and the snow was pouring down.

So back down the mountain we headed and I soon found this small trail and knew this was the spot. As we were walking another herd of elk showed and and for a moment, I though I was going to have to find another spot. But they stayed far away and left us alone.

This is the view of the site I asked Ashley to marry me. I think she new something was coming but still she was very surprised when I got down on my knee.

Here's a photo of us soon after I popped the question. Oh by the way, she said YES!!!

After the proposal we went to this amazing restaurant called Flagstaff House in the mountain overlooking Boulder, Colorado. An amazing night to cap off a perfect day. The view from the restaurant was gorgeous.

So now you are up-to-date with our happenings here in Denver. We are so excited to get planning with our next phase of our lives. We are still continuing our job hunt, and we both hope something cool will come along for both of us soon!

Welcome to Colorado

2009-09-23T10:59:00.006-06:00

We are finally entering into the blogosphere! Ashley and I have gotten set up in Denver, Colorado and in our apartment finally. While we miss San Angelo and our friends there, Denver is such and awesome place. Soon after arriving I found out that the Red Rocks Amphitheatre is having a photo contest because they want to refresh the art they have for advertising purposes. They are taking entries through the end of this week so I think I'm going to head up there again to get some different shots. It's so cold here compared to San Angelo! Snow was expected overnight but it never showed up. Ashley and I are job-hunting here and we both hope we will find something soon! Friends are encouraged to come and visit us! We are still trying to tweak with the different formats of this blog so some changes may be made in the future.