Dana finished her fall teaching semester yesterday, so we are packing up now, getting ready to visit family for Christmas.
First, we're going to Denver today to see Dana's family and celebrate Christmas with them. Her Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Jerry are visiting from Minneapolis, so it will be a crowded house... which I assure you from Christmases past makes the holiday so much better.
Monday we fly out of DIA to LAX. We're spending 8 days in L.A. with my side of the family (12/21-12/29). Dana is really excited to see everyone, considering she wasn't able to join me on the business trip on October. In fact, she's been counting down the days, which I think is really sweet of her.
Dana and I opened our stockings to each other yesterday, since we could probably use some of the gifts to pack up for our trip. She gave me the Blu-Ray version of Taken. I haven't seen that movie yet, but I've been wanting to. It always seems to be delayed on Netflix. I also got some awesome gel pens and stuff for my office.
We just finished mailing our Christmas cards. I tried to mail them out to everyone who gave me their address. If you didn't get one, here is a digital copy:
It says "Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Stay warm this Christmas! Aaron and Dana DeVandry"
The photo was taken during the first snowfall of the season, which essentially is the first snow we've experienced at our new home. If you look closely, you can see snow falling. In hindsight, I'm glad I wore a big dark jacket to contrast against the snowflakes, or else people would be wondering why we're standing outside in front of a white fence with nothing going on.
Dana and I bought a Weber grill the other day at Target. Today I opened the box to assemble it and grill up some chicken, and inside the box were several Blu-Ray movies! Kill Bill 2, the Ultimate Matrix Collection boxed set, season four of Battlestar Galactica, and two copies of Goodfellas! All are brand new with the plastic wrap on them. The grill seemed to be packaged normally, not like it was previously opened. This is so weird.
I found some great airfare tickets for a roundtrip flight from Denver to LAX, so I took a week and flew "home" to visit my friends and family... and to get a little bit of work done.
Unfortunately, Dana wasn't able to accompany me, since she has a normal job (elementary school teacher) that requires her to actually be present, while my job can be done from just about anywhere, even on an airplane. "Web developer" for the win.
The plan was to fly in early Saturday morning, Oct.3, just in time for the Granada Hills Street Faire, and return on Friday, Oct. 10. Since the return flight was scheduled to arrive around noon at Denver International Airport, Dana wouldn't be available to pick me up at the airport, resulting in the need to drive and leave a car at the airport parking lot... or so it seemed. I'm not the type to pay $15/day for the cheapest parking at D.I.A. I figured out that it was cheaper for me to stay at the Airport Courtyard Marriott on Friday night, use the free Marriott shuttle service to get to the airport for my 6am flight, and leave my car in their free parking spot for the entire week. I'm so crafty at times.
The flight was a breeze, about two hours long. I learned that it takes less than 10 minutes for a plane to fly from DIA to the Continental Divide (Rocky Mountains). Seriously, I recorded it.
They served some airplane-shaped graham crackers, which they called "Plane Cookies" - of which I joked with the flight attendant that there was nothing "plain" about them. That quip earned me an extra bag of Plane Cookies. Score!
It would be an understatement for me to say that I was excited to arrive in L.A. I had been counting down the days. To make it even better, my dad was picking me up at the airport. Other than Dana, my dad is the closest person in the world to me. All my bags were carry-ons so I was able to run directly from the gate to the curb and see him there. We had a nice chat on the drive back to Granada Hills, catching up on what I've been missing since the move. I managed to avoid the giant Station wildfire, which was refreshing. It was just really cool to catch up with Dad. What a great start to the week!
We went over to the Street Faire, and I saw my mom there volunteering at the GHNNC booth as always. There was a big crowd around, but she stopped in the middle of her outreach discussion and gave me a big welcome hug. It was great. I really felt at home.
I spent several hours at the Street Faire, taking photos for the GHNNC and GHSNC websites. If you are interested, you can see the photos here or here.
That night (Sat.) I went to my best bud Steve's birthday party. His birthday was actually two weeks earlier, but I think he scheduled the party later so I could be there. That's how cool he is.
The next day I visited Grace Community Church and saw some friends and familiar faces. Turns out, Compelled is no more. Now it's a part of Crossroads and known as the 101. I wish them all the best.
That afternoon, my grandparents, uncle, and future aunt visited. We watched some baseball playoff games on TV and caught up over dinner. I really missed them and it was a treat to see them all.
Later that night, I went over to Steve's house and played multiple games of Cities and Knights of Catan. Though I can not verify this, rest assured I destroyed Stevo in every game we played that night.
Here's Stevo, right before getting annhilated in Catan :-)
I spent Monday working with my dad at the shop, doing some basic maintenance on the server and workstations there. Boring updates, cleaning out viruses, the usual.
Tuesday was one of those days that could best be described as perfect. I had lunch with my parents at the new Bob's Big Boy in Northridge (the Big Boy combo is just as good as it was when I was young and Bob's was a common family outing.)
That night, I went to the Universal Amphitheater to see PEARL JAM! My favorite band throughout my teen years, and I finally had the opportunity to see them live. They were incredible! Ben Harper opened for them, and now I know why so many people have been raving about him to me lately. If you want to see one of the most gifted young guitarists around today, catch a Ben Harper concert. It will blow you away. Pearl Jam followed his act up with a set of at least 30 songs. I kept waiting for them to play Alive, when the final song of their encore, Chris Cornell and Jerry Cantrell walk out on the stage (Temple of the Dog re-united) and they jammed to Alive. I recorded it, but the mic on the iPhone wasn't built to handle that much awesomeness. So try to ignore the buzzing if you can. Check out Eddie Vedder running and jumping off the monitor at the end.
Here's someone else's video of the same song in case you are interested.
I rested a little on Wednesday, stayed home with family that night. That's it. Nothing else to say about Wednesday.
Thursday I worked again at the shop. Dana sent me a text message with a photo of SNOW at our home in the Springs! It's gonna be a long winter this year.
That night my parents took me to Staples Center for a Kings game! (Best parents ever!) The Kings stomped all over the Minnesota Wild, continuing my streak to 9 straight wins when I am there.
The next day, Dad and I stopped for lunch at Tito's Tacos on our way to LAX. Mmmmm.
It was a bittersweet farewell. I was excited to get back home to Dana, but I really wanted to stay longer with my family. And wouldn't you know it? My Southwest flight was delayed several hours. They even had to bring a plane from Burbank to LAX for us. I really COULD have spent more time with family.
We are quickly learning that Colorado Springs is anything but boring. This past weekend, Labor Day weekend, is proof of that.
The short version: Saturday we went to the Colorado State Fair, in Pueblo (about a half hour south of the Springs), to see the Demolition Derby. Sunday we went to the park to see the hot air balloon show, and Monday we watched the balloons fly away, then played Mexican Train dominoes with friends Aaron and Emily Otten to close out the holiday weekend.
Who knew that a State Fair would have... pole vaulting? Or even better, pole vaulting from a guy in a Tarzan costume? These guys and gals were really good.
False advertising. There was no Great White shark here. Just plastic ones.
Dana's a trooper for hopping in the cage for this photo op.
In case you were wondering where the bacon was from:
... or a T-Bone steak.
Could you imagine California encouraging kids to use guns? lol
I wanted to try this bow & arrow exhibit out, but the line was incredibly long.
This was the biggest rooster I have ever seen. It won first prize overall at the Fair... and it was for sale. That's gotta be frustrating.
If you thought the prize winning bird for sale was surprising, this will blow you away. A Raiders memorabilia tent in Broncos country. I was shocked that it wasn't engulfed in flames.
Check out the sign next to the fountain. Haha. Welcome to Colorado.
You'd think these people had never seen California sea lions before. Either that or we were spoiled seeing them often in California.
This was a pretty good band. We had a picnic on the lawn here before the big Demolition Derby began.
In our seats. Back row. Better than nothing. We moved up later on in the evening to the front.
I snapped a photo of the Midway behind us.
And here we go. This was the very beginning of heat #1.
They had two giant forklifts to remove the cars. In hindsight, they should have had more than two, because it took a long time to remove the disabled cars between each heat.
Heat #3. The last 3 or 4 cars from each heat moved on to the finale, where it was winner take all.
This car got flipped on it's side by a nasty hit. The driver pushed it back onto the tires, and the crowd cheered to let him continue racing. The crowd won of course.
The start of the mini battle. The car that won had a tail and a snout, and was painted like Scooby-Doo. It reminded me more of the Shaggin Wagon.
My favorite part of the night: the TRUCKS! There were three Suburbans in this battle, and they had a distinct advantage. Not sure how fair that was for the other trucks.
The finale! My favorite car (red station wagon #68) got 2nd place and lost to a yellow station wagon (#45) who wasn't hitting anyone until the end. Weak.
We had this custom sign made at the Fair. The sign is going on our guest room door. I miss my grandparents a lot. Hoping they can visit us sooner than later. (Funny note about this sign: When we went to pick it up originally, it said "Grandma & Grandma's Room" -- Good thing I caught that. It was subtle, but horrifying. They fixed it, thankfully.
Saturday night we went to Memorial Park, near Downtown Colorado Springs. This weekend was the annual Colorado Balloon Classic, and every night of the event, the balloons are inflated and glow bright in the dark (weather permitting).
Unfortunately, "weather permitting" caused the cancellation of the Balloon Glo® show that night since there was lightning in the area.
Kelly and Tyler climbed inside a human hamster wheel and rolled it around for a while.
The next morning (Monday) we got up early and headed out to Memorial Park again, and saw this on the drive over:
Some of the balloons were already up in the air, tethered, and ready to float away.
These were spread out all over town, even in shopping centers.
This was about 7:30am. The moon is still out, and you can see Pike's Peak in the background on the right.
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