Surprise Kellen! We're going to LA for your birthday!

Kellen was extremely surprised when I drove him to the airport at 5am on his birthday. He had no idea what was coming!

Except that's false. He found out the day after I booked the trip to LA that we were visiting our friend's Meghan and Aaron for the weekend.  Let it just be known that I have a horrible poker face :/.

The trip was action packed- we probably covered 1-2 weeks worth of stops in three days (2 and 1/2 really). Either way, we had a blast, and are very thankful to our wonderful host and hostess!

Venice Beach: Stop #1

Malibu Beach- had a strong urge to learn how to surf here. If only we had more time...

Excited to see each other, I guess. :)

I found the cast of Harry Potter. Kinda addicted since I read all 7 books between Jan. and the end of March,  this year!

Will Smith has pretty big feet!

Do you see the Hollywood sign in the background?

Thai food in Hollywood for Kellen's Birthday. The Ruby's neighbors joined us- but I don't have any pics :(
Free dessert #1 of the weekend. We also got free chocolate covered strawberries and champagne in the hotel room!

San Diego
About to eat the world's best burrito. Now who wouldn't smile at that thought?

We took about thirty of these and this is the closest we got to all doing something neat. Although my favorite is a tie between the one where Kellen looks like he is stuck on the toilet or the one where Aaron's feet are glued to the ground. ....They have to forgive me for posting this one instead of those two :)

3rd Free Dessert of the Weekend

Full circle back to Venice! These pictures are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we did this weekend.

Birthday Boy Celebration= Free Meals!

Kellen and I sign up for different "fan clubs" of local restaurants. As a reward they send you free meals on your birthday- or during your birthday week. We lovingly name the week free birthday meal week. I think it turned into free birthday meal month this year- we got so many! Red Robin is always a favorite though.

Beautiful night for a birthday celebration dinner!

Kellen wasn't too happy when I ate his whole burger...

Alright, I didn't, but I wanted to!

Pretty sky- I think a storm was moving in this night...

Kellen and I sign up for different "fan clubs" of local restaurants. As a reward they send you free meals on your birthday- or during your birthday week. We lovingly name the week free birthday meal week. I think it turned into free birthday meal month this year- we got so many! Red Robin is always a favorite though.

Spring Has Sprung! Yippeee!!

Kyle and Natalie are in Town!!!

One of Kellen's old roommates and groomman, Kyle, and his lovely wife, Natalie came to visit the Rocky Mountains- and us!- in March

Beautiful rock formations

Hiking buddies for the day!

Hello Bambi! The deer along the path seemed to have no fear of us.

On our way up Pike's Peak on the Cog Railway

We didnt make it to the top- too cold up here still. Too much snow in the way, stopped us from seeing the Big Horned Sheep :(

The tracks kind of disappear, the incline was very steep at a few points.

Heading back down...

Our second National Park (Rocky Mountain was first)

"Garden of the Gods"
Incase we get kicked out of our apartment, we have a new home :)

"Garden of the Gods"
Wishing I had, had my new camera here- but if you look closely you can see Pike's Peak in the background.

Amazing view...

Balanced Rock

A Little Behind... (Mike comes to visit!!)

Hello Pike's Peak!

Once upon a time in February, Michael came to visit...

We did a little snowboarding at Loveland!

Took a side trip to Red Rocks- ended up coming to the amiptheatre via a back road. Sweet new view!

Visited the U.S. Olympic training center. Michael and Kellen attended tryouts for the bobsled team. We are still waiting to see if they made the team...

Enjoyed the fine cuisine at the amazing Casa Bonita- a Colorado Original. With cliff divers, live entertainment- basically anything you could imagine, it is probably here!

Red Rocks Amphitheater

Kellen found out he had a mandatory day off- after the holidays were over....so we went hiking and made a stop at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Beautiful 45-50 degree, middle of the winter day here in Colorado. Yes, I am enjoying rubbing in how amazing the weather has been here. We have had about 5-6 inches of snow a few times, but it melts so fast (they aren't lying about that out here!). None of that yucky brown stuff lining the sides of the roads. At least not for long, anyhow. Don't worry Michigan- your winters are missed. In a weird, I wish I was still in school type of convoluted way.

Red Rocks in the distance

Pretending we belong here...

A lot of native Coloradans have a bumper sticker that says "Native" on it. Kellen found one that worked for us...

We found the sticker in Bolder, the town that has convinced me to become a hippie. Minus getting high. (Really felt like I had to put that disclaimer in there...). Bolder is really cute though, kind of like Ann Arbor in a way. Made me miss home! The afternoon in Bolder was spent after exploring the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory. We forgot our camera, so no pictures of that. It was delightful though, I drank so much free tea- and then couldn't fall asleep for days. 

My husband works hard at his job...

Yes, yes he does. Actually he was a part of the committee that brought recycling to Saint Anthony North- the "Green Team" if you will.  It is all in honor of his birthday- which happens to be Earth Day!

DU wins! We get free Qudoba!

We had a good time at the DU double header basketball games. The women's game was close, but not as close as the men's game- it was exciting down to the last second.

 Literally. 

The score was 59-57, DU winning with 4 seconds to go. We were hoping they'd win- and reach 60 points. 60 points meant: Free Qudoba.

Delicious, mouthwatering Qudoba. 

...so with 4 seconds left a DU player got fouled and BAM, two free throw shots. The first one went in and there was a mad dash to get the Qudoba tickets, because apparently there were very limited quantities. No worries though, we were inching our way out and secured our tickets.

The verdict? Amazing.

 (Can you tell I love Qudoba?)

Smiley Potato

Kellen is very proud to have found this in our bag of potatoes...

It was a pretty delicious potato too. :)