Two Weeks of Shenanigans

About two weeks ago, I decided to go down to Ecuador to visit Jake. Sadly, I never made it there, but I did end up a lot of other places. The only word to describe such a span of time is "shenanigans."

I went on a hike with Valeria and Lalo in California.

Pretty.

Val's house!

Lalo puppy!

I met Richard the kitty.

Dis is Richard, he's a douche.

I even made it home for Thanksgiving dinner!

Veggies! Eww....

Sister.

Pumpkin Rolls!

Gravy... sooooo good.

Papa, surveying the goods.

Pretty sure the pilgrims didn't have shrimp...

So the explanation of these next two pictures goes a little something like this.
Mom: Ronnie, I don't like that branch. Will you get rid of it for me?
Me: Which one?
Mom: That one! (Points to top of tree)
Me:... fine.
So I proceed to climb 30 feet up a tree with axe in tow to chop off some dead branches.

I look so happy.

Swinging an axe one handed while holding on to a tree is no easy task.

I then made it to Utah, Julie and I arrived at the airport at almost the exact same time! So what else to do than go and watch her water her plants.

Plant. Plant. Plant.

In all of the hustle and bustle I even found some time to go fishing with Brett and his buddy Carson. We had quite the time fishing, shooting guns, rallying Brett's new car and having an all around wild time.

Carson caught the only fish.

That's why I come out here... NATURE!

Just two dudes on a log.

Again.

A proud papa.

Lovers?

Pew! Pew! Gotcha...

Gangsta.

Suzy Lee!

Oh yeah, we also played with a puppy...

So there are a lot of things that happened on this trip that I didn't mention, but the entire time I was in the company of family or friends or puppies. I can't ask for anything more in the crazy, wonderful life.

California Looks A Lot Like Ecuador, Right?

Being the son of a pilot has it's ups and downs. All of the flights to Ecuador were full up, so early Friday morning as I stood in the Salt Lake City Airport I decided that I would persevere! I called my friend Val in California (early in the morning, she was quite surprised) and I said I was coming to her town. And bless my heart if she didn't dip out of work early to come and get me so that we could have some fun. 

I never knew that one place could have so many freeways, we drove all over the place. We went on a hike to see the sunset and walked down in the dark. We played with her pup Lalo. We went to a gourmet food truck festival (I never knew there was such a thing as gourmet truck food). Spent a good amount of time people watching at the mall. But best of all, we went on an all day wine tasting tour. A guy like me knows nothing about wine, but I learned so much about it in the first few hours and then proceeded to drink that knowledge away with new found friends. Best of all was the age difference. The youngest couple on the tour, other than us, was 32 years old. And the first friends we made were an old black couple (Phillip and Mareetza) who had grown up in Guatemala and lived in Miami, New York, and now California! It was quite the adventure and I feel fancier for learning so much about wine.

Unfortunately I left my camera cord in Denver :( so I will upload photos as soon as I get the chance!

Early Thanksgiving

I am an extremely fortunate individual, or as my father would say, "I live a cherished life." I say this because I have a wonderful aunt, cousin and now second cousin who asked me to share early Thanksgiving with them. It was quite the adventure considering my aunt Connie lives out on a ranch in the middle of nowhere Coloradie with her husband Jack. By the way, Jack makes knives as a hobby (more on that later.) But Cassidy and I were invited out to an early Thanksgiving feast and it was amazing. While the men shot guns the ladies shot guns too, but they also played with the little kids inside and enjoyed the warmth of the fireplace. During all of the frivolity, Jack and Connie whipped up an amazing dinner and we all sat down like old friends and enjoyed it.

Dinner was amazing, but while dinner was being prepared Jack showed Cassidy and I some of his home made knives that he had made out of the the disc of a plow. Amazing stuff! Best of all, he let us keep one each! After dinner was over we had quite an adventurous drive home through a snowstorm, but we made it home safe and sound.

Thanksgiving dinner! Jack's world famous garlic potatoes.

Aunt Connie, Baby Gavin and Cousin Sarah

Some very sad cows on the way home.

Knives by Jack

It's Just Common Cents...

We went to the Denver Mint today!!! You know, the place where they make coins. Unfortunately they don't allow you to take any photos inside the building or even to have your phone on so there won't be any pictures with this post. :( But alas, I shall paint a picture with my words.

It's a big building with lots of coins in it. SO MANY PENNIES!! I mean really, I did not realize how many pennies there are in the world. My favorite penny themed thing was a clear glass pillar filled with 1,786 dollars worth of pennies. They were all so shiny and new! It was pretty impressive. But at the end of the tour I asked our tour guide (Joe) what his thought were on the penny and how soon America will phase the penny out. He seemed pretty excited about this topic and spoke to us for a few minutes on it. Here is the argument according to Joe. When a penny is made it cost 2.4 cents for materials and manufacturing costs. 2.4 cents for a penny! That means for every penny that is made they are losing almost a penny and a half, it just doesn't make any sense to continue producing pennies. Canada has already phased out their penny and it seems to be working just fine so we should really think about doing it too. The real kicker is that any excess profit that the Denver Mint make in a year goes to paying off the national debt, so if they were able to stop producing pennies it would aid the country. The way I see it, it is a win win. You wouldn't have to carry around pennies and the national debt would go down. When it really comes down to it, it's just common cents.

Coors Brewery Tour!

When you have as much free time as I do, you look for fun things to do without really having to pay for them. And in Denver a great free thing to do is go to the Coors Brewery for a free tour! I had been on this tour once before, but this time I got to go at a little slower pace. Cassidy and I were able to stretch a 30 minute tour into a 3 hour meet and greet with all sorts of people. People from California to New York, we just sat ourselves down and invited a number of people over to drink free beer with us. The trend of winning continues on!

   

Can't You See He's Sensitive!

So today we had to go down to Denver to change some tires on one of Tyler's cars. So we drop the car off and have to hoof it for the next few hours until the tires have been changed. Luckily we were right next to a mall, so we make our way over and proceed to check out the scene. After a few minutes on the inside we discovered a LEGO store! Of course we go in, browse around, meet a nice young man named James who worked there and had an expansive knowledge on all things LEGO, and I did eventually purchase a little tow truck LEGO set. The rest of the mall adventure is pretty average, we got milkshakes and just went in and out of stores. After that we decided to go get the car, unfortunately the car was not ready yet so we sat down on a bench in the parking lot. Because we were waiting I wanted to build my tow truck. Now picture this. Cassidy and Tyler sitting on the bench, looking responsible and dignified just waiting for the car to be brought out. Then me, sitting crosslegged on the sidewalk, LEGO pieces strewn about me as I assemble the pieces. A car pulls up right in front of us to park, the driver closes the door and presses the lock button which causes the car to honk. I didn't see any of this happen because I was intensely focused on my LEGO set so when the car honked I freaked out and jumped. Then Cassidy yelled out, "can't you see he's sensitive!" Needless to say, hilarity ensued. For us at least, I'm not sure all the other people were really in on the joke. But even after all of that I did finish my LEGO, so today was another success!