So we got to Mike and Rachel's house (in Castle Rock) around 1:30 am, ouch. They actually greeted us cheerfully and acted happy to see us, a seemingly great accomplishment for that hour! So fun to see their new (well to us anyway) home and surroundings. They moved to Colorado from Orange County almost two years ago now I think, and it's been a whole year since we've seen them!
The next morning we got to meet our new neice Ainsley Grace! She was born in April, so about six weeks after Kaitlyn. She is so cute and I got such a kick out of the two of them together, for some reason seeing little babies next to each other is adorable! And super neat to get to know Aubrey better. Aubrey just turned two in June. Thanks to blogging we get to see pictures of the girls, but it is so much better to see them in person!
Saturday August 4th was Kevin's 27th birthday. We spent the day catching up, then that evening Mike and Rachel treated us to Chili's for dinner.
Sunday morning Kevin, Kaitlyn and I ventured into downtown Denver to try out this church we came across online, City Presbyterian. As always happens anytime we have ever tried a church for the first time, the main pastor was out of town, but the guy speaking was good, and the people were friendly, but not in a creepy way. :) It was a lot smaller than our current church and right across from Invesco Field.
After church we went out for Ethiopian food at Abyssinia, YUM! Kevin got his usual tibbs wat, and I tried out the shiro wat. Soooooooo good. We also ordered tej, or honey wine, which was different but good. We made friends with the owner, Chuchu, who held Kaitlyn a bunch, and by the end of the meal we were showing her pictures of Yosef, Biniam and Anna, and she was showing us pictures of her two children. 
Late afternoon Mike and Rachel took us down to Colorado Springs (shoutout to Brenda) to Garden of the Gods, this area with these incredible rock formations (sorry, I realize these are not technical terms!) Rachel had packed a delicious picnic, but alas, it was stormy and rainy outside with lots of lightning and thunder (I couldn't get over how crazy these summer storms were!) So we ate our picnic inside the van, and watched a bunch of tourists racing to their cars to get out of the rain. The trip back up to their house involved some sort of crying contest between Kaitlyn and Ainsley. :)
And Monday morning we left for Highlands Ranch to go to Woody and Tanya's home for a few days (Tanya is Kevin's cousin.) We had such a great time catching up with Mike, Rachel and the girls--hopefully it won't be another whole year before we see them again!
Kevin and I with our neice Ainsley.
Sweet little Aubrey--isn't she cute??
Cousins Ainsley and Kaitlyn.
Mike and Kevin with their littlest girls.
Dueling carseats: Ainsley and Kaitlyn
8 comments:
Looks like you had a great time. Isn't Colorado pretty?! Chuck's Aunt and Uncle live in Highlands Ranch and I love to visit there. We took a very similar road trip the year after we got married. Except we hit all the National Parks along the way, then ended with Vegas, sort of a national park, I guess. LOL
We live 15 minutes from Garden of the Gods. How funny. Glad you had a great trip.
I love the dueling carseat picture. We'll have to do it again, we didn't get a picture of Mike nd I holding Kaitlyn!!!
Check out the size difference between Ainsley and Kaitlyn! :)
Looks like you had fun...but hopefully not too much fun...we don't want you leaving us now! :(
That's so cool that you found Ethiopian food while you were there! Would you mind telling us what was in the dishes you tried? They sound really interesting. I wonder if you guys have been to the "Little Ethiopia" district in Hollywood...lots of restaurant choices there!
katy, how funny that you guys have family in highlands ranch! YES, colorado was gorgeous! (and vegas can definitely count as some sort of national park! :) )
jeannett, yep, kaitlyn is, as always, large and in charge (last doc's visit she was in like the 90th percentile for height). what cracks me up is how big she looks in the arms of the ethiopian woman! (and not to worry, we didn't buy any homes while we were there. :) )
anonymous, tibbs wat is served on injera (spongy, sour flat bread), and is a stew with beef in it and flavored with berbere, an ethiopian spice. it's a little spicy. shiro wat (also served on injera) is usually (i think) chickpeas but this time it was lentils, seasoned with berbere. you eat with your hands, it is extremely flavorful and we love it. we have indeed been to "little ethiopia" down on fairfax in los angeles, it was awesome! (though the ethiopian food we had there wasn't all that great, interestingly.) maybe i'll do a post about ethiopian food sometime!
How fun you got to Colorado Springs - you packed a lot in to those few days. Garden of the Gods is beautiful, along with lots of other places along the front range!
Just wanted to say how much I love coming by your blog...when the world seems sort of sad and hard, it's nice to always stop by and see good people living good, decent, warm lives. I can always count on it to cheer me up.
You probably don't know, but where did they get the name Ainsley? It's beautiful.
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