Grandpa Jo - In Loving Memory

I just got back from California where I attended my Grandpa Jo's funeral. For those of you that knew my Grandpa Jo, you know that he was pretty much the perfect grandpa. When I was young and we still lived in California, we would go to Grandma and Grandpa's pretty much every week for Sunday dinner. When we moved away, we could come back every summer and spend time sitting in in the big lazy-boy chairs or out in the back yard playing under the orange tree. In college, I brought friends for road trips to Disneyland or to join our Thanksgiving dinner. We all learned to play Dominos from the very best. I loved my Grandpa Jo and knew he was always the most happy when he was surrounded by family and especially his grandkids. The week in California was bittersweet. Both my parents were able to come and spend the week and all my aunts and uncles and most of my cousins were able to come from all over the country and world. It was great to be with all the family and Aida loves being around her own grandma and grandpa but it was sad it couldn't be for a happier reason.

We were able to spend the majority of our time sitting around my grandparent's living room telling stories about my grandpa and looking at old pictures. The funeral was a wonderful service full of stories, tears and laughter and remembering the amazing person that everybody knew as Grandpa Jo.

My mom with her favorite grandkids.

Cousins

Eating Watermelon

My dad with his favorite granddaughter.

Watching the Disneyland fireworks, Aida was a little nervous.

Week in Vail

We spent the last week in Vail, Colorado with family. My parents are part of the Marriott Vacation Club and traded one of their weeks for a week at a condo in Vail. It was gorgeous up in the mountains with all of the Aspens changing colors.

Zack's mom flew in for the first part of the week and Zack took a few days off work to come up to the mountains. The rest of the week was just Aida, me and my dad.

We spent the week hiking, swimming, taking walks, and watching videos. Nothing too exciting but very relaxing and fun. But on the second to last night there we had a little excitement when Aida fell off the couch and hit her cheekbone right on the corner of the coffee table. It immediately turned into a big bump and bruise and the next day turned into the biggest black eye. We keep her sunglasses on when we took her out in public after that. :)

As you can see, it didn't seem to be bothering her very much...
The last day we were there, my dad and I took Aida on a hike to a lake above Vail. While we were there, a huge storm rolled in and the sky turned dark and clouds obscured the mountains all within about 10 minutes. We made it back to our car before the rain started and were able to get some good pictures while the sun was still out.


It was a really fun week and Aida loved all the attention from her Grandpa, Ama (my mom), and Abu (Zack's mom).