Last Summer we also were lucky enough to have a visit from our two good friends Joe Shurtleff and Ryan Novak. They stopped by on their way to southern California for a concert. It was a lot of fun and we were really happy to spend a little time with them. While they were here we made a trip to Google so they could see what Google's all about. During our visit to Google Ryan coined the phrase "Google is like Willy Wonka for engineers." After spending the last two summers here I've learn that there is so much truth to that statement. Google really does try and go out of their way to make sure their employees are happy.

Stan the T-Rex dinosaur skeleton statue at Google silhouetted against bright sky and leafy trees, with a garden bed of purple flowers in the foreground
Stan the Google Dinosaur... Just trying to mix things up!

Google offers a lot of really great benefits for their employees so it was pretty fun to show them off to Ryan and Joe. Something that I thought was absolutely silly was they have bikes painted with the Google colors for the employees to ride when they need to go to a different building. Just kinda a silly thing to see and sounds a little ridiculous I'm sure but Google in Mountain View is a huge facility and covers a lot of land so they definitely some in handy.

Joe smiling while lounging in a large green egg-shaped pod chair inside a Google building, feet propped up, with a colorful geometric-patterned ottoman in front

Ryan riding a yellow, blue, and red Google bike on a path in front of the Android building (Building 16125), which features a large arched Android logo window
Jon crushed Ryan's hopes and dreams once he told him he wasn't allowed to Ride the Google bikes...

Jon and Danielle standing on either side of the giant green Android robot statue on the Google campus lawn, each holding one of its hands, with a large Nexus One phone sculpture beside it

Danielle peeking through the center hole of the giant Android Donut sculpture, photographed from above, surrounded by colorful candy-shaped sprinkles in red, yellow, green, and blue
What...?

Jon and Danielle people seated on either side of the giant Android Gingerbread Man statue on the Google campus lawn, leaning against its feet

Danielle lying on a giant honeycomb sculpture being "attacked" by a large bee statue, arms raised in mock alarm, with a small green Android figurine in the lower left corner
Android and I were being attacked by the bee!

Danielle smiling from inside a giant honeycomb cell with the large bee sculpture looming in her face, and a small green Android figurine in the lower left corner

Jon smiling while peeking out from inside a giant honeycomb cell, with the large bee sculpture above him and a small green Android figurine beside him

After we were done at Google we went back to the hotel while Jon finished up his work day. When Jon got home we went out to dinner and continued the catching up. Joe is probably Jon and I's best friend and he's always been someone that we spend a lot of time with when we're back in Utah. So you can imagine we had a lot to catch up after not seeing him for 2 months. We stayed up until the wee hours of the night just having a good time and sharing stories.