Gage's Latest Accident

My little more accident-prone sweetheart was riding on an exercise bike next to me at physical therapy when the claw from the bike pedal came around and attacked the outside of Gage's ankle.  I definitely found myself wishing that we had a punch card when they advised me to take him to Children's Hospital, because I was just sure that we'd be about up for a free visit ;)  This particular unexpected injury--that occurred after being at my physical therapy session for exactly nine minutes, by the way--resulted in five stitches :(  It was sweet for me to watch Gavin holding Gage's hand when he was being taken care of by the doctor and nurses.  There's nothing like a good injury to bring out Gavin's compassion for his brother, but we just wish we saw it on more of a regular basis ;) 

Broomfield Symphony Concert

I recently joined the Broomfield Symphony in a kind of random fashion. Tara had attended a concert with the kids that they put on for the Boy and the Wolf.  It sounded kind of intriguing and I put out an email to see if they needed any additional trombone players.  The initial response was that they had just added a 4th trombone player but would keep my in mind based on my playing history.  I figured that was great because I needed to get my "chops" in shape anyway.  That actually only lasted about two weeks and then I got a call saying the new addition had some work conflicts and they had an opening.  It was quite the unique experience getting back to playing with a full symphony.  We practice about 2.5 hours each week and then have four to five concerns throughout the year.  The symphony is probably 35-40 strings, 20 winds, and 3-4 percussionists.  So, it is a fairly full group.  The first concert I played in only had a single piece with significant brass parts so I left the family at home, but the upcoming concert promised a much more worthy show.  The kids wished me well, anyways.   What a great experience to be able to have again in my life.

Grandma Swindler's Birthday Celebration - Part 2 of 2

After the Easter Egg hunting we adjourned to an events center to eat lunch together and celebrate Grandma Swindler's birthday.  My cousin Miranda's family prepared mountains of bbq pork and tons of other side dishes.  Towards the end of the meal we got to sing to Grandma and here she is with her birthday cake.

Here is a picture of the sisters all huddling up to plan the logistics for the next activities.  It has been many years since I have seen everyone together, but it was great to see.

We jumped over to a neighborhood park for a few minutes as lunch was winding down and Gage was happy to embrace his inner monkey on these bars.

After returning we broke into family teams to compete for the Swindler Striker's team glory.  Our color was blue and you can see most of the crew (except for my mom) in the picture.  Obviously Uncle Mike and his power beard were getting ornery in the back there.  We had a blast and actually ended up taking second place out of the five.  Apparently all those bowling lessons paid off!  Although I don't have pictures, we headed back to Norton for a great Italian dinner at this new stone oven place in town.  What a bunch of great new restaurants they have these days!  We spent the night at the hotel again and had a great breakfast at my Aunt Randa's and then had to return back home.  I hope Tara and my kids enjoyed the trip as much as I did.  It certainly brought me back to so many experienced during my childhood with big family gatherings for the major holidays.

Grandma Swindler's Birthday Celebration - Part 1 of 2

My Grandma Swindler is turning 80 years old this year, so the entire extended family descended on Oberlin and Norton, Kansas to celebrate the event.  The first afternoon that we arrived, we checked into the first real hotel in Norton, which in the end proved to be quite an enjoyable place to stay.  It was about dinner time and we headed down to meet some of the family at the only Mexican restaurant in town.  It was great to see some of my cousins and their kids and some aunts and uncles that had arrived.  The highlight of the evening was probably when they served our kids "orange juice" which turned out to be Fanta not actual juice to our great surprise.  Interestingly, our kids neglected to let us in on this fact until they had downed more than half of there glasses.  The first stop the next morning was over in Oberlin with a party at Grandma's Play Garage. She has all kinds of old trackers and cars there and the kids above were psyched to jump right on them.

It was Easter weekend so we put on an Easter Egg hunt in the garage with each kid having their own names written on the eggs.  They would only take those ones, which allowed everyone to find the same number of eggs regardless of age.  Above you can see Tara helping Gage hunt his down.

Apparently the family continues to grow quite prolifically as evidenced by the vast numbers in the next generation above.  They were listening fairly well to the instructions given to them by one of the Aunts.

Gavin and Gage are having a blast with all of the cousins and the extended family. 

This is a picture of my Grandpa Swindler.  He passed away when I was in middle school, but I still have a huge number of great memories of him and this picture captures a lot of the essence of those memories.  I used to sleep in a small room upstairs in my Grandparent's house when we stayed with them where his hunting bow and arrows were hung on the wall.  I wish my kids would have been able to know him, but at least I have many stories to share with them.