Fishing at the Midway Pond...

I have a former student, Micah, who is quite the young fisherman.  The thought occurred to me at some point last year that, perhaps, he would get a kick out of taking my boys fishing over the summer.  Gavin's first fishing pole wasn't gonna get the job done, so we picked up a new one at Walmart and the power bait that Micah recommended.  He touted having caught some outlandish number of fish there on more than one occasion...

...but, unfortunately, that was not the case the day we met Micah there.  We didn't end up having that much time, though, because a storm was coming in quickly.

My boys will surely remember the experience of meeting Micah at the pond near our house with great fondness, regardless of the fact that we caught nothing that day.  In the picture above, Micah was tending to Gavin's small wound, and he was so excited that he had everything he needed to be the perfect medic on the case.  Micah, you're a great kid, and you restore my faith in teenagers, in general!  Thank you for being so awesome with my boys. 

Garage Project

Reworking the garage has long been on my weekend project list, but I have never quite had time.  This is the after picture when I got done, though ultimately it took two weekends rather than one.  I mounted the shoe cubes up off the floor, added two shelves for storage above the workbench, added some more bike hooks, added some peg board on the wall over the workbench to hang more tools, and finally inset the four by fours above six to eight inches under the workbench so the car wouldn't be in danger of hitting them.  This also allowed us to pull the bikes over to this side of the garage from the side where Tara parks her car in, and it opened up that area quite a bit.  Over all, quite happy with how it all turned out. (Great work, Babe!  I know this after picture represents hours and lots of hard work, and we're reaping the benefits of your organization every day now.)

Pool Day Down South

We met up at a pool near Aunt Jackie's house to enjoy a hot day together at the pool.  This turned out to be a good choice as the temperature was nearly 100 degrees outside.  We retreated to some shade for a pot-luck lunch.  Here's a picture of the men all together.

Gage still isn't quite swimming as well as we would like, so we threw him this large red noodle.  He does well with it when his brother isn't trying to steal it from him in the center of the pool.

This was probably the first pool that Gavin has been to with a fairly legit diving board.  He was loving it and tried his hand at dives, cannon balls,  and whatever may be going on in the picture above.

Tara couldn't be shown up and decided to make her professional diving form (or so she says) known to the public.  We also had quite a bit of fun on this slide but I didn't have any pictures to share.  The most surprising thing about this pool was how wide open it was.  One would think that on a day this hot, this place would be packed, but it was very comfortable and we had a great time.  We might have to make the trek back some day.  Thanks for the invitation, Aunt Jackie!

Brainard Lake Hike - Part 2 of 2

After about an hour and a half to two hours, we found a nice boulder field where we stopped to eat lunch.  There was quite a bit of snow there, as well, but we found some dry patches.  Here is Gavin and Tara enjoying the rays a bit.  We decided that this was a good half-way point and we might as well turn around.

We promised to let them get into the lake a bit on the way back if they were still interested.  There was this large rock that people were laying on, so they headed on out.  They water was icy cold so they weren't too motivated to come back once they got out there.

One final picture to capture the view and the area.  It is truly a beautiful place that we are able to call home.  It certainly makes for a great trip in the middle of summer when you are smoking hot down in the flat land.

Brainard Lake Hike - Part 1 of 2

We have said this many times before, but the kids are always at their best when we get them outside and doing some kind of activity, so what better than a nice Brainard Lake hike when the temperatures start to get a bit crazy in Broomfield.  The drive is a bit long but was made more entertaining by the sight of these two moose that were hanging out in a lake along the Peak to Peak highway above Nederland.  I think this was the first time the kids have seen any moose in the wild.

This picture is just off the main parking lot at Brainard Lake, though one of us didn't get the memo about not being too goofy.  It's quite beautiful up there and the route we wanted to take was to head up the mountain just to the right of Tara in the picture: Mount Meeker. 

After a lengthy hike to the trail head (because apparently they still had the back parking lots all blocked off), we finally were off on the Meeker trail.  They kids were eager, as always, to run up ahead and find any sort of bug, animal, stick...whatever..

There was still quite a bit of snow on the trail, as you can see from this picture.  In this large rock outcropping we saw some sort of big marmot/beaver looking thing.  It was probably the size of a large cat or small dog.  The kids chased after it but I don't think the furry thing was in any danger of being caught.

Wheat Ridge @38 Criterium

I had a fairly rough start to the racing season this year, but I have loved this criterium in Wheat Ridge.  They put on a huge event that has lots food trucks, fun activities for the kids, and a wide open and challenging course that turned out to be the State Championship race this year.  Two years ago I was able to get on the podium for a 3rd place in the 35+ Senior Men 3 race, so previously I have had good luck here.  Above, Tara got this picture of the Senior Men 3 (SM3) field cruising by the finishing straight.  It's a bit hard to pick me out but I am about eight or nine riders from the front on the side closest to the camera.

Here is Gavin passing some time with some skillful hula-hooping action.

They never miss the face painting tent, although this year the choice in painting was a bit questionable.  I guess it did work with Gage's "missing teeth" theme for the snake mouth.  He was surely happy with his choice!

Gavin had a much more tame dragon on his arm, however you can see that with a white collared shirt this was quickly going to become some sort of disaster.  While we don't have any more pictures of the race, it ended well for me.  I placed 12th out of about 55 people in the race and ended the race while retaining all of my skin, which is always a win.

Austin Family Vacation - Day 6

One of the last things that we had to take care of on this Austin trip was a bike race!  We decided to haul all four bikes on the trip with our new hitch for the minivan.  This let me (Brent) keep some sanity and get out for a few rides and also this race that I had found on a Thursday night called the Driveway Series.  Here is Zach (with Lorna and Rylan) in amazement that all these guys show up in lycra and ride around in a circle in his own city.

This turned out to be a fairly rough race as it was smoking hot (~90+ degrees) and super windy!  It was a combined 3-4 race and there were about 60 guys that showed up.  I wasn't sure how this race series was going to go so I ended up a bit in the back at the starting line which was a huge mistake.  With this much wind, when they blew the whistle to start, the front row just took off full throttle.  I had anticipated that this was likely but was hoping it wouldn't be like that.

We were quickly all single file and red lined almost immediately with people just peeling off left and right.  This meant that every gap that formed had to be closed, which into the wind is a very difficult task.  After about 10 minutes, a group of about 12-14 guys got a gap and I was in a second chase group of about 8-10 guys.  The front group put a little bit of time into us, but essentially we held even with them but could never close the gap with the wind.  Here we are coming through for one of the laps with the chase group.  After a while they pulled our group which I was a bit bummed about but I almost set a 5 and 10 minute all time power record in trying to hang on!

In the end, I think I was 20th out of 60 which made me feel much better, but I didn't see the results until we had returned home.  Here is Gavin and I after the race.  Great course and what a fun time in Austin for some tough racing!

I was beat, so we headed over to a must-eat Italian restaurant in Austin (Mandolas) that promised to provide some amazing food.  It didn't disappoint, and we sat out on the patio and had a great time!  This was, unfortunately, our last day and we would have to get up the next morning to start the 13 hour return journey.  We are so thankful that we could finally make this trip happen, and we really had an amazing time.  Huge thanks to Zach and Lorna for lending us their guest house and providing good food and company all week! 

Austin Family Vacation - Day 5, Part 3 of 3

As the afternoon heat kicked in, we mooched our way over to a neighbor's pool that was amazing!  This thing was a $75,000 custom pool that had its own slide and this beautiful stone work all around it.  Here is Gavin hitting the water at the bottom of the slide.

Gage was active in the pool as long as he had a water noodle under his wings.  Unfortunately, Gavin kept thinking it was funny to try to steal his water noodle, not really caring that this was really the only way Gage could keep above water.  The poor guy still needs some more swimming lessons until he can really be free of the pool noodles.

Tara and Lora Beth got in for the cool action as well!

After returning from the pool we got to meet Lora Beth's parents that also live on the same property.  This picture was taken from the back of their house of their two kids (Sol y Luna) and ours.  Lora Beth assured us that they were not intentionally named after the solar system!  Much like we did not intentionally name both of our kids G-somethings.  We get it...

Austin Family Vacation - Day 5, Part 2 of 3

This guy wasn't going to be laying on any eggs like the other turkey, as his job was to show us that he was the boss of the farm.  He was actually quite aggressive and chased us around a bit despite my threats to cook him up for an early Thanksgiving meal.  I had the kids keep a good distance because it was hard to tell if he was putting on a show for the ladies or if he meant business.

Here are the ladies on the Wespa (otherwise known as a Vespa, unless you're Sid, right Zach?).  It was pretty classic, and these guys even road it into town to a pizza joint where we had lunch.  The funniest part was that Tara and I had assumed this place was just around the corner, but it ended up being like 15 minutes down a highway and through the middle of town.  I am not sure it seemed quite the safest mode of transportation out on the real road.

Once we got back, the kids were begging for a ride of their own.  Lora Beth was gracious to take them for an out and back trip to the main road next to their property.  They were loving it!

Gage definitely did not enjoy this (just kidding!) as you can see his no-hands cheer as he went by.

Tara here, and one of my favorite memories of this trip was when LB took me into town to delight in an iced creme brulle latte!  One of the many things we enjoy together is fine dining.  Funny how most of my best friends also enjoy good food and drink, and as with most things, it's even better when we enjoy it together!  The boys didn't protest to our departure, as Javier (who is a sheriff) broke out the swat gear for them to try on.  He walked them through his whole sheriff's SUV and showed them all the lights and sirens and where the criminals sit.  It turned out to be a nice teachable moment as we discussed that they didn't want to end up in the back of his car for the wrong reasons!

Austin Family Vacation - Day 5, Part 1 of 3

On the fifth day of our trip, we took a short road trip to Boerne (about an hour and a half from Austin) to visit Tara's good friends, Lora Beth and Javier Escalante.  They live a bit out of town on a small farm which was a major highlight for the kids.  Gavin was informed it was difficult to catch the chickens that were free ranging it, which he immediately took on as a challenge.  It didn't take long and he ended up with this fairly large white chicken.

Javier, being an extremely patient, fun, and hilarious person, informed the kids that he was a "Chicken Whisperer" and could put the chicken to sleep by speaking into its ears.  He quickly performed his magic and layed the chicken on its back and it stayed there and didn't move until he snapped his fingers.  I am not sure the kids knew what to do with it, but they were amazed!

The amazement quickly subsided as there were too many wild adventures to be had on their property.  Next up was to see if they could climb this huge tree.  We had to quickly call Gavin back down as he was certainly up higher than we felt comfortable with.

As we walked around the property we found these wild turkey eggs.  The mother wasn't too far away and when we came back later, she had nestled right on top of them to keep them warm and protected from crazy kids.

Another cool thing was the half dozen cows they had wandering their property.  This guy had some pretty strong-looking horns, so we kept a safe distance.

Austin Family Vacation - Day 4

That's a picture of downtown Austin taken from Zilker Park.  It's a huge, beautiful park in the center of Austin.  We had originally planned to partake in some fun water sports on the river while Zach and Lorna were working, but seeing as though it was at flood stage due to several weeks of heavy rain preceding our trip, everything on the water was shut down. 

So we explored this giant park instead.  The boys have never met a rock they didn't want to climb. 

Additionally, there was no shortage of dogs at the park, and the boys have also never met a dog they didn't want to pet and imagine owning, themselves.

At the center of the park was an outcropping of rocks that were especially fun for the boys to climb on and explore...

...and Brent got a special kick out of me crawling along the narrow ledge from one side to the other trying to meet the boys that had already traversed this safe spot.

Once I finally arrived, Brent also got a kick out of my high hat and attempt at nice posture in a rock crevice with Gavin.  After we pulled everyone off of this rock area, we continued down a bike path that bordered the park that ultimately ended up under this huge bridge where we could walk over the flooding river.  We sure had a good time exploring Zilker Park that day, but were happy to get back to the car as it was starting to get toasty and pretty humid in the midday sun.

Austin Family Vacation - Day 3

We happened to be visiting during the week that Rylan and Camille were at VBS in the mornings, but it worked out so well for us.  Zach was at work, Lorna could work while her kids were at camp, and we had some of our own adventures.  Zach and Lorna recommended this amazing pizza place near their house, and we actually endured the heat and walked the 15 minutes from their house.   

We chose a hotel with a pool for the first two nights when we couldn't be at Zach and Lorna's guest house yet (it was occupied), and it was really fun to play with the kids in the pool and not have to adhere to any strict agenda.  The rooms, however, were not as awesome as the pool and had a bit of funk smell to them combined with some random damage to fixtures and stuff in the bathroom.  I guess you get what you pay for!

Brent doesn't enjoy swimming pools very much, but I give him credit for being a supportive daddy and good photographer in the shade.  We had fun and Gage threw up some classic rabbit ears on mom!

Austin Family Vacation - Day 2, Part 2 of 2

A fun and famous place just out of town from Austin is the Salt Lick.  It's a great BBQ place with live music and a great atmosphere.  We headed there to check it out for dinner on Sunday night and although there were tons of people, this place seems to be built to shuffle through an absolute mass of people.

I like this picture of Gage.  He's sipping on a fresh-squeezed lemonade that we splurged on there and in the background is a guy that was playing some fairly good Country music.  The fun part of this place for adults is that it's a BYOA (bring your own alcohol) kind of venue, and Lorna makes a mean cocktail. 

While we waited for a table, a fun place for the kids was this outdoor park area right off of the restaurant building: the Kids' Ranch.  We played there both before, and again, after we ate. 

The Salt Lick is well-known for its huge open grill, where they cook up the choice meat we dined on, like the yummy brisket.  About a week after we got home from this trip, Brent was flipping through the TV channels and saw a special on the Salt Lick and footage around this same grill!  Gavin got a kick out of watching the chefs apply more BBQ sauce to the meat with what looked like a big mop.  This place evidently serves more than a million pounds of meat every year!