Fun in 3D

Gage's 3-D printer has been working overtime lately as we have been trying to print more and more complex items.  This is probably the coolest thing yet we have in progress.  This is supposed to be a large geometric plant holder.

Sometimes getting these bigger pieces started is the hard part but once it gets into the main build part it tends not to have any problems.  Here it is almost finished after close to 10 hours of constant printing.

 Here is the final product in Gage's hand.  Pretty awesome printed piece!

Winter Riding

 Gavin definitely rides more with me, but occasionally Tara can convince him to go with her as well.  Here is a picture pre-ride and everyone is all smiles!  They are both looking quite legit as well in their respective team kits.  Also, anytime you can get in an outdoor road bike ride in January it is a win!

Ankle Trouble

Over the past ten, twenty, thirty years, I can't tell you how many times I have rolled my ankle in various sports and activities.  What I can say is that apparently folding laundry is the most dangerous sport of them all!  This saga started several months ago where I was up in our bedroom folding laundry and caught a bit of the carpet coming around our bed corner and completely rolled my ankle.  I knew I had hurt it, but it didn't behave as most rolled ankles had.  It never really swelled up and within a few days I was mostly back to action.  However, there was something about it that felt loose and it was very evident on my long runs that I was getting some weird pain.  A few weeks later I went in to see Dr. Ocel and he took about 15 seconds diagnosing the issue that we later confirmed with an Xray and an MRI...I had torn two of the tendons in my ankle and also took a small chunk off of the bone.  This all led to an inopportune time for a surgery to have everything repaired.

The first stage was the surgery, followed by two weeks in this above wrap and fully being non-weight bearing.  I spent almost the entire two weeks living on this couch.  I think the pain in my hips and back were far worse than the ankle pain.  It was a brutal experience.

After two weeks (to let the swelling go down), I headed back into the office to move from the soft wrap into a cast.  This was the first look I was able to get at my ankle.  They had two holes in front to clean out the join and remove the bone and a long incision up the outside of the ankle to perform the Brostrom procedure for the ligament repair.

 Here is the next stage, at least with this cast (though still non-weight bearing for two weeks with the cast) I feel a bit more sturdy and led to some better sleep as I moved back into our bed.

Gage's Birthday!

I am sure having a very early January birthday is hard with just passing Christmas, but we always try to have a great time and Celebrate our little man, Gage.  Birthday's are still looking a bit different with Covid ongoing, but we had Little Gavin and Grady over to have some birthday cake and enjoy the day.

Here is the candle shot, though we decided this year it might be best to wave them out with a folder rather than blowing them out right over the cake.  We are so thankful for Gage and his energy, personality, kindness, and genuineness.  He has truly been a blessing in our lives and we wish him the best on another year as he turns 11!

Our big present to Gage this year was a 3-d printer as seen above.

 After quite a bit of assembling and leveling/tweaking, we were finally able to print something.  Here was Gage's choice of what to make first.  Its a dog on platform.  Pretty amazing!

Breckenridge

As skiing is not quite Tara's thing, I took the boys up to Breckenridge with several of our friends and their families.  Here we are arriving at the ski area after a very early morning wake up.  What was a bit unusual, but now common during Covid, was the lack of traffic and people.  In order to ski you not only have to buy a ticket but also make a reservation so they can keep the numbers down.  While I hate the reservation idea, I did like not being surrounded by a mass of humanity while trying to come up to the ski slopes. 

 Here is a group picture on an amazing day.  We had tons of fun skiing as a group, though we did get split up a little bit here and there.  That is really to be expected with a group this large and some different abilities in the mix.  Overall, though, the kids had a great time and I look forward to the next time we can all ski together again.