Good Ole' Unkle Dale's

For quite a while we have been hearing about "Uncle Dale" from Tara's Dad and Sandra.  Dale is married to Sandra daughter, and they happen to live just southeast of Denver out in the country on some land.  What is crazy is that we have never in all these years made it out to see them, but we finally made it happen and it was a total experience.  First off, they are incredibly hospitable and they really remind me of my Kansas relatives in so many ways.  Once we arrived, we were treated to a full tour of the place and above is Dale's garage.  It has almost every crazy machine/maintenance thing you could ever dream up.  It would probably make most mechanics cry tears of joy!

Toward the back side of the mechanics garage is the entire crazy woodworking shop.  This is a place my grandpa Swindler would have loved.  I am not quite sure how he even has time to work through all the projects that you could do in this place, but I was totally impressed!

Dale is also a gun enthusiast, which I can appreciate, and he took us out to the range to test shoot a few of his handguns.  After an entry class on gun safety, here is Gavin firing down range. 

Here is another view of working with the instructor.

Tara also got in on the action and took her turn.  She did great and we were able to learn quite a few things about handguns and what type of defensive capabilities are out there to protect yourself with.  We came back inside and shared a meal with their family and had a great time just learning about this offshoot of extended family.  Hopefully we can do it again some time!

New Turkey Try?

 

I love Thanksgiving for many reasons including all the great time with family (and the history of family celebrations at my grandma and grandpa Swindler's house when I was growing up), but also for the food.  I love the standard Thanksgiving fixings: turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, etc.  Though, I am generally a skinny guy, I think I put on some serious weight in this season.  In any case, what I am not good at is cooking a turkey.  I usually try the bag/oven method which generally does alright, but this year I wanted to try something different.  I had heard about this "Spatchcocking" method where you basically split the turkey down the middle and then lay it spread out flat on the pan.  I think it is supposed to cook more evenly this way??  It was a first attempt and generally I think it turned out well, but it was a ton of work to saw the turkey in half...so maybe this will be the last attempt at this variety!

Boulder Racing Team

 

This is the 2025 Boulder Racing Team.  I am thankful to be joining a crew of talented athletes!  Brian and Ed typically race in my age group (which seems like the old man squad by now) but several others, Nolan, Nick, and Julia are much younger and excited to be representing the team as well.  The big change this year is in the kit design with a much more prominent EK Endurance Coaching sponsorship for the team.  As always, VeloVetta also hooks us up with cutting edge aerodynamic shoes.  I look forward to training and racing with these guys!

Drivers Education for Gage

Gage is finally old enough for Driver's Education!  We find ourselves back in the same room for the same class and teacher as Gavin had when he went through it.  Top Cops does an excellent job, and it was a packed house for orientation before we left Gage to carry on alone for the three-day class.  Truth be told, it's a long three days with a lot of fairly common-sense information, but I do like the teacher who tries to make it as entertaining and real as he can.  We had to make sure once class started, the phones were put away.  Something tells me that the 6'6" former police officer wouldn't look to favorably on kids watching their phones instead of him in class...but time will tell.

School of Mines Official Visit

This is our first official college visit for Gavin!  We had a half day tour and orientation visit set up with Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.  Tara and I are somewhat familiar with the area, growing up and visiting Golden a bit, but we haven't spent that much time on the campus, so we are equally excited to see what it's all about.  We love the idea of him going to Mines with its incredible reputation and smaller feel, so we wanted it to be a great day.  We started out with some local hot spot food: The Atomic Burgers which definitely hit the spot and had an old school Boulder type feel to it.

We also took him up Lookout Mountain to one of the overlooks that lets you peer down on campus and see the whole university.  The orientation and the tour seemed to be pretty good.  They have a lot of really neat classroom and workshop areas.  They gym and dining areas seem fairly nice.  I would say that Gavin liked campus overall but wasn't totally blown away and fully sold yet.  I think the whole college thing is still just kind of new to him and he is more of a short-term planner rather than a long-term planner...which is fine as a sophmore.

Gangster Gavin?

Welp...this is what we woke up to the morning after Halloween in our house.  Apparently, Gavin dressed up as a tatted-out gangster for his outfit.  Knowing Gavin, there were probably so matching pants to this outfit but that's about it.  Part of me is terrified of what the future holds for this guy and tattoos, but part of me doesn't mind the look.  I guess I was always too skinny to rock the tattoos.  The neck tattoo might be a bridge too far though...just saying!