New Kitchen, New Year, Same Fun!

Another overdue update coming up. Let’s see, In October my dad and I hike the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, it’s about a 2000′ descent down to the river and really, really steep. The weather was perfect and the park was empty. Then, we spent the next two weeks remodeling the kitchen.

Prior to our hiking trip, I got things prepped and painted, took out a pantry so that we could install more cupboards and counter space. Cabinets were set to be delivered and countertop installer was on standby. All in all things worked out great. We had a few issues with some of the cabinets going missing, but they showed up just in time to finish the job.

Evie wanted a farmhouse sink which involved opening up the wall and lowering the drain. We also got a Delta touch faucet and put in an over the range exhaust hood. New cabinets, flooring, swapped out a bedroom window, can lights in the garage, new water heater, we packed a lot into just a few weeks and had a great time.

I still have to finish up the trim, but it’s quite a transformation.

After a couple week break from the kitchen I went ahead and finished the circle patio in the back yard. The last piece before we add the rock to fill things in. Evie picked out the patio furniture on Wayfair and now our backyard is nearly complete!

We spent Thanksgiving in Colorado Springs and the weather was mild. When we got back to Arizona, with the weather near perfect it was time to shift gears and start riding again. I love this time of year because of the ability to go on long exploration rides and call it base training. I found a cool geocache on one of my rides to the highest point in Scottsdale.

Christmas we spent in Antioch, the weather wasn’t too bad. We also had great luck with flights on Allegiant yet again as they started flying right into Milwaukee from Mesa which makes things super easy. After Christmas Evie’s parents and our nieces and nephews came for a visit. They had a blast riding bikes and learning about the desert. We took them to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, the model train exhibit was out of this world.

Last weekend kicked off the first race of the MBAA series and my first race of the year, McDowell Meltdown. We had a record turnout of 984 racers and a lot of horsepower in the elite fields. I jumped in the marathon race between helping run the event which makes for a long, but super fun and rewarding day. Always great to see so many familiar faces and catch up with good friends.

A few more random pictures. Until next time…


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