Seahawks going to Super Bowl XLVIII

Back at the beginning of this football season I picked Seattle to face Denver in the Super Bowl, and today that prediction came true. The Broncos destroyed the Patriots in the AFC Championship this afternoon; it wasn’t even fun to watch. The Seahawks, however, made it very interesting. They fumbled on the first play of the game and immediately I was concerned. The first half went very poorly but they came out a different team in the 3rd quarter and were able to beat the 49ers 23 – 17. As usual it was the defense that did it for us, and now we’re taking our number 1 defense to face Denver’s number 1 offense in the Super Bowl!

Last night Jessica and I attended the Amazon Holiday Party, which was held at the Century Link Stadium Events Center. This was our second Amazon party and it has become apparent that they do not disappoint. The entire building was decorated in a variety of different Winter themes. Roller skating ice queens, Jack Frost, marshmallow shooting, delivery drones, tons of food and drink, and a performance by Vampire Weekend were amongst the highlights of the evening. Amazon definitely knows how to treat their employees so these events will always be something to look forward to.

Things have been going well at work lately. I recently found out that one of the ideas I submitted to our Intellectual Property attorney team has been approved, meaning that Amazon is going to file a patent on it. Submitting IP ideas is a major focus of my team and last year we had the second most submissions of any design team in Amazon, including the highest per team member ratio. I’ve had several ideas turned down already so I was excited to find out that one of them has been approved. Eventually I’ll be getting a little puzzle piece trophy to signify that a patent has been applied for. Our room is soon going to be filled with these puzzle pieces due to all the ideas my team has been submitting, so it feels good to be contributing and thinking outside the box.

I haven’t had a chance to write a post in the past couple weeks because I’ve been so busy with school. I’m taking an advanced Java class and its turning out to be the toughest class I’ve taken yet. I’ve been putting in some serious hours on my course project lately and haven’t had much time for anything else. Luckily today I was able to finish everything right before the Seahawks game started and got to relax throughout the game. Jessica volunteered to work tonight because they knew they would be busy due to the football game, so I’m just hanging out with the girls. Probably going to start a movie soon and get ready for another week.

Not much else going on around here. The girls are doing great and growing fast. Elise is getting so big and Ava’s vocabulary continues to amaze me. She’s such a little comedian that it can be hard to scold her for doing the wrong thing. She’s definitely a piece of work; I’m sure Elise will be the same way in no time. Go Hawks!!!

Elise is 6 months

Today is Elise’s half birthday. We took our standard, numbered, monthly photo to mark the occasion. She is changing everyday. She is an extremely happy, healthy and big baby girl (she has almost outgrown 9 month clothes already). She’s sitting up and rolling around, eating lots of new foods, working on her first tooth, and in a new state of awe with her hands, feet and voice. She loves to jump in her doorway bouncer, and hiding under soft blankets more than anything these days(this can be both cute and scary). She is more and more interested in her big sister, with each new activity. The two of them are finally starting to do little activities together and both are showing more interest in each other every day. Ava is quick to sooth Elise with kind words when she cries and runs to her side to make sure everything is ok.

The two of them are keeping Michael and I on our toes, but like I always say, we are doing our best to enjoy every moment. The late night tantrums and bedtime showdowns are probably the worst but that’s mostly because no one in the house has had a nice, uninterrupted sleep in a long time.

I have been recovering the last two days from having a wisdom tooth pulled (just one). I had my first, and only other, tooth pulled a few moths after Ava was born. I don’t know if it’s coincidence that now a few months after Elise arrives, I have another tooth pulled. It has not been fun, and hurts more than I remember the last time. Thankfully, Laurel has been here the last two days while Michael is at work not only taking care of me but more importantly taking over with the girls. Between her and Michael, I have been well taken care of. As I sit here writing this, Michael is tending to a tired, fussy Elise and folding laundry. He never folds laundry (it’s funny to watch) and its sweet that he is always trying to help me out.

This Saturday night, Michael and I are going to the Amazon Holiday Party. They are bringing in a popular pop group, Vampire Weekend, for the event. Neither of us are actually fans of the group but I do not doubt that it will be a fun night. I don’t even know what to expect with the rest of the event but based on the summer picnic, I’m sure that it will be full of fun surprises.

On, Sunday the Seahawks host the 49ers here in Seattle. The whole city has had a cool, spirited vibe about it the past few weeks. I am not a huge football fan by any means but I am really enjoying this. That may actually make me a bandwagon fan. Either way, I will be watching as much of the game as I can before I have to go into to work that night. I volunteered to pick up a shift that night since we are expecting to be busy with all of the fans after the game. I’m lucky enough to get most Sundays off but I’m looking forward to this.

Happy New Year, 2014

I’ve been looking forward to 2014 for a while. When I decided to go back to school in 2011, the idea of graduating in 2014 felt like it was a long way away. However I’m down to my final two quarters now and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. Just need to power all the way through to the end. Having the last two weeks off has been amazing but I’m ready to get back into the swing of things.

The Colorado trip was awesome. It’s pretty much everything you envision for a family winter vacation. Amy and Tom really went out of their way to host everyone, and it was nice catching up the Volmers and the Rudds. By the time we got home we were all exhausted, but Jess and I had to get it together to work New Years Eve in the Pampas Room at El Gaucho. We both thought it would be funny for me to shave my beard down to a mustache for NYE. That way I’d be conforming to Gaucho’s facial hair policy, and it would make for a memorable night. Everyone got a lot of laughs from it that night but here I find myself a few days later not wanting to shave it.

Working on NYE was fun. I got to see a few of my old bar regulars, plus all my buddies at Gaucho, and of course its great that Jess and I got to be together all night. I bartend so infrequently now that it ends up being a nice change of pace that I enjoy a lot. My new Jiu Jitsu teacher showed up for a drink, which was really cool, and of course none of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for Laurel babysitting the girls. She flew in from L.A. that day, so the girls and I picked her up at SeaTac, drove her home to drop off her bag, then she dropped me off at Gaucho and took the girls back to our house. She stayed the night and hung out with us all day the next day. We watched a bunch of football and I made a Mexican fiesta. Laurel, thank you so much for all your help… you’re amazing. I also want to say a huge thank you to Dana, Brad, Kallan and Anna, for watching Bella while we were in Colorado. We appreciate it so much and can’t wait to have you all over for a crab feast!

Today the four of us attended Ayden Nakamura’s 5th birthday party. His parents, Randall and Brie, are close friends of ours that we’ve known forever. Every time Randall and I see each other we end up telling the story of how our father’s were old card playing buddies from 40 years ago. I’ll never forget the time about 7 years ago when Randall and I went to his Dad’s place to help with his fence. We get there at 9:00am and his dad George immediately started pouring us double screwdrivers. Needless to say not a lot of work was done on the fence that day, but we did strike up conversation, and when George heard my last name he immediately asked if I was related to Elmer Pellegrini. When I said ‘Yeah that’s my dad’, the poor guy almost fainted. As it turned out he knew both of my parents and had a bunch of great stories for us. It’s no wonder Randall and I became such good friends.

Here are a bunch of pictures taken in the past week. Some from Colorado, some from NYE, and some from today’s birthday party. To all of our friends and family, we wish you a very happy and healthy new year. As my good friend Rico just said in a text the other day, “2014 has a good ring to it.”

Ava holding court in Colorado
Ava holding court in Colorado

Family Photo on the sleigh - Dad just finished snowboarding
Family Photo on the sleigh – The girls are wearing sweaters Nana got for them in Panama – Dad just finished snowboarding

The whole family
The whole family

Elise started sitting up on this trip
Elise started sitting up on this trip

Elise slept in the sleep sack that Nana made for Daddy
Elise slept in the sleep sack that Nana made for Daddy

Ava loves the oversized look
Ava loves the oversized look

NYE 2014 - Pampas Room
NYE 2014 – Pampas Room

NYE 2014 - Pampas Room

Having fun at Ayden's birthday
Having fun at Ayden’s birthday

Having fun at Ayden's birthday

Having fun at Ayden's birthday

Back to sea level – 12/30/2013

The site has been down so this was not posted on the date written:

We got back from Colorado this afternoon and are now happily resting at home. It was an awesome mountain Christmas and everyone is thoroughly exhausted. We all had a lot of fun in the snow and Michael and I were able to get a bit of time alone while Grandma and Grandpa took care of the girls. Ava had tons of fun playing with Cole, and has a new love for cars and trains. The two of them did really well together in a small play space shared with 9 other adults. It was a packed house for the week but it was great to get the chance to see everyone together.

My brother and his wife, Melanie, got to meet Elise for the first time which was a really sweet moment. She allowed anyone to hold her all week and was loving all of the attention. They also hadn’t seen Ava since just before her first birthday so it was a totally different experience than their last visit. The week went by entirely too fast and before we knew it we were packing up our stuff to go. It was a memorable christmas and I thank my Mom and Tom for all of the hard work that went into making everyone’s trip special.

We had to get up with the sun this morning at 4:45am, it’s not easy to get everyone up and going at that hour. It was a pretty quiet drive from Grandma’s house to the airport but both girls stayed awake for most of the trip. Thankfully it was a relatively easy flight home, that is until landing and then Ava insisted that she wanted “more” and kept yelling and signing for “more plane” and “more fly”. It was cute and funny for about a minute and a half and everyone around us was laughing. It quickly turned into embarrassing and uncomfortable when she began kicking her feet and screaming. Elise was thankfully clam and happy for the whole ordeal. All was good again as soon as we started walking through the airport and by the time we were pulling out of the arrival area with Uncle Brad both girls were sound asleep.

Our plan for today is to do as little unpacking as possible and spend as much time as we can relaxing on the couch and then off to bed as early as the girls allow. Tomorrow is going to be a full day. We are both working in the Pampas Room at El Gaucho for NYE and our amazingly wonderful friend, Laurel, will be ringing in the new year with our two lovelies. I hope that they will all be asleep by the new year because Laurel is just arriving home from her own Christmas vacation and is literally coming straight to the house for a sleepover.