A Great Thanksgiving Weekend

As expected, we all had a great Thanksgiving holiday this year. We hosted dinner and were joined by Amy, Tom, Rick, Chris, Dana, Brad, Butch, Carol, and Kallan. The house was full, the food was delicious, the wine was flowing, the girls were very well behaved, and the Seahawks beat the 49ers. What more could you ask for? We had been looking forward to this day for a while and we couldn’t have asked for it to go any better. To all of you who attended, thank you for making it such a great day, and to all of you whom we weren’t able to spend the day with, we send our love and hope that you enjoyed the day as much as we did.

The rest of the weekend has been pretty busy for us. Normally when we get a visit from either of the Grandpa’s, Jessica makes a list of home-related projects for them to work on. In this case we were lucky enough to have both Grandpa’s in town at the same time, so there was plenty of work going on around the house. Since we recently moved Ava and Elise into a new bedroom, there was plenty to get done in there, including mounting the TV on the wall, hanging chandeliers, moving their closet over from the old room, and decorating. In addition, we reorganized the laundry room and moved chandelier in the kitchen so that it was out of the way and people wouldn’t continue to hit their head when standing up from the table. Mom and the Grandma’s also did some really nice crafty work around the house in preparation for Christmas.

The girls are both doing really well, and of course they’ve been keeping everyone busy at all times. Elise’s vocabulary is literally growing by the day, and I can’t believe just how much she’s talking now. Ava has been enjoying playing with her new birthday presents, and is continuing to do well with potty training, but we’re still having problems with sharing. The general rule of thumb goes like this: there are more toys in the house than Ava could possibly play with at one time, but if she sees Elise playing with something, she becomes immediately obsessed with whatever Elise has and ends up throwing a fit if she can’t have it. We’ve been working on sharing, as well as the concept of trading toys, and it’s going okay, but there is definitely some room for improvement. I love the idea of them learning the barter system at such a young age, and for the most part they have been successful with it, but its to be expected that sometimes you end up with a temper tantrum or some type of outburst.

Yesterday we woke up with two inches of fresh snow on the ground. If you’ve ever lived in our neck of the woods then you know that snow is a rare treat for us, so it really added to the whole holiday theme for the weekend. I didn’t expect it to last past the afternoon, but it’s been unseasonably cold around here lately, and the skies were clear, so as I write this on Sunday night we’ve still got a decent amount outside. None of it stuck to the roads though, so driving wasn’t an issue. As far as that goes I’m more concerned about ice than anything else, but I doubt we’ll have any issues.

Last night Amy and Tom stayed home with the girls so that Jessica and I could go out to see a movie. As the parents of small children, it’s not all that common for us to get out on our own to do something like that, so we were pretty excited. We ended up seeing Mockingjay, which is the third part of the Hunger Games series. Although I was unexpectedly impressed by the first two movies, in my opinion the one we saw last night was a dud. Jessica liked it, mostly because she read all the books and was much more familiar with the storyline than myself, but in my opinion it was boring, hard to follow, and lacking excitement. A far cry from the first two installments of the series. It doesn’t matter though; just getting out to do something on our own is a nice treat and we always have fun no matter what.

Tomorrow is ‘Cyber Monday’ and its our busiest day of the year at Amazon. That shouldn’t really mean anything for my team since we don’t own any software, but it’s important to have all hands on deck just in case we need to provide any type of assistance to an engineering team that owns a critical application. You work all year at Amazon in preparation for Q4, and in particular for this day, so hopefully it will go off without a hitch. I’ll be in town all week this week, then flying out the following Monday morning for a work trip to Toronto. I’ve never been there before but am looking forward to visiting the Amazon office out there. I regularly work via phone and email with several teams in that office, so it will be nice to finally meet them all in person. Although it will likely be extremely cold, I’m still looking forward to seeing the city. No more traveling for me after that though (unless its just a day-trip) as I need to be nearby for Jessica while we await Enzo’s arrival. Only two months to go…

Thanks again to everyone who joined us for Thanksgiving and making it such a great day. Below are a few recent photos of the girls. The ones of Elise were taken on Thanksgiving, and the rest were taken by my good friend Leon at Ava’s birthday party the previous weekend. He’s giving me a CD with quite a few more photos from that day, so I’m sure we’ll have some more good ones to share very soon. Happy Holidays everyone!

Elise on Thanksgiving
Elise on Thanksgiving

Photos from Ava's 3rd birthday
Photos from Ava’s 3rd birthday

Photos from Ava's 3rd birthday

Photos from Ava's 3rd birthday

Photos from Ava's 3rd birthday

Happy 3rd Birthday Ava!!!

Although her party was on Saturday, today is Ava’s actual birthday, which is why I’ve waited until today to write a post. I know Jessica already wrote about all the fun we had on Saturday, but I’ll just add that it was a great day which was well attended by a variety of family members and friends. We were visited by: Laurel, Amy & Tom, Kristy & Madi, Dana & Brad, Butch & Carol, Jim, Cara, & Marcus from next door, Jodi, Leon and their son Miles, and Solana, Josh, & their son Ronin. We definitely had a full house! Ava had a blast playing with the kids and opening her presents. All in all we couldn’t have asked for a better day, and we greatly appreciate not only the gifts, but simply the presence of so many loved ones in one place at one time.

The party ended at 3:00 that afternoon, and the girls were exhausted, so we spent the rest of the evening relaxing at home watching TV shows and movies while Ava and Elise took extended naps. The following day Jessica and Amy took Ava to see Disney on Ice at the Comcast Arena in Everett. Jessica said Ava had such a great time, and that she couldn’t help but get emotional from seeing the sheer sense of joy and excitement exhibited by Ava from the minute they arrived. Looks like this won’t be our last visit to an event like this.

Tonight Rick and Chris are arriving from Iowa for their Thanksgiving visit. They will be meeting the four of us, plus Amy and Tom, for Ava’s birthday dinner. I’m not sure what the plan is for Wednesday, mainly because I’ll be working, but I know Thursday (which is Thanksgiving) will be another busy day with a full house, lots of delicious food, and plenty of football to watch. I wish I could take Friday off work but this is our busiest time of year at Amazon so we need all hands on deck throughout the holiday season. No worries though, I’m just looking forward to Thursday. Even before Ava was born I always loved Thanksgiving, but now that it has become synonymous with Ava’s birthday, I love it that much more.

Ava has been doing so well lately. She’s doing great at potty training, and she loves to play with Elise. She’s turning into a great big sister, just in time before she takes another sibling under her wing. Although we went so far as to submit her notice at preschool because it wasn’t going well for her, things seem to have taken a 180 degree turn and she’s now doing excellent in school, so we’ve decided to keep her in. I went to pick her up from school yesterday and found her playing outside with her friends. Rather than go get her right away, I decided to stand and watch for a few minutes. Seeing her run around with other kids laughing and playing makes me so happy. I’m really glad things are going better and she’s going to stay there.

It’s hard to believe it’s already been three years since Ava entered our lives, but when you consider all that has happened to us during that time it all makes much more sense. Three years ago we were living in a little beach house in Pacific Beach, San Diego. I was trying to get out of my career as a bartender, and into my new career as a web developer. I worked days as a contractor at ScrollMotion as a Production Developer, and nights at the Tractor Room as a bartender, plus I was just getting started in school. Jessica was a server and bartender at Azul in La Jolla. We had been married only about a year and a half, we had very little money, but we were in the midst of an adventure that we knew we’d never forget, and most importantly, we had each other.

I’d be lying if I said we were 100% ready to become parents. We were a bit nervous, but we knew that as long as we stuck together everything would work itself out. It wasn’t long before we were moving out of our beach house and into a more residential neighborhood, then only a few days after Ava’s first birthday we were on the move again; this time back home to Seattle so I could begin my career with Amazon. Looking back at it, that was an incredibly risky move because I didn’t have a full-time position awaiting me, but simply a contracting job. I was confident, however, that if I could get my foot in the door the rest would work itself out, and that is exactly what happened.

Today we find ourselves in a whole new situation; we’re the proud parents of two amazing little girls (and an amazing little boy soon to arrive), we’re proud home owners, I’m done with school (thank goodness), and we’re living what most would call the ‘American Dream.’ I honestly don’t think any of these good things would have happened to us if it wasn’t for us having children, and that all started with Ava. After all, it was getting the news that I was going to be a Daddy that gave me the motivation to make a career change. Had we never had children, chances are I’d still be working nights and weekends making cocktails. We’d still be happy of course, but nowhere nearly as much so as we find ourselves today.

Ava thank you for everything you have done for your Mother and I. You made me a Daddy, and you’ve already made us so proud. Your siblings are lucky to have you as a big sister, as well as a role model, and your Mom and I are so lucky to have you as our little girl. Your energy, enthusiasm, and persistence are infectious, and your natural sense of humor brings smiles and laughter to everyone you encounter. Happy 3rd birthday my sweet girl, and here’s to so many more. I love you with all my heart.

Ava’s Birthday Weekend

This weekend was a big weekend for little miss Ava. Saturday we celebrated her 3rd birthday with a party at the house and Sunday she attended her first show with Grandma and myself.

Saturday’s Thomas the Train party was a ton of fun for us all. We sent most of the night Friday getting things ready. Michael cooked chili while Tom and I decorated the whole first floor of the house with streamers, balloons, Thomas pictures and I even made two little box trains for the kids to play with. All the while, Grandma kept the girls busy upstairs so that they wouldn’t get in the way or sabotage our progress. It was a total group effort and things turned out great. Ava woke up the next morning completely surprised and was anxious all day to get the party started. She could hardly contain her excitement all morning and ran around the house asking when she could go to her party and when could she open up presents.

Saturday morning we still had quite a bit to finish up in order to be fully ready for all of our guests. Grandma and I baked brownie bites, Tom picked up the cake, Michael cleaned up the girls and helped keep them occupied and we all kept busy up until our first guests, Madi and Kristi arrived just before noon. Most everyone else followed closely behind and by 12:30 we had a house full of family and friends.

It’s fair to say that this was the first year that Ava truly understood what was going on and that all the “fuss” was in her honor. She hammed it up all day long entertaining the guests with her usual antics and was a total hoot while opening presents. She wanted to play or wear each gift immediately after opening it. One gift we even went so far as to hide it after she unwrapped it. Every present was followed by some kind joyful exclamation. Lots of wows, and cutie! She had the whole room laughing a few times. After presents we got the cake out and sang Happy Birthday and shortly thereafter the party started to fizzle out. Besides eating way too much sugar and causing kind of a rough night, the party was a huge success. Things wrapped up around 4:00 and after a bit of clean up by Michael and Grandma we spent the rest of the night relaxing in our PJs. Thank you to everyone that came over to celebrate with us. We are so lucky to have so many wonderful friends and family. I love hosting birthday parties and am excited at the thought of throwing 3 parties every year now.

The next day we had another special event planned. Grandma and I took Ava out to lunch and then to see Disney on Ice. Grandma even bought Ava a special Minni Mouse dress complete with red sparkly shoes for the occasion. She looked completely adorable and you could tell she was very happy in her pretty dress. I have never been to an ice skating show before and was excited myself, but no one was looking forward to it as much as Ava. I purposefully didn’t tell her much about the show before the day of because I knew that she would get overly excited about going and would hound me with questions and continuous nagging to get going. True to form, all morning long she continued to let us know that she was ready to go see Mickey and Minni and continued to ask when were we leaving. The show wasn’t until 1:00 so she was a little wound up about things by the time we left. I was worried that lunch might be a bit of a struggle because of her extreme excitement but she did amazingly well and got lots of extra attention because of her cute outfit and attitude.

The show itself did not disappoint. We arrived early so that there would be plenty of time for bathroom breaks and walking around. I was expecting that there would be lots of swag for purchase but I was a little overwhelmed with everything. Disney certainly knows how to market to kids. I fully expected Ava to want everything in site but to my surprise she just wanted to walk around and take it all in. She didn’t ask for a single thing. It may have helped that I encouraged her to bring her own Mickey and Minni dolls to the show but it’s possible that she too was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to ask for. We were fortunate enough to have great seats, right on the aisle and just behind a section break, which meant that we weren’t sitting right on top of the people in front of us and had a bar for Ava to stand up against. He barely sat down the entire time. All throughout the show she waved to each character while jumping up and down or clapping and made sure to point out all of her favorites. Watching her get so excited actually made me choke up a bit. I was such a precious site. I am definitely planning on making it a yearly tradition and next year look forward to taking both of the girls.

It was a fun filled weekend and the festivities are not over yet. On Tuesday we plan to go out to dinner as a family with both sets of Grandparents that are in town for Thanksgiving. We’re going to head to Boston’s for one more birthday celebration and then start getting things ready for the next holiday; Thanksgiving. It’s sure to be a great week.

Preparing for the Holidays

This is our last weekend before all the festivities begin. Amy and Tom will be arriving on Wednesday, then a week from today we’ll be hosting Ava’s 3rd birthday party! Definitely looking forward to that. It’s going to have a ‘Thomas The Train’ theme, so that should be interesting. Obviously if Ava’s birthday is nearby, that means that Thanksgiving is also just around the corner, and we’re certainly going to have a full house that day as well. Lots to look forward to in the very short-term.

Since we’ve got so much to get ready for, we’ve designated today as a housework day. We’re going to move the girls out of the small bedroom and into the large guest room, then make the current girl’s bedroom into the new guest room. This allows us to have everything for the girls in one room, rather than have their stuff split up amongst multiple rooms. Our good friend Laurel is coming over to assist Jessica with organizing, and of course I’m just here to move furniture and other heavy items. Later this evening our friends Jim and Cara from next door will be coming over for dinner. I wanted to do something nice for them as a way of saying thank you for watching Bella while we were away in Vegas. On the menu will be Caesar salad, followed by a jumbo prawn pasta with garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, and whatever else I find in our refrigerator. I believe Laurel is sticking around for dinner, and Cara is bringing desert, so it should be a lot of fun.

Last weekend we had a really nice visit with Jim, Brenda, Kristy, and Madi. It was great getting to see them, as well as check out Kristy’s new home in Des Moines. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve been spending more time with them than anyone, and I’m thankful for that because we always have a great time. The girls love playing with Madi, which is awesome because she is such a good influence and role model for them. I’ve been close with Jim, Brenda, and Kristy my whole life so spending time with them couldn’t be more natural for me, and they all really love Jessica, so its perfect. They’re all going to be here next weekend for Ava’s party as well.

It seems like the weather really turned while we were out of town. Before we left it was typical cloudy rainy weather that you expect up here, but since we’ve been back it’s been extremely cold. Each morning when I’m leaving for work its been in the low 20’s, which is unseasonable for us in the Pacific Northwest. I don’t mind it though because it seems to have had a positive effect on my morning commute. Before Vegas, my average commute time each morning was 90 minutes, and that’s only the average. It wasn’t too uncommon to have a commute that took up to (or more than) 2 hours! Its maddening, especially when the only apparent cause for it is the rain. It drives me nuts because we live in Seattle and we’re used to it raining here, but the effect the rain has on traffic is incredible. I’ve recently taken to listening to classical music in the car, particularly when I’m stuck in bad traffic. It’s hard to get too worked up when you’re swaying to the sounds of Mozart and Beethoven. I probably look like a nut to people driving near me, as I find it difficult to keep from ‘conducting’ the music, but I don’t care. It keeps me sane in an otherwise maddening environment.

I don’t know if it has anything to do with daylight savings time, which means we actually get a little sunlight on my morning commute, or just the fact that its been dry, but this week my average commute was only 60 minutes, and that was a nice change of pace. Tuesday was Veteran’s Day, which meant there was no traffic, and the rest of the week was markedly better than what I’ve experienced since the end of Summer. We’ll see if it keeps up though…

I should probably mention that although no news is good news in terms of Jessica’s pregnancy, everything is going well. She hasn’t gotten sick in about a month, so even though the morning sickness lasted considerably longer than normal, she appears to have crossed that bridge entirely. Thank goodness, because seeing her go through that was the worst! She’s still on schedule for a Feb 1st due date, which of course is Superbowl Sunday. Just like Ava’s birthday will always be right around Thanksgiving (and Elise falls on the French Holiday Bastille Day), it appears that Enzo’s birthday will always fall right around the Superbowl. For a sports fan like myself, it seems fitting.

The girls are both doing well, although nighttime has been a challenge lately. Case in point, last night between Jessica and I, we were probably up a dozen times with one or both of them. As soon as one falls asleep, the other wakes up crying. This isn’t typical with Ava these days, but it still happens from time to time. Elise, on the other hand, has been developing a bad habit of not wanting to sleep anywhere besides in bed with Mom and Dad. She’s absolutely done with her crib, so we’ve switched things up by putting her mattress on the floor. At least this way she isn’t caged in, and its been a slight improvement, but not enough. She hasn’t slept through the entire night in a month, even though she was doing so well for a couple months leading up to this. Yesterday we ordered her an actual bed, so hopefully that will make a difference. We can’t afford to keep bringing her into bed with us, particularly because it won’t be long before we have a newborn in the house, and presumably he will require considerable nighttime attention. As with everything related to young kids, its just a phase and I’m sure we’ll be out of this one and onto the next one soon enough, but it has certainly provided a unique set of challenges as of late.

I think it’s fair to say that the ‘honeymoon’ stage of our idea about moving to Germany down the road is over, and we now realize that the likelihood of that actually happening is very low. We initially got excited about the idea, but over time we started to realize how difficult something like that would actually be, and have ‘come to our senses’ about the reality of the whole thing. That said, I don’t regret mentioning it because if nothing else, it helped solidify our commitment to providing our kids with as many experiences as possible. I have no doubt that we’ll do a good amount of traveling once the kids start getting bigger, and I’m thankful that Jessica and I are on the same page regarding not being tied down to a particular location. Obviously we just recently bought a house, and we’re certainly not going anywhere anytime soon, but we love to dream about relocating and experiencing new things.

Here’s a couple recent photos of the girls. Ava has been quite in love with her wardrobe lately, and its not uncommon to see her walking around the house carrying a dozen hangers, each with their own outfit. Guess who ends up picking those up and putting them back in her closet. It also appears that the ‘girly’ phase may be beginning, hence the tutus.

Ava in her AC/DC shirt
Ava picked out this shirt all on her own because it’s “just like Daddy’s.” That’s my girl.

The girls in their tutus
And so it begins…

A great visit with Nana

Wednesday night the four of us returned home after a great visit with Nana, Uncle Bob, Aunt Sandy, and Uncle Terry in Las Vegas. Not only was it great to get so much quality time with family, but we also had a lot of fun seeing some old friends; plus it didn’t hurt that the weather was so nice. We flew out of the Bellingham airport, which is about 75 miles north of where we live. Although the drive to the Bellingham airport is technically further than it would be to SeaTac, there is no doubt that this was the better way to go. Rather than fight the traffic going through Seattle, as well as fight the crowds at SeaTac airport, we instead were able to have a nice leisurely drive with no traffic, and no airport crowds to deal with whatsoever in Bellingham.

The flight to Vegas was unexpectedly rough however. I say unexpectedly because we honestly expected Ava to have a harder time than Elise, but it turned out to be the opposite. Ava was an absolute dream, but Elise was in rare form, which included lots of screaming and violently throwing herself around. At one point I just took her to the bathroom to let her cry it out. It was all because she was so tired, and luckily after about 15 minutes she fell asleep in my arms, meaning we were then able to get back in our seat. Shortly thereafter I also fell asleep, and apparently everyone who passed by couldn’t help but comment on how cute the sleeping Dad and daughter combination were. When we awoke I was given a business card by a friendly Hippie offering to text me the photo he took of us sleeping.

Once we landed we moved onto our next struggle, which was gathering all of our stuff and finding my Uncles, whom were there to pick us up. Traveling with two small children means traveling with a ton of stuff. Two car seats, a stroller, two carryon bags, two checked bags, etc. Obviously I’m not going to let Jessica carry anything, which means I quickly found myself lugging all our stuff around as we looked for Bob and Terry. It definitely took me back to the Europe trip my Mom and I took in the Summer of 2001, when I was constantly running through train stations with more bag weight than I could handle. By the time we got to Bob and Terry I was exhausted, as well as overheating due to the fact that I wore a sweater that morning because it was so cold in Washington, yet so warm in Vegas.

From that point on we were home free, although the same couldn’t be said for my poor Mom. She and Terry were up practically all night every night that week getting the house ready, and she was exhausted. Not the greatest way to spend her birthday, but if you know my Mom, you know that she won’t settle for anything less than an immaculate house. Jessica and I were so impressed with all the work they all did on the house. As it turns out, Terry is quite the painter, and by the end of the trip I had the beginnings of a website, plus a domain name, in order to help him start a small business doing commercial and residential painting in Las Vegas. I’m really proud of everything Terry is doing in Vegas and want to help out in any way I can.

On the night of Halloween, which is my Mom’s birthday, we took the girls to the new Downtown Summerlin mall for some trick-or-treating. The mall was quite impressive, as were the variety of costumes and entertainment we found there. While we were away Bob, Sandy and Terry were hard at work at Mom’s house setting up a little surprise party. Once we returned we were greeted by decorations, a beautiful (and delicious) cake, and a huge feast of spaghetti, spicy chicken wings, and jalapeño garlic bread put on by Uncle Bob. Between dinner and cake we did the presents and Mom seemed to love everything she got. Jessica and I picked out a sapphire necklace and a pair of matching sapphire earrings online for her, and were quite happy once we saw them in person. Terry had a beautiful set of paintings done for her by a friend that really turned out amazing. Bob went out of his way to put on an outstanding evening that we all enjoyed very much. All in all it was a great (and very full) first day of our trip.

Saturday Jessica and I went grocery shopping, then I spent the afternoon making Cioppino with the 6 pounds of Dungeness crab, 3 pounds of fish, and 5 pounds of assorted shellfish we picked up. That night a few of my old friends came over and had dinner with the rest of us. It was a great night, accentuated by the fact that we didn’t even have to leave the house. We pretty much played the rest of the trip by ear and just tried to make sure to get the girls out for at least one fun activity each day. As previously mentioned, the weather was perfect, so we often found ourselves at various nearby parks and play areas.

Monday we took the girls to the strip so Mom could have some quiet time to get her work done. After picking out stuffed animals at the Disney store, we spent the rest of the day taking in the sights and enjoying ourselves. Seeing Ava’s expressions of awe and amazement at the various attractions was priceless. Some of the highlights included a carousel at Wynn made entirely of flowers, the gondola’s in the canal at the Venetian, and a live opera at the Palazzo. That night Jessica, Terry and I went to the movies to see ‘Night Crawler’ at the new Summerlin mall. If you’ve never sat in a luxury recliner at a movie theater you don’t know what you’re missing. I seriously may never go to a normal movie theater again. Absolutely outstanding!

Our last major outing of the trip was a visit to an old western town just past Red Rocks. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was a combination of the type of town you’d see at Universal Studios or Knotts Berry Farm, including live shows (and even a hanging 3 times per day), plus a petting zoo. I’ve never been so up close and personal with so many different animals. Of course the girls loved it, and were completely oblivious to the oddities of their surroundings. It didn’t surprise me one bit that they also used the place for haunted tours; it definitely had a bit of a creepy vibe.

I’d say the hardest part about coming home was getting out of my Mom’s house. Once Ava realized we were leaving she got really upset. I think she formed a special bond with Nana, Uncle Terry, and Uncle Bob during our trip and she simply did not want to leave them. On one hand that makes you feel really good that she has gotten so close to them, but on the other its tough because you hate to see her so upset. She’s been talking about them quite a bit since leaving, so last night we had a phone call with Nana and Uncle Terry just so she could say hi. During that call Elise started saying ‘Hi Nana’ over and over, and it couldn’t have been clearer. She’s doing so well with putting words together! The line of the trip for Elise was ‘Hi Doggy’, which was in reference to the 7 little four-legged friends that were always by her side. It wasn’t uncommon for them to get excited and accidentally knock her on her bum, but she always got right back up and kept on having fun.

After the production we had getting to Vegas we were prepared for the worst coming home, but as it turned out everything went quite smoothly. We were given access to the special TSA line at the airport, which made getting through security really easy. Although neither of the girls fell asleep on the flight home, there were no outbursts and we arrived back in Bellingham feeling very relieved. The drive home was also super easy and traffic-free, and as expected, both girls were asleep before we even reached the freeway. On the way home we couldn’t stop talking about how easy and convenient it was flying out of Bellingham rather than SeaTac. That being said, it’s going to be a while before we fly as a family again. Adding a third child to the mix complicates things exponentially because you can no longer confine yourselves to a single row on the plane. At that point you’re getting split up into two different rows (or sides of an aisle), meaning one parent gets one child and the other parent gets the other two kids. No thank you. I hate to say it but I don’t see any family flying in our future for the next couple years. We’re more than happy to host guests at any time, but getting everyone (and all their necessities) rounded up for a flight is a bit more than we can bare for the near future.

Looks like we’re in for a busy weekend, including a birthday party at a friend’s house this Saturday for their son, then a visit with Jim, Brenda, Kristy and Madi at their place on Sunday. Monday I’ll finally be back in the office, just in time for our busiest time of year. Things are going really well for me at work and it won’t be long before I’m conducting another one-hour talk on JavaScript to a room full of software engineers. The difference this time is that rather than talk about someone else’s library, I’m going to be teaching them how to use a localization library that I have written. Hopefully it won’t be long before all of the fulfillment center applications are using my library to handle language switching. Pretty exciting stuff!

Here are a handful of photos from our trip. It really was a lot of fun.

Mom, Terry, and I on her birthday
Mom, Terry, and I on her birthday

Mom opening presents
Mom opening presents

Uncle Bob and me
Uncle Bob and me

Mom and Uncle Bob
Mom and Uncle Bob

Jessica and Ava watching Nana open presents
Jessica and Ava watching Nana open presents

Ava and her new buddy Uncle Terry
Ava and her new buddy Uncle Terry

Bob, Terry, Mom, Myself, and Jessica, taken by Sandy
Bob, Terry, Mom, Myself, and Jessica, taken by Sandy

Elise and Nana having fun on Halloween night
Elise and Nana having fun on Halloween night

Ava and her funny headdress
Ava and her funny headdress

Ava taking it all in on Halloween night
Ava taking it all in on Halloween night