May hasn’t been nearly as crazy of a month for us as April was, but we’ve still got a few cool things to share. Most notably, the school year recently came to an end and the kids are now on Summer break! Enzo had a great year in second grade and made lots of friends that he will continue with for the next three years. Elise, in all honesty, didn’t have her best year of school this year, but we had some heart-to-heart talks with her towards the end of the year and we definitely saw an improvement afterward.
Jessica did a lot of work to get her the help she needs and we feel great about the class she will be in next year, so we’re excited for her. In a way, we’re hoping she can follow in Ava’s footsteps in this regard because 5th grade was easily Ava’s best year of elementary school. She really came into herself this year and the progress, including test score improvements, has been nothing short of amazing. We have no doubt that Elise will be able to do the same thing next year.
The end of the school year was filled with activities that the kids loved. There were field days filled with games, and a school choir concert for families to attend, plus the 5th graders got to go on an all-day field trip that included swimming and a trip to the movie theater to see the new Super Mario Bros movie.
The crowning achievement at the end of the year was Ava’s speech during the school’s graduation ceremony. Jessica worked with her on it for weeks and she practiced regularly, but I never heard it until her delivery in front of at least 300 people. I know she was nervous but she did an excellent job. I gave her the same advice my cousin Ken told me to give to Elise when he found out she was doing drama club; plant your feet, lift your chin, and speak to the back of the room.
I realized within the first ten seconds that Ava’s speech had a very different tone to it than the rest of the kids’ speeches. While the other kids were giving speeches with a mostly comical tone, Ava’s speech dove directly into her learning differences due to her dyslexia and ADHD. The central theme was explaining why her teacher this year was the best one she had ever experienced in school. A teacher who understood her learning differences and leaned into them. A teacher who found the right books for her and helped her develop a love of reading. A teacher who taught her to believe in herself when others made her feel stupid, and who made her realize that she really can become a scientist when she grows up if she sets her mind to it.
I’m not talking about Jessica when I reference this teacher, even though the lengths Jessica has gone to in order to improve the kids’ education is nothing short of amazing. I’m talking about the teacher Jessica assists at the school, and she really is fantastic. Ava’s speech was so powerful that parents and teachers were crying while she delivered it. Very few of us would be able to open up like that in front of hundreds of strangers, yet nearly everyone identified with her. Afterward, Ava and Jessica were both approached by many students, teachers, and school administrators talking about how amazing the speech was. Several people said it was the best of the day and many more said they couldn’t help from crying while listening to her. As the one filming the speech, my eyes were filled with tears almost instantly, so my job turned into just trying to hold it together and keep the camera still. We posted the video of Ava’s speech to the Pellegrini Kids YouTube channel, which you can see below.
Ava and her 5th grade teacher
Elise finished really strong in science this year!
Enzo at the beginning and end of 2nd grade
Mother’s Day 2023 – A.K.A. “MothersGate”
Before moving to Nevada in June 2021, Jessica had us scheduled for family photos. She wanted to get nice photos of us taken in the great Pacific Northwest before heading away, but it wasn’t meant to be because the day of the photos turned into a big rainstorm and there was no other day for us to do it before moving. We figured we would get photos done after moving but ended up getting so busy with everything that we lost track of it.
Recently Jessica and I started talking about doing family photos again, but this time I offered to do them myself since I have a decent camera and have learned a lot about photography in the past year. I decided that the best Mother’s Day gift I could give her would be to do photos of the kids on the morning of Mother’s Day, then take everyone, including my Mom, out to brunch.
We decided to do the photos in the Downtown Las Vegas Arts District because they have so many cool murals which could serve as backdrops. The kids stayed the night at my Mom’s house the night before, then we picked everyone up that morning and headed downtown. I had extra batteries for the camera, plus a tripod just in case. We scouted the area and picked out our favorite murals, then I proceeded to take a couple hundred photos.
I was wearing prescription sunglasses and didn’t notice until literally the last photo of the morning that the camera didn’t have a memory card installed. I instantly started to panic. As it turned out, Jessica had used the camera the day before for one of her YouTube videos and forgot to reinstall the memory card after downloading the video files to her laptop.
I was heartbroken and she was beside herself in anger. We had waited two years for these photos and I was so excited to give her this gift, but again, it wasn’t meant to be. After regaining our composure we went out to brunch at a restaurant downtown called Eat, which was excellent, then we went back to a few of the murals and used our cellphones to get some photos. It wasn’t what we had in mind but was going to have to do, for now. I still plan on taking the kids back to the Arts District for more “official” family photos, but here are a few of our favorites from that day. It was certainly one that we will never forget!
Hiking at Valley of Fire State Park
One of our first big family activities of the Summer break was to go hiking at the Valley of Fire state park. Located about an hour from the strip, Valley of Fire was the first state park in Nevada. We’ve been meaning to go there since moving to Nevada nearly two years ago, but we finally made it on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. We arrived at 8:30 am and started exploring instantly. There are over 40,000 acres of trails, rock formations, petrified logs, petroglyphs, wildlife, camping, and more!
We did a few hikes with the kids and I took a ton of photos, but Jessica and I plan on returning this Fall to do more serious hiking without the kids. They have some advanced trails that we didn’t feel like taking the kids on, especially considering how hot and crowded it was getting as we approached noon.
There were various lizards out and about, plus we got lucky by seeing a pair of big horn sheep crossing the road. In addition to our hikes, we drove around the scenic loop and visited several iconic photo spots. Seeing the ancient petroglyph drawings was definitely a highlight, and the kids thought the petrified logs which had become stone were amazing. It’s a really beautiful place that I recommend anyone go to visit if you’re in the area. We saw people of all ages out there and look forward to returning.
Here’s the video I made, along with a few of my favorite photos.
The Chicks Concert with Jim and Cara
Our old next-door neighbors Jim and Cara were recently in town for the weekend, and when we found out they were going to The Chicks (formerly The Dixie Chicks) concert, we decided to get tickets and meet up with them. The Chicks are one of Jessica’s favorite bands and we used to listen to one of their albums a lot back in the day. In fact, the CD we made for our wedding guests started with a song by them, yet we had never seen them in concert until now. We got general admission tickets and found a spot right at the front of the audience. I could literally reach out and touch the stage!
It was an excellent show that we will never forget, and it was really fun catching up with our friends. They ended up coming over to our house the next day for lunch, so it was fun showing them around our new place. Here’s the video I made of the concert.
New Pool Decking Coming Soon
When we bought our house in June 2021, the concrete area around the pool wasn’t looking so great. Part of our negotiations was that they would paint the area, which they did, but they used the same paint for the pool decking that they used for the entrance steps in front of our house. It’s dark brown paint that isn’t meant for pool decking, but we didn’t know the difference and thought it looked good, so we didn’t say anything.
What we later learned was that this concrete gets so hot during the Summertime that you can’t walk on it barefoot. It also gets slick when wet and just isn’t ideal as a surface around your swimming pool. We lived with it for two Summers but decided to have it replaced this year. On Thursday of this week, we have a concrete company coming out to grind it all down to a smooth surface, then they will coat it with a real pool decking which is cooler to the touch due to its sand color, and less slippery. We’re also going to have them fill in all the holes from the old fence they used to have here.
Not only will this new pool deck look much better, but everyone will be able to walk barefoot on it, which will be nice. Our backyard is such a focal point of our home and we have several guests coming to stay with us this Summer, so having this upgrade completed before anyone gets here is going to be awesome. I look forward to sharing photos of the finished project in next month’s post.
That’s about all for now. I wanted to keep this month’s post a little on the shorter side considering how long it was last month. We’re really looking forward to getting a visit from Kristy, Tito, and Madi in June, so I’ll write all about that afterward. I’m just glad the new pool deck will be completed before they arrive. Wishing everyone a happy Memorial Day and a nice start to their Summer!
April 2023 has been an amazing month, and we still have more good stuff coming up!
April 2023 has been a pretty amazing month for us, and we still have some good stuff to look forward to before moving into May. Most notably, Jessica’s birthday is coming up on Friday and she has a lot going on. We’re going to see Chelsea Handler’s comedy show that night at The Mirage, then early the next morning she is flying to Tucson, Arizona to spend the weekend with her girlfriends from Seattle. I mistakenly said she was going to Sedona in last month’s post, but it’s definitely Tucson. They’re going to do some hiking and some chilling, but she wants to get as much training in as possible because this is the same group she’s going with to hike Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States, in October. I’ll have details on Jessica’s birthday and weekend getaway in next month’s post.
As for April, there’s been a ton of stuff going on, so let’s start at the beginning of the month. Monday, April 3rd was our 13th anniversary and we celebrated in a very memorable way. Our good friends and ex-neighbors, the Browns, were in Vegas for Spring Break, so they came over to our house for dinner that night. Ava and Elise still talk to Avery regularly online, and they’re always sending each other little gifts in the mail, so it was a pleasure to spend an evening hanging out with them. We actually had so much fun that we ended up meeting up with them again the following night at an arcade in Vegas. We love their family and had such a nice time catching up. Christy is from Vegas and her Mom still lives here, not too far from my Mom, so hopefully they will start making regular visits once again.
Dinner with the Browns on our anniversary. We love them so much.
Ava, Avery, and Elise. BFF’s forever.
More fun with Avery
Road Trip with Nana
We spent the evening of Tuesday, April 4th at the arcade with the Browns, then I was up and out the door early the next morning, on April 5th, to pick up my Mom for a road trip to southern Arizona. As I mentioned in last month’s post, we recently made the decision to get a bearded dragon as a pet, and after doing my research online, I decided that I wanted to purchase one from the Atomic Lizard Ranch, located very near the Mexican border in Bisbee, Arizona. It’s about an eight-hour drive from my Mom’s house, and we had to meet them at 3:00 pm, so we were on the road by sunrise.
We ended up driving all the way down the state of Arizona, from top to bottom. I’d never done a road trip in, or through, Arizona before, and here are my observations. The desert in northern Arizona is much greener than the Mojave desert stretching through California and Nevada. They get a lot more rain during their wet season than we do, and consequently, they have those picturesque cacti, like the ones you see in drawings and cartoons, growing wild everywhere. It’s not uncommon for them to be 20 feet tall, and some are even closer to 30! There are beautiful wildflowers growing near the side of the road, and the vastness of empty space is incredible. It never fails to amaze me when driving through states like Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, just how much wide open empty space there is. It definitely puts the size of our country into perspective.
My only complaint about driving through northern Arizona is the quality of their roads. I’ve never seen so many potholes in my life and I felt like I was dodging them for hours. I think we get a little spoiled from the high quality of our infrastructure in Nevada because of all the tourism revenue to pay for it, but once you cross over into this remote part of Arizona, there’s clearly very little revenue to help pay for road maintenance, and you’ve got to pay attention. Having been through it now, I’m glad Jessica is flying to Tucson, rather than driving through this area alone. A blown-out tire out in the middle of the desert with no town for 50 miles would be a really bad situation to deal with.
Eventually, the road quality improves, and by the time you’re getting close to Glendale and Phoenix, there are no issues. The cacti that I mentioned are native to northern Arizona specifically, so you’re only seeing them for a couple of hours, but they were definitely my favorite part of the scenery. There are also plenty of beautiful rock mountains and other natural rock formations, but those cacti are so unique looking that I’m really glad we got to see them in person. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.
As we approached Phoenix from the Northwest, my Mom and I couldn’t believe how much it reminded us of South Seattle. The layout of the buildings and railroad tracks was eerily similar to the area she grew up in, and that trend continued as we passed through Phoenix. It felt like the desert version of Seattle. We didn’t get off the freeway, but from the look of the buildings, we both agreed that it had a strong resemblance to Seattle, without the water of course.
Once Phoenix is behind you, there isn’t much until reaching Tucson about 90 minutes later. It’s just wide open, except now, there are no more of those beautiful cacti growing in the wild. It’s just desert, although we did see the longest police funeral procession I’ve ever witnessed. It had to be two miles long. I’ve never seen so many police vehicles and motorcycles in my life. As we passed through Tucson, it felt very similar to the Spokane Valley in Eastern Washington. Had I not known where I was, based on the scenery alone, I would have sworn I was close to Spokane. We were getting hungry around this time, and I saw a sign on the southern edge of Tucson for Rita Road. It had food options and felt fitting that we would stop there, so we took a break there for a quick lunch at Subway.
Bisbee is located another couple of hours south of Tucson, and to get there you have to pass through Tombstone, the classic old-west town. We ended up staying the night in Tombstone, but first, we had to get to Bisbee on time. There’s an enormous copper mine right off the freeway in Bisbee and we got a pretty good look at it from the freeway. The town now has a kitschy old hippy vibe to it, and it was actually pretty cool. Apparently, Johnny Depp owns a house there.
We arrived literally at 3:00 on the dot and picked up our little guy. I had been struggling during the week before the trip with deciding what to name him. I had a few ideas, and the kids were throwing ideas at me non-stop, but nothing was sticking. Then one night while dreaming, I remembered a nickname my Dad used to call me as a little boy. He used to call me Shorty, but only for a few years because it soon became obvious that I was going to be much taller than him, so the nickname was relatively ‘short’ lived.
It’s been at least 35 years since he, or anyone, called me Shorty, but it came back to me during this dream, and decided that had to be the name of our dragon. The inner workings of the human brain are fascinating. My Mom decided that his middle name should be Bisbee, after his birthplace, and I agreed. I frequently find myself calling him Shorty B.
After picking Shorty up in Bisbee, we turned around and made our way back to Tombstone for the evening. We checked into our room at the Allen St. Inn and I decided to hold Shorty for the first time. It was probably too soon and he freaked out, jumping out of my hands and falling at least four feet to the floor. He was fine though and we haven’t had any more issues like that since. This is me holding him right after our first crazy encounter.
Check out more photos of Shorty at the end of this post.
An Evening in Tombstone
When planning out this road trip, I was originally planning on going alone, but it was Jessica’s idea that I ask my Mom to join me. I’m so glad she thought of this because my Mom and I haven’t been on an overnight trip together since visiting Europe in the Summer of 2001! We’ve been on family trips together since then, but not just the two of us. I was originally thinking we would just get a hotel in Tucson, but once I realized Tucson was about 2 hours north of Bisbee, I decided to look for something closer. That’s how I stumbled on Tombstone. My Mom has been to all the major spots in Arizona but had never been to Tombstone. My only reference was the movie from the early 1990s with Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer. I have always loved that movie and watched it several times with my Dad before his passing in 1995. When I asked my Mom if she would be interested in staying the night there she thought it was a great idea. It’s a tiny town that still leans heavily into its wild west heritage. Shops close up early in Tombstone, so we didn’t have much time to explore after getting checked into our hotel, but we were still able to check most of it out. I bought souvenirs for the kids at the O.K. Corral and even ended up buying a beautiful pair of brown boots at a Western clothing store. I love wearing boots, mostly because I got into them when riding motorcycles regularly, and I’ve been wanting something a bit dressier for at least a year. I could never find the right ones because I didn’t want traditional cowboy boots and I didn’t want work boots, but while looking for a Western hat at one of the stores, I unexpectedly found the perfect pair of boots. I’ve been wearing them constantly ever since. I love the fact that I got them with my Mom on our road trip to Tombstone.
After our shopping was complete, we had dinner at The Longhorn restaurant, which was decent, then grabbed an after-dinner drink at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon. Big Nose Kate was Doc Holiday’s girlfriend, and the saloon is epic. It’s everything I could have ever wanted in an old west saloon. It was a long day and we were exhausted, so we had one drink and decided to call it a night. The next morning we were up early and ready to get Shorty to his new home. I made a video for Vegas Showbiz about our experience in Tombstone, which you can check out below.
During our drive home the next day, my Mom held Shorty (in his Tupperware container) the entire way. She was reading all kinds of interesting facts on her phone about bearded dragons, and really fell in love with him. She would hold him up near the window so he could get natural light, which was exhausting for her arms, but we could tell he liked it. He’s so alert and present, which isn’t how most other types of lizards are. Every time a semi-truck was next to us he would perk way up to watch it go by. For some reason, he loved watching the trucks, and overall, did excellent on his first road trip.
I’m so thankful for this experience with my Mom. As previously mentioned, it’s been a very long time since the two of us had done anything even remotely similar to this. I love her so much and even though this was a quick trip, it was something neither of us will ever forget. Thank you, Mom.
Getting Shorty Home
I was very busy in the weeks leading up to this road trip with putting together a beautiful habitat for Shorty. I purchased a 120-gallon tank from Toad Ranch Cages, then outfitted it with a ceramic tile floor, a heat lamp, a UVB lamp, and one more light for brightness. I got a variety of rock and (fake) plant decorations, including a beautiful piece of African wood, for him to climb on. The plants have to be fake because he would try to eat real ones and that wouldn’t be good.
Plenty of people at pet stores will tell you that a 40-gallon tank is big enough for a bearded dragon, but if you do your research, you’ll learn that if you want to do it the right way, you need a 120-gallon tank. In all honesty, it was pretty expensive getting everything set up, but I plan on keeping Shorty for many years, so giving him a proper home was important to me. He’s been living with us for about 2.5 weeks now and is doing great. I feed him live roaches for breakfast and dinner plus a salad for lunch. His diet will switch to predominantly salads once he reaches 18 months old, but for now, I have to be very comfortable with live roaches. I started ordering them online from DubiaRoaches.com because they’re so much cheaper compared to the local reptile store.
His tank is located in Enzo’s bedroom, which may sound strange, but Enzo’s room is huge and there was plenty of space in there. I didn’t like the idea of putting the tank in any of the rooms on our first floor, and Enzo loved the idea of having a dragon as a roommate. Part of the reason I selected Shorty, amongst all the other options from the Atomic Lizard Ranch, was that he was born on January 28th, which is also Enzo’s birthday. I like to joke that both of my sons were born on January 28th. There was a long stretch during the pandemic when Enzo didn’t like to sleep alone in his room. This went back to our days in Washington, but those days seem to be well behind us by now, and I told him that he never has to be scared again now that he has a dragon in his room to protect him. Here are some recent photos of Shorty.
My Mom got some amazing photos of Shorty on her iPhone while staying with us this weekend. I think I’m going to switch back to an iPhone sometime in the next year or so.
You can see his neck beard well in this shot. That’s why they’re called Bearded Dragons.
Easter Weekend With Friends
Literally, the day after getting home with Shorty, Jessica’s good friend Jody, and her family, came to stay with us for Easter weekend. Jessica and Jody worked together at a restaurant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa over 20 years ago and have remained close friends ever since. I remember when we first started dating, Jessica traveled back to Iowa for Jody and Dave’s wedding. They also came to our wedding a few years later, but until recently, our families had never spent much time together.
Jody and Dave live in Minneapolis with their 12-year-old son Leo, and their 9-year-old daughter June. They flew to Vegas for vacation recently, rented a car, and spent several days in Utah hiking Bryce Canyon, then came back to Vegas to hang out with us for a few days before heading home. Apparently, they had a brutal winter in Minnesota this year, accumulating 84 inches of snow, so they were definitely ready for some warmth and sunshine.
As expected, our families hit it off instantly. Ava and Leo were inseparable, as were Elise and June, but what was probably the most funny was how close Dave and I became. The similarities between us were uncanny and it got to a point where our wives would just roll their eyes when another one was uncovered. We both work in tech, we both play guitar, we both drive a German sport wagon, we both have a tattoo of a lion on our right shoulder, we both carry a switchblade, we both love a fine whiskey, we have similar tastes in music, movies, and food. We have the same political ideals. It just kept going on and on. By the time they were leaving, I gave him a big hug and said “Sorry Dave, but you’re stuck with me.”
They were only with us for two nights, but it was a blast. We took them to two of our favorite restaurants, plus we all went to the Farrel Dillion Comedy Magic show on Saturday night. Jessica and I had already been to that show once before, and we loved it, so we thought it would be a great time for our families to go together. Like myself at the first show, Leo got pulled up on stage to participate. After the magic show, we took them to the Bellagio to see the Spring garden display and the fountain show.
On Easter morning the kids had fun doing an egg hunt both inside and outside the house, then I made a big brunch for everyone. Afterward, we had time for a nice little walk around the neighborhood before they had to get to the airport. In addition to hitting it off with Dave, I also really enjoyed hanging out with Leo. He’s super into music and playing guitar, so I let him play all of my guitars and amps. We even jammed together a few times and I taught him a few new tricks. I think he had a field day playing with all my stuff, but honestly, the pleasure was all mine. I really hope we get to spend more time with their family again soon. We were so simpatico it was crazy. Here are a few photos from their visit.
The kids on Easter morning
Easter morning brunch
Jessica and Jody
Everyone together before heading out
Activities Galore!
Now that the weather is perfect again, we’ve transitioned into a variety of activities, and everyone seems to be loving them. Jessica, Elise, and Enzo are taking a boxing class on Saturday mornings with an ex-professional boxer who now runs his own gym. He trains professional fighters but also trains anyone else looking to learn the sweet science, as well as get a great workout, improve coordination, and learn some quality self-defense.
Jessica initially signed up just to keep Elise company, because it was Elise who most wanted to try it out. As it turned out, Jessica loved it and convinced Enzo to give it a shot. He now loves it as well, and the whole thing makes me so happy.
Additionally, Ava and Elise have been participating in a rock climbing class at the local rec center and they are really enjoying it. We just signed them up for another session, and at that point, Enzo will be joining them. Enzo has also recently gotten back into swimming lessons, so he’s staying busy. Soon Ava and Elise will also be joining a dance class. It’s important to us that the kids stay busy with a variety of fun and healthy activities, and the enjoyment they’re having is quite obvious. They just seem happier when they have fun things like this to do, even though it can often be a struggle getting them out the door when all they want to do is chill with their iPad.
Elise is loving her new boxing class
Wrapping Up The School Year
Wrapping Up The School Year
We’re only a few weeks away from closing out another year at school. It’s hard to believe how quickly the years fly by, but there is no question that this has been Ava’s best year in elementary school. The timing is perfect too because this is her last year before heading off to middle school. The improvement she has shown in her test scores this year has been nothing short of amazing, and no one (besides Ava) deserves to take more pride in this than Jessica. After receiving the accommodations she needed in school, the results came quickly. She has teachers who believe in her and the numbers are there to back it up.
In all honesty, this year has been an academic struggle for Elise, but once again, Jessica went to bat for her in a big way, and we are now receiving special accommodations for her as well. We’ve had some heart-to-heart talks with Elise lately about school and we can already see the change in her motivation and work ethic. Her teachers are seeing it as well, so we’re hoping for a strong 5th grade for Elise, just like we saw for Ava.
Enzo has been thriving in second grade and his scores are there to prove it. He’s constantly bringing home tests with 100% scores, but more importantly, I love his work ethic. He’s just like me in the sense that he can’t chill until he gets all of his work completed. Every day after school he’s allowed to relax before doing homework, but he always opts to do his homework immediately. Once everything is complete (and perfect), he can sit down and relax.
This year has been a bit more of a challenge for Jessica, simply because she has to be a teacher, and also a Mom, in her classroom, but it’s going well. She absolutely loves her job and plans on staying put for a long time. It makes me so happy to see her doing something she loves, and it’s still crazy to me how our lives have turned out since moving to Henderson.
Changes At Work
Last month I wrote about how my good friend Devin and I recently decided to start a business. If you’re not already familiar with that, I encourage you to check out the post. Since then, we’ve made a lot of progress and are now close to completing our LLC filing. We decided on the name Cappers, which is short for handicappers and have registered the domain name cappers.ai. Considering the popularity of artificial intelligence, we have decided to brand our business as the AI sports handicapping site. I’ve been hard at work building out a huge database of sports stats for our AI models to consume. Devin has been doing a lot of market research and financial modeling. Everything continues to look good and we’re very bullish on our business model. It’s going to take time before we’re production-ready, but we’re definitely on track and I look forward to providing more updates on this in the near future.
In addition to all the Cappers work I’m doing, I also decided to make a change to my day job. Friday, March 31st was my last day at Microsoft! After eight years I decided it was time for a change, mainly because during my last two years in Teams I was moving further and further into data science, which is an area that I’m simply not passionate about. Due to the Microsoft hiring freeze, I wasn’t able to find a different internal role related to web development, which is my (work) passion, but I did find an excellent opportunity with a company called eviCore, which is a subsidiary of Cigna, in the healthcare industry.
As I’ve learned, the healthcare industry is pretty much recession-proof, which is nice considering how topsy-turvy big tech has been over the past year. There are so many layoffs going on, so when you combine that stress with the stress of not liking the work you’re doing, it gets really tough. I’ve never really prioritized my own mental health because I’ve always been focused on the well-being of my family, but it got to a point where it was destroying me, and those effects were clearly trickling down to my loved ones.
The main reason I started building the website that would become the basis for Cappers was that I missed web development and didn’t want to lose those skills. The main reason I took this new role at eviCore was that the C# and .NET web development work they were hiring me for were extremely similar to the work Devin and I are doing. I knew working with a new group of talented engineers in this space would make me stronger, and consequently, I’m already loving it. I’ve only been there a couple of weeks, but I was lucky enough to land on an awesome team and the company culture is amazing. It’s way less stressful than I’m used to, and we basically only work a 4.5-day workweek. We have something called “Flex Fridays” where, as long as you’re caught up with your work, you get to spend the second half of each Friday learning or working on anything you like.
As far as the work we do, it’s basically all based around providing portals for hospitals and doctor’s offices to use in making determinations on whether medical procedures should be approved or denied. We process millions of these requests from various medical providers each day, and working in the medical industry has already proven to be quite interesting to me. Again, it’s recession-proof, and not having the pressure of meeting Wall Street’s expectations each quarter, and not having to keep up with the pace of consumer innovation has been a huge relief.
The company is based in Nashville, meaning they are two hours ahead of me. My team has a daily meeting at 9:00 am central time, which is 7:00 am for me, but I love it because I work from home, so all I have to do is get on the computer each morning by 7:00, and I’m able to wrap up my work day between 3:30 and 4:00. Jessica and the kids get home from school each day around 3:30, so it’s perfect.
After spending over a decade working at two of the biggest companies in the world, I kinda felt like a free agent. I was ready for a change and going to a smaller company with less stress was extremely appealing. eviCore has over 2,500 employees, so it’s not like they’re a small company, but Microsoft has a quarter million employees, so this is literally 99% smaller. Anything would feel small after all these years at Microsoft and Amazon, and I feel like I’ve earned it. My stress is down and my quality of life is up, and again, this all trickles down to my family.
Summary
I know this was a very long post, so if you’ve made it this far, thank you for sticking with me. Again, we’ve got a lot more good stuff to look forward to, so I’m already looking forward to next month’s post. This Thursday night, the Vanderburg school choir, which Ava and Elise have been a part of this whole year, will be singing the National Anthem at the Las Vegas Aviators baseball game. Nana will be joining us for the game, then the next day is Jessica’s birthday.
I’m so thankful for all the good stuff we’ve had going on lately, and equally as excited for what’s to come. Here are a few more recent photos from this awesome month. See you in May!
Ava with her new “pan hat”
The kids recently had a “Career Day” at school. Elise was a Real Estate agent, Enzo was a basketball player, and Ava was a scientist.
Last weekend we had a blast taking the kids to see the new Super Mario Bros movie in the theater.
Ava’s special 5th-grade photo. I can’t believe she’s about to move on to middle school.
An update on our 2023 Spring Break, including upcoming activities, preparing for a new family pet, and a few other exciting bits.
Since today is the last day of Spring Break, I wanted to give a quick update on how we’re doing and what we’ve recently been up to. We had plans to visit the Grand Canyon for Spring Break this year but unfortunately, that didn’t work out for a couple of reasons. That’s okay though; we live in a fun place with all kinds of things to do, so we decided to stay near home this year.
I don’t want to dwell on this, but part of the reason we didn’t go anywhere for Spring Break was that I ended up getting Covid-19 and had to quarantine from Jessica and the kids for about a week. That was no fun but I’m thankful that it wasn’t worse and most importantly, that I didn’t give it to Jessica and the kids. It’s possible that I got it from Jessica because she was experiencing similar symptoms about a week before me, but she never took a test so we can’t be sure.
The most disappointing part about getting Covid was the timing. Our good friends Tiko and Tina were married on Monday and I wasn’t able to join Jessica and the kids at the wedding. I also wasn’t able to attend Tiko’s bachelor party a couple of days before the wedding. I was pretty sad about this but there was nothing I could do besides stay home and rest. Luckily I was able to watch the ceremony online from a webcast provided by the chapel, so at least I can picture it, but I really wanted to be there with my family and friends. I managed to avoid Covid for three years, then it finally caught up to me at an unfortunate time, but all things considered, I can’t complain too much. I’m feeling totally fine now, and again, the kids never got it, which I’m most thankful for.
Since I was home quarantining, the kids spent several days of their Spring Break at my Mom’s house. Once again, having her help with the kids has been huge for us. She takes them on so many fun outings that Ava is now planning on writing a book about her adventures with Nana. My Mom often takes them to pet stores to view and hold various animals, but this time she took them to a full-blown farm where they were able to feed and play with all kinds of animals. She also took them to one of our favorite indoor trampoline places for a day of jumping and exercise. Ava smacked her face on a wall and has a bit of a black eye, but she’s fine.
School starts back up tomorrow, then we have several activities beginning shortly after. Unfortunately, Ava’s softball season was canceled due to not enough kids signing up. I tried to get her into another league but it was too late. We were all bummed about this, but we found some other activities to jump into. The kids are all resuming swimming lessons on Friday, plus Jessica and Elise will soon be starting a boxing class. Elise has been interested in trying out boxing for a while now and we thought doing it with Mom would make it even better.
Here’s a video the kids made for their YouTube channel taste-testing a few drinks from Starbucks.
Ready for the wedding!The wedding reception was held at the Cosmopolitan Buffet. This was their first buffet and let’s just say the kids were big fans.
Preparing for a new family pet
We’ve been taking care of Jessica and Ava’s class pet, a leopard gecko named Mochi, during Spring Break. This is Mochi’s second time staying with us and we really enjoy having a lizard at the house. I’ve been wanting a bearded dragon for well over a decade at this point and I’m now happy to say that we have decided to get one! Jessica was never into the idea of having a reptile but after caring for Mochi she has changed her tune a bit. It’s still going to be my pet and I’ll be responsible for most of its care, but I’m cool with that. I look forward to having it on my shoulder while I finish up my work days at home.
I’ve been doing a lot of research on caring for “Beardies” and today I bought a home for it. It’s a 120-gallon tank, which is 4’x2’x2’ and we’re going to put it in Enzo’s bedroom. He has a huge room and loves the idea of keeping the dragon in there. I look forward to providing more updates on this soon, but at the moment we’re just starting the process.
Ava holding her buddy Mochi
A football game with Uncle Bob
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with my Uncle Bob at the XFL football game between the Seattle Seadragons and the Las Vegas Vipers. Bob and I have had a lot of great times over the years but for a variety of reasons, we haven’t been able to spend that much time together since my family and I moved to Nevada. I reached out to him at the end of January for his birthday to see if we could set something up and he got back to me a couple of weeks later once he saw Seattle was going to be playing Vegas.
Bob is the biggest Seattle Seahawks fan I know and has gone to great lengths to prove it. His whole SUV is covered with Seahawks paraphernalia and is even painted Seahawks colors. Based on his love for Seattle he has adopted the Seadragons as his favorite XFL team, but he pulls for the Vipers as well. Once he saw Seattle was coming to Las Vegas, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to catch a game.
We had a great time, especially during the fourth quarter when Seattle made an incredible comeback to win the game in the final minute. Not to sound dramatic, but as we get older I try not to take experiences like these for granted. No one knows what the future has in store, but that day was just like old times. It was a day we’ll never forget and I look forward to doing more things like this in the near future. We’re already planning a Las Vegas Aviators baseball game for this Spring or Summer. Here’s a video I made for the Vegas Showbiz YouTube channel about our experience.
Ready for the game with Uncle Bob!
Starting a small business
Another piece of exciting news that I have to share is that my good friend Devin and I have decided to start a business together. Back in September, I started getting interested in sports gambling. Obviously, considering what my Dad did for a living, this was something that I had a lot of familiarity with from my childhood. I never got into gambling while living in Washington, but here in Nevada it’s hugely popular, and more states are legalizing it all the time.
What I realized very quickly was that I’m not interested in gambling large amounts (my average bet is only $10), but what I am really into is the handicapping process. I started researching sports handicapping methods and gambling systems, but what I soon found out was that handicapping a game is a time-consuming process. A lot of research is required to see how teams have been performing, then a lot of math is required to crunch all the numbers and see if an edge can be found. Based on all of my programming experience, it was immediately obvious to me that I could significantly speed up the whole process by building a website that would consume all the data for each team and run all the math formulas.
I started building the website back in November and have barely missed a day of working on it since then. Even when we were in Colorado for Christmas break I was working on it daily. I didn’t initially intend for it to be a business; I just wanted to speed up my own handicapping process, plus I love doing web development but don’t get a chance to do that type of work anymore during my day job.
It didn’t take long, however, before I started seeing the value of what I was creating. What started out as a single NBA handicapping system soon started growing into much more. I was buying books and reading articles to learn new gambling systems. Before I knew it I was adding NHL gambling systems, then getting ready for baseball season.
Devin and I are very similar in many ways, and one of those ways is that we both like small-stakes sports gambling. I was regularly sharing my progress on the site with him and soon enough we decided to sit down and talk about the idea of turning it into a business. He is the most successful entrepreneur I know and the timing was right because he was just getting ready for his next venture. He’s been a Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of two startups, so his goal as the next step of his career was to take on the CEO role for a startup. This made perfect sense to me because I’m not ready to take on that kind of role, and I really wanted to stay heavily engaged on the coding and technical side of things. Thus, we’re 50/50 partners, with Devin being the CEO and me as the CTO.
We made the official decision to start a company earlier this month and have been very busy getting things going. Obviously, I can’t leave my day job anytime soon, so I’m working day and night to make this happen, but it’s worth it for me. We haven’t finalized a name for the business yet, but we’re doing our research and should be settling on that very soon. Part of that selection process has to do with whether a name can be trademarked and incorporated, and if a website domain name is available. Devin is focusing on all that stuff while I stay busy making updates to the website. Our goal is to have a soft launch before the MLB All-Star break, then have things fully up and running by the start of the next NFL season.
There’s a ton of work to do, but we see the potential and think it will be very successful. Devin is so bright with business ideas and has already come up with some great strategies. I couldn’t be more happy or lucky to have him as a partner, but our friendship always comes first. We’ve been close for a long time and we don’t want to let any of that change. It’s going to be a fun road and I look forward to sharing more about it as things progress.
I also want to stress that Vegas Showbiz isn’t going anywhere! The girls are already asking when they can take it over, but that won’t be for several years. We’re still regularly posting videos and just today we reached 500 subscribers.
That’s about it for now. I’m looking forward to our next monthly post because I assume there will be a lot to share. We have two different families who we are friends with that will be coming for a visit in April, so that should be fun. Jessica’s birthday is coming up at the end of April and I’m taking her to see Chelsea Handler’s comedy show that night, then the next day she’s heading off to Sedona Arizona to spend a weekend with her girlfriends from Seattle. Hopefully, by the next post, I’ll have more information to share about the business, as well as our bearded dragon. Here’s a few recent photos.
An update on a very busy February, 2023 for the Pellegrini family.
Between school, sports, and various family outings, February 2023 has been a busy month for our family. I’d say the activity keeping us the busiest this month has been preparing and raising funds for the “Apex Fun Run” at school. To everyone who helped them out with a donation, thank you so much for your support; they surpassed their goals and ended up raising a total of $600 for their school! Today the kids will be working on thank you notes and pictures, so you can expect to receive those sometime soon.
The final step in their fundraising efforts took place on President’s Day when we set up a family lemonade stand at the park across the street from our neighborhood. They had done the same thing last year for a school fundraiser and did quite well, so we decided to give it another shot. We were all off that day for the holiday, so I decided to help out. We offered cookies and glasses of lemonade for $1 each.
The first hour was slow, but things picked up between noon and 1:00. Several neighbors stopped by, and we were even lucky enough to be paid a visit by 3 Henderson motorcycle police officers. I couldn’t believe the generosity of these officers; they each had a cookie and a glass of lemonade, but the first one gave us a $5 bill and said to keep the change, then the next one gave us a $10, and the final one gave us a $20! None of them would accept any change, and they were so friendly. We thanked them not only for their donations but for everything they do to keep us safe. In fact, I just saw this week that Henderson once again ranked as one of the top five safest cities in the United States. The only cities ranked ahead of us were Virginia Beach and Honolulu. I like to think of us as the safest non-beach city in the country 🙂
Again, thank you to everyone for your support. Whether you donated or not, the fact that you’re reading this indicates that you probably care about our family, and we thank you for that! Each of the kids ran around 30 laps, and even though the laps were about half the length of a standard lap on a track, they still got a lot of activity and exercise that day. They were all very proud of their fundraising achievements, and I have to admit it was a lot of fun helping out with the lemonade stand. We were all holding up signs and waving at cars. It felt good to help them out, and I was really impressed with how much they raised. I never came anywhere close to that for my own fundraisers as a kid. Here are a few photos from the whole experience.
In addition to our lemonade stand, President’s Day weekend was really fun and busy for us. That Friday night, we took the kids to the theater to see the new Ant-Man movie, then on Saturday morning, Ava had her softball tryouts. She was nervous but did great, especially in her batting evaluation. You get five pitches, and she hit solid line drives on the first four. She missed the fifth one, but it was a terrible pitch. She also did really well when fielding grounders and left excited for the upcoming season.
After that, we all headed down to the Bellagio to check out this year’s Lunar New Year display. As usual, it was beautiful and so intricately laid out. I made a video of it for the Vegas Showbiz YouTube channel, which you can see below.
After the Bellagio, we checked out a new vegan restaurant, then went on a little appliance shopping spree. Several of the appliances at our house are pretty old (perhaps even original), so we decided to upgrade our washing machine and dishwasher with brand-new, top-of-the-line G.E. appliances. Eventually, we would like to replace others as well, but these two were the most in need of a replacement for now.
As a homeowner, there are always new projects in mind, but the biggest one I’m looking at next is a cool pool deck surface out back. Currently, it’s all concrete which is painted dark brown, and it gets insanely hot during the Summer. It’s way too hot to walk around without shoes or sandals. I’ve been to people’s houses who had an epoxy pool decking surface applied, and the difference is incredible. It reduces the temperature by about 35 degrees, making it no problem to walk around barefoot. As swimming season approaches, I’m hoping to have someone out for an estimate sometime soon.
For now, however, the water is still freezing, and it feels like swimming season is a ways off. February tends to be our coldest month of the year here in Southern Nevada, but I’ll refrain from complaining because I know almost everyone else has it way worse during the winter. Our house gets really cold during the daytime, but I don’t turn on the furnace until Jessica and the kids are about to get home from school. It doesn’t make sense for me to heat the whole house, or even the whole first floor, when I’m spending almost the entire day in the office. My Mom gave me a heat lamp a few months ago, so I just have that thing pointing at me all day. The cats have fallen in love with it, and it seems like one or both of them is always lying on my lap while I’m working.
I can barely reach the keyboard with both cats in my lap!
The most extreme type of weather we get during the Winter and Spring is wind. Most people don’t realize how windy it gets here. Earlier this week, we were getting warnings on our phones about 70mph winds, and it was no joke. I thought our house was going to blow away! The next morning I came out to the backyard to assess the damage, and it looked like someone had taken a wheelbarrow full of dirt and leaves and dumped it all into our pool. As you can imagine, getting it cleaned up was not fun, but welcome to life as an outdoor pool owner.
Earlier this month, we had a fun little house guest for the weekend. Jessica’s classroom was due for a new class pet, so we went and picked up a cute fancy-tailed Gecko named Mochi. I have wanted a pet lizard since our first year of marriage, but it was always a hard no for Jessica. She’s not into reptiles and couldn’t stand the thought of feeding them live insects. I totally get it and haven’t pushed the issue, but to my surprise, she really gravitated toward Mochi. Spencer was somewhat interested, but it didn’t last long. Peach, on the other hand, was totally infatuated with Mochi and sat next to the tank staring at her for at least two hours. It sounds like Mochi will be coming back to stay with us during school breaks, and I have regained hope that maybe someday I’ll finally get my bearded dragon.
Spencer and Mochi getting acquainted.Peach enjoying some rare backyard time.
On the night before the Superbowl, Jessica and I met up with friends for dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant, then we all went to the Black Crowes concert at the Palms. I’ve been a fan of theirs for a long time but didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to see them live due to their breakup many years ago. Luckily, the Robinson brothers seem to have worked out their issues and started touring again last year. The show was outstanding, and the video I made for Vegas Showbiz was our quickest to reach 2,000 views.
Speaking of Vegas Showbiz, we are now just shy of 500 subscribers. The only remaining requirement for us to qualify for the YouTube partner program is to have 1,000 subscribers. I never thought it would be so difficult to get 1,000 subscribers, but the good news is that our videos are getting plenty of views and hours watched. The channel turned a year old earlier this month, and during that time, our videos have gotten over 5,600 hours of view time!
You only need 4,000 hours of view time during the previous 12 months to qualify for the partner program, so we’re looking good on that end. I’m hoping it won’t take another year to get to 1,000 subscribers, but even if it does, I’m fine with it because I know we will get there eventually, and there’s a market for the content we produce. Once we get into the partner program, we will finally be able to start profiting from our videos. At this point, I have a good idea of what’s going to get views and what won’t, so I look forward to using the money we make from the channel to go out and do more fun stuff to document.
Regarding school, the kids have all been staying busy. Ava and Elise have been especially busy, however; they’re still doing choir before school every Tuesday morning, and now they’re both involved in the sign language club. “Girls on the Run” is about to get started for the second time this school year, which they’re excited about, and Elise is enjoying being a part of the school drama club. I always loved doing school drama as a kid, so it makes me proud and excited to see her doing the same thing.
As I write this, it’s the final weekend of February, and it’s a relatively quiet one for us. The main highlight was yesterday when I took the kids to the women’s UNLV basketball game versus San Diego State. It’s funny because we used to live less than 10 minutes from the SDSU campus when Ava was a baby, and now we’re so close to UNLV. It was the first time Ava or Elise attended a basketball game, and we all had a nice time. Jessica was able to get four free tickets through the school district, and this was the final home game of the season. UNLV ended up winning by 6 points, and everyone left happy. I’m hoping to take the kids to see our WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces play this season, as well as check out the NBA Summer Hoops, which happens every Summer here in Vegas. We still love hockey, but watching and going to basketball games has been a nice addition for us this year. Here’s a photo of the kids at the game.
Go Lady Rebels!
I guess that’s about it for now. As you can tell, February has been a busy month for us. Combine that with the fact that everyone in our house except Enzo has had a cold this month. It seems like there’s always something going on or something to deal with. Spring Break is coming up next month, and we’ve talked about making a trip to the Grand Canyon, but so far, no planning has taken place, so I’m not sure how that’s going to turn out. I’m sure we’ll do something one way or the other.
As always, thanks for checking in on us! If anyone wants to make a visit this Spring or Summer and soak up some hot weather and sunshine, just let us know. I’ll have the pool ready for you 😉
An update on Enzo’s 8th birthday, including his party at home, then our big night out at the UNLV basketball game.
Yesterday the awesome Mr. Enzo turned eight years old! Normally I like to write a family blog post on the day of our kids’ birthdays, but this time it wasn’t possible due to the big night out Enzo and I had on his birthday evening. Since his birthday fell on a Saturday this year, we were able to have his party at home on the day of his actual birthday. It was a bit chaotic, as many of his friends from school were able to attend, but he had a great time.
Earlier that morning, he opened presents from family, and that’s when I finally broke the news to him that we would be attending the UNLV basketball game later that night. Over the past few months, Enzo has grown a love for the game of basketball, and he regularly asks me if someday I could take him to a game. Once I saw that UNLV was playing a home game versus their rival, the University of Nevada Reno, on the night of his birthday, I splurged a bit by purchasing great seats for the game. I originally thought they were in the third row because our tickets say Row C, but it was more like midway up in the first level. The seats were still excellent, though.
Enzo with his new basketball and UNLV t-shirt from Uncle Jim and Aunt Brenda
I’ve only been to one other college basketball game in my life, which was when Jessica and I went to a San Diego State game many years ago featuring a young Kawaii Leonard, who would later become a huge NBA star. When I broke the news to Enzo, he gave me the biggest hug and wouldn’t let go. You can see it in the video I made for his birthday. I was a little surprised at just how happy he was about it, and I got a little choked up by his response.
We arrived an hour before gametime so we could take our time walking around the Thomas & Mack Center and check everything out. We watched the teams during shoot around and went down to the court level to take a few photos. The atmosphere during the game was electric. Between the fans, UNLV students, the band, the cheerleaders, and the halftime entertainment, there was never a dull moment.
It was a back-and-forth game, but UNLV ultimately won by 6 points. We were cheering as loud as we could, and consequently, my voice is pretty hoarse today. Jessica made Enzo a sign that said “It’s my birthday” on one side and “Go Rebels” on the other. Enzo was really hoping to get on the jumbotron, and as fate would have it, we ended up on it four times throughout the game! All the people around us knew it was his birthday due to his sign, so every time the camera would start showing people in the crowd, everyone around us would point at Enzo, who was usually up dancing and waving his sign around.
There were so many people wishing him a happy birthday as they walked by, and the cutest part was that he kept count of them. By the time we left, his count had reach 20 people. As we walked back to the car he told me this was his best birthday yet. Nothing could have brought me more joy.
As far as his birthday party goes, it was a great day. As usual, Jessica deserves a ton of credit for making it happen. She always comes up with great ideas for activities, and she got a cake with his face printed on it, which was a request by Enzo. We had a piñata outside, but Enzo didn’t want to wear a blindfold, so it didn’t last long enough for each kid to have a turn hitting it. They all got plenty of candy though, so I don’t think any of them were too upset. We also set up a little photo studio in the house and had all kinds of masks for the kids to wear in their pictures.
There were more kids at the party than we were expecting, and it was getting a little crazy having all of them inside our house at the same time, so after everyone finished their cake Jessica took them to the park by our neighborhood to let them burn off energy. I’m not nearly as good as Jessica when it comes to dealing with other people’s kids, but I always love chatting with the parents. You always get to meet such friendly new people, so it really was a great day.
This is the most personalized birthday cake I’ve ever seen!
Since Enzo and I were going to the game, Ava and Elise ended up going home with Nana for a sleepover. This meant Jessica had the place to herself for the evening. I felt bad about that and would have gladly gotten her a ticket to the basketball game, but I didn’t know then that the girls would end up at Nana’s house. It’s all good, though; she worked so hard to make the house look perfect and deserved a nice quiet night with zero responsibilities.
Overall it was a great day for Enzo. I remember being about the same age when my dad took me to my first basketball game. We went to see the Super Sonics play, and I loved every minute of it. I also remember after the game, we were walking back to our car, and my dad tripped on one of those concrete bumpers they put in parking spaces to keep you from pulling too far forward. He slammed his shoulder into the bumper of another car ahead of us and really hurt himself. At that time, we lived about 30 minutes south of Seattle, and he had to drive us home in a lot of pain. It wasn’t the greatest way to end the evening, but here we are about 35 years later, and I still remember it like it was yesterday.
Obviously, it was very special for me to be able to come full circle and have the same type of experience with Enzo. Luckily this particular evening didn’t result in any injuries, but you never know with our family. I’ll never forget spending the night of my 42nd birthday with Enzo at the emergency room, getting stitches in his forehead after he tripped and fell head-first during our pool party.
Before I move on, I just want to say how much I love my son and how proud Jessica and I are of him. Like his sisters, he’s an amazing kid whom I couldn’t imagine life without. Although we try not to focus too much on grades and test scores, I’m very proud to say that Enzo recently scored in the 98th percentile nationally in math. He’s literally in the top 2% in the United States for math at his age! Regardless of that, he’s just an awesome kid, and I couldn’t be luckier as a father to call him my son.
Other Family Updates
January has been a good month for us. While we had a great time during the holiday break, everyone was ready to return to their routine and see their friends again at school. Ava and Elise have been staying busy with various school activities; they continue to enjoy participating in the school choir, and they’re excited to get back into “Girls on the Run,” which is a running program held by the school for girls only. Elise did it earlier in the school year and loved it, so now Ava will join her for the Spring session.
Speaking of Spring, softball season is coming soon, and Ava plans to play again this year. She really enjoyed it last year, and we all like hanging out at the ballpark during that time of year because the weather is so perfect here. We’re also going to get Enzo back into swimming lessons soon. Even though he loves shooting hoops at home (we recently set up a hoop in the backyard), he says he doesn’t want to play on a team and would rather focus on swimming as his main sport. I’m all for it and love taking him to the pool, so hopefully, it won’t be too long before he’s ready for his first swimming team. I’m also going to encourage him to try diving, but we’ll see how it turns out.
In addition to running, Elise is really interested in trying out boxing, so we’re going to look for a gym for her. Las Vegas is known as the fight capital of the world, so we should be able to find something. We have gloves here at home, and I often hold pads for her to hit. She’s very strong, and I honestly think boxing would be great for her self-confidence.
Before Winter comes to a close, we’re hoping to do a day of skiing/snowboarding/inner-tubing up at the Brian Head ski resort in Utah. It’s only about three hours from the house, so we could do a day trip with no problem. It sounds like Uncle Brad is going to join us since he used to be a ski and snowboard instructor. I love the idea of exposing the kids to winter sports, even though we live in the desert 😉
We’re also planning our first family trip to the Grand Canyon for this year’s Spring Break. Once again, it’s only a few hours from the house, and the kids are now old enough to appreciate it, so there’s no reason not to go. Neither Jessica nor I have ever been there, so we’re looking forward to it. One of the things I loved about moving to Nevada was that it opened up so many new possibilities for road trips. There are plenty of places in this great country of ours that I’ve still never gotten to see, so we’re not wasting time checking them off our bucket list.
A Visit from Grandma and Grandpa Rudd
Last weekend we were fortunate enough to get to spend a bunch of time with Grandma and Grandpa Rudd, who were out visiting from Iowa. Rick had a work conference in Las Vegas, so they decided to come a few days early and spend the weekend with us. We went bowling one day, then Rick and I assembled the basketball hoop the next day. They took the kids out shopping and Enzo got a new pair of Nike’s that have become his new favorite sneaks.
We’re always thankful when family comes to visit, and luckily, it won’t be long before we get our next visit. My cousin Kristy and her husband Gilberto are coming to Vegas next weekend in celebration of his birthday. Jessica and I are really excited to take them to a fancy vegetarian restaurant called Saffron. We ate there last year for our anniversary and loved it so much that we made a Vegas Showbiz video about it. It’s one of those places where the food looks like art, the ambiance is beautiful, and the service is top-notch. It’s going to be a great weekend.
Wrapping Up
As always, I couldn’t be more thankful for the lives we have created. I know we’ve worked hard for it, but that doesn’t always guarantee anything. Jessica and I sometimes have to pinch ourselves because we can’t believe how everything has turned out. Ultimately though, you could take away the house, the cars, and all the experiences, and I know that we would still be very happy because we have each other. Nothing is more important to us than our family, and it’s days like this that keep everything in perspective. Happy 8th birthday Enzo. We love you so much!!!
All about our Christmas 2022 road trip to Colorado. We spent a week at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in the mountains, playing in the snow and enjoying the season.
Our family recently returned from a week at Grandma and Grandpa Martin’s home in the Colorado Rocky mountains! We hadn’t been to their place in a few years, and the kids were really hoping for a white Christmas this year, so we decided to make a road trip out of it. Most of our time up there was spent playing in the snow, sledding, ice skating, and lounging around the house.
It’s a 725-mile drive between our homes, and I was able to do it in about 11 hours both times. We left our home in Henderson at 3:45 am on Tuesday, December 20, with the goal of arriving at Grandma and Grandpa’s house before dark. The drive was surprisingly easy until you start ascending the Rocky Mountains. You basically just take I-15 north out of Las Vegas, which then dips through the northwest corner of Arizona for about 20 minutes before taking you into Utah. Once you’re halfway up Utah, you get on I-70 East, which takes you all the way up into the Rockies.
We’ve never done this drive before because almost all of our road trips involve going to California, but I have to say, this was one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever experienced. Central Utah has the most incredible natural rock formations I’ve ever seen, and that was just what was visible from the freeway! I have to say; I really like Utah. Every time I’m there, it seems like they have the friendliest people and some of the cleanest public bathrooms, plus the roads are always empty, and gas is cheap. We couldn’t believe how little traffic there was in Utah on both ends of our trip. The same could not be said for Colorado or Nevada.
Once you get into Western Colorado, it’s still a couple hundred miles before you get into the Rocky Mountains. This was our first time ascending the Rockies from the west side because we normally always fly into Denver, then drive up into the mountains coming from the east. This was my first time seeing Vail, which looked beautiful. By the time you reach Grandma and Grandpa’s house, you have crossed four or five mountain passes, so you really need to be alert for the final stretch of that drive. They live 15 miles up a private mountain road, and that stretch of driving is by far the most intense part of the trip. That’s why I insisted on leaving so early and arriving before dark. It worked out perfectly, too; we arrived right at sunset, and just over 24 hours later, a major snowstorm rolled through.
Taking in the beautiful sights of Utah during a quick rest stop
Getting Settled at Grandma and Grandpa’s house
Our first full day in Colorado was spent at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Actually, every day except one was spent at their house because it’s a bit of a production going into town was this big of a group because you have to take two cars down (and back up) the mountain. On that first day, we mostly just went sledding and played in the snow. They have an epic snow hill on a private road adjacent to their property. Since it’s not a county road and no mail/delivery trucks will go down it during the snowy season, the neighbors all regularly groom it for sledding.
From the sledder’s perspective, the best part about it is that you don’t have to walk back up the hill after each run. We bring four-wheelers over there and give everyone a ride back up the hill, which became my defacto job the whole time we were there. I enjoy riding the four-wheelers in the snow and spinning around, but I have to admit, there were times when it would lose traction and start to slide down the hill, causing me to slightly panic because it reminds me of the time I totaled my car in the snow. Everything was fine, though. We had a few sledding collisions at the bottom of the hill, but nothing serious.
Doing my four-wheeler duties during a sledding session.
Besides sledding, another activity we did several times throughout the week was taking a hay ride around the neighborhood behind Grandpa’s tractor. Tom is a very talented mechanic who loves to keep busy with various projects. He found this old tractor abandoned in the woods. It didn’t run and was in pretty sorry shape then, but he brought it home, fixed it all up, and painted it; now it runs like a champ and looks great!
The whole area around their property is like a private winter wonderland. We really enjoyed riding around and getting a tour of the whole area. The key is to do it in the right weather. Obviously, it always appears cold out there due to all the snow, but the temperature swings that we experienced during our week there were extreme. After the big storm hit, we experienced night-time lows that were about five below zero. The day after the storm, it was in the single digits all day, and it was way too cold to do anything outside. Ava and I went sledding for a little bit, but within an hour, we had to come inside because of the extreme cold.
For comparison’s sake, we had other days during the trip that reached the mid-thirties. I realize that also sounds cold, but when you’re dressed for an outdoor winter outing, anything above thirty degrees feels pretty warm. Those were the days when we spent a lot more time outdoors.
The view from a hayride on Grandpa’s tractor
Ice Skating at Keystone
Our one big outing of the trip came on Christmas Eve when we went to the Keystone ski resort for some outdoor ice skating. They have the country’s largest outdoor ice skating rink, and this was our second time going there. We went there during our last Colorado Christmas trip, and at that time, I was playing hockey regularly, so we skated a lot more, and I was able to get into a pickup hockey game.
This time we took it a lot slower because we were out of practice with skating. That said, I was impressed with Ava’s skating, considering she hadn’t been on the ice in about a year. All the years of hockey practice have done her well, and it was great seeing her out on the ice again. We’re still holding out hope that she decides to get back into hockey, but we wouldn’t force it on her. That last team was too intense, but maybe we can find a better option.
Elise and Enzo aren’t as comfortable on the ice as Ava, but they both did great out there. At first, Elise used bars to hold onto, but I couldn’t believe how fast she would get going with them. Eventually, she started skating without the bars and did very well. Enzo also had a lot of fun out there, but I think his favorite part was to get going fast, then drop and slide on the ice as far as possible.
Skating out there on a frozen lake is way different than skating in an indoor ice arena. First of all, lake ice is much harder than arena ice, and you can feel the difference in the blades of your skates. Next, and this is actually the bigger differentiator, is that the lake ice has big divots where chunks of ice are missing. I ended up falling once out there because the toe of my skate went into a divot. You really have to watch where you’re going, but the divots are easy to miss, and if you hit one the wrong way, you’re definitely going to fall. I was skating pretty carefully due to the fact that I was out of practice and not wearing any protective gear besides a helmet, so I felt lucky coming out of there with only one fall.
I’ll admit it can be a little scary because the lake ice has these huge cracks going all the way down. You can see that the ice is about three feet thick, and obviously, falling through would most likely be fatal, but they groom it with a full-sized Zamboni. Those things probably weigh more than a car, so if the ice can hold that thing, I don’t think there’s too much to worry about.
We should start going skating as a family more often. We were doing it regularly for a while back in Washington, and there are plenty of options now that we live in Nevada. It’s a fun, healthy activity for everyone, and it’s safe as long as you wear the appropriate gear.
Ava and Mom out on the ice
Christmas morning
We were up early, as expected, on Christmas morning. Grandma had picked out matching pajamas for everyone, we had a nice fire going, and the kids were super excited to open their presents. Everyone was very happy; the kids each received some new clothes, Pokemon trading cards, and a big Pokemon wallet to hold all their cards. Elise got a hoverboard, then Ava and Enzo got attachable seats for their hoverboards. There were several other things as well, but the biggest gift for each kid was a brand-new iPad.
They had been using the kids’ Kindle Fire tablets for the past two years, and we felt like it was time for them to graduate onto a premium device. We got each iPad engraved with their name and an emoji that suits them. Ava’s has a heart, Elise’s has a unicorn, and Enzo’s has a thumbs up. They were thrilled with them and continue to thank us daily. These are by far the nicest devices they have ever used.
The rest of the day was spent hanging around the house, getting into our new stuff, playing games, and cooking. My Mom got me a really cool drone for my birthday this year, so I brought it along for the trip. On Christmas afternoon, I went out to fly it around their property and got some great footage of their property. Once again, Ava helped me by controlling the camera from my phone while I controlled the drone. The whole time we were there, I was working on a family Christmas video, which you can find below, and the aerial drone footage ended up being the end of my video.
Matching pajamas!I swear I didn’t Photoshop myself into this picture
Heading back to Nevada
The day after Christmas was our last full day in Colorado. It was also the warmest day of the trip, so we spent several hours outside sledding, riding snowmobiles, hiking, and taking tractor rides. It was a very fun and fitting way to end the visit. Then, like the week before it, Tuesday was our day of driving.
I honestly think I could have been a long-haul trucker because I love road trips. Just like on the way there, I had no problem driving us the whole way home in one day. I like being out there on the highway, taking in all the sights, and I like truck stops. You don’t realize how vast and empty much of our country is until you get out there and drive through it.
Getting out of the Rocky mountains was the hardest part of the drive, only because you don’t want to wear out your brakes as you descend the mountain, so you have to be comfortable with downshifting and engine braking. Once again, we had the Utah highways mostly to ourselves. The roads and highways were much busier in Colorado and Nevada than those in Utah.
We were home a bit after dark, and our cats were so happy to see us. We missed them a lot, but they were fine while we were gone. We had a neighbor come over a few times, and my Mom was nice enough to make the drive to check on them once.
As always, you enjoy the trip, and then you’re happy to be home sleeping in your own bed. We all don’t go back to work/school until Tuesday, January 3rd, so it’s nice to have a few days at home to get stuff done before getting back into the routine.
To all our family and friends, happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and happy new year! Here’s the video I mentioned about our trip, as well as some of my favorite photos from Christmas 2022. See you next year!
Opening stockings on Christmas EveAva and Enzo on a hayride with GrandpaStockings!Thank you for hosting us, Grandma and Grandpa.
An update on Ava’s 11th birthday, Thanksgiving, and our upcoming holiday plans.
Today the amazingly awesome Miss Ava turns 11 years old! It’s hard to believe we’ve been parents for 11 years, but watching Ava and her siblings grow up has already been an unbelievable ride. While today is Ava’s actual birthday, we decided to hold her birthday party last weekend because we figured everyone would be busy during Thanksgiving weekend.
The party was held at our home on Saturday afternoon. 17 of Ava’s friends, plus another eight adults, were all over for about three hours. Ava is a big fan of the Dog Man book series, so we used that as her party’s theme. The party included a Dog Man trivia game, a version of “Pin the tail on the donkey” called “Pin the badge on Dog Man,” sandwiches from Subway (Ava’s favorite), and a chocolate-caramel ice cream cake, per Ava’s request. She called it one of the best days of her life, which was great to hear, but no one deserves more credit for this than Jessica. The amount of work she puts into the kids’ birthday parties is always unbelievable, and this one was no exception.
Here’s the video I made from Ava’s birthday partyAva taking her turn at Pin the badge on Dog Man
Today Nana stopped by the house to wish Ava a happy birthday and visit a bit. Her birthday is exactly one month before Christmas, so it always signals the start of the holiday season. Speaking of holidays, yesterday was Thanksgiving, which we held for the second consecutive year in our new home. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make plans with family for Thanksgiving this year, mainly because Jessica and I have been so busy lately that we forgot to set everything up. Luckily, our friends Tiko, Tina and their daughters Helen and Bea were able to come over and spend the day with us.
I made roasted garlic mashed potatoes, sourdough stuffing, vegetable gravy, sauteed green beans, and a vegan turkey loaf filled with cranberry stuffing. My buddy Tiko really wanted to make mac ‘n cheese because he hasn’t had dairy in forever, along with a cherry pie. He made the most massive pot of mac ‘n cheese, along with the biggest cherry pie I’ve ever seen in my life. It was all pretty over the top but also hilarious and memorable.
Next up will be a visit from Amy, Tom, Joel, and Melanie for Amy’s birthday in early December. They’re all coming to Vegas for a little weekend getaway, and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone. The kids were pretty little the last time they saw Joel and Melanie, so they’re looking forward to meeting them again. We’re all going to The Neon Museum, which Jessica has been wanting to see for 15 years. I don’t know why we couldn’t make it happen before this, but we’re very much looking forward to it.
A couple of weeks after that, we will be driving up to Colorado for Christmas at Amy and Tom’s house. We’re looking forward to sledding, driving snowmobiles, ice skating, and building snowmen. It’s been a while since we’ve been in the snow, so that should be fun and memorable. That’s pretty much it for now; everyone is doing great, and time continues to fly, as usual. We wish all of our family and friends a happy holiday season and look forward to seeing some of you soon.
For today, however, it’s still all about Ava. Thank you for being such a wonderful daughter and sister. You are more loved than you even know, and we’re all so proud of you! Happy 11th birthday, sweetheart.
Opening gifts from her good friend Miles, who lives in WashingtonAva loves her new bedspread from Nana
Our Oct 2022 update, including school, Halloween, our cats, and some upcoming holiday plans.
It’s hard to believe October is already coming to a close. This month has flown by for us but in a good way. Starting with the kids and school, Enzo was selected as Student of the Month in his second-grade class. This is based on a combination of scholastics, leadership, and effort. Obviously, Jessica and I were very proud of him, but more importantly, he was so proud of himself, especially when his name got called out on the loudspeaker.
Things at school have also been going well for Elise and Ava. Both of them have joined the school choir and are loving it. They meet every Tuesday morning before school, and I can’t wait to see them perform. It’s only open to 4th and 5th graders, so Enzo has time to think about it. Elise has also been involved in an all-girls running club at school, which she is enjoying. Ava recently competed in the school’s annual Four Square tournament. It’s such a popular event that sometimes even adults register to play. She had a blast, as usual.
Here are their most recent school photos:
Preparing for Halloween
Halloween is now just a couple of days away. The kids have already attended several Halloween events over the past couple of weeks, each of which is an opportunity to get back into their costumes and collect candy. Enzo is wearing a scary-looking Morphsuit, Elise is dressing up as an angel, and Ava is literally wearing my Dad’s old dress blues from his time in the U.S. Navy!
I know my Dad was a little guy and all, but it blows me away that my ten-year-old daughter can fit into a uniform that he probably wore in his late teens or early twenties. That’s crazy.
This will be our second Halloween in our new neighborhood, and we’re looking forward to it. Last year was easily the best trick-or-treating I’ve ever experienced. I still can’t believe there was a house spinning fresh cotton candy for each kid. Plus, there was another house that built its own haunted house for people to walk through. The decorations throughout the neighborhood are over the top as well. Luckily, our good friends Tiko and Tina will be bringing their daughters over to walk the hood with us.
Here’s a sneak peek at the kids’ costumes this year.
Birthday Dinner with Nana
We can’t have Halloween without also celebrating my Mom’s birthday. This year we decided to do a family-style meal at Crossroads, our favorite vegan restaurant on the Las Vegas strip. We had previously made a video for the Vegas Showbiz YouTube channel reviewing our first meal there, so we were excited to try it again.
As expected, the food was delicious. Their scallopine parmesan is incredible, as were the other pizza and pasta dishes. Our new favorite, however, was the calamari. It was better than plenty of real calamari dishes I’ve had in the past. My Mom never passes up on calamari at a restaurant and said she would be back just for that.
The kids really enjoyed going out to a fancy with their Nana, and this was long overdue. We were saying we hadn’t done a nice dinner like this with my Mom since my 30th birthday, so hopefully it won’t be nearly as long until the next one.
Surgery for Spencer Kitty
As the owner of long-haired cats, Jessica and I have gotten used to regularly brushing our cats and checking them for mats in their hair. Recently, while checking Spencer, I found what I thought was a hair mat but turned out to be a crusty scab. There was hair dried into it, and I knew it needed to be looked at by a veterinarian. Jessica got her into the vet the following morning, and they couldn’t clean the area up without surgery.
She had a pretty big cut near the armpit of her front left leg, but we still don’t know what caused it. Spencer and Peach are indoor cats, so it’s not like she got into a fight outside. My best guess is that it happened when I saw her jump from the floor all the way to the top of the fridge. It was pretty incredible to witness, but she didn’t make it all the way and ended up having to drag her back legs up. I don’t know for sure if that was the cause, but more importantly, she is healing up nicely. She ended up getting five stitches, which will be coming out Monday morning, but what’s worse for Spencer is having to wear a cone around her neck. These cats don’t even wear collars because they hate them so much, but we had no choice this time.
Another Unexpected Issue with the Pool
I had a crazy close call with our pool equipment a few nights ago. I knew our filters were due for a cleaning, and I had done it a couple of times previously since purchasing the house, so I decided to get it done after work. Pool filter systems operate under heavy water pressure, and anytime you’re working with a pressurized system, there’s a possibility of danger.
In this case, I had no problem letting all the pressure out before opening the big container and pulling out the dirty filters. After (poorly) cleaning the filters, I put them back in the container, put the lid back in place, and tightened the metal belt. Everything seemed to be correctly reassembled, so I turned the water pump back on and got close to the filters so I could watch the pressure gauge rise.
I was probably only two or three feet away, and right around the time when I was thinking the pressure should probably stop rising, the damn thing exploded right in front of me! It was loud, and the fiberglass top of the filtration unit shot straight up in the air like a rocket. There’s an overhand from our house directly over part of this unit, so how it missed the house is a mystery to me.
This piece that shot off was pretty large. It looks like the top half of a fiberglass egg but with a rounder top. It’s probably about three feet tall and is too large for me to wrap my arms around.
When it blew, my immediate reaction was to drop into a turtle position with my arms covering my head. As soon as I hit the deck, I remember thinking I should look up to see if it was going to hit me. I didn’t end up doing it, though, because I didn’t know if something was going to be right there when looking up. It could have been coming down in multiple pieces, and I knew fiberglass was dangerous.
I just stayed there crouched in a ball next to the heater and little wall separating our pool equipment from the flowers, hoping nothing would come down on me. My guess is that from the initial boom until the piece came crashing back down to the ground was a full three seconds. I wish I had perimeter cameras on our property because I would love to see this in a replay. It felt like an eternity while I was crouched up, but eventually, the top landed about 10 feet away on the concrete. The pressure gauge on top of it shattered on impact.
I knew I was lucky not to be injured, but then I realized there was another immediate problem. The whole time I was crouched on the ground, I was getting soaked because the pool pump was still running. If left unattended, it would only be a matter of time before our pool was empty. I immediately ran over to turn off the pump, then just sort of stood there soaking wet, observing everything that just went down and looking around dumbfounded because I knew there were zero witnesses.
I went to my local pool store, which is run by this cool Italian family who is incredibly knowledgeable about swimming pools. I told them what had just happened, and they told me how lucky I was. There have been plenty of cases of injuries and, in some cases, even deaths from this type of accident. Their technician was able to come out to our house that same evening to take a look at everything. Since I was dealing with 22-year-old equipment, I opted to go for a whole new setup rather than trying to piece it back together. The nice thing about this approach is that it comes with a warranty. We knew when purchasing the house that the pool equipment was all original, but I think I’m going to hire a professional next time I need my filters cleaned.
They were out today to install the new filtration system, and the pool is back in normal working order. These types of unexpected expenses are frustrating, although I’ve come to expect them since becoming a pool owner. In this case, however, I’m just feeling fortunate that no one (including myself) got hurt and no other damages were caused. It could have been so much worse. Man, I would love to see a replay though…
Looking forward
As always, we have some exciting things to look forward to. As already mentioned, trick-or-treating on Monday night should be a lot of fun. Once we get into November, it’s all about Thanksgiving and Ava’s birthday. Like the year she was born, Ava’s birthday this year also falls on Black Friday. We figured it would be better to do her party the weekend before Thanksgiving than two days after, so we will be hosting a party here at the house. Her whole class is invited, and we’re expecting quite a few to attend.
After that, Amy and Tom will be coming to Las Vegas in early December to celebrate her birthday. We’re excited that Uncle Joel and Aunt Melanie will also be coming along this year. It’s always fun having family come to visit us in Vegas, so we’re planning out some fun stuff to do. Then, just a couple weeks after that, we will be driving up to the Colorado Rockies to celebrate Christmas at Amy and Tom’s place. The kids were wishing for a white Christmas, and it worked out well for everyone, so we decided to make it happen.
I guess that’s about it for now. Thanks for reading, and happy Halloween! Looking forward to doing the next post about Ava’s 11th birthday. Here are a couple more pics.
Elise and Princess Peach getting some quality time togetherHe’s such a cool little kidSnacking and watching performers at the Italian festival
An update on everything we have going on as Summer 2022 transitions into Autumn.
Happy Fall Equinox! The beginning of Fall is my favorite time of year, mainly because the weather in September is so nice, football season is back, baseball is getting interesting, and the basketball and hockey seasons are right around the corner. This is “cooking season” for me as well; I frequently begin my Sunday morning in the kitchen, working on something that will slow cook all day and make the house smell so good.
There’s a big rumor going around that the NBA will soon be announcing an expansion to the league by adding two teams, and the lucky cities are Seattle and Las Vegas! I’d love to see Seattle get the Sonics back, and having our own pro basketball team here in Vegas would be awesome. We’re already the fight capital of the world, we have pro football and hockey, and Formula One will start doing a Las Vegas street race, part of which is on the strip, in November 2023. Rumors about the Oakland A’s moving here have also been circulating for years, so I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
Family Update
Regarding our family, everyone is doing well, and as the name of this post implies, the lazy days of Summer are behind us, and we’re back to having full schedules. Ava has decided not to return to hockey, and we respected her decision. She is now part of a Volleyball class that meets every Tuesday evening and seems to be enjoying it. She’s tall for her age, so volleyball would be a great sport for her to stick with, but I expect her to join another softball team in the Spring as well.
School has also been going very well for Ava. She is now in Jessica’s class and is thriving for the first time in her academic career. Although she is brand new to the school, she became the most popular kid in her class on day 1. People are naturally attracted to Ava, and seeing her thrive at school is so nice. She just went on the 5th-grade camping trip to Pali Adventures in Southern California; it was a great time for her and a chance to meet more kids from the new school. Obviously, Ava deserves a ton of credit for her newfound success at school, but so does Jessica. She worked very hard to make this happen, and seeing it all start to pay off makes me happy.
Ava on the bus for her school camping trip
Elise is also doing well at her new school. She makes friends so quickly and easily that it seems like every week, we’re taking her to another birthday party. One of the areas she has improved in the most is spelling. This was a subject that she struggled with in previous years, but now she is regularly getting A’s on her spelling tests and has set a goal of winning the class spelling bee.
As far as activities for Elise go, she is very excited to be joining an all-girls running club, which is put on by the school. There are several runners on Jessica’s Mom’s side of the family, so it appears Elise (and Enzo, I think) has gotten those genes. She is surprisingly fast and can run longer distances than any of her friends. I recently took her out to get a nice pair of running shoes, which is no easy task because Elise has wide feet and is very particular about how they fit. Luckily, she can wear a women’s size now, so I was able to find a pair of Asics that worked perfectly for her. I’m really excited for her to get started and can’t wait to come to watch her run!
Elise sharpening her baking skills at homeAnd here’s Elise having fun at a jumping place
Enzo is also doing very well at his new school. He’s our little math wiz and regularly scores around the 90th percentile nationally for his age group in math. He takes after Grandpa Elmer and myself in that sense. He’s doing well in other subjects too, but it’s clear that math is his strongest subject, so we want to cultivate that as much as possible. He says he wants to be a software engineer when he grows up so he can “work a lot and make a lot of money.” I wonder where he gets that from…
A few weeks ago, Enzo joined a new swimming program through the city of Henderson. We were lucky enough to get a spot at the Green Valley community center, which is less than 10 minutes from our house. At this point, he has already surpassed me in formal swimming instruction. Although he has expressed an interest in running when he gets older, for now, it seems to be all about swimming. I always assumed it would be BMX racing for Enzo, but I love that he’s so into swimming.
Fun at the arcade with EnzoEnzo chilling at home with his tablet
At this point, all three of the kids are strong swimmers. Between all the lessons they have taken, and all the time we spend swimming at home, I have little to worry about them in the water. We still take water safety very seriously, though; the kids know about my good friend Spencer who drowned in Lake Washington many years ago. Swimming was a life skill that Jessica and I insisted on, and I love the fact that it has become the activity that the kids and I do together the most.
Things have also been going well for Jessica. Summer flew by, but she loves her job, especially now that the kids are with her all day. Her dedication to her job has impressed me; it’s not uncommon for her to work on school-related things at home during her free time. The school is extremely lucky to have her in this position, and they know it too. They keep asking her if she wants to move up into another role, but at least for now, she is quite happy where she is.
Our days are extremely busy, but we have a nice routine going. Every morning I help prepare the kids for school, then I start my workday once they head out the door. I usually wrap up my workday an hour or two after they get home from school, then Jessica and I team up to help the kids with homework and make dinner. The school they went to last year assigned literally zero homework, but now at this new school, homework is a daily thing. It seems strange considering that both schools are part of the same district and teach the same grades, but it’s clear that the kids are doing better in school because of the homework.
By the time homework and dinner are finished, we’re all pretty spent. We tend to hang out and watch a little TV at night, then we’re off to bed early and ready to do it all over again the next day.
Vegas Showbiz Update
If you follow the Vegas Showbiz YouTube channel, you may have noticed that our video production volume has recently slowed down. This is by design, but it’s only a temporary thing. Allow me to explain.
When I started Vegas Showbiz last October, my original plan was based on a website allowing you to search for Las Vegas events and shows. I worked extremely hard on it for three months and still consider it my crowning achievement as a software engineer, but the problem was that I quickly realized a couple of things:
Running a site like that is expensive due to all the background operations running to gather event data.
It was too much work for one person to handle as a side hustle, and I wasn’t in a position to hire employees.
It’s nearly impossible to compete with Google when it comes to any kind of web search business.
Based on this, I switched gears and started focusing on content production. I built a new website for VegasShow.biz that would be much more focused on blog articles and search engine optimization and created the YouTube channel.
At first, I was pulling double duty by writing blog articles and making videos, but it soon became too much work to keep up with, especially considering how busy I already am with work and family commitments. I was enjoying the process of making YouTube videos more than writing blog articles, so I made a conscious decision to take a break from the blog and focus entirely on YouTube videos.
About four months went by, and I was so focused on video production that I basically forgot all about the website. Then, one day in August, I randomly decided to log in to the back end of the website and was surprised to see that even though I had done zero work on the site for four months, the site had made a little money due to the Google advertisements that run all over it. It was less than $10, so we’re not talking about anything significant here, but it was enough for me to realize how profitable a blog can be.
The site was (and still is) getting very few hits, but this article I wrote about the Rio Hotel was getting most of the traffic. Soon enough, I realized that if you search for something similar to “is Rio Las Vegas closing,” my article is the number one search result on Google! This was exciting to see and somewhat reinvigorated me to start writing more Las Vegas blog posts. I have since written three new blog posts for VegasShow.biz and will soon be starting another one.
On the YouTube side of things, we have now produced 65 videos, 15 of which have over 1,000 views. Not bad for a channel that’s only six or seven months old. When you look at those 15 most-watched videos, it becomes clear that our most successful videos fall into one of the following categories:
Las Vegas Shows
Las Vegas Concerts
Las Vegas Hotels
Las Vegas Restaurants
Everything else we do seems to get minimal views, so it’s clear to me that I’m wasting my time producing a video unrelated to those four categories. There’s one small problem, though; to make a video about any of those things means you have to spend money to do the thing first. It was getting a little expensive going to all these shows, concerts, hotels, and restaurants. Luckily, however, I think I have found the perfect solution. Enter HouseSeats.com.
My Mom and friend Devin had both told me about HouseSeats a while ago, but I didn’t get serious about it until recently. The idea is that HouseSeats runs in a handful of cities throughout the country; you pay a relatively small fee to sign up for a membership, then you monitor their site to see what tickets are available. As Devin put it, the Vegas B-rate shows always offer free tickets on HouseSeats, and at least once a year, you will score free tickets to a show or concert that you would have gladly paid to see anyway.
It seems to me that Las Vegas would be the best city to have a HouseSeats membership in due to all the ticketed shows that are constantly happening. I really want to see those b-rate shows, too, because people search for things like that when planning their vacation. I haven’t yet signed up for a HouseSeats membership, only because it’s good for one year, and I already have things planned for Vegas Showbiz videos during the next two weekends. After that, however, I’m definitely going to sign up and can’t wait to start attending more shows!
I expect the Vegas Showbiz YouTube channel to be back in high gear very soon. My goal is to qualify for the YouTube partner program by the middle of 2023. In the meantime, another goal of mine is to write a VegasShow.biz blog article for every successful video we have produced so far. It’s clear to me that I need more balance between Vegas Showbiz videos and blog articles going forward, so that’s how I plan to operate from now on.
Pellegrini Guitar
Since I thrive on being busy and love the content creation process, I recently decided to start another blog and YouTube channel. This time, it’s all dedicated to my love of the guitar. Since then, I have been writing blog articles on PellegriniGuitar.com and adding videos to the Pellegrini Guitar YouTube channel. If you could help me out by subscribing to the YouTube channel, I would greatly appreciate it!
My love of the guitar is much older than my love for content creation, and I still practice daily, but over the past few years, I have found myself trying to figure out what’s next for me musically. Playing in a band doesn’t suit my lifestyle these days, so I had mainly been focusing on recording my own songs and posting them to my SoundCloud account. The problem is that practically no one was hearing my songs, so I frequently questioned why I still practice every day. I’ve always loved playing, but that alone wasn’t enough.
I needed a new sense of musical purpose, which is exactly what this blog and channel provided. Now I know what I’m practicing for; the next video! Playing on camera can be a little bit nerve-wracking, and I still don’t think I’ve played my best on any of the videos, but I’m getting better. Most importantly, though, I’m enjoying it so much! I have a passion for the instrument, which I hope shines through in my videos and articles, even when my playing isn’t quite up to par.
Based on all the guitar gear I’ve been collecting over the years, my main video focus for Pellegrini Guitar so far has been doing demos of different guitars. Once those are out of the way, I will probably demo some of my amplifiers and effects pedals, but I also want to start creating my own guitar lesson series. I’m still working out the details, but I plan to provide free lessons on YouTube as my little way of giving back to the guitar community.
While there is certainly no shortage of free guitar lessons on YouTube, I still think I have something to offer. I’m trying to develop a unique approach to teaching the instrument to beginners and look forward to actually creating the lessons. For now, it’s all conceptual, but I’m getting more comfortable playing on video, plus learning how to create the best possible sound quality in my videos.
My new Gibson SG. This was my first guitar purchase since the Japan trip, which was almost exactly three years ago.
It’s become clear to me that content creation can be a very lucrative business model if you’re willing to put in the work. Assuming you’re not already famous or well-known for a particular thing, it’s going to take a lot of time to build up the kind of traffic you need to be profitable. It’s not the kind of thing I would recommend to someone trying to figure out how they’re going to pay the bills next month, but if you’re patient and you have a passion for the content you’re creating, success can happen.
I’m in it for the long haul and am not particularly worried about how much traffic I’m getting in this first year. My goal is to do another 10-15 years in the tech industry while building up Vegas Showbiz and Pellegrini Guitar. Hopefully, I can retire from tech in my early to mid-50s and then focus on my content platforms.
It’s possible that one platform will take off and require all of my attention, but we’ll see. I could see either (or both) of them doing really well; E-Learning is one of the hottest industries in the world now, raking in billions of dollars annually. Based on this, I could see Pellegrini Guitar taking off, but on the other hand, Las Vegas is quickly transforming into Hollywood 2.0. Tons of people from Hollywood are moving here regularly. Even A-List stars like Mark Whalberg are relocating here. As more and more people flock to Las Vegas and the entertainment scene here jumps up to the next level, it seems very possible that Vegas Showbiz could ride that wave to success.
I have no concerns at all because I know that as long as I keep putting in the work with these platforms and my day job, everything will be fine. Probably more than fine. I think there’s going to be even more exciting news coming up over the next few months, but we’ll have to wait and see how things play out. For now, we couldn’t be better. Everyone is thriving and happy, which is all I care about.
That’s about it for now. Thanks for sticking with me on this long post. Here are a few recent photos.
Family fun at the Las Vegas Aviators baseball gameAva and Elise playing at the parkSending Ava off to camp at PaliElise and Enzo playing with Mom’s phone on the way to school
An update on the end of our Summer break, including a road trip to Los Angeles, plus our first week of the new school year.
Tomorrow the kids and Jessica will already be beginning their second week of the 2022 / 2023 school year. It still feels too early to me for school to be starting, but that’s how they do it here, so we just have to adjust. They did a full 5-day week last week to kick off the new year, which I think is a bit much for the first week, but they were troopers and got things off to a great start! Not surprisingly, each of them is already making new friends at school, and overall they are loving it.
Ava is in Jessica’s class and, as a 5th grader, has instantly taken on a leadership role. She was selected to represent the class in the student council, and she has already made remarks to Jessica about her increased sense of self-confidence since starting there. Obviously, we couldn’t be happier about this and just hope the positive momentum continues. This is going to be a very important year for Ava because it’s her last year of elementary school. Jessica is doing everything she can to prepare her for middle school, and having Ava in her class each day is the best way to do that.
Ava’s first day of 5th grade
Elise is off to a great start in 4th grade, although she’s so hard on herself with the way she compares herself to her peers that she would tell you she’s behind. I can heavily relate to that type of sentiment and feeling; I just hope she uses it as fuel and motivation. Jessica basically hand selected each of the kids’ teachers this year and has already spoken to Elise’s new teacher to see how the first week went. Not surprisingly, Elise did great in her first week and doesn’t appear behind in anything. Her teacher seems awesome, and Elise loved her instantly, so things look really good for Elise this year.
Elise on her first day of 4th grade
Enzo is off to a great start in second grade. Like Elise, he tends to be hard on himself when comparing himself to his peers. I think the annual change in schools has a lot to do with that for both of them, but again, he’s doing totally fine in school and just needs to get more comfortable in his new surroundings. He’s actually doing excellent in math, so we’re very encouraging of him to keep pushing in that area. There’s a little boy sitting next to him that he quickly built a friendship with, plus he and Elise both get to see Mom and Ava at different points each day (recess, lunch, special classes).
Enzo on his first day of 2nd grade
I think they were all exhausted after the first week, but the first week is always the hardest. Each week will get easier and more routine from here on out. It’s been strange having the house so quiet all day long again, but considering that I’m working, that part is kinda nice. One thing I love about working from home is that my kids get to have the same vision of me working at home that I had of my own Dad. Obviously, our jobs are a bit different, but that part doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re there to say goodbye when they leave in the morning, and you’re there to greet them when they return in the afternoon. I don’t take that for granted at all either, because it wasn’t that long ago that I was commuting an hour plus each way and then feeling bad when the kids tell me I’m barely around. Knowing that working from home is a permanent thing for me gives me a lot of peace of mind in that sense.
Wrapping up Summer break
Jessica and I wanted to make one more fun little trip to finish off our Summer break, so we planned a visit to Los Angeles for 2 nights. It actually almost didn’t happen, so let me expand on that part first. The plan was to leave at 6:00 am on Sunday, July 31st, and drive straight to Santa Monica so we could have a day at the beach. The day before that was my birthday, and since it fell on a Saturday, we decided to have a little pool + pizza party at the house with our friends.
I haven’t had a birthday party in many years, but it made sense this year, so Tiko brought both of his daughters over, plus Devin and Bridgette came. We swam for a couple of hours, then took a break to eat pizza. After finishing our pizza, people were slowly migrating back toward the pool. Most of us were just sitting around with our legs in the water, but Enzo was getting up on the ledge above the pool, jumping in, then climbing out and repeating. This is nothing new – all 3 of the kids do this regularly, but as he was running around the back side of the pool to get back up on the ledge, he tripped on the pole holding up the basketball hoop and slammed his forehead into the concrete ledge above the pool.
I didn’t even see it happen, but I heard him scream, so I ran over to him. By the time I reached him, there was a big gash on his forehead, and his entire face was covered in blood. He was screaming, and it felt like we were living in the scene of a horror movie. I picked him up and started running back to where everyone was. I think I yelled out something about having a serious problem, and I remember all the girls (ours plus Tiko’s) were in the pool; when they saw Enzo’s bloody face, they all started screaming in terror.
Luckily all of the adults jumped into action. Bridgette immediately got a towel on Enzo’s face and started cleaning him up, while Devin and Tiko took care of the girls so they wouldn’t see anymore. Jessica ran in to get her keys, and within a minute, we were on our way to the emergency room.
I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my friends, but I can’t tell them how much I appreciate them stepping up. They stayed at home with Ava and Elise while Jessica and I went to the ER with Enzo. Unfortunately, things were pretty busy that night at the ER, which is probably common for a Saturday night. Even though I had a child with a head wound in my arms, it still took nearly 30 minutes for us to get checked him checked in. I have to give Enzo a ton of credit because he did remarkably well staying calm. I guess to a certain extent, he’s used to this, having been through multiple similar situations, but he still deserves credit. It was a nasty deep gash on his forehead, but he was such a little trooper.
After getting Enzo into a hospital bed and figuring out the plan with the doctor, I sent Jessica home. I didn’t want our friends to have to stay there all night, and a lot needed to be picked up at the house. It was a very slow process, but he ended up getting 6 stitches in his forehead. I thought our trip would have to be canceled at this point, but I asked the doctor about it and received permission to go. We just had to keep the stitches dry, so no swimming or showering for a few days. I was a little bit surprised they gave him permission to go on rollercoasters at Six Flags, but they did, so the trip was back on! This wasn’t exactly how I envisioned the night playing out, but there’s no question we will always remember my 42nd birthday.
Waiting for stitches at the ERSix stitches! He’s a tough little guy.
A quick trip to Los Angeles
We got off to an early start as planned, and even with stopping for gas and food, we still arrived at Santa Monica beach by 11:00 am. We still have our beach tent from the San Diego days, so we found a good spot to set that up and then just hung out for a few hours. Enzo could only get his feet wet, and Elise isn’t that into cold ocean water, so they mostly played on the beach, building sand castles.
Ava, on the other hand, is a California girl at heart. She loves getting out there in the water, and I love watching her. It reminds me of my childhood, out there thrashing around in the Pacific ocean waves. The water is cold, and we’re especially spoiled now that we’re used to swimming in our heated pool, but she doesn’t care. She jumps into and over those waves with so much energy; I just love it.
Ava playing at the beach in Santa MonicaElise was quite the little builder at the beachEnzo had fun in Santa MonicaJessica always loves a beach day
After a few hours down on the beach, we took the kids up to the Santa Monica pier to walk around. There were all kinds of little shops, people fishing everywhere, there were acrobats and even a magician! It was a trip walking around there, but they loved it.
Family selfie near the end of the pier
After leaving the pier, we walked along the boardwalk towards Muscle Beach and Venice Beach. A bunch of people were working on different types of tightropes and practicing balancing acts. It was fun to watch, and there was a playground for kids, so we posted up there for a bit just to take it all in. There was a fruit stand on the boardwalk, so we got a big bowl of fresh fruit and sat there eating all these delicious fruits (mango, pineapple, watermelon) while we watched all the interesting things going on around us. It was a really fun afternoon. When you combine this with their experiences in San Diego during Spring Break, I think it’s safe to say that the kids get the whole California beach thing by now. I actually made a video about our day at the beach for the Pellegrini Kids YouTube channel – you can check it out below.
From the Pellegrini Kids YouTube channel
A scenic tour of Los Angeles
We took the long way getting to our hotel, which was up in Santa Clarita near Six Flags. I wanted to show the kids a bit of Los Angeles, so we ended up cruising through the UCLA campus, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, and all the way down the Sunset strip. They’re used to Vegas glitz and glamour, but Los Angeles has a different vibe to it, and they were eating it up. As a kid, I always had a strange love for Los Angeles, so it was cool taking them on this little sightseeing tour.
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Monday, we spent basically the entire day at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Enzo isn’t tall enough for some of the rollercoasters (the 54” ones), but he could do everything else, so that’s what we did. Honestly, plenty of the rollercoasters he was big enough to do were still able to scare me to death. I think we were all pretty frazzled after going on X2. Except Elise, of course, because she was the only one smart enough not to go. Poor Ava started crying when it was over. Enzo and I were looking at each other all wild-eyed, like what just happened? Here’s a POV video somebody made on it a long time ago.
This was probably the scariest rollercoaster I’ve been on
By the time we left Six Flags that evening, everyone was exhausted. It was a full 8-hour day of rides, lines, and walking. We found an awesome little SoCal Mexican restaurant for dinner, crashed hard, then made our way home in the morning. As usual, we stopped at the Lenwood exit in Barstow for gas and food. As we were exiting the parking lot to head back to the freeway, we ran into our neighbors (including Elise’s best friend), who were on their way to San Diego. Such a small world.
Back to Business
I’m so glad that the trip worked out because it ended up being a big highlight of our Summer. The kids have been getting asked a lot in school about what they did over Summer break, and the L.A. trip has been one of their top things to call out. With that behind us, we’re back to our routine but still enjoying the warm weather. After last Summer’s record-breaking heat wave, this Summer has been very mild for Las Vegas standards. It’s still very warm out, but the difference between 95 and 115 is huge.
Enzo got his stitches out a few days after the trip, and he was immediately allowed to get back in the water, so we’ve been swimming a lot. I’m trying to stress to him the importance of not running too much and paying attention to where he’s going. He’s not a clumsy kid, he just gets ahead of himself because he’s running or wants to be in the lead. I’m hoping we don’t have any more injuries soon because each of the kids will soon start their new activities. Ava is going to check out volleyball, Elise is joining a girls running group at school, and Enzo is getting into more advanced swimming lessons.
The downtime for Summer was great, but I’m excited for everyone to start getting busy again. Fall, which is my favorite season, is just around the corner. I’m ready for some football and some beautiful Las Vegas Fall weather. See you in September!
