Month: July 2015

So not only does baby Enzo turn 6 months old today but it’s my sister Lora’s birthday as well, and it’s a big one at that, so I’m wishing her a very happy birthday today. It’s been a good day, and a good week since I last wrote, although we’ve all been super busy with one thing or another at pretty much all times. Jessica has been painting the interior of our house everyday while Grandma Amy watches the kids. Most of the painting goes on while I’m at work, but I was happy to help out and put in several hours on Saturday.

Since I last wrote we’ve had a couple of fun things happen; on Wednesday night we attended a ‘Goat Party’, and then on Thursday Ava got her first haircut. The Goat party was held at Carol’s niece Shayla and her husband Greg’s house in Bellevue. “What exactly is a goat party?” you might be asking yourself. Well don’t worry, I was wondering the same thing when we first received the invitation. So here’s the backstory; Shayla and Greg bought their house about a year or so ago, and they’ve been doing a ton of work to the back yard. One of the final things they wanted to do is clear out all the blackberry bushes that occupy a decent portion of their property.

There weren’t many viable options, so they decided to hire a guy to come out to their house with a horse trailer full of goats, and let the goats eat all the blackberry bushes. As it turned out the guy had 50 goats, of all shapes and sizes (some of them even had goatees!). He was able to keep them contained with a makeshift electric fence that he brought along. The goats were all friendly, so Shayla and Greg decided to make an event out of it by inviting people over to see the goats and have a BBQ. We had nothing better to do and it seemed like a decent way to spend a couple hours on a random Wednesday evening in July, plus my office isn’t far from their house, so we decided to go after I got off work. The girls seemed to enjoy seeing and petting the goats for a few minutes, but they honestly spent more time playing with toys on the water table than they did with the goats. Either way it was a fun, if not random way, to spend an evening. I think it ended up taking the goats two full days to eat all the bushes, but it worked out in the end.

The next day Grandma took the girls to Kids Cuts so Ava could get her first haircut. Both girls got their hair braided and seemed to have a good time. Ava wasn’t upset or freaked out by it so I’d call that a win, plus she looks super cute with her little doo. She’s looking more and more like a full-on kid everyday. I haven’t seen any photos of their experience yet but I know Amy took plenty. Hopefully I’ll have those up soon.

I got to spend some time on Sunday giving my Acura a tune up, which was cool because I’ve been wanting to do it for a bit but kept having to put it off. As usual, I allocate a certain amount of time to do everything and it ends up taking double. In this case I expected it to take me 3 hours, but of course it ended up being 6. I was happy with what I got done though, which included replacing the: air filter, oil, oil filter, drain bolt, all brake pads, and rotating the tires. It’s all super basic stuff but I like doing it. I still have several more projects to do on it, but there’s nothing urgent.

Tomorrow is a day I’ve been looking forward to for a while because Jessica and I are going to the Mariners game at 12:40, then after coming home to relax for a bit, we’ll be going to a restaurant called 99 Park in Bellevue for dinner. We stopped in there one night after dinner at Cantinetta with Joel and Melanie and ended up running into our old friend Quentin, whom Jessica used to work with at Branzino but is now the executive chef at 99 Park. Quentin is a great chef so I’m excited to try the place out, and King Felix is pitching, so that will be awesome. We’ve basically made a tradition (or we’re making one now) out of going to a weekday afternoon baseball game once per season, and this year it worked out nicely because there was a game going on while Amy was here, and it happens to fall the day before my birthday.

Thursday should also be a fun day because there’s a special event going on at Microsoft this week called //oneweek and we’re going to attend some of the festivities. There’s a big hackathon going on where employees form small teams and work on their choice of some type of software-related project. At the end the projects are all voted on, and in a best-case scenario, you could end up with something that gets green-lighted by the company to work on for real. Anyway in addition to the hackathon there will also be all kinds of events going on where they’re showcasing new company products, plus they’ve got Fitz & The Tantrums playing from 5:00 – 6:00. I’m sure there will be a bunch of food as well, so it should be pretty fun.

In addition to all her work with painting the house, Jessica has also been working at El Gaucho. She bartended Friday and Saturday night, both of which were closing shifts, meaning she doesn’t get home until after 2:00am. She’s a trooper though and was right back at painting on both of the following mornings. She’s got a few more shifts to work while Amy is in town, and we still have a lot of painting to do, but it’s coming along really well. Again, it wouldn’t be possible without Amy’s help. I think she’s here one more week so hopefully we can finish strong.

Guess that’s about it for now. Here’s a few recent pics, including several taken by our photographer friends Leon and Erin at Elise’s birthday party.

Mr. Enzo at 6 months old

Ava enjoying herself at Elise’s party

Great pic of Grandma and Elise

Mommy & Elise

So serious

Cake time

Daddy & Ava

Grandma and the girls at the Goat party

Yesterday we celebrated Elise’s 2nd birthday for the second time. Like the weekend before, we had some friends and family members over to the house for lunch, cake, presents, and games. The intention was to set up the backyard with a variety of games and activities for the kids to enjoy, but as it turned out it was so hot outside everyone inevitably ended up indoors. Unfortunately we don’t have air conditioning, so it was only mildly better than outside, but we made the best of it.

We were joined by Dana, Brad, and Anna, as well as our friends the Palmers, the O’Hair’s, the Schreibers, and the Hancocks, each of whom brought along their own little ones to play with ours. It was a good turn out with basically the same formula as last weekend, which was carne asada tacos, snacks, cake, and presents. Elise had a great day playing with all the kids and opening presents. She seemed to enjoy her birthday cake more this year and had no problem diving in face-first. Ava seemed to think that it was her party as well, but the two of them coexisted nicely and didn’t have any major blowups regarding some new toy that strikes their fancy.

By the end of the party Elise was totally sacked out. For a minute we couldn’t figure out where she went, but then we found her sound asleep while seated upright at the dining table. We moved her to bed and she slept for hours, which is consistent with how things went last year after her first birthday party. Thanks again to everyone who came out yesterday; we had a lot of fun and appreciate everything.

Amy has been with us since Thursday and, as usual, has been very helpful with everything; the kids, the party, the house, etc. Friday night we were able to get out for the evening so Jessica picked me up from work and the two of us headed downtown to attend the Bite of Seattle. This was her first time going, and we ended up having a great night. We basically just bounced around from tent to tent and truck to truck trying small bites of a variety of things. Some of the highlights included carne asada flautas, halibut tacos, crab cakes, and of course the Ben and Jerry’s cookie sundae for dessert. It was a hot night so we stopped by the beer garden a couple times for refreshments. Afterwards we visited a friend of mine who was working at a new brewery in Ballard called Populuxe. All in all it was a great night and we appreciate Amy helping us out with that.

Earlier in the week, on Elise’s actual birthday, Jessica and the kids went downtown for the day with our friend Melissa and her daughter Ellie. They went on the Ferris Wheel down on the waterfront, which has apparently become a family tradition because they did the same thing on Ava’s most recent birthday. I still haven’t been on it but it looked like everyone had fun. There’s a funny picture of Enzo looking even more wide-eyed than normal as they ascend high above the pier.

The rest of the weekend has been pretty laid back so I’ll keep it short. Last night Jessica and I joined our next-door neighbors and finally got to enjoy their beautiful new Jacuzzi. Today I did a bit of work on the cars, but it’s so hot outside that I had to keep it to a minimum. I was out running errands earlier and my car said it was 95 degrees, so it’s definitely scorching out here. Enjoy the latest pics from Elise’s birthday week.

Mom and Enzo having fun at home

Ferris Wheel fun

Enzo getting sticker-bombed by his sisters

Pushing Enzo in a swing for the first time

The girls in their new party dresses

Elise crashed out after the party

Happy birthday sweet girl

PS – I just looked through all the pictures and realized that even in the photos of Elise where you can’t see Pippo, he’s actually right there, he’s just cropped out of the photo. #AttachedAtTheHip

Today our sweet little Elise turns 2 years old. I’m going to try to refrain from making all the typical cliche parent statements like “I can’t believe it’s already been two years,” but I offer no promises. Since her birthday falls on a Tuesday, Elise gets to enjoy two birthday parties for turning two: one on the Saturday before her birthday, and another on the Saturday after her birthday. We decided to do it this way because Madi is going to be with her Dad on Saturday the 18th and we wanted her to be able to come over with Kristy, Jim and Brenda, so we did a small party on Saturday the 11th just with them. It worked out well because we were able to spend more quality time with them; as expected we had a very nice afternoon playing with the kids, eating lunch, opening presents, and eating cake.

The hardest part about celebrating a birthday in our house for anyone not named Ava is that Ava doesn’t understand that the presents aren’t for her. Actually that’s not completely true because Aunt Brenda was kind and thoughtful enough to bring Ava the nicest outfit to dress up in, which included a tutu, headband, butterfly wings, and wand, but still Ava can’t help but fixate on something that Elise receives. The object of her fixation, and Elise’s for that matter, was a little stuffed tiger whom the girls have affectionately dubbed “Stripey.” Multiple fights ensued throughout the weekend based solely on who was currently in possession of Stripey, but of course if it wasn’t that it would be another thing. Either way I’m glad we have Stripey because for whatever reason, Elise has a particular fondness for tigers.

In addition to opening presents we had a nice lunch (Carne Asada tacos) and some delicious birthday cake. I can’t remember the last time I had a slice of cake but it was amazing. We actually had to split up the leftovers and bring them to our neighbors so that we wouldn’t have any left in the house. Madi didn’t end up spending the night on Friday but was still able to get some quality time in with each of the kids. Enzo was loving her and we ended up getting some great photos of them hanging out together. I’m glad we got so much quality time with everyone and look forward to doing something again soon.

Friday night we all went out for pizza, which was a nice treat considering it’s been about 6 weeks since Jessica and I have had it. We went to Amante, which is our favorite place near the house, and as expected it was delicious. Not unlike our Mexican dinner from the previous week, I ended up getting a stomach ache later on, but it wasn’t nearly as bad this time around, and I blame myself for this one because I definitely didn’t need that 4th piece. My logic was that if I ate the 4th piece, there wouldn’t be any leftovers to take home, and considering how good it tasted, I just decided to go for it. No regrets though; it was something I’ve been looking forward to for a while and it was a nice way to start the weekend.

Sunday was also a fun day because we got to attend my friend Sean’s housewarming party. He recently bought a house in North Seattle and has been hard at work getting it fixed up. He had a band playing on the front patio, which was a big hit with the girls. At one point the band decided to take a break to get some food, and shortly thereafter Ava temporarily disappeared. She quickly turned up ‘on stage’ playing the drummer’s kit. Of course she did; that’s so Ava. Obviously I ran right over there and got her off the drums before too many people noticed, but for the rest of the afternoon she kept saying she wanted to go back and play the drums. As I’ve always said, the world can always use another good drummer, but I don’t think we’re quite ready to bridge that gap. I think it’s cool that she likes it so much though.

Ava also had a little boyfriend she was running around the party with. At one point I found them scooping ice out of the keg bin and dumping it in the front yard. I told Ava to stop doing that and the little boy she was with got really upset at me. He told me his mom wanted the ice and that I was “not a nice man.” He then punched me in the stomach and kicked me in the shin. I was shocked! I couldn’t believe what this snot-nosed little kid just did to me, particularly since I wasn’t even talking to him; I was talking to my daughter. I was tempted to laugh right in his punky little face but decided to take the high road and simply told him, with a straight face, that it’s not nice to hit people and that he shouldn’t do that anymore. He certainly didn’t like me telling him anything and proceeded to give me the stink eye for the rest of the afternoon. And so begins my relationship with the boys my daughters run around with. This ought to be fun.

As mentioned above, we’re going to be throwing Elise’s second 2nd birthday party this Saturday. I’m not exactly sure who all is coming over but I know we’ll be seeing Dana, Brad and Anna, Amy and Tom will be staying with us, plus a handful of friends and neighbors who will be stopping by throughout the day. I expect it to be more of an open house than a traditional birthday party, but it should be a lot of fun. I’m not sure how long Tom will be in town but I know that Amy will be sticking around for about 3 weeks. We haven’t seen her since Enzo was born, and having an extra set of hands will be much appreciated by all. The main thing we’re hoping to get done while she’s here is painting the entire inside of our house. We’ve got most of the colors picked out but we’re having difficulty choosing one of the main downstairs colors. Hopefully we can get that figured out pretty soon and get to work. Ideally we’ll get the painting done now, then we’ll do the floors downstairs in September when Amy and Tom come back for our Labor Day weekend camping trip, and Foo Fighters concert at the Gorge the following weekend. Once that’s all done we will probably do an End-Of-Summer open house party to show off our new digs.

As for our little Weese, she’s just amazing. She couldn’t be any sweeter, but she still has her sister’s toughness. She was definitely meant to be a ‘middle child’ and has totally embraced her roles both as a younger and elder sibling. She constantly talks about how much she loves everyone, and her little picket fence smile is the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. She never goes anywhere without her baby Pippo (the purple Hippo) and she’s always only a step behind Ava in whatever activity most recently strikes their fancy. She gets out of her own bed and crawls into ours on an almost nightly basis, so it’s not uncommon for me to wake up with some little feet pressing into my back, or for her to be laying literally on my face. She and I have recently developed a game where I tell her “You’ll never know how much Daddy loves you” and she replies “I do know Daddy, I do!” We go back and forth with me saying “I don’t know, I don’t think you really do” but she continuously insists “Yes I do. I do know!” Maybe she does. Either way I’m the one writing the blog, so I get the final word; Happy 2nd Birthday sweetheart – you’ll never know how much we love you!

A great shot of Madi and Baby Enzo

Elise trying on her new digs

Dad hanging out with Mr. Enzo

Playing hide n’ seek at Costco

Ava working on some drum riffs

Weese enjoying a cookie at the party

Lazy Sunday

Love these kids

#WeeseLaFleur

Today was my first day back at work after a nice long four-day weekend. Before we reached the weekend however, we had to go out for dinner on Wednesday night (July 1) to celebrate making it through June, which we affectionately dubbed ‘Health Month’. Jessica and the kids picked me up from work that day and we headed straight to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. Not surprisingly, dinner was delicious, but all that greasy cheesy food didn’t do my stomach any favors. For the rest of the evening I had a stomach ache, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me from enjoying the concert we attended after dinner, or the frozen yogurt we had later on for desert. The concert, ‘British Invasion Rock ‘n Roll’, was the first of the Wednesday night Summer Concert Series at Mill Creek Town Center. The band played a variety of hits by groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and several others. They actually sounded really good, and the girls had a blast dancing and running around throughout the show.

After dinner we picked up frozen yogurt at a place near our house, then headed home to sit in the front yard and enjoy our sweet treats. The yogurt certainly didn’t help my stomach ache, but it did taste good. I was a bit jealous of Jessica, who wasn’t affected at all by everything we ate, but this is my new reality. Afterwards I went onto my Fitbit account and logged the foods we’d had. When I saw that I had consumed more calories in just those couple hours than I had in any entire day throughout the month of June, I couldn’t help but feel a bit down about it. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with going out and enjoying yourself from time to time, but when it makes you feel like crap you can’t help but wonder if it’s actually worth it. No biggie either way though, we had a lot of fun that night and plan on attending more of those Wednesday night concerts throughout the Summer.

Saturday, which was the 4th of July, turned out to be a really fun and busy day. When I woke up that morning and came downstairs, Rick was already sitting at our kitchen table having a cup of coffee. He and Chris flew into town the night before and will be here until tomorrow afternoon. Since it was Dana’s birthday we called her and had a nice chat; definitely looking forward to seeing her at Elise’s birthday party. We wanted to get the kids out to play that day so we went back to Forest Park in Everett, which is where we went last year for Rick’s 4th of July visit. Grandma Chris came to join us shortly thereafter and enjoyed watching the kids play in the playground while Rick and I played frisbee in the adjacent field. Later that evening we were joined by Butch and Carol, who came over to enjoy the neighborhood holiday festivities. There was a big barbeque in the early evening, then we all settled in to watch the fireworks, which were being shot off in every direction. Rick grilled up some beautiful steaks for everyone to enjoy, and there was no shortage of Dungeness crab to chow down on since our neighbors had been out on the Sound two days in a row filling up their pots. Another highlight of the evening was when my neighbor Mike took Rick, Butch and I down to his garage to check out his beautiful 1957 Chevy, which he recently finished rebuilding. It was a long day, but tons of fun.

Sunday was a day I’ve been looking forward to for several months because Michael Don Rico and I had tickets to the Van Halen concert at the White River Amphitheater down in Auburn. We wanted to make a full day out of it, so I met up with him in Seattle at 12:30 and we just headed south without much of a plan. We ended up going to a park on Lake Tapps and hung out there for a few hours swimming, playing frisbee, and catching up. It was super hot that day but the water was perfect, and you’re so close to Mt. Rainier that it feels like it’s just looming directly over you. I’ve never been to Lake Tapps before but it was beautiful. After picking up food at a nearby grocery store we headed over to the concert venue well before showtime. The concert was everything I wanted it to be and we had an awesome time. Kenny Wayne Shepherd band, which was the opening act, was really good, and Van Halen played every song I wanted to hear. The people-watching throughout the crowd was pretty entertaining as well.

After the show we decided to take our time in terms of leaving. We had heard horror stories about the traffic getting out of there, mainly because you’re stuck on a two-lane road for 5 miles with 20,000 other people. By the time we got to the car we decided to pull out the lawn chairs and relax while everyone else fought to get out of there. Michael had brought a cigar to smoke, and I didn’t have to work on Monday, so we just hung out for an hour or so talking about the show and eating snacks. Unfortunately there was one downside, which was that my phone must have slipped out of my pocket while I was sitting in my lawn chair. I didn’t realize it was gone until the following morning, which meant that for the first time in my life, I had lost my phone. I was pretty disappointed about it, mainly because I never do that sort of thing, but it was an honest accident. Luckily I have insurance on my phone, so all I had to do was file a claim and pay a small deductible to get a replacement. My phone was nearly two years old, meaning they don’t make that model anymore, and I’m not very happy with what I’m getting as a replacement, but I just need it to hold me over until the new iPhone comes out this fall. All things considered it was no big deal; losing my wallet or wedding ring would have been much worse, so I decided not to dwell on it. I’m just glad we got to have such a fun day together.

While I was off reliving my youth on Sunday with an old pal, the rest of the family decided to go downtown and take the kids to the aquarium. The following day I heard plenty of exciting stories from the girls about all the creatures they saw. Ava was playing with a toy Orca whale she got at the gift shop, so I commented on it by saying “hey that’s a nice little whale you’ve got there Ava” and she replied “it’s not a whale daddy, it’s an orker.” Monday was my final day off, but it turned out to be pretty productive. Rick and I had to get back to work on the dog run because Bella has been getting out again. She even managed to break the fence! With Rick’s help we were able to build a new gate, as well as reinforce the loose fence post by pouring concrete. At this point it’s like a fortress over there and I’m (mostly) confident that Bella’s jailbreaking days are over. Only time will tell though.

Today, while I was at work, the rest of the family spent the day at Woodland Park Zoo. I’m looking forward to hearing about it once I get home. As usual, the long weekend that you’ve been looking forward to for so long ends up flying by in the blink of an eye. Thank you to Rick and Chris for coming out to visit us and making it such a memorable holiday. July is going to be a very busy month for us, so this was a great way to start things off. Next up we’ve got Madi coming over for another sleepover on Friday night, then Saturday we’ll be doing a small birthday party for Elise with Kristy, Madi, Jim and Brenda. Should be a lot of fun. Here’s a few pictures from our holiday weekend.