September 2018 – Pellegrini Page

Today was an exciting day for us, as Elise ventured off for her first day of Kindergarten. She was totally excited and ready to go – Jessica and I not so much. Of course we were excited and happy to see her go off to school for the first time, but couldn’t help but feel a little sad knowing our sweet little girl is now venturing beyond the nest. At dinner the other night Elise said some very cute and sweet Elise thing, then Jessica put it best by saying “I’m going to miss her”. I knew exactly what she meant.

I have to admit that Elise’s entry into Kindergarten has been a little more emotional for us than it was last year when Ava entered Kindergarten, and I certainly mean no disrespect to Ava by saying that. It just comes down to the differences in their personalities. Ava is so headstrong and enthusiastic about everything; it’s like her wheels were spinning 100mph and as soon as you set her on the ground she was off and running. There was almost no time to react. It was the other kids you had to be worried about.

With Elise it’s a little different because she likes to take things slowly, and has carved out this role in our family as the sweet one (even though sometimes she’s quite a little troublemaker). She’s also a little more on the sensitive side, and all of that ends up influencing our emotions in it’s own way. So even though I’m very happy to see her taking this big step, and there is no doubt she’s ready, it was still hard to keep my lip from quivering just a bit as she headed up to that bus.

Luckily she has her big sis Ava there to keep an eye on her. Ava started first grade on Wednesday of last week and was very excited to have Elise now going to school with her. It’s crazy to think that they’ll be going to school together for at least the next 11 years, and it officially got going today. It’s definitely a big deal for us.

Not surprisingly, Elise ended up having a great first day at school. Like Ava, she’s in Mrs Johnson’s class, which we’re thrilled about. Not only are the Johnson’s personal friends (and former neighbors) of ours, but Mrs Johnson is an excellent teacher. We know Elise will thrive in her class, and with Ava’s class just two doors down, it seems like a perfect fit. She’s already excited to go back tomorrow, so I expect she will adjust to her new routine nicely.

In addition to school starting for the girls, Mr. Enzo officially starts pre-school tomorrow, which is something we’re also very excited about. Even though he’s only 3, we’re actually bummed that we can’t get him into a slightly more intensive program. As it stands he’ll be doing 2 hours, 2 days a week, but we can tell he’s ready for more than that, so we’re looking for some other avenues to explore in terms of keeping him active and busy.

Then we also have Ava’s hockey team getting started this Thursday, so this is quite a week for us. Ava will now have hockey Thursday night, Friday night (both practices), then a game on Saturday afternoon. This goes on basically every weekend until April I believe. I’m just starting to get a glimpse of how busy Jessica and I are going to be once all 3 kids are in full swing with their activities. It’s going to be insane.

With the kids all back in school, regardless of what the calendar says, Summer for us is officially over. But what a Summer it was! We kicked things off with a great trip to Nana’s house in Las Vegas, had a great 4th of July, threw a killer 5th birthday party for Weese, spent a fun weekend with the O’Hair’s at the cabin, got to spend a long weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Rudd, and got to spend a day at the fair. Plus we spent a ton of time at the pool. Compared to last Summer, which started out with Jessica having neck surgery, followed by my whole elbow(s) debacle, this Summer has been ah-mazing.

As just briefly mentioned, we got to finish things off with a long weekend with Grandpa Rick and Grandma Chris, who were here visiting over Labor Day weekend. I was really busy with work while they were here, so I didn’t get to participate in as many activities as everyone else, but they kept busy each day with fun outings, hikes, and lots of treats for the kiddos. One day we all took a ferry out to Kingston and had a nice afternoon walking around, shopping, and having lunch. We took the kids to a really cool little candy store, and they were like… wait for it … kids in a candy store! They couldn’t make up their minds! Too many options to choose from. Enzo must have changed his mind 6 times before he ended up with an oversized colorful sucker.

Then on the same day Grandma and Grandpa were flying home, we met up with our good friends the Palmers, for a full day at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe. This was our second year in a row attending the fair, and it did not disappoint. It was the perfect combination of rides, food, people watching, excessive sun exposure, various adolescent meltdowns, various parental meltdowns, ring tosses, waiting in lines, public restrooms, overpaying, dust, needing to be carried, watch where you step because there might be horse shit. It was perfect.

Now it’s all over and we’re back to business, but as usual, we have some exciting things to look forward to in the near future. First of all, we’re going to be getting a new family vehicle this month. Our van (affectionately dubbed “Radar” by the kiddos) has done us well, but it’s been beaten to a pulp and needs to be sent out to pasture. We’ll have to tell the kids Radar went to a farm where they take care of him and get everything working again. We love the Honda Odyssey though, and the plan is to get a nice new one, although you can never be sure until the ink is dry.

I believe we’ll be getting a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Martin for Halloween this year, which should be a lot of fun. We have also made our travel arrangements for Christmas at their house this year. We’re looking forward to a beautiful white Christmas in the mountains, and this will actually be our first time seeing their new house. It’s going to be a big family gathering this year, so hopefully we can all get our Griswold on and make holiday asses of ourselves. I know that’s what Amy will want for her birthday.

Finally, a bit further out on the horizon, but really worth looking forward to, is a trip I’ll be taking with Devin, his brother Brian, and potentially one or two other friends. Let’s just say we’re calling it Japantourage because because Devin’s a tech rockstar who always felt like taking his buddies to party in Tokyo and hike Mount Fuji. Yep. May 2019 it’s on. Already got my passport renewed and everythang.

In all seriousness though, Devin messaged me on my birthday saying he wanted to put together a guys trip to Japan in May and was taking care of travel accommodations, and invited me to join. I was blown away, sent a copy of the text to Jessica, who then instantly replied saying “Are you freaking kidding me!? Japan!! You’ve got to go!!!” So I immediately replied and was like, yeah, you can count me in. Talk about a once in a lifetime opportunity, as well as such a culturally enriching experience that I’ll get to share with my family. I’m still so humbled by his generosity in including me for this, and am so ready for this trip of a lifetime. We don’t even have specific dates picked out quite yet, so there’s still a lot of planning to do, but that’s going to be fun as well. Lots of updates to come on this.

So yeah, life is awesome for us; I just wish it could slow down for a minute. Summer’s over. I’m already cooking more, and I actually smiled when I saw it was raining this morning. I’ll have the crockpot out in no time. Jessica and I have started getting more into coffee lately, and we now subscribe to a delivery coffee service where they send you different blends that they roast for you, then you provide feedback on their website in order to build a taste profile, which further dictates which coffee they select for you. After four solid years with our Keurig machine, which was a housewarming present from my Mom actually, we felt like it was time to change up our coffee game. This has been fun and we’re starting to nerd out on it together. I’ll be trying some exotic new roast in the morning. Enjoy the latest pics.

Miss Elise is ready to go