Month: April 2019

So I have to admit I was seriously thinking about taking the month of April off from the ol’ family blog. Jessica’s post earlier this month describing her and Enzo’s recent trip to Iowa took care of keeping our monthly streak alive (93 now, I believe), but the reality is there’s been too much good stuff going on recently that needs to be captured. So my loss of a Saturday evening becomes the blog’s gain.

First and foremost, I think we need to talk about our recent family trip to Canada for Ava’s first hockey tournament (an international one at that). A couple weeks ago, late in the afternoon on a Thursday, we all headed north in the van, destination Richmond, B.C., which is a suburb about 20 minutes south of Vancouver. We had no traffic heading up, beautiful weather (which lasted all weekend), and very little wait at the border.

This was the travel team’s final tournament of the year, and although Ava wasn’t a member of the travel team this year, they allowed us to join them and get a taste of tournament life before calling it a season. We’ve already been considering signing her up for the travel team next year, so we wanted to get a taste of it this year. We’ve heard nothing but good things from all the different parents we’ve spoken to. Whether it be the bonding the kids form from spending time together off the ice, or the light bulb coming on in terms of on-ice understanding, we were confident a lot of good would come out of this trip. And most certainly it did.

The somewhat embarrassing reality for our family was that this was our first time staying together, just the 5 of us, in a hotel. It was actually Elise that called it on the way up. She asked where we were staying and when we said the name of the hotel, she said “You mean we’re not staying with family!?” So yeah, this was our first time going on any type of vacation or trip where we stayed at a hotel on our own and didn’t visit any family members. Kinda sad, but not a big deal, we just knew we wanted to make the most of it and have a really fun weekend.

Before I go further I want to give a big shout out and thank you to Jessica’s Dad Rick, who used his Holiday Inn status and points to get us a room. We tried on our own to get a room for 5 and were unsuccessful because it was already sold out. The ice arena is literally next door, and there’s no other hotel around, but Rick called and was able to get a room just for Jessica and I. When we arrived, we asked for a fold out bed to be delivered, which is what the girls shared, meanwhile Jessica, Enzo, and I slept in the main bed. It was studio apartment living for a few days, but everyone enjoyed the change of pace. So thank you Rick, we had a great time and greatly appreciate the room.

While most of the families kinda laid low and didn’t stray too far from the hotel, we decided to make the most of the trip and do a bunch of exploring during our off time. On our first night we made our way down to the water and had dinner in an area called Steveston, which was a touristy area with lots of restaurants, shopping, and beautiful views. We enjoyed the area so much that we ended up going back the next day to hang out some more.

The other main getaway for us was when we spent most of the day Saturday in Vancouver. Ava’s game was in the morning and we had the rest of the day free, so we started off at a beautiful little beach park and hung out there for a while, then ended up chillin in Stanley Park for a bit. After that we took the kids down to Granville Island for some sight seeing and ice cream. Later that evening we got back in time to join the whole team for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, which was a blast. The kids were all really well behaved and it was fun getting to know some different parents.

As far as the hockey side of things goes, there’s no question this was a turning point for Ava. Just as so many other parents have said about their girls, I felt like I saw something click with her. I’m not sure if it was the tournament format, or the new competition, but something was different with her and she really elevated her game. I’d say it was the best she’s played all year. I was talking to her before the first game, trying to hype her up a bit, and she told me she was about to step it up and play her best hockey because we were in Canada. She definitely followed through with that, so my challenge next season (when I’m one of the coaches on her team) will be to bring that out of her for each game.

I think based on the experience we had on this first trip that it’s fair to say Ava will be a member of the tournament team next season. We may not be able to make it to every trip (they do 4 or 5 travel tournaments per season) but we’ll do our best. Overall I’m just glad this trip was such a success. Jessica and I are always more than happy to visit Vancouver, as it’s easily one of our favorite cities on the planet, and with Ava getting more involved with the travel team in the future, it looks like we’ll get plenty of chances to get up there.

Another recent family milestone worth sharing was our 9th wedding anniversary, which came on April 3rd. We didn’t do anything too big to celebrate, but we’d been telling the kids for a while that we wanted to take them to a nice pizza restaurant, so we all ended up going down to Via Tribunali in Georgetown for some amazing traditional Italian style pizza. I needed to pick up my license plates from the dealership in Seattle anyway, so Jessica and the kids picked me up from work that day and we all headed downtown together.

There were too many delicious sounding options to choose from, so we treated ourselves by ordering way too much for one sitting, already looking forward to the leftovers we’d be enjoying the following day. The kids love going to restaurants and had no problem declaring this their favorite pizza ever!

We’ll be stepping it up in terms of restaurants later this month when we celebrate Jessica’s birthday via a family dinner at El Gaucho. The girls love getting dressed up and going to ‘fancy places’, so Mom’s birthday dinner will certainly be a big occasion.

It’s crazy that we’re now inside of ten years of marriage. As always, on one hand it feels like time has flown by, but on the other hand, when I stop and think about not only the literal lives we’ve created, but also the figurative ones, it seems like we’ve been hard at work with our heads down for a long time. I feel like we’re in our best place ever these days, and that we’ve earned it. Although 9 years isn’t considered a major anniversary, 10 most certainly is, and although I don’t want to give anything away just yet, for now I’ll just say Jessica and I have been talking about it and may have come up with a pretty awesome way to celebrate. More on this to come over the next year.

Another exciting development for me is related to the Japan trip my buddies and I have been talking about. We were originally hoping to go in May, but Devin ended up needing to postpone the trip. I wasn’t worried about us eventually going, I just had no idea when that would be, but somewhat unexpectedly Devin recently resumed the conversation, picked out a time that we all agreed to, and purchased tickets! I’m lucking out (on multiple levels) in the sense that I get a direct flight both ways on the trip. On Saturday, September 28th I’m meeting a few of my friends at SeaTac airport and we’re flying directly to Osaka, Japan. We’re going to travel around Japan via Bullet Train, eventually ending up in Tokyo, where we’ll spend the final 3 nights of the trip. Devin’s brother Brian, who lives in Berlin, will be meeting us in Osaka, but the rest of us are traveling there together. We’ll be home on October 6, which is 6 days before Kristy and Beto’s wedding. That should be enough for me to fully recover from the jetlag and be back to normal for the wedding. I wouldn’t cut it any closer than that, but this was the week Devin wanted to go and I didn’t feel like it was a problem. There’s still a lot of planning to do, but the fact that tickets are purchased means it’s on, and I’m obviously super excited!

We’ve also been planning a wedding party Labor Day weekend getaway in Lake Chelan. There’s a big group of 13 people, so we rented a house on Airbnb for the weekend. Jessica and I love Lake Chelan, and surprisingly Kristy has never been there, so it should be a blast. So as it’s shaping up, late summer and early fall are looking really good…

Today was a good day for Jessica and I, as we dedicated ourselves to cleaning out and reorganizing our garage, with an ultimate goal of being able to park both of our cars in the garage full-time. I’ve been feeling guilty about leaving my beautiful BMW parked outside in our driveway, so to facilitate all of this, over the past week I ended up building more heavy-duty shelving in our garage. I did basically the same thing I’d done years ago by building elevated shelving into the frame of the garage, but this time I did it on the opposite wall, so the shelves sit directly above the garage door tracks. It added a bunch of storage space for us, so after several hours this morning of cleaning out every corner of the garage, going through all our stuff, and getting things organized, we were easily able to open up a parking spot for my car. Even with both of our cars in there it doesn’t feel cluttered or messy, so we’re really happy with how it turned out. It’s important to me that we take excellent care of both of our new cars, and keeping them both parked inside is a big part of that.

Overall we’ve all just been keeping really busy lately. The end of Ava’s hockey season did open up some free time for us, but that will soon be occupied with various other activities. We expect to do a lot of swimming again this summer, so it probably won’t be long before the kids are back in lessons. Jessica has been doing so much volunteer work at the girls’ school, and she’s been working a bit extra lately, so the upcoming summer will be nice for everyone.

The kids are all doing well in school, but we recently made the decision to have the girls go to summer school this year. It’s certainly not meant to be some type of punishment or anything negative like that, we just felt like it would benefit both of them, for separate reasons. In Ava’s case, she’s consistently at the top of her class in geometry (an advanced subject), yet is struggling (and in some cases regressing) in other areas that aren’t supposed to be as hard. We’re doing some more specialized work with her at home in these areas, but felt that the extra attention she’d get in the summer would go a long way.

In Elise’s case, it’s more about getting comfortable and building self-confidence. There are scenarios where Elise knows the answer to something but doesn’t want to speak up. It’s just a classic case of being shy in the classroom, but we want to break that for her now, otherwise our worry is that she just kinda blends into the classroom, coasts along, and never gets any type of specialized attention.

The other big thing for them is that the girls are going to a new elementary school next year, as our district has been re-zoned. Since summer school is being held in our new school, we thought it made a lot of sense to get the girls in there early and start getting comfortable. By the time school resumes in the fall they’ll be totally comfortable in their environment. There’s going to be no class on Fridays, and they get out early Mon-Thurs, so it’s really no big deal. It’s only 16 total days of school (and they’re going to miss one of them for their road trip with Grandma and Grandpa Martin), they’ll take the bus just like they do now, and it should be good. Hopefully they both get something positive out of it.

That’s pretty much it for now. Tomorrow morning we’re going down to Kristy and Beto’s for Madi’s birthday brunch. Should be a good time. Looking forward to celebrating Jessica’s birthday in a couple weeks, then getting into gear for a summer of fun, adventure, and learning.

I intended to find the time to write this post over a week ago but was unfortunately dealing with what felt like SARS for a whole week following our trip. Then if I’m being honest the process of actually writing took over a week as well because, well kids and spring break. There is so much I’d like to share about the kids right now, who are all doing great, but for this post I’ll focus on our trip back to Iowa.

Enzo and I had a great adventure together, it wasn’t what we intended it to be but we made the most of it. Poor Enzo spent nearly our entire trip sick and then, upon returning home, both grandpa and I got it the following week. What a mess it all was but I’ll try not to focus too much on that.

Our trip started on Monday night after work, we were flying out so early on Tuesday morning that it was just easier to stay close to the airport the night before. Michael and the girls basically got ready for bed and then we all packed into the van and drove to the hotel just across the street from the airport. After a quick look around the room and a peek out the window to admire the view of the airport and the sun setting, the girls and Michael gave us some big good bye hugs and kisses and they headed off towards home. Enzo and I got our things ready for the next day and snuggled up in bed with each other. We had to be up at 4:30 the next morning so we did our best to go to sleep right away.

We were up before the sun the next morning and the only other people that were up and about were hotel and airline employees. Enzo got to meet three different pilots just on our shuttle to the airport. He was loving all the attention and super excited to travel. Our flight to Denver was uneventful, Enzo stayed up for take off and then we both slept for the remainder of the flight.

We had almost a three hour lay over in Denver so we wandered about the different terminals and rode the under ground train several times before finding a little bite to eat and getting on our next flight into Cedar Rapids. Enzo stayed up for all of this flight but for the most part was perfectly content to just play games on his tablet or race his monster trucks on his tray table. He was a great traveler and didn’t even seem tired when we finally met up with Grandpa.

After picking up some food and getting Enzo all settled in I called Joel and decided that he and I would take pizza over to my grandparents house for dinner. They are really the reason for me wanting to make this trip happen so I wanted to make sure and see them as much as possible. My grandfather will be 90 this summer and both he and my grandma have had some major health concerns this past year. I really wanted to get back and visit them while we could all still be engaged and enjoy it. Dinner that night did not disappoint. We all sat around their living room eating pizza (Detroit style) that I had been craving for weeks and really enjoying each other’s company. Lots of laughs we’re exchanged and it made me feel like this was something that we do regularly when in all reality my brother and I haven’t had the opportunity to sit and enjoy my grandparents company together sometime before 2003!

The next morning, I headed back over to my grandparents house but this time Enzo came with me. He was really excited to be seeing everyone and I know they were anxiously awaiting his arrival. We hung out at their place for a few hours while they took their time getting ready to go out to lunch and shopping. Enzo really loved all the cool trinkets they have stashed all over their apartment, he played with a wooden train that was older than me. He got restless after a bit though so grandma Martin raced up and down the halls with him.wgile the rest of us finished getting things ready for the day.

For lunch my grandma picked Chili’s (not my favorite but I wasn’t going to say a word). It turned out to be a nice long lunch with myself and Enzo, both my grandparents and my mom and Tom. I’m so glad that it was a nice afternoon because we didn’t know this at the time but that would be the only time Enzo spent with my grandparents for the week. He became so sick that I didn’t think it was safe to have them around each other.

After we finished eating my Dad came by and picked up Zo and the two of them went to a local kids play center for a few hours before heading home. The rest of us, minus Tom went out in search of some much needed new shoes for my grandma.  I don’t enjoy shopping much anymore but it’s something that I remember doing with both my mom and grandma a lot growing up, like all the time.  It’s safe to say they both list shopping as a hobby.  shopping with grandma was taking me back to my retail days,  I was rushing all over the store finding shoes of all different kinds and bringing them back to Mom who was helping grandma carefully try each shoe on over her leg brace.  Even though grandma and grandpa didn’t get up and move around the store much, I think we all had a good time.  We only made it to the one shoe store plus Target but that didn’t matter we we’re still out for a few hours and got all the things on our list. They were pretty tired by this point and I had dinner plans with Dad, Enzo and Chris (my step mom) so I drove everyone home and met up with my Dad and Enzo for the night.

We met up at Biaggi’s for dinner, an Italian restaurant that I was part of the opening crew as a server/bartender in 2000. It always feels so nostalgic there, I met some life long friends there so I always like to visit and have a few of my favorite menu items when I’m home. This was the only time I’d be spending with Chris because she was leaving early the next morning on a trip of her own to visit a girl friend. Dinner was good but we kept it somewhat short and then headed home to relax in our pajamas for a few hours before bed. Enzo had a great first day and when he went to bed we were both excited about what was to come, his plan for the following day included a trip to the John Deere museum with my Dad and I was planning to meet a friend for lunch and then head over to my grandparents house to hang out.

When Zo woke up the next morning he asked for his usual warm milk and seemed to be feeling good. I went upstairs and warmed up some for him and after drinking about half he says “This doesn’t taste good Mommy.” Less than five minutes later I was cleaning said milk up off of grandpa’s floor (thankfully it was laminate). At first I wondered if it was just the milk since it was soy or something different than we normally drink but within minutes all the color had drained from his face and he was complaining of being cold (something he never complains about). It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots, he was definitely sick and it was most likely the flu. I got him comfortable on the couch and Dad cancelled plans for the day. I was reluctant to leave Enzo when he wasn’t feeling well but I had lunch plans with a friend I hadn’t seen in over 20 years and I figured he wasn’t going to move far from the couch so I let Dad keep him company while I went out.

Lunch was nice, we had famous Iowa tenderloins at a place that I didn’t know and caught up on the last 20 years. Zach was a neighborhood friend of mine that was a year behind me in school, we argue on how we exactly met but the jist of it was we were pretty close for the last two years of high school. He’s a dad with two young kids and a challenging career; there was no shortage of things to talk about and I had hoped to see him again before I left but he got sick later in the week and wasn’t up for it.

After lunch I wanted to head back to check on Enzo. He was just waking up when I got back and he was in good spirits but didn’t want to eat, drink or move. It didn’t seem like there was much I could do for him so after forcing him to drink a bit and setting him up with a movie I decided to go back over to my grandparents and visit for a few hours. We didn’t do much just sat in the living and talked. I was there for just a few hours before heading back to Dad’s house. I didn’t want to be away from Enzo for too long since he was feeling so rotten.

By the time I got back home it was early evening so we decided on Chinese takeout for dinner and a movie. It was delicious, Enzo slept on and off the whole night and my Dad and I just sat at the table next to where he was sleeping and caught up on the last few months. It wasn’t the day, I has hoped for Zo but he really did take it well and never whined or complained the entire day. I knew that he still wouldn’t be feeling well the next day so I didn’t plan on him doing much.

Enzo didn’t seem any better the following morning so my Dad planned to stay home with him again after going into work for a few hours early in the morning. I had lunch plans with my mom and Tom and grandparents and then we were all invited over to my mom’s friends house for a family dinner. The 5 of us had a nice, long lunch in downtown at what I could consider an upscale restaurant. It was absolutely delicious and we sat and chatted and ordered multiple desserts and had a really nice time. I wanted to get to a pharmacy afterward and try to find a few things to help out Enzo. Tom had some things to take care of as well so we separated after lunch.

I went back to be with Enzo and Dad for several hours, before heading back out for dinner. Even though he was invited I didn’t think it was a good idea for Zo to join us, he was still puking and having a hard time eating or drinking. Ann and Don Drahos hosted a family dinner for us all, they all long time family friends and I grew up going to sleep overs at their house. It was a trip being back as an adult and seeing the house again. We laughed over quit a few memories over dinner. My grandparents didn’t last long after we ate, it had been a really long day for them. I said goodnight with the promise of seeing them one last time the next afternoon.

Joel and I stayed around with my mom after everyone had left. We hadn’t been able to all be together since I’d been back so it was great to get some time to catch up. It’s so rare that I get to have my mom and brother in the same room without a ton of other people as well. The preciousness of the moment was not lost on me, I was enjoying every minute.

Around 9:30 it started to feel like Don and Ann might be getting tired so Joel and I said goodnight. I went home and watched a dumb movie with my Dad and went to bed feeling sad that I only had one more day to go.

Saturday was our last day and it appeared that Enzo was feeling better so my Dad and I were determined to take him out for a little fun. My dad had originally planned so many cool things for he and Enzo to do but because he was sick they hadn’t done much of anything. So after making sure Enzo was up for a little outting we headed out to a little neighboring town called Ely to meet up with a friend of my dad’s who is also a volunteer firefighter. He was kind enough to come in on a Saturday and open up the firehouse for us to explore. Enzo wasn’t feeling 100% so his excitement was not quit as I was expecting but he definitely enjoyed being able to wander around all the trucks and touch whatever he wanted. We made sure to sit in each truck and touch most buttons, Enzo even got to turn on the sirens for a quick listen.

After our private tour we were heading out yo lunch to meet Joel and Melanie. I hasn’t seen Melanie yet this trip because she too had been feeling sick. Lunch was nice, we went to the local culinary school and everyone’s meal was great. I thought things were really looking up for us when all of the sudden, Enzo is dry heaving and I panic looking for anything that he can use to throw up before it happens all over our table. Thankful I was able to least grab a plate in time but it was obvious that the poor little guy needed to get back on the couch to rest, our plan was to meet back up at Dad’s house later for dinner.

After once again getting Enzo comfortable on the couch I headed over to my grandparents house one more time. This time my aunt Betsy would be there as well, just like everyone else, she hadn’t been feeling well so I hadn’t seen her yet. It was an awesome visit, over four hours of laughing, crying, confessing long held secrets and just overall having a great time together.  It was afternoon that felt therapeutic when I didn’t realize I needed it.  It was exactly the time I flew across the country to experience and I was so very sad when the time came to leave.  I have no idea when we’ll be together again. I have no idea if we will even be able to spend hours together just talking again. The main reason for my trip was to get back to visit my grandparents while we were all still able to enjoy the time together, I had hoped to get the time to actually help them with more but our time together was mostly sitting together and I’m content with the way things turned out. I left their apartment that I afternoon feeling sad but also so very full of love and joy over all the memories we were sharing. I hope that this is not our last visit together but if it should be, I have no regrets.

That evening was another great one, Joel and Melanie came over to my Dad’s house for a family dinner.  We had amazing steaks (if you know my Dad this in no surprised) and better conversation.  This was another evening that I was sure to soak up every moment of, having my Dad and brother and sister in law together for a family dinner is precious to me.  We sat at the dinner table for hours just talking, Enzo sat with us as long as he could and then crash once again on the couch.  It was a late night and I had an early flight but I enjoyed every minute and I wasn’t thinking about sleep at all.

It wasn’t an easy trip for any of us, in Iowa or back at home.   Although Daddy and the girls were having fun at home they were sad at times not to be traveling with us also. It was hard to talk while we were gone because it seemed to make it harder for them. Every time we would video chat it would end in tears. On the other end, Enzo having the flu was not our ideal vacation. It was however exactly what I really needed (my heart is full) and it was no doubt memorable. Thank you so much to everyone that helped make it happen.