On Wednesday of this week Ava and Elise started the new school year at Silver Firs Elementary, and next week Enzo begins his final year of preschool. To say they’re growing fast would be an understatement. It was a fun and busy summer filled with road trips, visits from grandparents, and as much water time as possible. The weather was rarely on our side this year, but that never really even slowed us down. Now that the kids are all back in school it would be fitting for us to have an extended late summer, but I’m not holding my breath.
Three weeks from today I’m leaving for Japan. It’s hard to believe it’s finally here, but I’m ready. It’s weird because my flight leaves Seattle on Saturday the 28th at noon, goes for 12 hours straight to Osaka, but then you add on the 16 hour time difference, and it means we land on Sunday at 4:00pm. The we leave Japan exactly a week later on Sunday at 4:00pm, fly 12 hours back to Seattle, and land that same Sunday morning at 9:00am, so I’ll get to live that day twice – once in Tokyo and once in Seattle. Obviously the time all evens out, and the jet lag is worth it, but it’s probably going to do a number on my sleep schedule. The trip should be an awesome mix of traditional Japanese culture in places like Kyoto and Hakone, followed by a very modern city experience in Tokyo. Can’t wait to write about it in my next post!
Last week we spent our Labor Day weekend on a little getaway to Lake Chelan for Kristy and Beto’s wedding party. We rented a beautiful big house right on the water and spent the weekend getting out and about during the days, then hanging with everyone at the house playing games and cooking. It was great getting to know everyone and we look forward to seeing them all again at the wedding, which is only 6 days after I return from Japan.
It wouldn’t be a trip to Lake Chelan without some time in the water, so Jessica and I spent the whole day Sunday in or around the water. The house we were staying in had its own dock, so we just hung out there all day with different people from the group. One of the couples brought along their standup paddle boards, and we both decided to give it a try (neither of us had done it before). I struggled a bit at first because I was trying to stand on it like a surfboard, but a side stance like that doesn’t really work on these boards. I finally figured out (after falling in the lake several times and even losing my sunglasses in the process) that you have to have a square stance with your weight equally distributed on the outer edges of the board. Once I got this down I started figuring out the paddling and was soon doing laps out past the buoys and back over and over. Jessica did really well and figured out how to stand pretty quickly, but wasn’t quite as adventurous with the paddling as myself. Overall we both really enjoyed stand up paddleboarding and hope to do it again.
Every time I go to Chelan (or anywhere in that general area) I’m reminded by how much I love it there, and how great it would be to retire out there someday. The combination of the sunny weather, and all the beautiful mountains, rivers and lakes surrounding you is unlike anywhere else I’ve ever seen. Plus I love all the agriculture (you’ve never seen so many fruit trees in your life). The wineries and breweries don’t interest us, but all the amazing produce does. It’s a really special area that we will continue visiting regularly for years to come, and hopefully if we play our cards right, it will be a place we can someday call home.
None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for Grandpa Rick making a trip out from Iowa to take care of the kiddos. We both know how much work it is to watch all three of them by yourself, and all I can really say is that we were really impressed! He kept the kids super busy the whole time, yet still found time to fix a few things around our house, and was just finishing detailing Jessica’s van when we arrived home. He took the kids to a hotel for one night just so they could all go swimming as much as they wanted. Then another day he took them to the Evergreen State Fair, which is funny because we had just been there as a family the previous weekend, but the kids didn’t care. They were more than happy to do it all again with Grandpa. He also spoiled them a bit with lots of toys, shoes, and treats, which of course they loved. Then on our way to the airport he took all of us out for Mexican at one of our favorite spots. Since then the kids have been missing him, and we really appreciate everything he did to make this happen. Looking forward to having Grandpa Rick and Grandma Chris back out for Thanksgiving and Ava’s 8th birthday this year!
On Friday Ava’s new hockey season with the Washington Wild 8U team begins! This is now her third year of hockey and it’s really starting to show. She’s quite the athlete out there, and this year is going to be even more special and exciting for us because I am now officially a coach on her team! Next Saturday I need to attend an all-day coaching course with USA Hockey down in Tacoma, and once that’s over I will have my level one coaching certification with USA Hockey. Hopefully if all goes as planned I’ll keep increasing my coaching level each year so that I’m qualified to continue being an assistant on Ava’s teams. Ava is really excited to have me as a coach on the team, and I’m excited to be out there working with everyone. I’m always there watching practice anyway, and I love getting out on the ice, so it seems like a natural fit.
There’s also a couple more weeks left in the outdoor BMX racing season, so hopefully the kids can get out a bit more. We’re also definitely planning on checking out the indoor tracks in Burlington and SeaTac once the season ends. Enzo is really into it, and just like hockey totally suits Ava, I think the same can be said for Enzo with bike racing. It’s just a natural fit for him, so I’m glad we’ve found it at such a young age. The biggest issue we’ve had so far is the fact that Enzo only has one speed, which is race speed, but that’s only appropriate at the race track. He needs to learn how to tone it down when riding with kids in the neighborhood. He’s been punished once for being unsafe and I’m hoping that’s all it’s going to take. He seems to understand now, but I’m not going to lie – I love his competitive nature.
Jessica has been doing really well – her broken toe seems to have completely healed, and she’s been working extra lately. Obviously she won’t be working while I’m in Japan, so she’s looking forward to that time off and already has plans for various craft projects. She’s hoping to get involved in the girls’ classes early this year, but we’re at a new school now, so she kinda needs to find her way in again. Overall the classes are always very appreciative of any volunteer help they get from parents, and she really loves teaching art to little kids, so hopefully she can get started pretty soon.
Elise is doing well and very excited to be in first grade. She’s been showing a lot of interest in legos lately so she’s excited to join the lego club at school. We’re not sure what other activities she’ll be participating in this year but we want to leave it up to her. We’re not going to force anything on her, but we will continue exposing her to things until something really sticks. So far she seems to like everything she’s done, but there hasn’t been an activity she loves the way there has been for Ava and Enzo. I convinced her to give Brazilian Jiu Jitsu a try and she said she would, so we’ll all be checking that out at the Gracie school after Enzo turns 5. It’s no problem if it doesn’t stick, but we both feel like martial arts would be good for each of the kids (for various reasons), and I firmly believe Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is the best one to learn, especially for kids.
The great thing about Elise is that she’s always down to come along for any activity, and always seems to have fun and make friends even if she’s not participating in the activity. It’s like that when Ava has hockey practice, and it’s like that when we’re at the bike track. As long as she has something to color or draw on, a snack to eat, and some other kids to run around with, she’s good to go. And she’s still our sweetest.
Oh, and one more thing. I was feeling like our family recipes website could use a little touch up because I hadn’t done anything to it in at least 5 years. There’s a popular development library called React that I’ve been using a lot at work lately, so I decided to use it for the new version of the recipes site as well. So I went ahead and built the site, got it all finished up, then uploaded it to our server here, and found out that the type of hosting plan I have for this website doesn’t work natively with the app I had just created. It would have been a big headache to convert the whole website over to a new hosting plan, so instead I just decided to host the recipes site elsewhere. It’s on a free plan with Heroku, so it may take a minute for the site to initially load, but it’s a nice update compared to the old one. This one was made more with mobile devices in mind, since that’s what you’re most likely to be using when looking up a recipe in the kitchen. If anyone wants to submit new recipes, feel free to send them my way!
http://pellegrini-recipes.herokuapp.com
Guess that’s about it for now. Next time I write will be sometime after the Japan trip. As usual we have all kinds of things to look forward to, including Kristy and Beto’s wedding, a visit from Nana for Halloween (her birthday as well), a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Martin, and a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Rudd for Thanksgiving. It’s going to be a very busy Fall, so we’re kinda looking forward to our first Christmas at home in several years. Enjoy the latest pics.
