Author: Michael Pellegrini

Tomorrow will be my last day at work for 10 days, meaning it will be the longest break I’ve had in approximately forever. Even when each of my 3 kids was born I didn’t have this much time off work, and we’ve been planning this trip for about 8 months, so it’s safe to say that excitement levels are steadily rising. The 5 days and 4 nights that we’ll be gone will be the longest stretch that we’ve ever been away from the kids, and honestly that part kinda bums me out, but I know they will be having tons of fun with Grandma and Grandpa, so it’s all good.

Speaking of the grandparents, they arrived yesterday afternoon after driving through the night all the way from Colorado. They were originally supposed to fly their plane up here, but the weather has been so bad that driving was basically their only option. I can’t believe how quickly they got here, and certainly we appreciate the fact that they’re here to allow Jessica and I to go on vacation. They’re going to be taking the kids to see Santa Claus while we’re gone, and Grandma even had two cute Christmas dresses for the girls to wear in the photo, so I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Yesterday we had a crazy storm here in the Seattle area that was causing all kinds of power outages and ridiculous traffic. I was supposed to have a dentist appointment at 5:30, so I left my office at 4:25 thinking I had more than enough time to make it. I chose to take the back roads rather than the freeway, which is my normal route home anyway, but what I didn’t know was that most of the stop lights on my way home weren’t working because of the power outage, meaning traffic was a nightmare. By the time 5:30 came around I wasn’t even halfway to the office, so I called them to tell them that I wouldn’t make it. I ended up calling several times but there was never an answer, or even an answering machine for me to leave a message on. I (correctly) assumed that they also had lost power, so I just did my best to get home.

As I entered our neighborhood I was instantly saddened to see that every house was pitch black. It was obvious that the neighborhood was without power. By this point I had been in the car for an hour and 45 minutes, I had to pee about as bad as a person can have to pee, and I realized that I only had one small flashlight and no candles readily available at home. As I drove through the neighborhood it appeared that all hope for electricity was lost, but then I turned onto my street and saw the most beautiful sight – every house was fully lit up. As it turns out, our street (and only our street) is part of Unincorporated Snohomish County, while the rest of the streets in the neighborhood are part of Everett. Because of this, our street is on a different power grid, and apparently the power on our street never goes out!

Amy and Tom were already there when I got home, so it was nice to catch up with them before Jessica and the kids got home from the gym. Obviously the kids were super excited to see Grandma and Grandpa when they got home, so the rest of the evening was spent hanging out, eating dinner, and catching up. Jessica recently joined a local gym that provides child care while you’re working out. So far the kids seem to really enjoy going there to play with other kids, and Jessica is really enjoying it, so I’m glad it’s working out.

Tonight Jessica and Amy are taking Ava and Elise to see Disney’s ‘Frozen on Ice’ at the Comcast Arena in Everett. Last year they took Ava to see ‘Disney on Ice’ for her birthday while Elise stayed home with Grandpa and me. I guess Ava had the time of her life, so this year all the girls will be going to the show while the boys stay home. When I said goodbye to Ava this morning she was already talking about tonight’s show, so I’m sure their excitement is virtually bubbling over by now.

Regarding our trip to Austin, we don’t have any plans set in stone. We’re just going to play it by ear and see what happens. I definitely want to check out Zilker Park and get my picture taken at the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue. I’m also really looking forward to eating some traditional Texas BBQ and seeing some good live music, but beyond that I have no idea what to expect. We’re staying at the downtown Hyatt, and we’re not even renting a car. Maybe I’ll finally get to experience Uber while we’re there.

It occurred to me while talking to my Mom on the way home from work yesterday that someday the kids may read some of the stories I share on the family blog and be less than thrilled with me for sharing some of the things I share. For example I’ve written about the trials and tribulations Ava experienced during potty training that she may not want everyone to know, and I’m sure there will be plenty more comparable stories about each of the kids in the future, but I hope that they understand that it only comes from a place of love; not just from me who’s writing it, but also from those who care enough to read it. Hopefully they will see it as a very small price to pay for having a documented history of the lives they lead before they were old enough to remember.

Speaking of the kids, all 3 of them are doing excellent. Ava is fully potty trained and hasn’t had an accident in a long time. She seems to have grown up a lot over the last couple months but she’s still as sweet as ever. Elise is going through the terrible two’s but she’s still such a sweetheart. She’s definitely the cuddliest of the three, and still frequently crawls into bed with us in the wee hours of the morning. She gets easily frustrated with Ava, particularly because Ava knows better than anyone how to push her buttons, but she’s also usually pretty easy to calm down, so it’s a fair trade.

Enzo is on the verge of walking, and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he took his first steps while we’re out of town. I thought he was going to do it the other night, but even though he definitely has the balance, he doesn’t quite have the confidence to take a step without holding onto something. Regardless, he will certainly be our earliest walker, and as I’ve said all along, I think he just wants to keep up with his sisters. He’s getting so big now it’s crazy. Even Amy said last night that she couldn’t believe how much he has grown since she last saw him 2 months ago. It probably won’t be long before he outweighs Elise.

Jessica and I will be returning from Texas on Tuesday evening, then on Wednesday Ava will turn 4! We’re going to take her to lunch, then to see a 3D cartoon movie about dinosaurs while Elise and Enzo do something with Amy and Tom. We like the idea of doing something like this for each kid on their birthday, so that they get to have a fun experience with just Mommy and Daddy. Thursday of course will be Thanksgiving, but we’re going to keep it really low key this year. Amy and Tom will be leaving on Saturday so they can get home in time for their trip to London, then on Sunday we’ll be holding a small family birthday party for Ava.

Guess that’s about all for now. I’m sure there will be plenty to write about next week once we get back from our trip.

On Monday my Mom returned home to Vegas after spending her birthday weekend with us. She came to town on Thursday evening and the kids were thrilled to see her. Everyone came to my office on Friday afternoon to do some trick-or-treating, and we ended up taking a shuttle to the main part of campus where they were throwing a huge family Halloween party. We checked out the party for a bit but it was so crowded and crazy that we ended up going out for Mexican food shortly thereafter.

Saturday we celebrated Nana’s birthday by having a nice brunch at home, then in true family tradition, we went shopping at Costco. Nana had fun taking the girls to look at all the holiday decorations and pretty dresses while Mom and Dad loaded up on groceries. The rest of the day (and the weekend for that matter) was spent snacking and chilling around the house. We had a nice halibut dinner for Nana’s birthday, then everybody got into their costumes for some neighborhood trick-or-treating. This was the first year that the kids really ‘get’ Halloween, so it was great to have Nana there taking them door-to-door.

Sunday was a rainy day, so in true football season fashion I busted out the crockpot and started cooking. We just stayed home and relaxed all day. Everyone was a little under the weather with allergies and such, so it was nice to just chill and get some quality time together. I wish my Mom could have stayed longer but it was great having her here and I’m glad she got so much quality time with the kids. Hopefully it won’t be long before we see her again.

At this point I think the potty training phase with Ava is over. We still praise her for using the toilet, but I can only think of one accident she’s had in the past week, so I think that bridge has finally been crossed. I’m so proud of her. She’s such a good girl and she has really grown up a lot lately. I made a point to acknowledge how smart Elise is in a recent post but it would be silly for me not to say the same thing about Ava. She’s so sharp, and her memory retention is so good; it frequently amazes me. At any given moment she’s liable to mention something you told her once 6 months ago. The way she retains stuff is just incredible. You combine that with her constant energy, personality, and enthusiasm, and you’re left with a tour de force known only as Ava P.

Elise is doing great, even though she’s a two year old. She often gets frustrated (particularly with Ava) but her ability to communicate so well for her age make it easier to calm her down. She’s been in this phase lately where she wraps herself around one of my legs and doesn’t let go, meaning I have to walk around the house dragging 30 extra pounds with a leg that can’t bend because she’s completely wrapped around it. The funny thing with Elise is that she has this jekyll and hyde thing every night where she transforms from the sweet loving little girl we all know into this crazed goblin of a child that can’t be tamed. It takes ‘second wind’ to a whole new level, and it happens every night about 90 minutes before bedtime. When Jessica is at work I often only have one option for getting her to settle down, which is to let her sleep in our bed. Of course Ava sees that and then insists on also crawling into our bed, meaning it’s not uncommon for Jessica to come home from work and not be able to sleep in her own bed because of me and the girls. I definitely need to work on this…

Enzo just turned 9 months old last week and he couldn’t be doing any better. We’ve been noticing that not only is he big for his age, but he has a huge head! Getting shirts over his head is surprisingly difficult. Jessica took him in for his 9 month checkup on Friday and they confirmed after measuring him that his head is in the 97th percentile. That’s crazy!

You know what else is crazy? How mobile he has become. It’s like, of course our last child would become mobile the soonest. He’s going to be walking so soon, but it doesn’t matter because he already crawls super fast (including up the stairs), and as long as he can hold on to something with one hand, he’s comfortable walking on his own. I don’t think we were ready for him to become mobile quite this quickly, but there’s nothing you can do besides go with it.

Jessica and I are getting excited for our long weekend in Austin, which is only a couple weeks away. Amy and Tom will be coming into town a couple days before we depart on the 20th, then after we get back we can celebrate Ava’s birthday and do Thanksgiving dinner. I’m honestly not even sure what we’re doing for Ava’s birthday, so Jessica and I should probably get that figured out pretty quick. She’s going to be 4 though, and she’ll be starting a new preschool pretty shortly after.

I don’t think we have much else going on this holiday season, but we’ll be going to Iowa in early January for Jessica’s Grandparents’ 60th Wedding Anniversary. There’s a big party going on and everyone is going to be there, so it should be fun. It’s probably not the best time of year to travel to the midwest but we’ll be fine. We’ve been having troubles with our flights lately, as they have been rescheduled by Expedia multiple times. We now have a 5:05am flight out of Seattle with a 4 hour layover in Denver, then another 4 hour layover in Denver on the way back home! I was so mad when I got the email that I wrote a raging tweet about Expedia, to which they very quickly replied. We’re going to see if we can speak to someone and get it fixed, but if not we’re screwed. As it stands we’re in for epic days of rough travel.

We recently got some photos taken by our photographer friend Carlye. We wanted to get Nana some prints for her birthday, and of course Jessica can never resist a photo shoot of the kids. Here are some good shots from that day, as well as a couple others from the weekend.

Out doing some trick-or-treating

Spider girl

My loves

Based on the success we had with our original ‘Health Month’ back in June, Jessica and I have decided to do something very similar for the majority of October. We’ve heard several friends talking about their experience with the ‘Advocare 24 Day Challenge’ so we decided to give it a try. It’s basically the same paleo-inspired diet that we had back in June, but it’s supplemented with lots of vitamins, probiotics, fiber, meal shakes, and my favorite, an energy drink called ‘Spark.’

Spark is a zero calorie, caffeine-free energy drink based on vitamin B-12 and taurine. I was a bit skeptical about it when we first started, but the fact is that I haven’t had a single cup of coffee (or caffeine from any other source) since starting the program 12 days ago, and I haven’t missed it. My goal once the program finishes is to go to Costco and find a bunch of similar products to continue taking in the future. I’m all for giving up coffee on a daily basis as well, so hopefully that will be one of the positive outcomes we have from this.

Five weeks from today Jessica and I will be leaving for our vacation in Austin. We haven’t had a getaway like this in a while so we’re getting excited. We’ll be flying down there the Friday before Thanksgiving, hanging out through the weekend, and coming home on Tuesday the 24th, which is the day before Ava’s 4th birthday. Amy and Tom will be staying here with the kids while we’re gone, then we can celebrate Ava and Thanksgiving when we get back. We’re hoping to enjoy plenty of live music and delicious food while we’re down there, including some authentic Texas BBQ.

Halloween is just around the corner and we’re hoping for a visit from my Mom to celebrate her birthday. Last year we went down to Vegas for her birthday so it would be awesome to be with her again this year. Last year we missed all of our neighborhood Halloween festivities, so we’re looking forward to checking it out this year. Regarding costumes, we’ve already got everything set. Ava, who had 2 costumes last year, wants to wear the same mermaid outfit she wore last year in Vegas. Elise and Enzo will be dressed as Mike and Sully from the Monsters Inc movies. Apparently Elise saw the Sully costume while they were out shopping and she freaked out and had to have it. Once we had that Jessica couldn’t resist ordering Enzo a Mike Wazowski costume. Should be pretty hilarious.

As a sports fan, October might be my favorite month of the year. Football is in full swing, you’ve got post-season baseball, all the major European Soccer leagues are active, and basketball and hockey are just getting started. It’s kindof a nice way to transition out of summer and into the 6 months of gloom looming on the horizon. I’m a little bummed today because my Dodgers underachieved again, getting knocked out in game 5 of the NL division series against the Mets last night. I’m happy for all the Cubs fans in my life though, most notably my wife of course. I’m definitely pulling for the Cubs from this point on and hope they can break the curse of the Billy Goat!

Jessica continues to work regularly, so I’m getting lots of quality time with the kiddos. Some of that quality time gets intermixed with ‘accidents’ but overall we’ve all been having fun. Enzo can stand up on his own, and the other night he crawled up our entire staircase unassisted. I was right there behind him in case he fell, but he didn’t need me. Not that time at least. He loves playing with the girls and doesn’t really seem to mind Elise picking on him.

Speaking of Elise, she has really transformed over the past few months. We saw Dana and family last weekend and the first thing she commented on was how much older and bigger Elise was. Her vocabulary continues to amaze everyone, including her doctor. I think it’s safe to say that having a big sister so close in age has contributed towards Elise being so advanced for her age. Sometimes you have to stop and remind yourself that she is barely even two years old. If we lived in Boston I think you’d say Elise is ‘wicked smart.’

Ava is also doing really well. Her constant energy and enthusiasm for life is contagious, and her undying love for our family, which she talks about regularly, is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. One thing I can always count on when coming home from work is an energetic, heart-felt greeting from Ava, generally followed by one of the same affection from Elise. We’re hoping to get her into pre-school in the next couple months, so that should be a fun new phase for her.

Guess that’s all for now. Here are some recent pics.

Loving their new boots

Fun at the farm

Now that’s a teddy bear!

Watching the Dodgers game with my boy

Fashionable as usual

Always happy

Classic Weese

Looking innocent in baby brother’s Pack ‘n Play

Standing up on his own now

I’ve been having that “I’m overdue for a post” feeling for the last couple days; good thing I took the bus to work today or I don’t know when I would have even started it. I’ve recently been about as busy as ever with work, so much so that for the first time in my career I actually stayed the night at my office on Monday night. The reason for all this was a free online virtual conference being put on Tuesday by Microsoft, called AzureCon. The event was being held on Azure.Microsoft.com, which is the website my team owns, so we were responsible for creating the page(s) and making sure that our users had an optimal experience.

For the week leading up to the event, our two most tenured engineers were both out on vacation. Then the night before the event our most senior engineer came down with a wicked case of food poisoning, meaning there were only three of us available to see it through to completion. In the end the event was a success, although there were a few adjustments I would make if I could do it over again, but we all came together well as a team and got it done.

Jessica has worked the last two nights in a row, which is her new regular weekly schedule (Wednesday & Thursday nights), so it feels like forever since we’ve all been together for a normal evening. Everything will be back to normal tonight though, and I’m sure that will make the kids happy. We’ll be resuming our old Friday tradition of Jessica and the kids picking me up from work. The girls love coming to my office because they always get chocolate milk, and the drive home is nice because it gives Jessica and I time to catch up without many distractions.

I attended the Microsoft Car Show this afternoon on my lunch break. There were a handful of cars parked outside, including a beautiful Lamborghini, then a whole bunch of others parked underground in a parking garage. Since there was no theme to this show, the variety of cars to look at was impressive. Lots of Ferrari’s, Porsche’s, a cool orange Chevy C10 pickup, and old Porsche 944 (my first car), some amazing camping vans, lots of motorcycles, and my favorite of all, a bright red 1967 Chevy Chevelle, which is probably my favorite muscle car of all time. Nice way to spend your lunch break on a Friday!

Enzo turned 8 months old earlier this week. I don’t remember the girls going through this noticeable of a growth spurt. Even though I see him everyday it’s still obvious to me how fast he’s growing and how big he’s getting. Not only is he getting big but he’s also gotten quite mobile. He’s full-on crawling now, plus he loves scooting around in his walker. Because of this it’s probably safe to say no one loves the wood floors more than Enzo. He’s also standing up on his own, so walking is presumably just around the corner.

Jessica and I recently decided that Elise, or ‘Weese’ as I like to call her, is the missing character from the cast of Peanuts, which I read this morning first debuted 65 years ago today. Between all her messy/dirty faces, the fact that she’s always carrying Pippo around, and that move she does where it looks like she’s sucking on an imaginary pacifier, she’d be absolutely perfect. I can just see her picking out a Christmas tree with Charlie Brown, or singing songs around the piano with Lucy, Woodstock, and Pigpen. She’s been a bit of a drama queen lately, but I think not having Mommy and Daddy home at the same time all week probably has something to do with that.

Ava has recently made a ton of progress with using the bathroom, and I’m this close to declaring her officially potty trained, but we still seem to have one “accident” a day. I’m saying this in jest because it’s not really an accident, she just doesn’t want to stop doing what she’s doing to go to the bathroom. Consequently Jessica and I have to tell her regularly to go use the bathroom, but she’s usually pretty good about it.

Not sure what’s going on this weekend but we’re hoping to get out and do something fun. Honestly what we should be doing is cleaning out the garage, which is still filled with materials from the flooring project, but that may have to wait another week. The weather is supposed to be nice here, and the trees are all changing color, so we should probably take advantage of it and get outside.

Speaking of the flooring project, we really love how it turned out. It feels like a different house and looks so much nicer. Thanks again to Amy and Tom for all their help with that.

Looks like we’re in for a pretty quiet October, followed by a busy November. We have plans next Saturday with Dana and family, and we’re expecting a visit from my Mom for her birthday on Halloween. Next month Jessica and I will be taking our trip to Austin, then celebrating Ava’s 4th birthday and Thanksgiving the following week.

That’s about it for now. Here’s a few recent pics, as well as a video of the kids playing out front.

Today Tom and Amy rolled out of town after two very busy weeks filled with camping and home renovations. As I write this I’m looking around the main floor of our house, and I honestly can’t believe how nice everything looks. Even though we carefully chose the dark bamboo floors, the tall white trim, and the paint colors for the walls, you still can’t be 100% sure how it’s all going to look together until you see the finished product. Luckily for us, the finished product was even better than I had ever imagined. I can’t thank Tom and Amy enough for the help they gave us. As usual, we couldn’t have done it without them and we appreciate everything so much.

It’s also crazy to see our house all put back together. For the last two weeks it’s been a huge mess of materials, tools, and toys, but yesterday Jessica, Amy, and Tom worked all day to get everything cleaned up and put back together. Again, seeing the finished product was so exciting, and since then we’ve both been finding ourselves randomly looking around in awe and appreciating all the hard work that went into it.

Not only did we end up with a beautiful finished product, but we both learned a lot from Tom throughout the project. I’ve never taken on something like this before, so it was really interesting to see how it’s all done. As it turns out, we purchased way too much flooring, so we’ve decided to hang onto it and do new floors in our master bedroom as well. We’re confident that we can get it done together after everything we’ve learned over the past week, but just in case we mess anything up, Amy and Tom will be back up here in two months for Thanksgiving. For now we just need to focus on finishing up the last bit of painting before we jump into anything new.

In addition to all the hard work, we were able to sneak away last weekend for the Foo Fighters concert at the Gorge. We dropped the girls off with Kristy and Madi, then rolled out to Eastern Washington in the bus. I ended up driving the final hour on our way there and found that I rather enjoyed being in control of such a massive vehicle. I like driving/riding pretty much anything, so it was no surprise, although this one definitely took some getting used to. There’s a lot of play in the steering, so you’re constantly making fine adjustments to the wheel just to keep it going straight. Plus you’ve got a switch-activated engine break to use when going down hills, which helps keep your normal brakes as fresh as possible. I ended up driving us all the way home the following day, and soon I found myself passing 18 wheelers in the left lane going uphill into the mountains. It was pretty badass.

As for the show, it was amazing. The Foo Fighters completely rocked, even though their front-man Dave Grohl had a broken leg, it was still really fun. Plus the scenery there is unbelievable. You’re sitting there on the lawn with the sun setting behind you, and you’ve got the stage and Columbia River gorge in front of you. It’s just amazing. We had Enzo with us, so it was his first concert, and let’s just say that he was quite a hit. If you’re ever wondering how to get a lot of attention at a concert, just strap a cute kid to your chest and give him a fedora to wear. People were constantly coming up to me to chat and check out baby Enzo. One lady even said “I don’t care what you think, I’m kissing him” and then proceeded to follow through with her promise.

Although most people thought it was awesome that we had him with us, at least one person seemed to think it was a bad idea. While we were on the bus from the camping grounds to the concert venue, a lady standing several rows behind me said something like “Did you see that guy with the baby? What’s he doing bringing a baby to something like this!?” Unfortunately for her, Jessica happened to be standing next to her, and she was told to watch it because “that’s my baby you’re talking about.” It was pretty badass.

With all the house work and camping trips behind us, it feels a bit weird to be having a normal night at home. The girls are both less than 100% right now, so Jess kept everyone home today to rest and relax. We’ve still got a lot to do around the house, including a bunch of yard work this weekend, but today everyone was all about downtime for the kids.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day for me because several of my teammates and I will be participating in something called “Day of Caring.” Basically we had approval from Microsoft to spend a workday doing some type of volunteer work for the community. Our team chose to build a covered area for homeless people to wait under when it’s raining and they’re trying to get into a shelter. I’m bringing a bunch of tools, and hopefully I’ll be coming in hot after all this work we’ve been doing at home. My main concern is that you’re going to have a bunch of software engineers trying to construct a physical structure and we’re not going to know what the hell is going on, but hopefully everything will turn out fine. Keep an eye out for an update on this sometime soon.

With all the hard work complete, it’s time for some down time around here. Looks like we’ll be getting a visit from my Mom for Halloween (which is her birthday), but other than that we don’t have a whole lot going on until our trip to Austin in late November. I’m actually saying this somewhat in jest because I know better than anyone that we never manage not being busy with something for long. The idea’s still novel though. Better just toss some recent pics out there and say, “see you soon.”

The powder room

The front room

Ava & Peanut hanging out

Hanging out in the bus

The Gorge

Getting settled into our spot

The little E’s

Well, we’re on our way home now and I think it’s safe to say that this was the best Labor Day weekend I’ve ever had. We just pulled out of the Slidewaters waterpark in Grandma and Grandpa’s bus, and are headed back through the Cascade Mountains to our home, which is about 150 miles away. We’re cruising in style and as far as I’m concerned, this is the only way to go camping. I think the new buzz word to describe this kind of camping is ‘glamping’, which is obviously super lame, but that’s not the point.

The point is that sleeping in tents on the ground sucks, but having a super nice RV with multiple beds, a full kitchen, and 3 TV’s (including 1 outside) is awesome. I’ll be the first one to admit that I’m not a camping person, but I could do this just about anytime. The trip started for us on Thursday afternoon; everyone picked me up in the bus at my office in Redmond, then we got on I-90 and headed east. About one mile before exiting I-90 we got stuck in a standstill and literally sat there without moving for one hour. They were doing some work on the freeway and had to close off all traffic for a bit. Normally this kind of delay would be just shy of torture, but considering the fact that we were hanging out in the bus, making cookies and watching a
Lynyrd Skynyrd concert on TV, it could have been a lot worse.

We pulled into our campsite around 9:00 that evening and got setup for the weekend. Our next-door neighbors, the Schreibers, were already there, along with another family they’re friends with, so we got to catch up with them a bit before calling it a night. The campground was beautiful; it’s located just off the lakeshore so the views are gorgeous. I brought my longboard skateboard for the weekend but Jessica and Tom were giving me a hard time saying there probably wouldn’t even be a place to ride it. However much to my chagrin there was a skate park directly adjacent to the campgrounds. There was also a nice playground for the kids, so we ended up going over there several times throughout the weekend.

The rest of our neighbors arrived on Friday, but we didn’t do much that day besides relax around the campground. There was a football and a frisbee on hand, so we played a lot of catch (I even taught Jessica how to throw a football), then had pizza for dinner with all our friends. We were hoping that this would be the weekend that Ava would switch from her balance bike to a real bike (meaning one with pedals) but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Grandpa Rick and Grandma Chris sent one out to us, but she didn’t really get the concept of pedaling, and even with the seat at it’s lowest position it was still a bit too tall for her, so she couldn’t keep it upright. We ended up putting the training wheels on it and pushing Elise around in it while Ava went back to old faithful: her green balance bike. It won’t be long before she’s riding for real though; just gotta keep at it.

Saturday ended up being one of the best days of the weekend; our group rented two pontoon boats and took them out on the lake for about four hours. We all took turns riding the inner tube behind the boat, which was really fun. Elise and I were actually the first ones to ride the tube, but we didn’t last very long. It wasn’t your traditional inner tube; it was more of a raft with a couple seats. Elise was nervous but I held onto her super tight. We ran into a little problem though because the boat was moving really slow and the front of our raft quickly started sinking. Elise was in front of me and she started to freak out so I quickly pulled her back, but in doing so I ended up pulling a muscle in my back. Instantly my whole lower back seized up and I could barely move. I yelled out for them to stop the boat and they quickly pulled us back in. It wasn’t a big deal, and after a few minutes my back was fine, but Elise was more than happy to spend the rest of the time curled up with a blanket in the boat. She actually fell asleep pretty quickly and didn’t wake up until we were headed back to the dock.

I ended up going back out on the raft once more with Ava (and our neighbor Jim) and had a lot more fun. Tom was driving the boat and he gave us a good ride. The whole time we’re out there laughing and hollering, but Ava keeps saying “Why is it so bumpy Daddy!?” At a certain point we stopped to have lunch on the boat, then most of us jumped in the water. It was cold but I’m glad I did it. You just have to get over the initial shock of it, then you’re fine.

We ended up taking the boat much further up the lake than I’ve ever been before and enjoyed looking at all the beautiful houses along the shoreline. On our way back we pulled up close to shore and got a good look at about a dozen homes that had recently burned to the ground. We knew that there had been problems with fires over the past month or so (although you never would have known it while we were there) but seeing the damage in person was pretty chilling. Luckily no one was killed but their houses were completely destroyed.

Sunday was another chill day that mostly consisted of trips to the park, lots of snacking, playing
catch, and watching baseball. We were all pretty worn out from the day before, and Amy and Tom had come down with a bit of a cold, so it was nice to just lay low and relax all day. I made chicken tacos for dinner and ended up watching a NASCAR race with Tom, which isn’t something I’m used to but ended up being pretty fun.

Today was our last day of the trip and we went out with a bang. After packing up the bus this morning, we met our neighbors at Slidewaters for a day of water slides, hot tubs, and lazy rivers. It was really nostalgic for me because my Dad’s old boss was one of the original owners of Slidewaters, so it was our family tradition to go there every summer. Seeing my own kids enjoying the same park that I had so much fun at as a kid was awesome. Ava had an absolute blast while Elise and Enzo spent most of their time napping in the shade. I made a point to go on all the big slides, but nothing was more fun than taking the girls down their first water slides. It’s probably safe to say that it won’t be too long before we come back here. I love the idea of reviving the same Summer tradition that my parents and I had many years ago.

Now that our camping trip is behind us it’s time to get back to work on our house. We started the project of replacing our floors earlier this week by pulling up all the carpet on the first floor. I took tomorrow off work so I’d be able to stay home and work on the floors all day with Tom and
Jessica. I still need to empty out my office and finish painting the walls, plus we need to go pick up all the flooring we ordered a few weeks ago. Obviously we won’t be finishing everything tomorrow, but I want to do as much as possible. I’m prepared to come home and work all night each day after work though, so hopefully we’ll be done before the weekend rolls around.

Next weekend should be a lot of fun as we’ll be seeing the Foo Fighters at The Gorge in George, Wa. For those that haven’t seen a concert at The Gorge, you’re really missing out. It’s one of the most beautiful concert venues in the country. I’ve been there several times, including once with Jessica, but my most memorable trip there would have to be on my 16th birthday. My Mom took me to the DMV to get my license that morning, then I drove us straight to The Gorge to meetup with my friends for Lollapalooza ’96. Metallica, one of my favorite bands, was the headliner, but my Mom fell asleep and missed them. It was a pretty unforgettable day. Anyway, next weekend should be good; Enzo will be coming to the show with us (what a cool first concert for him!) while the girls will be staying the night with Kristy and Madi. We’ll stay the night there on Saturday, then head to Kristy’s on Sunday morning to pick up the girls.

Alright, enough of my rambling; I know you’re all just here to see the pictures anyway. In closing,
this has been an amazing weekend that I’m sure we will never forget. Hopefully we get to do something like this again soon. Here are some of the better photos from the trip.

Our chariot for the weekend

The co-pilots

Taking the new bike for a spin

Sunset at the bridge

The twin hoodies

Enzo hanging out with all his friends

The kids getting ready to go boating

Love the pink socks with skull & crossbone shoes…

Baby Enzo turned 7 months old on Friday. For those of you who haven’t seen him in the last month or so, you’ll hardly recognize him when you see him in person. He’s been going through quite a growth spurt lately; lots of outfits no longer fit him, and new ones are getting pulled out of the ether on a regular basis. He’s very aware of what is going on around him and does his best to stay involved with his sisters whenever possible. Any time Ava gets the iPad out he will do whatever he has to in order to scoot near her and look at the screen. Although he’s not officially crawling yet, he’s definitely mobile and has his own unique way of getting up on all fours, then rocking back and forth until he faceplants, then he sort of slides forward as he gets back up on all fours again. It’s not the most efficient sequence I’ve ever seen, but it seems to work for him. When all else fails he just log rolls to get around.

Over the past couple days the girls and I have gotten out together for various ‘adventures’ in order to give Jessica more time to paint. Friday night we went to Costco, which is always fun, then yesterday I took them to their first movie at the mall. My thought was to take them to a mall far away because getting there and back would eat up a lot of time, so I chose Southcenter mall, which I went to constantly (and even worked at) growing up. I knew it had been through a massive reconstruction a few years ago, but I haven’t really been there since then, so I couldn’t believe it when we got there. There was very little resemblance to the mall I remember from my childhood, but it was beautiful, and it was huge.

As the girls and I walked through the mall looking for the movie theater I’m sure we looked like the blind leading the blind to everyone we passed. Elise kept running ahead of with a maniacal laugh, then Ava would try to catch her and make her hold hands, then there’s me power walking behind them calling out their names and trying to stay close. By the time we reached the second floor I noticed a little play area so I decided to go there for a few minutes while we regroup and figure out where we’re going.

What I didn’t realize was that while we were inside the mall, there was a pretty major storm going on outside. I remember from the middle of the night before hearing lots of wind and rain outside, but I thought it was over. As it turns out, the worst was yet to come. Apparently the weather took a turn for the worse while we were inside, but I had no idea, so I took out my phone and saw a group text message to Jessica and I from the general manager at El Gaucho begging for Jessica to work later that evening.

I called Jessica and offered to come straight home, but she didn’t want us to miss out on our movie, and we figured with the movie starting at 1:10, there would be no problem for her to get to work at 5:30. With a new plan in place, the girls and I headed to the food court to enjoy a basket of fish ‘n chips from Ivars before our movie.

After we finished eating I took the girls up to the top floor, which is where the movie theater is, and immediately they started going crazy. They were so excited to be there that they couldn’t contain themselves. So I’m trying to wait in line to purchase tickets, then popcorn a minute later, but they won’t hold still and insist on running all around. As usual they got a lot of attention from everyone in line, but I just blamed their hysteria on this being their first trip to the movies.

After getting our popcorn, we went to our theater and sat in the furthest back row in the furthest corner. I wanted to separate us as much as possible from the rest of the people in order to hopefully not ruin their experience. We sat down at 1:00 and proceeded to wait 30 minutes for our movie ‘Shaun – the Sheep Movie’ to start. As you might expect the girls were impossible to keep still during that time, and there were multiple occasions where I considered throwing in the towel. I have to be honest though, it was mostly Elise who was being crazy. Ava deserves credit for mostly staying still, but Elise couldn’t be stopped from climbing over chairs and running into various rows. I kept having to chase her down, which she thought was hilarious.

I’m certainly not blaming Elise for anything here; she’s barely even two years old and there’s no way I would have taken Ava to a theater at that age. She’s just not ready to sit still in a foreign environment like that for an extended period of time. Once the movie started both girls settled down though, which was a relief, so I figured we were home free. About ten minutes later Elise starts crawling away from us and trying to hide under the seats. Not only is that disgusting, but I knew what she was doing. She had some business to attend to and was trying to get a little privacy. So I sat there and waited for the smell. I figured pulling her out too early would be a mistake because she might not actually go, so I just waited.

Once I was sure she was done (and likely so were a few others seated nearby) I scooped her up in my arms and told Ava we needed to go to the potty to change Elise’s diaper. I was afraid this would upset her because she was really into the movie, but she looked at me like a little soldier getting their orders and proclaimed (with a head nod) “Yes Daddy.”

So the three of us head out to find a restroom and of course there is no family restroom, plus there’s no changing table in the men’s room. Luckily one of those large stalls for handicapped people was vacant, so the three of us went there. I had no choice but to lay Elise down on the tile floor, which is gross, but when you compare it to the movie theater floor she was just crawling around on, I think it’s a push. Although Elise usually doesn’t like to hold still during a diaper change, I don’t think she was too keen being on that bathroom floor, so she didn’t struggle with me very much.

After our bathroom debacle we went back to our theater and sat down in the same seats, intent on watching the rest of our movie. Once again, both girls seemed really locked into the movie for a few minutes, and I thought we were all good, but then Elise starts getting fidgety and has to start crawling over chairs. At this point I’m considering leaving, and without prompting Ava looks at me and says “Daddy, can we go home?” Without hesitation I said yes, scooped up Elise, and the three of us made a beeline for the exit.

At this point you might think our adventure was over, but we were just getting started. I don’t know how I always do it, but I managed to park as far away from the movie theater as possible, meaning the girls and I had to traverse the entire mall on a busy Saturday afternoon in order to get back to our car. Once again, it was the blind leading the blind, but eventually we made our way to the car, got strapped in, and headed for the freeway.

I could tell it had rained while we were in the mall but there was no reason to think twice about it. I called Jessica at about 2:20, just as we were getting on I-5 North, and said we should be home in the next 45-50 minutes. It was no problem on her end, she just wanted to leave the house at 4:30, which would give her an hour to get to work.

I’m heading up I-5 and the girls fall asleep almost immediately. I’m thinking I’m home free, and even considered getting some guitar time in at home before the girls woke up from their nap. Traffic is smooth sailing until just past Boeing Field, then as we’re getting near the exit for I-90 I see a message on the overhead sign saying there is a 6 mile backup ahead. Immediately I move from the far left commuter lane to the exit-only right lane, get onto I-90 East, and again it’s smooth sailing.

I’m pumped at this point; I just avoided a major traffic jam on I-5, and I can take I-90E to 405N to get home. I fly through I-90, get on 405 north, and again it’s wide open. I’m grinning ear-to-ear knowing that I’m going to be home ahead of schedule. Then, as if I even have to say it, 405 comes to a complete standstill near Kirkland. I had no idea why, but it’s jammed up for as far as the eye can see.

Determined not to be stopped by traffic, I pulled out my phone, fired up the Waze app, told it to navigate me home, and followed its directions to take the next exit from 405 and start heading through the neighborhoods of Kirkland. I followed along through the most random places for several miles, took a left at a light, and bam! Traffic. Not an accident or anything like that; just a complete standstill on some random two-lane road in Woodinville. It’s backed up for miles, and there’s nowhere to go.

The girls were still passed out at this point, so I decided to just ride it out. Had I known that the entire area was without power due to the storm that hit while we were at the mall, and that not a single traffic light in a 3 mile radius was working, I may have backtracked to the freeway. But I didn’t know, so I sat and waited, and waited and angrily texted Jessica about my situation, and waited. In the first 30 minutes I moved about half a mile.

At 4:05 I’m still crawling through Woodinville trying to get to the freeway, and Jessica is trying to find a place for us to meet, when all of the sudden things open up and I find myself back on the freeway. After getting off the freeway I started seeing tons of uprooted trees, and plenty of lights without power. Long story short, I get home at 4:25, just in time to let the girls (whom are awake by now) say hello and goodbye to Mommy before she heads to work. Jessica then has to take a backroads route to work because her normal route would have taken 2.5 hours, but she ends up arriving right on the dot at 5:30.

After all the excitement with the girls I figured we could all use some rest, so I turned on a show for them in their room, got them some snacks, and let them be. Then Enzo and I posted up on the couch to watch a show I had recorded. I give him a bottle, watch my show, and basically got 45 minutes of relaxation in. As the show finishes Enzo is sound asleep, so I decide to head upstairs and see how the girls are doing. As I turn the corner in our staircase I start seeing little torn up pieces of toilet paper. As I follow these lovely little breadcrumbs I soon find myself in our guest bathroom. A clean-ish diaper is on the floor, along with tons of ripped up toilet paper, and lets just say that a very special treat was smeared into the sink for Daddy.

As if this wasn’t enough, there was still another breadcrumb trail of toilet paper for me to follow into their room. Not surprisingly there was tons of ripped up toilet paper in there, along with Ava looking very guilty. When I asked her where her diaper was, she said “it’s in the sink.”

So I quickly found myself doing an impromptu deep-cleaning of the bathroom, as well as my daughter. I couldn’t help but notice that the substance I was cleaning from the sink and countertops had dried there (a little bit), and essentially reminded me of trying to scrape peanut butter out of the sink. I actually even took a picture of it and sent it to Jessica so she could see how things were going.

Eventually I finished cleaning everything just in time for Enzo to wake up from his nap. The rest of the night was pretty much normal, meaning the girls were still up when Jessica got home from work, and that I (other than Baby Enzo) was the first one in bed. I’m starting to think I should have titled this post “A day in the life.”

Luckily the rest of our weekend has been really laid back. Today we stayed in pajamas all day, watched a bunch of shows, and had a quick little dance party. Speaking of dancing, I’m always playing all kinds of music for the girls in the car, and lately I’ve been listening to the soundtrack from the movie ‘Dazed and Confused.’ It’s all 70’s stuff like Rick Derringer, Ted Nugent, Foghat, Alice Cooper, etc. The girls actually like it, and I’m not just saying that. It’s important to me that they know good music and aren’t just into whatever is most popular. Their absolute favorite song right now is ‘Jim Dandy To The Rescue’ by Black Oak Arkansas. Super random I know, but they get really excited when that song comes on. Ava thinks she knows the words and does her best to sing along, while Pippo (the purple hippo) goes on a crazed dancing spree as her Gepetto Elise smiles and bops along.

Amy and Tom are on their way up here in the RV and should be arriving on Tuesday. I’m taking Friday off work and we’re heading East to Lake Chelan, one of my favorite childhood destinations, for the holiday weekend. Several of our neighbors will also be there, so it should be a lot of fun. Some of them are actually already there and have reported that it’s crystal clear and there is no concern of fires. Sunday we’ll be spending the day at Slidewaters, which is the water park owned by my Dad’s old boss. We used to go there every summer growing up, and the story of how my Dad was connected to it was interesting, but that’s another story for another time. For now, here’s some recent pics.

Baby Enzo at 7 months

#BestHair

The little Frank Sinatra

#Busted

I think I’m getting gray hairs on my chin. I say ‘think’ because some days they’re there, and other days they’re not. Might have something to do with lighting or angle. I wish they’d just make up their minds already. I don’t mean that in a pejorative way either; I’m down with a salt & pepper in my beard, mostly because it goes so well with the rest of my ‘I’m getting old’ mantra, which goes something like: “I’m 35 years old, married with 3 kids, a dog, and a mortgage. I live in the suburbs, work for a big corporation, and have gray hairs growing out of my chin.” There isn’t a culture in the world where the equivalent of that statement doesn’t mean one thing and one thing only: you’re old dude.

In other family news, Enzo is now sitting up on his own! Although he needs a little help from time to time, he is doing quite a bit these days. We’re well past the days of struggling to take a bottle. At this point not only does he regularly drink from a bottle, but he even holds it up by himself from time to time. He has developed quite the set of pipes and seems to enjoy hearing himself make noise. He’s not upset (usually), he just already has a lot to say. Can you imagine if he becomes as talkative as his sisters? He also keeps placing himself in a prime crawling pose, but he can’t quite get moving. It won’t be long before he figures it out though, and then that will be it. At that point all 3 of them will be mobile, and we’re officially done for. For now he’s content to roll over in order to get around.

The girls are both doing great. It’s been a really nice summer here so far and they’ve been out enjoying it every day. Earlier this week Jessica took the kids to the Woodland Park Zoo, so all week I’ve been hearing from Ava and Elise about the kangaroos, giraffes, monkeys, and many others they spent their day observing. I’m continuously impressed with both of their vocabularies and often find myself wondering where they heard various expressions. There’s no question that they are the best of friends and are always looking out for eachother. Ava, in particular, has become quite protective of her little sister. Even when Mommy or Daddy needs to scold her or threaten her with a timeout due to her behavior, Ava is all too quick to say “Hey, you don’t say that to my sister!” As far as Ava sees it, she is the only one who can do anything to Elise. Everyone else better watch out.

Tomorrow night Jessica will be bartending at El Gaucho, meaning I’ll be home with the kids. Hopefully it will be a non-eventful evening with nothing much to speak of, but knowing my luck the chances of that happening are slim. Either way I’m glad she will be getting out of the house and doing something on her own, even if that something is going to work. Saturday nights at El Gaucho are always fun and everyone there is always happy to see and work with her, so it should be good.

In the next week or so I’ll be reaching the 6 month mark at Microsoft. I can easily say without hesitation that I really like working there and am glad I made the switch. I work with a team of really talented and cool people, and I’ve already learned a lot since joining. I’m also really happy about my long-term opportunities for growth. It’s funny because if you would have told me a year ago that I’d be leaving Amazon voluntarily for a position at Microsoft, and that I would love Microsoft, I would have told you you’re crazy. I’ll be the first one to admit that I was a Microsoft hater for a long time, but I also have to give credit where it’s due, and my experiences since joining them have been overwhelmingly positive. At this point it’s probably fair to say that I’ll be with Microsoft for a long time.

Last weekend I read a scathing article in the New York Times about what it’s like to work at Amazon. Although I felt the article was a bit dramatic and extreme, I think there was a fair amount of truth in there as well. One problem I had with it is that you can’t make a truthful blanket statement about what it’s like to work at any huge company like that. Your circumstances vary so much depending on which organization you’re in, and which team you’re on. There’s no question that some of the experiences they described were truthful, but to assume that everyone’s experience there is like that would be silly. I never saw anyone crying at their desk, and whenever anything family or health related came up, there was nothing but pure support from my managers. At the same time, the only ‘nervous breakdown’ I’ve ever experienced in my life was during my time there, but it was caused by a combination of work and school, so you can’t place all the blame on Amazon. I certainly wouldn’t rule out going back there if I was available, but also wouldn’t be too surprised if my experience there was atypical.

We’re continuing to paint the inside of our house, but honestly there is so much left to do. As I said in a previous post, it’s impossible for both of us to paint because the girls will always get into everything and make a mess. For the last couple weekends I’ve taken them out of an ‘adventure’ on Saturdays, allowing Jessica several hours to paint. I wish I could be there with her getting stuff done, but it wouldn’t be fair to the girls. I also wouldn’t have a problem with being the one to stay home and paint, but Jessica gets so much more time with the kids during the week than I do, so it makes sense for me to go out with them on the weekends. It won’t be long before Amy and Tom are back here, meaning we’ll be working on our floors as well. I’ve never done floors before so I’m looking forward to learning, but even more so I’m just looking forward to seeing and enjoying the finished product.

At least we’ll be mixing up all this housework with camping trips in Lake Chelan and at the Gorge. There are some bad fires going on in Eastern Washington right now, so it’s possible that our plans could be affected, but for now I think it’s safe to assume that everything will be fine. I’m not surprised that we’re having all these fires because this summer has been incredibly dry; I just hope they can get them under control because several people (including 3 firefighters) have already been killed.

That’s about it for now. Before we know it our summer will be over and we’ll be busy as ever. At least its football season now. Go Hawks!

Ready for dinner with our friends, the Palmers

Momma’s boy

After a very nice 3-week visit, Grandma Amy headed home to Colorado yesterday, presumably to sleep for a week. As always, she was extremely helpful with the kids, which gave Jessica and I lots of time to get stuff done, as well as get out and enjoy ourselves. We were just saying that we probably took a little more advantage of her on this trip than normal, but I hope she knows we don’t take it for granted and appreciate it very much.

We got a lot of painting done during Amy’s stay, but there is still a lot to do. When you’re painting the inside of our house, you have no choice but to get the girls out and about, otherwise there is a 100% chance that one or both of them will get into some paint and make a mess of something. Therefore I decided to take them to Alderwood mall this afternoon so that Mom could stay home with Enzo and get a bunch of painting done. I would have liked to have been able to stay home with her and help with the painting, but keeping the girls occupied was a necessary contribution. We ended up having a nice time walking around the mall, playing in the kids area, and eating fish ‘n chips in the food court. I haven’t had a day with just the girls in a while so it was a nice way to spend my Saturday afternoon.

Tomorrow we’ll be spending the day with Kristy, Madi, Jim and Brenda in celebration of Kristy’s birthday. Knowing that there’s a party on the horizon always gets the girls excited, so all night last night and all day today Ava has been asking if she can go to Kristy’s party. We try to explain to her that the party isn’t until Sunday, but she remains undeterred. I doubt patience is a virtue for any three year old, but when you add Ava’s level of persistence to the mix, let’s just say it can be hard to change topics, particularly when the topic is a party. There’s a chance we’ll be going swimming, so we’ll be ready for that, but either way it’s going to be nice to spend an afternoon with them.

We’re currently in the middle of this every-other-month schedule in terms of being busy. June was a quiet month (although we made it difficult because of our diet), then July was really busy for us. It’s August now, and we don’t have much going on, but then September is going to be crazy with camping/concert trips and more house renovations. October expects to be nice and quiet, but then in November we’ll be going on our trip to Austin, celebrating Ava’s birthday, and doing Thanksgiving (possibly on the same day) so that should be another exciting and busy month. Then you have December, which is crazy for everyone.

With Amy in town, Jessica and I were able to get out and celebrate my birthday last week, which is something we haven’t been able to do for the last couple years. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and ended up taking Wednesday and Thursday off work. We went to the Mariners game on Wednesday afternoon and had a really good time. The weather was perfect, the Blue Angels did a flyover after the National Anthem, and King Felix was pitching. Unfortunately Felix gave up 4 runs in the first inning and we were never able to recover, but it was still a good time. I had never been to the ‘Hit it Here Cafe’ before so we ended up hanging out there for a few innings. The combination of it being Seafair weekend and King Felix pitching meant it was a much bigger crowd than we’re used to on a weekday afternoon, but there was a lot of energy so it was cool.

Later that night we had dinner at 99 Park in Bellevue; it’s in Old Bellevue right off Main street, and it’s directly across the street from a nice park that reminds me of Bellagio in Las Vegas. What an excellent meal! Honestly if you’re looking for a nice place to eat in Bellevue you should definitely check it out. Our old friend Quentin is the chef and the menu he has put together is outstanding. I guess if I had to label it I’d call it Modern American cuisine; it’s just a bunch of really solid dishes prepared with top notch ingredients and a touch of modern flare. Every single thing we had that night was delicious, so I look forward to returning as soon as possible. Quentin wasn’t working that night, which was a bummer, but he ended up coming into the bar later on, so we were able to say hello and catch up. It was definitely the best birthday dinner I’ve had in a while.

The next day we mostly chilled out at the house all day, then met up with Butch, Carol, Shayla, Greg and their two kids, that evening for dinner at their favorite Mexican restaurant. It doesn’t take much convincing for me to try out a new Mexican restaurant, and as expected we had a really nice meal. After dinner we walked over to the frozen yogurt shop for dessert, which was a big hit with all the kids.

Yesterday the girls received a very special present in the mail from Grandpa; his old iPad. We’ve been thinking about getting them a tablet for a bit but weren’t sure if they were ready. Well, apparently they are because Ava refuses to put it down, and Elise is hot on her tail. She consistently refers to it as “my iPad” so we have to explain to her each time that it is also Elise’s iPad, and that they need to share. Should be interesting. Anyway thank you to Grandpa Rick for sending it; it’s already been a huge hit.

Looks like things are pretty much back to normal now until the end of Summer, which will end with a bang. I’m really looking forward to camping in Lake Chelan over Labor Day Weekend, especially because we’ll be there in Tom and Amy’s RV. I’ve never ‘camped’ like that before so it should be pretty cool. Lake Chelan was where we went every summer when I was growing up, so taking my kids there this year will be fun. Then the following weekend we’ll be taking the RV to see the Foo Fighters at the Gorge. We’ll stay the night there then head back to pick up the girls at Kristy’s house the following morning. What a badass way to end the Summer! And speaking of badass endings, here’s some new recent pics.

The girls at the park on Daddy’s birthday

Happy little guy

Shopping with Grandma

Teaching the girls ‘Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty’

Ava and ‘her’ new iPad

Grandma’s girls

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