Author: Michael Pellegrini

Today Amy and Tom are flying up to stay with us and watch the girls while we’re in Vancouver next weekend. We haven’t seen them since Christmas so it will be good to have them out. Hopefully they’ll be having lots of fun with the girls while Jess and I get some much needed R&R up north. They’re flying their own plane up here, which is very cool, and that gives them the freedom to stay as long as they like. I’ve still never seen Tom’s plane so maybe this time I’ll have to check it out. We’ve been telling Ava for several days about Grandma and Grandpa coming to visit, so she’s really excited to see them. Obviously Elise is still too small to understand something like that but I know she’s going to love getting time with them as well.

Last week was an especially crazy week for me at work because I found out that my good friend / co-worker, Garth, is leaving Amazon for a role as a Senior Software Engineer at Disney. Garth was the guy who originally interviewed me, and subsequently hired me, for the contracting role at Amazon that caused us to leave San Diego. Later, once I was hired full-time, Garth was my mentor, as well as a good friend. I think its safe to say that he’s been the most instrumental person in my career so far, which makes it really tough to see him go.

I guess you could say the news was bitter-sweet though, because at the same time my manager told me about Garth’s impending departure, he also told me that the next level for me as a web developer is within sight and is something I need to be preparing for. Generally the way it works at Amazon is by the time you’ve been promoted to a new role, you’ve already been carrying out that role’s duties for some time. For me that means now, and its something I place a high priority on.

We have a new web dev joining our team next Monday (which is the day Jess and I return from Canada), and I’ve already been told that I will be mentoring him. Even though I just got a new mentor of my own, I’m excited to be able to help onboard someone and bring them up to speed. Losing Garth means I am now my team’s most experienced developer, which comes with its own share of responsibilities and leadership opportunities.

The first of these new responsibilities arrived Thursday, which was the same day I got the news about Garth leaving. Although I can’t go into any details at this point, I can say that it comes all the way from the top and will be my first opportunity to create something that will be publicly visible. Can’t wait to post a link to it once it goes live! In order to keep up with all the high-priority work I’ve got going on right now I’ve had to put in extra hours at night and over the weekend. I expect these long days to continue right up until Thursday at 4:00pm, which is when I unplug from the world and begin our vacation.

Luckily I’m on Spring Break from school right now, making it easier to deal with everything at work. Once we return from Canada I’ll be back in school for my final quarter. Going to enjoy this week, maybe even get an extra jiu jitsu class in since the girls will always be accounted for, and get ready for the trip. Then I’ll be more than ready to get back in school for the final push. Plenty of updates coming soon.

I just submitted my final assignment of winter quarter, meaning that I am now officially on spring break. This one is special to me simply because its my last. I’m also excited about this break because I’ll be finishing it with a long weekend in Vancouver with Jessica. Not exactly your typical spring break vacation, but in my opinion this is infinitely cooler than some super cliche spring break trip that usually involves either being drunk on a boat in Lake Havasu, or cavorting around Mexico with a group of delinquents in search of sombreros and cheap tequila. I’ll take hockey games and shopping on Robson any day.

I’d be lying if I said both of us weren’t really looking forward to this getaway. As busy as I am with everything going on at work and school, Jessica might even be busier with everything she does with the girls. We’re definitely thankful to have Amy and Tom coming to spend some time with them. Elise has grown so much since they saw her at Christmas; they’ll hardly recognize her.

Having a new car for the past week has been awesome. No buyers remorse here. I forgot how nice it would be to be able to take the girls in either car (I got them matching car seats at Costco last weekend), and things like an adjustable driver’s seat, heated seats, a working driver’s side window, and power locks have all been very well received. Tomorrow I’m going to get the Honda cleaned up, photographed, and posted for sale. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get rid of it. Since my extremely generous mother refuses to accept the money we’ll get for selling it, we’ve decided to split it in half and use it to open savings accounts for the girls. Thank you Nana.

This weekend will be the first weekend I haven’t worked at all in about a month. We had a major deliverable on Monday and everything went extremely well. It was still a busy week but spirits were high, no more so for me than this morning when I received a little public praise from a senior manager for all my hard work on this project. That was pretty cool. I also had my first session with my new mentor at work this week. Amazon is really big on their mentorship program; they encourage everyone to get a mentor, to become a mentor, and to take advantage of the internal resources that are available to you. I definitely plan on becoming a mentor once I make it to the next level as a web developer, but for now I’m happy to soak up as much knowledge as possible from people who have been around for a long time. My new mentor has been with Amazon for 7 years, which probably puts him in the top 10% of tenure. Getting to learn from someone like that is an amazing opportunity so I’m glad to have gotten started.

I’ve been going to a lot of Jiu Jitsu classes at lunch lately. The exercise aspect of it alone is key, but being able to drop everything, clear your mind, and learn something new is great. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a couple extra classes in during spring break, but spending extra time with the girls is priority number one. This will be a little precursor to what we can expect this summer.

Jessica has tomorrow night off, and it’s the first time she hasn’t worked on a Saturday in months, so we’re going out for a night on the town. Laurel has been kind enough to volunteer to come over and watch the girls for us, so we’re going to bounce around to a couple different places. I think we’re starting off with raw oysters at Rock Creek in Fremont where our old friend Mike Duncan tends bar, then we’re going to visit Rico and see his new place Loulay. It was opened recently by the chef from Rover’s, which was probably our favorite restaurant until it closed last June. I guess this will be a little pre-cursor to our Vancouver trip in a couple weeks. Gotta take advantage of a free night when you can.

Elise has figured out a way to get around, although I’m not really sure what to call it. It’s not crawling, it’s more like land swimming, but it seems to work for her. Every time you set her down she’s on the move, and she’s developing such a cute little personality. She loves to laugh and enjoys watching her big sister running around being crazy. Ava continues to impress us with how good she is with Elise. The older they get the more fun and amazing they become.

Well, time to wrap it up and start enjoying this break. Jess is at work and the girls are sleeping so I guess it’s time to watch Top Gear and some basketball highlights. Perfect timing with March Madness going on. Until we meet again.

Although my Mom’s old 96 Accord has been incredibly good to us over the last couple years, I’ve been wanting to upgrade to a new car for a little while. Since we’ve decided to stay in our current house for another year before buying something, I decided now is the time to find a new ride. I’ve been doing tons of research and shopping online, yet ironically enough, Jessica was the one that found our new car. It’s a 2004 Acura TL, and I honestly hadn’t planned on buying something that old, but it only has 24,500 miles on it. I don’t know how that’s even possible for a ten year old car, but it’s practically brand new!

The funny thing is, we actually went to the lot to look at an Audi A4 that we found online, but we knew that they also had this Acura TL with super low miles. I pointed the TL out right away but first went to check out the Audi. As it turned out, the Audi wasn’t in very good condition and just didn’t feel like a good fit. The Acura, on the other hand, just felt like the right car from the beginning. We really liked the way it drives, its been very well maintained, and there was plenty of room for carseats in the back.

I’ve always liked TL’s ever since my Mom bought a brand new one in 1995. Unfortunately she only had that car for two years before totaling it in an accident, but it feels good to have my own now. Its funny because this whole time I’ve been thinking about getting something German, but when it comes down to it I end up with something made by Honda. I guess I’m just a Honda guy. I have a Honda motorcycle, an Acura (which is obviously owned by Honda), plus I’ve owned 4 other Hondas in my life. I firmly believe that they make the best all-around cars in the world, especially when it comes to reliability.

The downside to all this is that I can no longer obsess over researching cars, but its all good. I’ve got plenty else to keep me busy anyway. Speaking of staying busy, work has been insane for me lately. I’ve been working 6 days a week for the past few weeks just trying to stay caught up. I don’t expect this to go on forever but we’ve got some very aggressive deadlines to meet and everyone is chipping in a little extra to make sure we succeed. Combining all this with the rest of my responsibilities hasn’t exactly been easy, but everything is going fine.

Tomorrow Elise turns 8 months old. Time has been flying and she’s getting so big. She’s still not quite crawling but she loves to roll around and play with her toys. Ava does so well around her that we really have nothing to worry about in terms of them being in the room together. Initially we were a little concerned that Ava might run into her or fall on her but so far Ava has been very cautious and sweet with her baby sister. Jessica will be taking some new photos of Elise tomorrow so I’m sure we’ll have those up soon.

Ava is working on potty training these days, although we haven’t actually had any success yet. She has her own potty, and a book about going potty that she loves, so I’m sure she’ll be there in no time. As usual, Jessica does a great job with her, encouraging her and showing lots of patience, even when she ends up with a mess on the floor to clean up. As you can imagine, potty training isn’t exactly the cleanest of endeavors.

We’re really excited to have the new car for our weekend in Canada next month. That’s going to add a whole new level of coolness to the trip. I can’t thank my Mom enough for giving us the Honda back when we lived in San Diego. It made the move up to Seattle with us and has been more than we could ever have asked for, but even she was very happy to see us upgrade. The Acura is much safer, more reliable, and is something that the girls will actually be able to ride in, which is something we were never really comfortable with in the Honda. Next step is to get more car seats I guess. Here’s a few pics of the new family whip. The lighting isn’t very good so its kinda hard to tell, but the car is dark green with tan leather interior. It’s a V6 putting out ~270hp so it’s got some getup. Haven’t been this excited about a car in a while.

It seems that our little(st) girl isn’t quite so little anymore. Over the past week Elise has taken strides (pardon the pun) towards crawling. She is currently able to scoot a bit, and even crawl backwards a step or two, which means its only a matter of weeks before she’s mobile. This of course will result in some changes in our house, especially since Mom is now going to have to chase both of them around the house all day. Having the luxury of setting Elise down and knowing she’ll be there when you return is fading quickly.

In addition to mobility, Elise is showing many signs of growth. She holds her own bottle now, and has even begun forming her own baby babble, which she has been all too happy to share with everyone on some recent car rides. Ava is becoming the natural big sister we knew she would, and has taken to consoling Elise when she is upset. It’s not uncommon for Ava to say “It’s okay honey, I’m coming” when Elise gets upset. She obviously gets that from listening to Jessica and I, but its still super sweet to hear her say it. The other day Ava walked up to Elise and kissed her on the forehead while she was playing. I think its safe to say that these two are going to be incredibly close.

Jessica has recently exposed Ava to swimming, which she seems to enjoy, and to coloring, which she loves. The funny thing with Ava though is that she’ll sit down to color but gets distracted by wanting to hold every crayon or marker, and ends up getting upset because she can’t hold them all at the same time. Although you hate to see her upset, you can’t help but find the humor in the situation. Once she gets over that and actually starts coloring, she has a blast. I was happy to receive my first piece of Ava’s art in my lunch yesterday and love the idea of her doing something creative. Although we had initially thought she might be left handed, it seems safe to say that Ava is a righty, as that is the only hand she uses for coloring.

Jessica has been keeping the girls busy with all kinds of activities lately. She has several girlfriends who have similar aged children and has been able to get together for swimming, trips to the zoo, indoor jumping, sand pits, and more. It’s tough to keep Ava occupied these days but Jessica does a great job. She’s been consistently working 2-3 nights a week, which works perfectly with our schedule.

I’ve been super busy with work lately, including about 27 hours of work on Thursday and Friday to prepare a new feature for testing on Monday, only to find out today that the feature isn’t going to be tested Monday. Oh well. Been going to Jiu Jitsu consistently 3 days a week lately, which has been awesome. I’ve only been back in it for two months but I’m already seeing a significant improvement in my game, and I’m getting back into shape. It’s so nice to have a hobby again; I couldn’t imagine not doing it now.

As always with this time of year I can’t help but think of my Dad. Tomorrow will be the 19th anniversary of his passing. It’s not even a sad thing anymore, it just feels important not to forget. I got a call from my Godfather Pete tonight who said he was pouring a vodka soda with a squeeze of lime in memory of my Dad. I thought that was pretty cool.

Jessica has been off on Sundays lately, which has been great. It’s the only day we have off together as a family so I usually do my best to make sure that no work or studying needs to be done on Sunday. Tomorrow we’ll be doing our standard Sunday brunch, maybe a little later than normal since Jessica is the closing bartender at El Gaucho tonight, then getting ready for the Oscars tomorrow night. We’ve made a point to see as many Oscar-nominated movies as possible this year and are really looking forward to seeing how things turn out. I always enjoyed watching the Oscars with my Mom as a kid so I hope she’ll be doing the same thing at her place.

Time to go gather Elise, who has scooted away in her quest for mobility.

We’re going to be spending our anniversary weekend, which is just over a month away, in Vancouver, B.C. this year. We were there for Jessica’s birthday last year and had so much fun that we had to go back. Amy and Tom will be coming up from Colorado to stay at our house with the girls, which means this will be the first time both of us are away from both of the girls. Our actual anniversary is on Thursday, April 3, so we’re going out to a nice sushi dinner at Shiro’s in Belltown that night, then we’ll drive up to Vancouver the following morning.

When I went to Vancouver with Rico many years ago, we had dinner at a great Italian restaurant called Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill, which I of course was excited about because Cioppino was my dad’s signature dish that I grew up on. When Rico came over for brunch last Sunday, we talked about that trip, and he brought up that restaurant in particular. Since Jess and I hadn’t yet planned any meals for this upcoming trip, it seemed like a good place to go. Needless to say I made a reservation there for our first night in town.

We also purchased tickets to our first NHL hockey game, which will be the L.A. Kings at the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night, April 5th. I’ve only been to one hockey game in my life, which was a Seattle Thunderbirds game for Butch’s birthday about 5 or 6 years ago. It was at the Key Arena and I remember everyone having a blast. I’ve wanted to go to an NHL game ever since then so I’m super excited about finally getting to go.

We don’t have much planned other than that yet, but we’ll be staying at the Metropolitan Hotel in downtown Vancouver, which is where we stayed last year. It’s in a great location right off Robson St, which is a very popular area with a lot going on. We definitely want to check out the Kitsilano Beach area, which we randomly stumbled upon last year but didn’t get to spend much time in. It kinda felt like the Alki Beach of Vancouver so we’re looking forward to checking that out.

Not much else going on around here these days. The girls are both doing great and keeping us busy. Elise seems to have more hair every day and is happy as can be. I remember thinking Ava was a really happy baby but Elise may have her beat. She really is a great baby and has settled nicely into an eating and sleeping schedule. Here are a few recent pics of Elise.

Elise – 7 months

Last night was one for the ages. I got to have dinner at one of my favorite restaurants (Il Terrazzo Carmine) with two of my all-time favorite people: my Godfather Pete Barbas, AKA Nouno, AKA Poop Deck Pete, or as my Dad used to call him, Poopy, and my best friend, who was also the best man at my wedding, Michael Don Rico, AKA MDR, AKA Don Rizzle, AKA The Don, AKA Uncle Rico, AKA Reek, AKA The Prince of Belltown. I’ve been wanting to set this dinner up for a while, and since I had a break from school this week, we were able to make it happen.

If you love Italian food, there is no better restaurant in Seattle than Il Terrazzo Carmine. It’s a classic place with a lot of history, outstanding food, and a very impressive clientele. A few tables down from us was the former Mayor of Seattle, and its not uncommon to find other Seattle icons like Gene Juarez hanging out there regularly. Over the course of four hours we enjoyed an antipasti platter, Kushi oysters from BC, Burrata cheese salad with golden beets, veal al limone, sea bass saltimboca, tiramisu, and a variety of wines, beers, and cocktails. When I first walked in I quickly ran into an old friend named Victoria that Rico and I used to work with for years at El Gaucho. She ended up serving us all night and took outstanding care of us. She new exactly how to deal with Pete holding court and really added to the overall experience.

The only thing better than the food and service was the conversation. Pete is a Seattle legend and Rico and I wanted nothing more than to soak up a bunch of his stories from the old days of the Seattle bar and restaurant scene. He told us about his days running “Poop Deck Pete’s”, which was Seattle’s original Jazz club that he opened at the age of 21 and ran for 5 years. He also told stories about purchasing a tavern in Beacon Hill, which he renamed to “Pete’s Take 5”, and completely transformed the place. He took it from being a hole in the wall joint that only went through 9 kegs a month, to a standing room only establishment going through 55 kegs a month, and he did all this with no employees, working 100 hours a week! Unbelievable work ethic.

Rico is well on his way to becoming a Seattle legend, and is probably the most well-known person today in the Seattle restaurant scene. If you’ve worked at a nice restaurant in Seattle you’ve either worked with Rico, heard about him, or served him at some point. Regardless of his local fame and notoriety, he’s been a big brother/uncle to me for a long time now and I really love that guy. He will always be family to Jess and I, and we are very excited to have him over this Sunday for brunch; he hasn’t met the girls yet and we’re long overdue at this point.

Pete was in rare form last night and had Rico and me howling at his jokes and stories. He kept saying that we need to do this more often, so I made a promise to setup another dinner in the next month or so. Next time I’m definitely brining Jessica; I know how much she will enjoy hanging out with everyone. By the time we were leaving the restaurant last night, Rico and I were talking about how 30 years from now we’ll still be talking about this night, that’s how epic and special it was. I’ve probably got more great memories with Rico than any other of my friends, but this one has to go right up near the top of that list, mostly because of Pete being such a character.

I’ve got a couple more days off school before resuming the quarter. As always, it’s been super nice not to have to worry about homework, but at this point I’ve only got about 4 months to go so I just want to finish strong and be done with it. Jessica and the girls have been doing great; we just made plans to spend our anniversary weekend in Vancouver, BC this April. Amy and Tom will be coming up to take care of both girls while we’re gone, meaning this will be the first time we’ve been away without either of them. We’re going to a hockey game while we’re up there, plus will be exploring some different parts of the city that we didn’t spend much time in last year. Obviously we’ll being eating well as well.

Tomorrow Elise turns 7 months, meaning that we’ll have some new photos of her up very soon. For now, here’s a few new pics of Ava, as well as a couple shots from dinner last night.

Pete and Rico

Pete, Rico and me

Our little painter

Ava at the Seahawks parade, before her meltdown

Having fun at the zoo

Sunday night the Seahawks finally won the Superbowl! Having lived in Seattle for 30 of my 33 years, I can attest to how horrible they have been for much of that time. The last few seasons have been completely different though, and this year they finally reached the pinnacle of American sports. This was the most watched Superbowl in history, and it wasn’t even close. We beat the Broncos 43-8, which was something that no one saw coming.

The Broncos were widely considered to be one of the greatest offenses in league history and no one was giving Seattle much of a chance. Seattle has the number 1 defense, but everyone was betting on Peyton Manning. Too bad for them. The girls and I stayed home to watch the game and ended up having a blast. Laurel came over to join us for the first half and we all enjoyed our day. I made turkey chili, home made tortilla chips and french fries, and guacamole. I almost lost my voice from all the screaming, which poor little Elise did not appreciate, but I couldn’t help myself.

After the game the four of us hopped in the car and headed downtown to Century Link stadium. As you can imagine, the city was going absolutely nuts. I’ve never seen so much excitement like that and I’m really glad we did it. People were running down the streets high-fiving each other, others were hanging out of cars screaming and honking their horns. It was unforgettable. We ended up parking in Belltown and walking around to soak up all the Seahawks glory. Yesterday after work I bought a Russell Wilson jersey, and tomorrow the girls and I will be going to the celebration parade on 4th Ave.

I’ve heard a few people on Facebook complaining about how none of this really matters and we should devote our energy to more important causes. Although I understand their point and respect the fact that they haven’t jumped on the bandwagon, I think there’s something to be said for so many people uniting and enjoying this experience together. We may not be solving the world’s most important problems, but all these good vibes have to be worth something.

Can’t wait to go to the parade tomorrow and take some photos. Ava and Elise won’t remember it, but we’re going to have a great time. Go Hawks!!!

Back at the beginning of this football season I picked Seattle to face Denver in the Super Bowl, and today that prediction came true. The Broncos destroyed the Patriots in the AFC Championship this afternoon; it wasn’t even fun to watch. The Seahawks, however, made it very interesting. They fumbled on the first play of the game and immediately I was concerned. The first half went very poorly but they came out a different team in the 3rd quarter and were able to beat the 49ers 23 – 17. As usual it was the defense that did it for us, and now we’re taking our number 1 defense to face Denver’s number 1 offense in the Super Bowl!

Last night Jessica and I attended the Amazon Holiday Party, which was held at the Century Link Stadium Events Center. This was our second Amazon party and it has become apparent that they do not disappoint. The entire building was decorated in a variety of different Winter themes. Roller skating ice queens, Jack Frost, marshmallow shooting, delivery drones, tons of food and drink, and a performance by Vampire Weekend were amongst the highlights of the evening. Amazon definitely knows how to treat their employees so these events will always be something to look forward to.

Things have been going well at work lately. I recently found out that one of the ideas I submitted to our Intellectual Property attorney team has been approved, meaning that Amazon is going to file a patent on it. Submitting IP ideas is a major focus of my team and last year we had the second most submissions of any design team in Amazon, including the highest per team member ratio. I’ve had several ideas turned down already so I was excited to find out that one of them has been approved. Eventually I’ll be getting a little puzzle piece trophy to signify that a patent has been applied for. Our room is soon going to be filled with these puzzle pieces due to all the ideas my team has been submitting, so it feels good to be contributing and thinking outside the box.

I haven’t had a chance to write a post in the past couple weeks because I’ve been so busy with school. I’m taking an advanced Java class and its turning out to be the toughest class I’ve taken yet. I’ve been putting in some serious hours on my course project lately and haven’t had much time for anything else. Luckily today I was able to finish everything right before the Seahawks game started and got to relax throughout the game. Jessica volunteered to work tonight because they knew they would be busy due to the football game, so I’m just hanging out with the girls. Probably going to start a movie soon and get ready for another week.

Not much else going on around here. The girls are doing great and growing fast. Elise is getting so big and Ava’s vocabulary continues to amaze me. She’s such a little comedian that it can be hard to scold her for doing the wrong thing. She’s definitely a piece of work; I’m sure Elise will be the same way in no time. Go Hawks!!!

I’ve been looking forward to 2014 for a while. When I decided to go back to school in 2011, the idea of graduating in 2014 felt like it was a long way away. However I’m down to my final two quarters now and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. Just need to power all the way through to the end. Having the last two weeks off has been amazing but I’m ready to get back into the swing of things.

The Colorado trip was awesome. It’s pretty much everything you envision for a family winter vacation. Amy and Tom really went out of their way to host everyone, and it was nice catching up the Volmers and the Rudds. By the time we got home we were all exhausted, but Jess and I had to get it together to work New Years Eve in the Pampas Room at El Gaucho. We both thought it would be funny for me to shave my beard down to a mustache for NYE. That way I’d be conforming to Gaucho’s facial hair policy, and it would make for a memorable night. Everyone got a lot of laughs from it that night but here I find myself a few days later not wanting to shave it.

Working on NYE was fun. I got to see a few of my old bar regulars, plus all my buddies at Gaucho, and of course its great that Jess and I got to be together all night. I bartend so infrequently now that it ends up being a nice change of pace that I enjoy a lot. My new Jiu Jitsu teacher showed up for a drink, which was really cool, and of course none of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for Laurel babysitting the girls. She flew in from L.A. that day, so the girls and I picked her up at SeaTac, drove her home to drop off her bag, then she dropped me off at Gaucho and took the girls back to our house. She stayed the night and hung out with us all day the next day. We watched a bunch of football and I made a Mexican fiesta. Laurel, thank you so much for all your help… you’re amazing. I also want to say a huge thank you to Dana, Brad, Kallan and Anna, for watching Bella while we were in Colorado. We appreciate it so much and can’t wait to have you all over for a crab feast!

Today the four of us attended Ayden Nakamura’s 5th birthday party. His parents, Randall and Brie, are close friends of ours that we’ve known forever. Every time Randall and I see each other we end up telling the story of how our father’s were old card playing buddies from 40 years ago. I’ll never forget the time about 7 years ago when Randall and I went to his Dad’s place to help with his fence. We get there at 9:00am and his dad George immediately started pouring us double screwdrivers. Needless to say not a lot of work was done on the fence that day, but we did strike up conversation, and when George heard my last name he immediately asked if I was related to Elmer Pellegrini. When I said ‘Yeah that’s my dad’, the poor guy almost fainted. As it turned out he knew both of my parents and had a bunch of great stories for us. It’s no wonder Randall and I became such good friends.

Here are a bunch of pictures taken in the past week. Some from Colorado, some from NYE, and some from today’s birthday party. To all of our friends and family, we wish you a very happy and healthy new year. As my good friend Rico just said in a text the other day, “2014 has a good ring to it.”

Ava holding court in Colorado

Family Photo on the sleigh – The girls are wearing sweaters Nana got for them in Panama – Dad just finished snowboarding

The whole family

Elise started sitting up on this trip

Elise slept in the sleep sack that Nana made for Daddy

Ava loves the oversized look

NYE 2014 – Pampas Room

Having fun at Ayden’s birthday

We woke up at 4:30am on Christmas Eve, loaded everyone up in the car, and headed to the airport. We knew traveling with both girls during the holidays was risky but we decided to go for it anyway. We didn’t know what to expect on the plane but the girls ended up doing great. Amy and Tom were waiting for us at the Denver airport, so Amy took us back to their house in the mountains and Tom waited for everyone else to arrive.

Normally its an hour and a half drive from the Denver airport to their house in Silverthorne, which is a small town sitting at 9,000 feet elevation in the Rocky Mountains. This trip was a little different however. When we landed in Denver it was sunny and 50 degrees, but as we headed up into the mountains the temperature quickly dropped and we soon found ourselves in a snow storm. Before we knew it we were at a dead stop on the freeway, the snow was dumping, and it was only 14 degrees outside. After a 3 hour drive we finally arrived at their home; tired, hungry, and desperately needing to acclimate to the drastic change in elevation.

The night of Christmas Eve was pretty uneventful. Ava went with Grandma and Grandpa plus a few others to church, while Jessica, Elise and I hung out at the house with Joel and Melanie. That first night was pretty rough for both of the girls so we all slept in a little later than expected on Christmas morning. After a nice breakfast we dove into the mountain of presents and had a blast tearing paper and playing with our new toys.

Ava fell in love with a xylophone that was actually given to Elise by Joel and Melanie. Once she got her hands on that nothing else mattered. She kept saying “Xylophone! Play music! Yeah!” It was pretty cute. Later that day we all went to the Frisco Winter Adventure Park to do some sledding. We tried to get Ava to go down the hill but she wasn’t having it. She was really scared so Jessica took her back down to the lodge to hang out with Grandma and Elise. The rest of us had a blast riding inner tubes down the various hills at the park. Later that night Tom made a great prime rib dinner with mashed potatoes, gravy, au jous, green beans, and Yorkshire pudding. Jess and I even got a little time in the hot tub. It really was a great day and I’m so glad we made the trip.

Today Tom, Trevor and Derek went skiing at Breckenridge, so Jess and I had lunch with Joel and Melanie, then went shopping at the outlet mall. Derek and Emily made Gumbo for dinner, and Tom made homemade ice cream for dessert. Looks like Jess and I will be doing some snowboarding tomorrow at Breck. I’m looking forward to making Seafood Ravioli on Saturday, but that’s about the only thing we have planned. Other than that we’re just hanging out and enjoying the time with everyone.

I’m sure there will be plenty more pictures to post from this trip by the time we leave on Monday, but I’ve already got quite a few so here you go. To all our family and friends, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We love you all.

Getting some z’s on the plane

Elise’s 1st Christmas

Ava loves the snow

Grandma and Elise on Christmas morning

My little musician

Mommy and Ava in front of the tree

Grandma and Grandpa looking at their new book

Mommy and Ava at the winter park

Ava, Jessica, Joel and Melanie

Ava napping in her tent on Christmas morning

Sledding with Joel and Melanie

Visiting with Santa. Jessica’s eyes were closed so we Photoshopped her face in from another photo. Not sure what’s funnier, that or Ava’s expression.