Author: Michael Pellegrini

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.

Not to sound overly dramatic, but there’s been a bit of a void in my life over the past year. I don’t think there’s any question that the thing I miss most about San Diego is my Jiu Jitsu school. When we moved here I joined a school but never got the right feeling there and ended up leaving shortly thereafter. Since then I’ve thought a lot about Jiu Jitsu but wasn’t sure when it would come back into my life.

I mentioned in a post a while back that there’s a new school opening near my office. I’ve been in contact with the owner, so today I went in to meet him in person and have a grappling session. Since I already know I love Jiu Jitsu, the main thing I was hoping for today was to like the teacher. As it turned out, the owner Larry was exactly what I was hoping for. Really cool, humble, wise, and amazing at Jiu Jitsu. He’s been studying for over 15 years, got his black belt 5 years ago, and recently moved here from Denver to open his own school. I could immediately tell that this was the right place for me, and it looks like there are already several guys from Amazon who will be training there so I’ll get meet some new co–workers right away.

We celebrated Elise turning five months old today by having an early Christmas Skype session with Grandpa Rick and Grandma Chris. They sent us a huge box of presents yesterday so the four of sat in front of the web camera and opened gifts. Chris made two beautiful framed letters for the girls (A and E of course), plus they sent all kinds of great clothes, blankets, kitchen stuff, and a really nice shaving set for me. They’re always so generous, but the best part was getting to video chat so they could see the girls getting excited. Ava had a blast opening presents and Elise couldn’t stop giggling the whole time. Definitely a nice way to spend the afternoon.

Jessica is working tonight but is off tomorrow, so Dana, Brad, Kallan, and Anna will be coming over to do a little Christmas get–together. Anna is a teenager now so we’ll be celebrating her birthday as well. Next Sunday we’ll be doing something similar at Butch and Carol’s along with Rob, Mina, and their family, then leaving for Colorado two days later. Six more days of work, including the final week of the quarter at school, before our Winter vacation. I’m getting excited.

I had the longest day Wednesday due to my trip to Reno. I had checked the weather ahead of time and it said the high temperature that day was going to be in the mid 40’s. You can guess how surprised I was when we landed in 14 degree weather with snow everywhere. The roads were clear though, so I went ahead and rented a Challenger for our 45 minute drive to the fulfillment center. I’ve been wanting to drive one of those things for a while now and lets just say it didn’t disappoint. Not exactly the best winter car but everything was fine. To keep the holiday spirit alive we found a holiday radio station and rocked out to Christmas carols the whole way. I was a little embarrassed at how many of those songs I knew the words to, but it was fun.

Not much else going on around here other than getting ready for the trip. I’ve been planning on making dinner for everyone one night while we’re there, so today I decided to make seafood ravioli with pesto. I’ve never made it before but after the success we had on Ava’s birthday my confidence is pretty high so I’m going for it.

Tomorrow is going to be a pretty long day. I’m flying to Reno with a co–worker early in the morning so that we can spend several hours working in a fulfillment center. Our manager wants everyone on the team to experience working in a fulfillment center during our peak season, and he wants us to go to centers that we haven’t previously visited, which for me equates to Reno. I checked the forecast and luckily it looks like we’ll have decent weather. I hear its about a 45 minute drive from the airport so I’m glad we won’t be dealing with any snow. Normally a trip like this would be overnight, but this time we’re cramming everything into one day. At least I won’t be away from the girls for a night.

This is shaping up to be an interesting week at work. Today my team attended customer service training session, which included sitting with customer service agents and listening to actual customer phone calls. Listening in on the customer calls is really interesting, and sometimes hilarious. One guy insisted on ringing his door bell over the phone to prove that it works and that it wasn’t his fault that he missed a delivery. It was the longest doorbell ever.

Jessica has been working a lot lately. This is Gaucho’s busy season as well, so they’ve been needing her quite a bit. It’s all good though because we’re inside of two weeks from our trip to Colorado for Christmas. I haven’t been snowboarding in a long time and can’t wait to get out to Breckenridge. Seeing Ava play in the snow for the first time is going to be awesome, and I know Amy and Tom are excited to have everyone out. I’ll finish the fall quarter the day before we leave and will be enjoying a two week break from school while we’re away. Only two quarters to go after that…

Ava and Elise are both doing great. Elise is growing so fast its crazy. Our babysitter came over tonight for the first time in about 3 weeks and couldn’t believe how much bigger she is. Ava got a chance to play with Easton, our babysitter’s son who is one month older than her. I don’t get to see her play with other kids very often so it was good to see her having so much fun. When they left Ava stood there looking out the window saying “See you next time” over and over. It was pretty sweet.

No new pics for now but I’m sure we’ll have plenty over the next few weeks. Happy Holidays!

One year ago today we arrived in Bellevue after nearly 3 years in San Diego. First and foremost, we couldn’t have done that move without the help of Jessica’s Mom, Amy. Jess was in the early stages of her pregnancy with Elise at that time and we had just hosted a big party to celebrate Ava’s 1st birthday and Thanksgiving. That party turned out to be the last fun thing we did in San Diego, because the following week was nothing but cleaning out our house and loading everything into a moving pod. I remember we had the steepest driveway ever at that house and the pod couldn’t be left on the street so we had no choice but to keep it in the driveway. The downward angle ended up working in our favor when loading things into the pod, but then you had to walk out uphill. Good times.

One thing I’ll never forget about that move was the first day of driving. Jess and I have done some crazy trips before, most notably riding my motorcycle from Seattle to Reno in one day (16 hours), but this one was right up there. Jessica and Amy drove the Durango, which contained Ava, both dogs, plus everything else that could possibly fit inside, and they towed a small trailer rented from U–Haul, (tip: never rent from U–Haul) because we couldn’t fit everything into the pod. I was following them in our Accord, which was completely packed with stuff. There was literally no space anywhere in that car besides the driver’s seat. We pulled out from our house in La Mesa at 7:30am and didn’t stop until we reached Eugene OR, which is 1,000 miles north, at approximately 1:00am. Going through the pass at the Siskiyou Mountains that night was the worst storm I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s darker than night out there, you’re on a winding mountain highway, and the rain is coming down so hard that you can’t hear the stereo and your wiper blades can’t keep up even though they’re on their highest setting. In hindsight we shouldn’t have done it but we were determined to get to Eugene that night and we did.

Everyone was so relieved when we arrived at Dana and Brad’s house the following night. That was a special type of exhaustion. Amy had to be up at the crack of dawn the following morning for a flight back to Florida, but luckily Brad was also flying out early that morning and Dana was already planning on driving to the airport. That morning our little caravan pulled up to our new house and we were met by our friend Kim, who is a real estate agent and helped us get the house. We had only seen pictures at this point and had our fingers crossed as we walked in for the first time. We had already signed a year lease and I was starting work as a contractor at Amazon in a couple days so there was no going back.

We’ve already made some good memories at this house, including just last weekend with Ava’s birthday party, but hopefully it won’t be too much longer until we make one final move, into a house we own. As much as we hate the thought of moving again, we love the idea of buying something that we can stay in long–term. Once we get through the new year we’re going to sit down with Aunt Carol and get down to business. I think its safe to say that we’re staying in this area and I love the idea of the girls growing up near family.

After all the excitement we had last weekend celebrating Ava’s second birthday, the plan for today was to have a nice relaxing day at home with just the four of us. Last night we received the photos Leon took at Ava’s birthday party and we’re thrilled with how they turned out. Not only did he get tons of great shots of Ava, but he also got a lot of photos of the other little kids that were there. If you’d like to download the Hancock, Kipper, Klinger, LaFleur, or Lester family photos, go to: pellegrinipage.com/downloads

We went on a mini–hike this morning on a trail near our house. It’s been pretty ideal weather here considering the time of year, so we wanted to get out and enjoy it before gorging ourselves for the remainder of the day. We didn’t do a turkey this year but did make a ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and veggies, followed by pumpkin pie with extra whip cream. We’re in a bit of a food coma now but its been a great day. I’ll be working tomorrow, and its a bit of an ‘all hands on deck’ sort of day considering all of the holiday shopping, but it’s also Friday, which is inherently good.

Nana got Elise some Thanksgiving pajamas and Jess was able to get a great picture of her in them. The rest of the photos were taken by Leon at Ava’s party.

Elise’s first Thanksgiving

Two years ago today Jessica and I became parents, and our lives were forever changed for the better. In one sense it’s hard to believe that it’s already been two years, but when I look back and think of all that has happened in that time. As the story goes, Ava was born on “Black Friday” in 2011. Leading up to her birth I was working about 80 hours per week between my two jobs. I was working days at Scrollmotion and bartending at night at the Tractor Room. Thanksgiving was going to be my first day off in over a month, and since Jessica was so close to delivery we decided to have a very low key meal at our home in Pacific Beach.

Shortly after Thanksgiving dinner Jessica went into labor. We knew not to go to the hospital right away, so we watched a UFC event, then went on a walk around the neighborhood with Bruno and Bella. We arrived at the hospital in the wee hours of the morning and began the roller coaster ride that was Ava’s birth. The hospital was pushing Jessica to have a C-section but we didn’t want that and held out as long as possible. As they were preparing the room for surgery, the doctor decided to give Jessica one chance to have a natural birth. After only a few minutes of pushing our sweet baby girl was born. I had never cried tears of joy before that moment, and I’ll never forget how special it was. Since then we’ve come a long way, including another baby, two moves, a job change, and me getting back into school to finish my degree. To say we’ve been keeping busy would be a major under statement, but that’s the way we like it.

This past Saturday we celebrated Ava’s birthday at our house in Bellevue with about 30 friends and family members. It was the biggest party we’ve ever thrown, and it was a huge success! Jessica did an amazing job decorating for the party, and I rekindled Gigi and Aunt Norma’s ravioli recipe, which was a hit. Although putting on a party of this magnitude was a ton of work, seeing Ava’s face when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her made it all well worth it. It was a look of pure joy and happiness, followed by a barrage of cake making its way all over Ava, her tray, and the surrounding walls and floor. My explanation can’t do it justice so keep an eye out for the photos to come.

Both of our girls were great all day and I think Ava had a blast opening presents and going down the slide we got her. She literally went down that thing at least 100 times throughout the day. Elise was so well behaved and content to be passed around by family members and close friends. My good friend Leon took tons of photos, which I’ll be getting later this week, and will be posting ASAP. I’m going to save the photos that we already have for Jessica’s post tonight, but I couldn’t resist recapping the wonderful day we all had.

Ava, you and your sister are the best thing that has ever happened to your Mom and I. You’ve brought a sense of joy and purpose to our lives that we never even knew existed. I thank my lucky stars everyday for having such an amazing family. Although you probably won’t remember your second birthday, please know that it was a very special day that was attended by so many people we love. Thank you for making me such a proud Papa; I love you with all my heart.

We got to spend last weekend and the first half of this week with Grandpa Rick. Everyone had a really nice time hanging out. We ate some good meals, watched some movies and football games, and most importantly, Rick got a lot of quality time in with the girls. As usual his visit flew by and before you knew it he was on his way back home. I’m just glad they were able to do some fun stuff like go to the zoo and get studio photos taken while he was here.

We were paid a visit by Kristy, Mark, Trinity, and Madi on Sunday while Rick was here. Jess and I both really enjoyed meeting Mark and Trinity. As soon as Rick found out Mark was a hunter they struck up conversation and hit it off. Madi wanted nothing more than to hold Elise the entire time, and she did such a great job. She’s a natural with babies and will surely make an excellent mom someday. Ava absolutely loved playing with the girls, and the rest of us hung out and enjoyed watching the Seahawks walk all over the Falcons.

We’re getting really excited for Ava’s birthday party next weekend. There are quite a few guests coming, many of whom haven’t seen each other in a long time. I started cooking today so that I wouldn’t be frantic at the last minute. Today I’m making beef and turkey chili, a marinara sauce for the ravioli, and the filling for the ravioli, which consists of veal, pork, turkey, chantrelle mushrooms, sweet onion, garlic, and spinach. Tomorrow I’m making the pasta from scratch and filling the ravioli. I’ve never made pasta before so I’m a little nervous but I’m sure I’ll be fine as long as I follow my Aunt Norma’s recipe. Since there will most likely be some vegetarian guests at the party, I’m intentionally making the pasta sauce without meat. We will have cheese ravioli available for anyone who doesn’t eat meat. There will also be lots of snacks and sides available, plus a rainbow birthday cake baked by Mom. It’s going to be a great day.

Elise turned 4 months old this week. Even though I see her everyday its easy to tell that she is growing fast. She’s so alert now and she’s developing quite the sense of humor. She enjoys being played with and is pretty easy to get laughing. Her vision is much better; she can make eye contact with you from across the room now. I don’t know what we did to get so lucky but we have two amazing little girls to be thankful for every single day. I’m actually writing this post with 1 hand because Jess is gone at work and Elise doesn’t feel like not being held. Happy to oblige.

We recently received the photos Leon took on their last visit, so combine those with the photos from Rick’s visit, and you’ve got a lot to share. Enjoy.

Elise 4 months

Ava in her car

Ava loves cupcakes

No boots are safe around Ava

Good times with Grandpa