Category: Uncategorized

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

Yesterday we celebrated Elise’s 2nd birthday for the second time. Like the weekend before, we had some friends and family members over to the house for lunch, cake, presents, and games. The intention was to set up the backyard with a variety of games and activities for the kids to enjoy, but as it turned out it was so hot outside everyone inevitably ended up indoors. Unfortunately we don’t have air conditioning, so it was only mildly better than outside, but we made the best of it.

We were joined by Dana, Brad, and Anna, as well as our friends the Palmers, the O’Hair’s, the Schreibers, and the Hancocks, each of whom brought along their own little ones to play with ours. It was a good turn out with basically the same formula as last weekend, which was carne asada tacos, snacks, cake, and presents. Elise had a great day playing with all the kids and opening presents. She seemed to enjoy her birthday cake more this year and had no problem diving in face-first. Ava seemed to think that it was her party as well, but the two of them coexisted nicely and didn’t have any major blowups regarding some new toy that strikes their fancy.

By the end of the party Elise was totally sacked out. For a minute we couldn’t figure out where she went, but then we found her sound asleep while seated upright at the dining table. We moved her to bed and she slept for hours, which is consistent with how things went last year after her first birthday party. Thanks again to everyone who came out yesterday; we had a lot of fun and appreciate everything.

Amy has been with us since Thursday and, as usual, has been very helpful with everything; the kids, the party, the house, etc. Friday night we were able to get out for the evening so Jessica picked me up from work and the two of us headed downtown to attend the Bite of Seattle. This was her first time going, and we ended up having a great night. We basically just bounced around from tent to tent and truck to truck trying small bites of a variety of things. Some of the highlights included carne asada flautas, halibut tacos, crab cakes, and of course the Ben and Jerry’s cookie sundae for dessert. It was a hot night so we stopped by the beer garden a couple times for refreshments. Afterwards we visited a friend of mine who was working at a new brewery in Ballard called Populuxe. All in all it was a great night and we appreciate Amy helping us out with that.

Earlier in the week, on Elise’s actual birthday, Jessica and the kids went downtown for the day with our friend Melissa and her daughter Ellie. They went on the Ferris Wheel down on the waterfront, which has apparently become a family tradition because they did the same thing on Ava’s most recent birthday. I still haven’t been on it but it looked like everyone had fun. There’s a funny picture of Enzo looking even more wide-eyed than normal as they ascend high above the pier.

The rest of the weekend has been pretty laid back so I’ll keep it short. Last night Jessica and I joined our next-door neighbors and finally got to enjoy their beautiful new Jacuzzi. Today I did a bit of work on the cars, but it’s so hot outside that I had to keep it to a minimum. I was out running errands earlier and my car said it was 95 degrees, so it’s definitely scorching out here. Enjoy the latest pics from Elise’s birthday week.

Mom and Enzo having fun at home

Ferris Wheel fun

Enzo getting sticker-bombed by his sisters

Pushing Enzo in a swing for the first time

The girls in their new party dresses

Elise crashed out after the party

Happy birthday sweet girl

PS – I just looked through all the pictures and realized that even in the photos of Elise where you can’t see Pippo, he’s actually right there, he’s just cropped out of the photo. #AttachedAtTheHip

Today our sweet little Elise turns 2 years old. I’m going to try to refrain from making all the typical cliche parent statements like “I can’t believe it’s already been two years,” but I offer no promises. Since her birthday falls on a Tuesday, Elise gets to enjoy two birthday parties for turning two: one on the Saturday before her birthday, and another on the Saturday after her birthday. We decided to do it this way because Madi is going to be with her Dad on Saturday the 18th and we wanted her to be able to come over with Kristy, Jim and Brenda, so we did a small party on Saturday the 11th just with them. It worked out well because we were able to spend more quality time with them; as expected we had a very nice afternoon playing with the kids, eating lunch, opening presents, and eating cake.

The hardest part about celebrating a birthday in our house for anyone not named Ava is that Ava doesn’t understand that the presents aren’t for her. Actually that’s not completely true because Aunt Brenda was kind and thoughtful enough to bring Ava the nicest outfit to dress up in, which included a tutu, headband, butterfly wings, and wand, but still Ava can’t help but fixate on something that Elise receives. The object of her fixation, and Elise’s for that matter, was a little stuffed tiger whom the girls have affectionately dubbed “Stripey.” Multiple fights ensued throughout the weekend based solely on who was currently in possession of Stripey, but of course if it wasn’t that it would be another thing. Either way I’m glad we have Stripey because for whatever reason, Elise has a particular fondness for tigers.

In addition to opening presents we had a nice lunch (Carne Asada tacos) and some delicious birthday cake. I can’t remember the last time I had a slice of cake but it was amazing. We actually had to split up the leftovers and bring them to our neighbors so that we wouldn’t have any left in the house. Madi didn’t end up spending the night on Friday but was still able to get some quality time in with each of the kids. Enzo was loving her and we ended up getting some great photos of them hanging out together. I’m glad we got so much quality time with everyone and look forward to doing something again soon.

Friday night we all went out for pizza, which was a nice treat considering it’s been about 6 weeks since Jessica and I have had it. We went to Amante, which is our favorite place near the house, and as expected it was delicious. Not unlike our Mexican dinner from the previous week, I ended up getting a stomach ache later on, but it wasn’t nearly as bad this time around, and I blame myself for this one because I definitely didn’t need that 4th piece. My logic was that if I ate the 4th piece, there wouldn’t be any leftovers to take home, and considering how good it tasted, I just decided to go for it. No regrets though; it was something I’ve been looking forward to for a while and it was a nice way to start the weekend.

Sunday was also a fun day because we got to attend my friend Sean’s housewarming party. He recently bought a house in North Seattle and has been hard at work getting it fixed up. He had a band playing on the front patio, which was a big hit with the girls. At one point the band decided to take a break to get some food, and shortly thereafter Ava temporarily disappeared. She quickly turned up ‘on stage’ playing the drummer’s kit. Of course she did; that’s so Ava. Obviously I ran right over there and got her off the drums before too many people noticed, but for the rest of the afternoon she kept saying she wanted to go back and play the drums. As I’ve always said, the world can always use another good drummer, but I don’t think we’re quite ready to bridge that gap. I think it’s cool that she likes it so much though.

Ava also had a little boyfriend she was running around the party with. At one point I found them scooping ice out of the keg bin and dumping it in the front yard. I told Ava to stop doing that and the little boy she was with got really upset at me. He told me his mom wanted the ice and that I was “not a nice man.” He then punched me in the stomach and kicked me in the shin. I was shocked! I couldn’t believe what this snot-nosed little kid just did to me, particularly since I wasn’t even talking to him; I was talking to my daughter. I was tempted to laugh right in his punky little face but decided to take the high road and simply told him, with a straight face, that it’s not nice to hit people and that he shouldn’t do that anymore. He certainly didn’t like me telling him anything and proceeded to give me the stink eye for the rest of the afternoon. And so begins my relationship with the boys my daughters run around with. This ought to be fun.

As mentioned above, we’re going to be throwing Elise’s second 2nd birthday party this Saturday. I’m not exactly sure who all is coming over but I know we’ll be seeing Dana, Brad and Anna, Amy and Tom will be staying with us, plus a handful of friends and neighbors who will be stopping by throughout the day. I expect it to be more of an open house than a traditional birthday party, but it should be a lot of fun. I’m not sure how long Tom will be in town but I know that Amy will be sticking around for about 3 weeks. We haven’t seen her since Enzo was born, and having an extra set of hands will be much appreciated by all. The main thing we’re hoping to get done while she’s here is painting the entire inside of our house. We’ve got most of the colors picked out but we’re having difficulty choosing one of the main downstairs colors. Hopefully we can get that figured out pretty soon and get to work. Ideally we’ll get the painting done now, then we’ll do the floors downstairs in September when Amy and Tom come back for our Labor Day weekend camping trip, and Foo Fighters concert at the Gorge the following weekend. Once that’s all done we will probably do an End-Of-Summer open house party to show off our new digs.

As for our little Weese, she’s just amazing. She couldn’t be any sweeter, but she still has her sister’s toughness. She was definitely meant to be a ‘middle child’ and has totally embraced her roles both as a younger and elder sibling. She constantly talks about how much she loves everyone, and her little picket fence smile is the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. She never goes anywhere without her baby Pippo (the purple Hippo) and she’s always only a step behind Ava in whatever activity most recently strikes their fancy. She gets out of her own bed and crawls into ours on an almost nightly basis, so it’s not uncommon for me to wake up with some little feet pressing into my back, or for her to be laying literally on my face. She and I have recently developed a game where I tell her “You’ll never know how much Daddy loves you” and she replies “I do know Daddy, I do!” We go back and forth with me saying “I don’t know, I don’t think you really do” but she continuously insists “Yes I do. I do know!” Maybe she does. Either way I’m the one writing the blog, so I get the final word; Happy 2nd Birthday sweetheart – you’ll never know how much we love you!

A great shot of Madi and Baby Enzo

Elise trying on her new digs

Dad hanging out with Mr. Enzo

Playing hide n’ seek at Costco

Ava working on some drum riffs

Weese enjoying a cookie at the party

Lazy Sunday

Love these kids

#WeeseLaFleur

Today was my first day back at work after a nice long four-day weekend. Before we reached the weekend however, we had to go out for dinner on Wednesday night (July 1) to celebrate making it through June, which we affectionately dubbed ‘Health Month’. Jessica and the kids picked me up from work that day and we headed straight to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. Not surprisingly, dinner was delicious, but all that greasy cheesy food didn’t do my stomach any favors. For the rest of the evening I had a stomach ache, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me from enjoying the concert we attended after dinner, or the frozen yogurt we had later on for desert. The concert, ‘British Invasion Rock ‘n Roll’, was the first of the Wednesday night Summer Concert Series at Mill Creek Town Center. The band played a variety of hits by groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and several others. They actually sounded really good, and the girls had a blast dancing and running around throughout the show.

After dinner we picked up frozen yogurt at a place near our house, then headed home to sit in the front yard and enjoy our sweet treats. The yogurt certainly didn’t help my stomach ache, but it did taste good. I was a bit jealous of Jessica, who wasn’t affected at all by everything we ate, but this is my new reality. Afterwards I went onto my Fitbit account and logged the foods we’d had. When I saw that I had consumed more calories in just those couple hours than I had in any entire day throughout the month of June, I couldn’t help but feel a bit down about it. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with going out and enjoying yourself from time to time, but when it makes you feel like crap you can’t help but wonder if it’s actually worth it. No biggie either way though, we had a lot of fun that night and plan on attending more of those Wednesday night concerts throughout the Summer.

Saturday, which was the 4th of July, turned out to be a really fun and busy day. When I woke up that morning and came downstairs, Rick was already sitting at our kitchen table having a cup of coffee. He and Chris flew into town the night before and will be here until tomorrow afternoon. Since it was Dana’s birthday we called her and had a nice chat; definitely looking forward to seeing her at Elise’s birthday party. We wanted to get the kids out to play that day so we went back to Forest Park in Everett, which is where we went last year for Rick’s 4th of July visit. Grandma Chris came to join us shortly thereafter and enjoyed watching the kids play in the playground while Rick and I played frisbee in the adjacent field. Later that evening we were joined by Butch and Carol, who came over to enjoy the neighborhood holiday festivities. There was a big barbeque in the early evening, then we all settled in to watch the fireworks, which were being shot off in every direction. Rick grilled up some beautiful steaks for everyone to enjoy, and there was no shortage of Dungeness crab to chow down on since our neighbors had been out on the Sound two days in a row filling up their pots. Another highlight of the evening was when my neighbor Mike took Rick, Butch and I down to his garage to check out his beautiful 1957 Chevy, which he recently finished rebuilding. It was a long day, but tons of fun.

Sunday was a day I’ve been looking forward to for several months because Michael Don Rico and I had tickets to the Van Halen concert at the White River Amphitheater down in Auburn. We wanted to make a full day out of it, so I met up with him in Seattle at 12:30 and we just headed south without much of a plan. We ended up going to a park on Lake Tapps and hung out there for a few hours swimming, playing frisbee, and catching up. It was super hot that day but the water was perfect, and you’re so close to Mt. Rainier that it feels like it’s just looming directly over you. I’ve never been to Lake Tapps before but it was beautiful. After picking up food at a nearby grocery store we headed over to the concert venue well before showtime. The concert was everything I wanted it to be and we had an awesome time. Kenny Wayne Shepherd band, which was the opening act, was really good, and Van Halen played every song I wanted to hear. The people-watching throughout the crowd was pretty entertaining as well.

After the show we decided to take our time in terms of leaving. We had heard horror stories about the traffic getting out of there, mainly because you’re stuck on a two-lane road for 5 miles with 20,000 other people. By the time we got to the car we decided to pull out the lawn chairs and relax while everyone else fought to get out of there. Michael had brought a cigar to smoke, and I didn’t have to work on Monday, so we just hung out for an hour or so talking about the show and eating snacks. Unfortunately there was one downside, which was that my phone must have slipped out of my pocket while I was sitting in my lawn chair. I didn’t realize it was gone until the following morning, which meant that for the first time in my life, I had lost my phone. I was pretty disappointed about it, mainly because I never do that sort of thing, but it was an honest accident. Luckily I have insurance on my phone, so all I had to do was file a claim and pay a small deductible to get a replacement. My phone was nearly two years old, meaning they don’t make that model anymore, and I’m not very happy with what I’m getting as a replacement, but I just need it to hold me over until the new iPhone comes out this fall. All things considered it was no big deal; losing my wallet or wedding ring would have been much worse, so I decided not to dwell on it. I’m just glad we got to have such a fun day together.

While I was off reliving my youth on Sunday with an old pal, the rest of the family decided to go downtown and take the kids to the aquarium. The following day I heard plenty of exciting stories from the girls about all the creatures they saw. Ava was playing with a toy Orca whale she got at the gift shop, so I commented on it by saying “hey that’s a nice little whale you’ve got there Ava” and she replied “it’s not a whale daddy, it’s an orker.” Monday was my final day off, but it turned out to be pretty productive. Rick and I had to get back to work on the dog run because Bella has been getting out again. She even managed to break the fence! With Rick’s help we were able to build a new gate, as well as reinforce the loose fence post by pouring concrete. At this point it’s like a fortress over there and I’m (mostly) confident that Bella’s jailbreaking days are over. Only time will tell though.

Today, while I was at work, the rest of the family spent the day at Woodland Park Zoo. I’m looking forward to hearing about it once I get home. As usual, the long weekend that you’ve been looking forward to for so long ends up flying by in the blink of an eye. Thank you to Rick and Chris for coming out to visit us and making it such a memorable holiday. July is going to be a very busy month for us, so this was a great way to start things off. Next up we’ve got Madi coming over for another sleepover on Friday night, then Saturday we’ll be doing a small birthday party for Elise with Kristy, Madi, Jim and Brenda. Should be a lot of fun. Here’s a few pictures from our holiday weekend.

Today we celebrated Enzo turning 5 months old by going to our first baseball game as a family. Rather than fight the crowds in Seattle, we decided to attend an Everett Aquasox game, which is the Single A short-season minor league franchise of the Seattle Mariners. I’ve never been to a minor league baseball game before, but honestly it was a lot of fun. The atmosphere is very family friendly, the people working at the ballpark are also very friendly, and the crowds are very small. There was a friendly police officer who kept coming over to play with the kids, and Ava thought it was hilarious to keep taking his hat. He was a good sport about it though.

We sat in the General Admission section, which was perfect because it allowed the girls to run around rather than be stuck in a seat the whole time. Today’s game was the ‘Mascot game’, meaning there were at least a dozen mascots running around the ballpark taking pictures and doing fun stuff between innings. At one point Ava was saying ‘hi’ from a distance to the mascots in the next section over. She says “Hi frog, hi hotdog, hi clam, hi Santa.” I’m like, Santa? Then I realize she’s talking to the old guy with the long white beard who works at the ballpark. Of course he heard her, but luckily he got a big kick out of it. Only Ava…

Our friends Jamie and Melissa, along with their 2 year old daughter Ellie, joined us for the game, which made it even more fun. The capstone to the game was letting all the kids go out on the field and run around the bases. Ava got around remarkably fast, while Elise decided to sit and rest a couple times between bases. It was a funny way to end a nice afternoon.

Last week was pretty crazy for me, both at work and at home, but this week marks the start of back-to-back 4 day work weeks, separated by a 4 day weekend. Not only was last week extremely busy for me at work, but Jessica also worked two nights, meaning I was back on full-time dad duty for both of those nights. Luckily I don’t have any crazy stories about either of my nights, and I can say with confidence that each night we spend together without Mom gets a little easier. Friday night I was even able to give Enzo 3.5 ounces of milk from a bottle, as well as a good amount of solid baby food. This was by far the most success I’ve had feeding him, so that was encouraging.

Tomorrow is Ava’s last day in day care. She’s going to take the summer off, then start attending preschool in September. At this point she’s basically on a normal school schedule that any kid would have, but she’ll go to preschool for two years before entering kindergarten. I’m not sure what the plan is for Elise regarding day care and preschool, but it will be at least another year before she starts anything like that. We’ve been talking about getting them into some type of activity together, maybe a dance class or something similar, so we’ll see how that turns out.

Tuesday is the last day of the month, meaning we will have made it through our health month successfully. I must admit that I cheated a bit today by eating some popcorn at the baseball game, but I’m not too worried about it. Considering that’s the worst thing I’ve had all month I think it’s okay. There’s no question that it’s working, and we’re continuing to see results; I weighed myself yesterday and at this point I’m down 12 pounds from when we started. It’s certainly not all about weight loss, but that can be a nice way of quantifying your success. Ultimately it’s about making long-term changes to improve our health, and not surprisingly it’s starting to rub off on the girls. Suddenly they’re more open to eating raw veggies because they constantly see us eating them. The other thing we’re noticing is that our appetites have shrunk significantly; it simply doesn’t take nearly as much food to fill us up. All that being said, I can’t wait to go out for Mexican food and frozen yogurt on Wednesday night. I think we’ve earned it.

Wednesday night will be fun not only because of the delicious meal we’ll be having, but we will also be attending a free concert at the Mill Creek Town Center. It’s part of a series of concerts going on every Wednesday night, each one with a different theme. The theme for this week is British Invasion Rock ‘n Roll, so we can expect to hear lots of tunes by the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Some of the other nights we hope to attend this summer include Classic Rock, Blues & Soul night, and Rock from the 70’s & 80’s night.

With June coming to an end, that means we can expect things to start getting very busy for us. Rick and Chris will be visiting for the holiday weekend, and I’ll be going to the Van Halen concert down at the White River amphitheater on Sunday night with Rico. We’re going to have Madi over for another sleepover the following week, then do an early birthday party for Elise with Kristy, Madi, Jim and Brenda that Saturday. There is a chance that my Mom will be coming up for that as well, so hopefully that works out. The weekend after that we’ll be doing another party for Elise with Amy, Tom, Dana (and family) plus a few friends.

Amy hasn’t been out since Enzo was born so she’s going to stick around for a while on this visit. Having her here will be a big help for Jessica, whom I know is ready for a break. We’re going to take advantage by going to a Mariners game the day before my birthday, then dinner that evening. I’ve got plenty of personal days to use at work, so I’m taking Wednesday the 29th off so we can go to the game and dinner, then Thursday the 30th (my birthday) off as well. Should be a lot of fun.

There isn’t too much else to update on. Enzo is growing fast and rolling over regularly; he seems noticeably stronger and heavier. We’re still working on potty training with Ava and only having moderate success. Some days she does great, while other days are a hair-pulling catastrophe. I know we’ll get there soon enough but I honestly never thought it would be this challenging. Guess that’s about it for now; there will definitely be a lot more to write about in July. Here’s a few photos from the past few days.

Ava looking patriotic

Elise feeding Pippo a bottle

Enzo hanging out in the backyard

Hanging out in the bleachers

Ava wearing the police officer’s hat

Family photo on our way out of the ballpark

Mom and her little ball player

5 months old

I think it’s probably safe to say that today was the best Father’s Day I’ve had yet. In addition to keeping busy all day with lots of fun activities, it was my first Father’s Day with all three of my kids, so that made it extra special. However before I get into the fun day that we had today, I first need to share the misery that I experienced earlier this week.

Thursday night Jessica had to work at El Gaucho, so that means I was home alone with the kids. As you may know from reading these posts, this was only the second time I’ve been home alone for an entire evening with the kids. The first time didn’t go very well, specifically because Enzo refuses to eat when I try to feed him, but I was confident (more like hopeful) that this time would be different.

Jessica and the kids met me at work on Thursday afternoon, we exchanged cars, and the kids and I headed home in the van. We got home at about 5:00pm and the first hour went great. No problems with the girls, and Enzo didn’t make a peep. For a second I remember thinking we were home free and in for an easy night. Then the crying began. Enzo started crying at 6:00 and I kid you not when I say that he did not stop until 9:30. No exaggeration. For 3.5 hours I tried everything I could possibly think of: bottles of milk, solid foods, walking around in the house, walking around outside, bouncing on my knee, changing his diaper, sitting in his bouncy chair, giving him a toy to hold onto, laying in his crib, etc. I did everything I could think of several times over, but nothing worked. He just kept crying, and I fell into a downward spiral of hopelessness.

Eventually I ended up laying him down in his pack ‘n play, which is in our living room, and pulled up a chair to sit with him. No matter what the crying continued and there was nothing I could do. Seeing those big alligator tears streaming down his face made me feel horrible, and I knew he was hungry, but he simply refused to eat. All he wanted to do was cry, and I just had to sit there and take it.

At a certain point, around 8:30, Elise was sitting in my lap next to Enzo’s pack ‘n play, and she fell asleep in my arms. I don’t know how she could sleep through all that commotion, but she passed out regardless. I moved her over to the couch and resumed my post sitting next to Enzo. Finally at 9:30 he fell asleep and I felt rejoiced. I couldn’t believe it was finally over, so after a minute or two I headed over to my office to relax. If it wasn’t for the diet we’re on this month I definitely would have poured myself a drink, but no, I was more than happy enough to sit in my office and just enjoy the silence.

A little earlier in the evening I had gone upstairs to check on Ava and she was doing fine. I got her into pajamas and set her up with something to watch on TV. I hadn’t been in my office for more than 10 minutes when I see Ava coming up to me with no pants or diaper on. As you may know, we’ve been working on potty training with her, but honestly it’s not going very well. She is the epitome of a strong-willed child, so getting her potty trained has been more difficult than we ever could have expected. She has recently developed the bad habit of taking her diaper off, particularly when she has to poop. I get the logic; she doesn’t want to walk around in a poopy diaper, but the problem is that she will take her diaper off and literally poop anywhere. We keep explaining to her that the potty is the only place she is allowed to poop, but she just doesn’t get it (or refuses to get it, which is probably more likely). Not too long ago she pooped in our cul-de-sac right in front of the neighbors. I was at work when it happened but of course Jessica was mortified.

When I saw Ava approaching me with no diaper on I knew there was a problem, but I had no idea how bad it really was. I jumped out of my chair to see what was going on and as I approached her I instantly saw that her hands, feet, and legs were all covered in poop. She had obviously removed her diaper, pooped somewhere in the house, then smeared it all over herself. I couldn’t believe it. After the night I had already had with Enzo this just didn’t seem possible. Remember, I was only 10 minutes relieved from the nightmare I’d endured with him, so her timing was impeccable.

I immediately brought her to the bathroom and started scrubbing her down. While getting her clean I repeatedly asked her (rather harshly) why she had done this. I kept telling her that this is not okay and that Mommy would be very upset about this. It probably took 10 minutes to get her clean, but it wasn’t over yet; I still needed to clean the area where she pooped. I asked her to take me to the spot of the crime, so she took my hand and lead me to her bedroom. Once we arrived there she pointed to a spot on her pink shag carpet, but at first glance there was nothing there. I got down on my knees to look a little closer and only found the tiniest little poop pellet. This didn’t make sense. I knew there had to be more than this, so I looked even closer and what I found was a little tuft of Bella’s hair. Remember that Bella isn’t allowed in the girl’s bedroom, so finding her hair in there could only mean one thing – Bella ate the poop.

At this point I was equal parts angry and disgusted, but in the back of my mind I could see the humor. I knew there was humor in all of this, but I was incapable of consciously acknowledging it. I was too heated by the culmination of the night’s events. The good news is that there was no mess to clean up, so I headed downstairs to sulk on the couch. Not a minute later Bella came down and proceeded to pant her nasty hot breath right in my face. Needless to say, it smelled like shit.

By the time Jessica got home after midnight she found Elise and I asleep on the couch, Ava passed out on the living room floor, and Enzo wide awake in his pack ‘n play, not making a sound, but looking at her as if to say “Finally!” I wish I could say that I wouldn’t have to worry about this again anytime soon but the unfortunate reality is that Jessica will be working two more shifts next week. Stay tuned for the next adventurous tale of yours truly, the dopey dad, and the three niños running the show. I can’t wait.

Before I get to the great day we today I’ll quickly say that our ‘Health Month’ is continuing to go really well and we’re consistently seeing results. At this point we’ve both lost nearly 10 pounds, and more importantly, we’re feeling great. Earlier this week I used part of my fitness allowance at Microsoft to purchase a Fitbit, and I can’t believe how much I’m enjoying it. I wear it all day and night, and it tracks everything I do. At any point in the day I can see how many steps I’ve taken, why my pulse is, how far I’ve walked, how many flights of stairs I’ve climbed, and how many calories I’ve burned. Everything gets logged to a website that I can check from the computer, or with the Fitbit mobile app on my phone. In an effort to increase my stats, I’m finding myself running up two flights of stairs at work every time I need to use the restroom or fill my water bottle. It’s gamification at it’s finest.

The other cool thing is that I’m logging everything I eat on the Fitbit website, which means I can see how many calories, carbs, grams of protein, fiber, etc are in each of my meals. I’ve never watched what I eat so closely before but I’m finding it very interesting. You can’t help but feel good about yourself when you see that you’ve burned 2,500 calories in a day and only consumed 1,500. The other cool thing is that it tracks my sleep patterns and graphs it all out on the website. On any given day I can look and see exactly how long I slept, when I was awoken throughout the night, and what my ‘sleep efficiency rating’ is. For someone like me who likes to nerd out on data, this is awesome. I don’t even have to set an alarm on my phone anymore because my Fitbit has a built-in silent alarm. If you’re considering getting one (or something similar) I would definitely recommend it.

Okay, finally onto today, which is Father’s Day. We started off the day meeting up with Uncle Jim, Aunt Brenda, Kristy, and her friend Edgar at a car show in Burien. When I was in high school Jim and Brenda used to take me to tons of car shows, so the idea of going to a show with them made perfect sense. We walked around and checked out all the beautiful rides. Jessica and I have been somewhat interested in the idea of a classic truck lately, so we paid particular attention to those, plus I fell in love with a beautiful convertible GTO Judge. Strangely enough there was a stuffed tiger sitting on the back of the car, and since Elise loves tigers so much, she was instantly attracted to it. We were both in love with that particular car, but for wildly (get it? – wildly) different reasons.

After walking around for a while we settled in near the stage to watch a variety of performers. The girls love live music and once again they practically stole the show dancing in front of the stage. I think Ava even took a bow at one point. To say that Ava likes the spotlight would be
a total understatement.

We left the car show at 1:30 and headed to Lincoln Park in West Seattle to attend the 2nd birthday for our friends Jodi and Leon’s son Miles. There was a great turnout and we got a chance to catch up with lots of our old friends from the restaurant business. There was a ton of delicious food available, but Jessica and I held strong. The unhealthiest thing we had all day was a bit of pulled pork, but we never delved into the sweets. I know it was tough for Jessica so I was proud of her. We ended up hanging out there for about three hours and had an absolute blast. The weather was perfect, there were tons of great people to talk to, and there was a big playground for the kids to enjoy. All in all it was a great way to spend a Sunday.

As expected the kids slept all the way home, which gave us time to have a nice long talk with Rick about his day, and their upcoming trip for the 4th of July. We gave the kids a bath once we got home and at this point they’re all exhausted and temperamental. I’m hoping we can get the girls to settle down and watch a movie. I recorded the final round of the US Open (which is being played down in Tacoma at Chambers Bay golf course) and will be watching that for the rest of the evening. To all the Dads in our lives, Happy Father’s Day; we hope each of you had a great day. Time to go make a nice salmon dinner and enjoy the remained of this awesome day with my babes. If every Father’s Day is as good as this one I think I’ll be doing all right.

Kristy and Edgar hanging with Enzo

Aunt Brenda and Baby Enzo

Uncle Jim and Enzo having fun

Enzo sees his first Ferrari

Elise and I with the GTO Judge (and the tiger)

Hanging out with my little guy

An instant classic. I love this picture so much.

Ava and Leon playing with the bubble rope

Daddy and his big girl