Our second week of ‘Health Month’ is drawing to a close and things are continuing to go well. For the second straight week we have stared temptation in the eye and slayed it with a barrage of carrot sticks, unsalted almonds, and fish filets. The plan, as it stands, is to continue doing what we’re doing for the month of June, then slowly start to allow fringe foods like cheese, beans, and brown rice back into our diet. As of July we’re also going to be allowing ourselves one ‘cheat day’ per week. This way we’ve always got something very nearby to look forward to when it comes to food. For now we already have plans to have dinner on Wednesday July 1 at our favorite Mexican restaurant, then after enjoying a local blues rock outdoor concert, take the kids (and ourselves) out for frozen yogurt. Should be a good night.
There have been plenty of temptations throughout the week for both of us, but together we stand strong. For Jessica, it usually comes when feeding the girls breakfast each morning, or when rewarding them with a piece of candy after using the toilet. For me it’s usually at work; earlier this week we had a breakfast potluck in my office, meaning I was surrounded all day with doughnuts, chocolate croissants, muffins, etc. Plus it’s not uncommon for our manager to buy us pizza for lunch if one of us does a lunchtime presentation about a particular technology. I’ve found at this point that I don’t care in the least about junk foods like doughnuts, nor do I miss sugary drinks or alcohol. I feel like I could go on easily without any of that stuff, but what I do miss is bread, pizza, and pasta. It’s all good though, this is why we’re soon going to have cheat days. The point of doing all this is so that we start paying attention to what we eat and therefore don’t eat all the wrong foods on a daily basis.
Results are starting to appear, albeit a bit slowly. We each weighed ourselves for the first time this morning and have each lost five pounds. The results were about what we expected; a bit underwhelming but better than nothing. After doing an image search of five pounds of fat I felt considerably better when I saw how much it was. The other thing for us to consider is that we’re both exercising on a regular basis, meaning we’re building muscle while we lose fat. I’m sure a more extreme change in diet would yield faster results, but something like that would also be harder to maintain for the long-term, and that’s exactly what this is about.
There hasn’t been a whole lot going on with us besides that. Ava is continuing to make progress with using the toilet. We’ve certainly still had our share of accidents, but they seem to be getting fewer and further between. The difficult part is when you feel that she does it on purpose as a way of testing you. Keeping calm is an important virtue that Jessica is definitely a step (or two) ahead of me on, but the way I see it, Ava is always going to be the guinea pig on these types of things because she’s the oldest. Most likely we will have an easier time with Elise and Enzo because we’ve already been through it, whatever ‘it’ may be.
This weekend has been a pretty nice mix of getting stuff done and relaxing around the house. Yesterday Elise and I took Ava to soccer, then went home to pick up Mommy and Enzo for a trip to Costco. We spent some time that afternoon watching the Women’s Soccer World Cup (Ava really enjoys watching the ‘Big Girls’ play soccer), then went to a ‘Draft Party’ at our next door neighbor’s house. Their son Alec was drafted this week as a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers farm system and will be heading out to Florida next week. Generally our neighborhood is willing to throw a party for just about anything, so this occasion was more than special enough for everyone to get together.
Today we all slept in (a rare treat) then got to work on reorganizing the garage. I’ve decided that reorganizing the garage is a thankless task because every three months it always feels like a disaster badly in need of some serious reorganization. Regardless, we got a ton of work done and are happy with the results. The rest of the evening will be spent preparing meals for this week (we got some beautiful fresh Alaskan King Salmon at Costco yesterday), and watching the NBA Finals.
Next Sunday, which is Father’s Day, should be fun because we will be attending a birthday party for Miles, the son of our friends Jodi and Leon. Other than that June looks like it should be pretty non-eventful, but that’s totally fine with me because July is going to be a whirlwind. We’ve got Rick and Chris coming out for a visit on 4th of July weekend, then I’ll be going to the Van Halen concert with Rico on Sunday July 5th. After Rick and Chris leave we’ll be having Madi over for another overnight visit, and there’s a chance that my Mom will be coming out for a quick visit. The following week we will have Amy and Tom in town for Elise’s second birthday, then at the end of the month I’m going to take a day off work so Jessica and I can fulfill our summer tradition of going to a weekday afternoon baseball game. Definitely a lot to look forward to, so for now we’ll enjoy the figurative (not literal) peace and quiet.
Yesterday we drove down to Des Moines, picked up Madi, and brought her up to our neck of the woods for a fun sleepover with us and the kids. With the beautiful weather on our side, we piled into the minivan and promptly got stuck in typical Seattle traffic as we passed by the city. Our destination was the beach at Silver Lake, which is a small lake very close to our house, but it seemed like everything was working against us in getting there. Enzo was quite unhappy about all the stop and go traffic, and therefore proceeded to cry for what seemed like forever. He has this uncanny ability to know exactly when my right foot moves from the gas pedal to the brake pedal, and instantly lets out a strident shrill whenever he senses it.
Eventually we made our way through all the traffic, got off at our normal exit, and headed to the lake. As we approached from the other side of the lake I could see that it was much busier than normal. This wasn’t totally unexpected considering how nice the weather was, but I also noticed something else that seemed pretty unusual; there appeared to be some type of boat races going on. We made our way over to the entrance and could immediately see that something was going on. There were a few derelict teenagers posing as parking officials near the entrance, one of whom mentioned in passing that the lot was full. Undeterred, we took our chances and promptly found one of the few remaining parking spots.
As we unloaded the van I felt like we were more prepared for a week in the Alaskan wilderness than a day at the Silver Lake beach, but we eventually got everything in order and made our way down towards the water. As we approached the entrance I read the sign saying that there was a special event going on today, and that although admission was free, there would be no water or dock access, and limited access to the remaining facilities. Unbelievable. Of all the places we could have gone to we specifically chose Silver Lake because we’ve had fun there multiple times in the past and knew that it had everything we would need, but it just wasn’t meant to be.
We had come too far to turn around at this point, especially since everyone was exhausted from carrying everything down from the van to the lake, so we setup our beach umbrella, rolled out some blankets, propped up a chair, and proceeded to watch all the boats zoom their way around this relatively tiny lake. Jessica and I joked that had we stumbled upon this with a nine year old boy as our guest, he probably would have been thrilled, but it’s not exactly what we had planned for our afternoon with Madi.
We made the most of our situation, but it was difficult considering that it’s the hottest day of the year and we can’t get in the water. After about 45 minutes I called an audible and suggested we pack up, head home, and play in the sprinkler and kiddie pools in our backyard. Everyone seemed to agree, however we didn’t leave without casualties; our trusted set of sandbox toys was forgotten on the beach. Hopefully some kid found them and made use of them.
We got home and I quickly mowed the lawn so it would be ideal for running around on. We got the kiddie pools filled and the sprinkler turned on, then spent the next hour splashing and running around. Everyone but Elise seemed to have fun, but Weese just wasn’t into it. I remember Ava being the same way last summer, so I suppose it’s just her age. Either way, Ava, Madi and I had a blast playing in the water.
It didn’t take long to work up an appetite, so we eventually all sat down on the back patio for a snack in the sun. After that everyone was pooped, so we came inside to relax for a bit. Pretty soon Madi thought it would be fun to go to a park, so we all packed up in the van and headed to a brand new park near our house. We had fun playing there for a while, then stopped by a frozen yogurt place on the way home to get treats for the kids. Jessica and I have been eating super healthy since Monday (more on that in a bit) so watching them enjoy their treats was a bit difficult, but we didn’t cave.
After our early dessert we came inside to watch ‘Planes’, which is one of Madi’s favorite movies; this gave everyone a chance to relax for a bit. After the movie we had a late dinner, then settled back down to watch one more movie before bed. I’m sure Madi was up later than her normal bedtime, but it was a special occasion so hopefully Mom won’t mind. This morning we all had a nice breakfast together, then headed outside to enjoy the beautiful weather some more. After coloring pretty pictures with sidewalk chalk on our back patio, we shifted our attention to playing in the front yard and driveway, then took a walk around the neighborhood to search for ducks and bullfrogs. By the time we got back from our walk it was time to come in, relax, have a snack and watch ‘Despicable Me 2’. Kristy should be here to pick Madi up soon, so thank you for letting us spend this time with her. Hopefully we can do it again very soon!
In addition to the fun we’ve had this weekend, we have also had a very interesting (and somewhat challenging) week for ourselves. As mentioned briefly above, this past Monday signified the start of a health movement for Jessica and I (and ultimately for the kids as well). Although I referred to it in my last post as a diet, I’m hesitating to use the ‘D’ word going forward for two main reasons: I think it has somewhat of a negative connotation, and I think it infers more of a short-term mindframe, while our plans are for making long-term changes.
To recap our goals from last week, we’re cutting out junk food, starch, and liquid calories. Our meals are focused on lean proteins, veggies, fruits, and nuts. We’re drinking a gallon of water a day, plus coffee and/or tea. Today is day 7 and, not surprisingly, we’re already noticing a difference. We’re feeling better with a noticeable increase in energy, and we’re even starting to notice some changes in the way some of our clothes are fitting. In addition to these changes in our meals, I’ve been doing yoga everyday, which I’m also starting to notice some changes from. I’m getting up earlier on weekdays (around 5:45) and doing 20-30 minutes of yoga to start my day.
We’re certainly not living under any false pretenses that we’re never going to eat another cookie or go a day without exercise in our lives. That’s obviously not the case, nor is it our intention, but it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have months like this every so often to cleanse out your system. I think it’s equally important for us to get into a habit of modifying our meals going forward. We now know that we can eat super healthy and still have meals that we love. I’m not expecting myself to give up pasta and bread, or Jessica to give up brownies, but stuff like that needs to be a rare treat rather than the norm. All that being said, I can’t wait for our first ‘cheat day’, which will probably be on July 1.
The biggest adjustment so far has been meal preparation. It’s important for us to have the right things available to eat at all times, otherwise it’s too easy to cheat. I’m finding myself making two meals at night rather than one; one is for us to have for dinner that evening, and the other is for our lunches the following day. Obviously this is more time consuming than normal, but it’s good to know that we both have something hearty and nutritious to have for lunch, especially when I’m gone at work. Even if Jessica wanted to, there is no way she has time to prepare a good lunch for herself while watching the kids, so I’m glad she doesn’t have to worry about it.
Another adjustment for me is that I like to have a drink while I’m cooking. It’s usually only one or two, but I like to sip on a beer or a whiskey while in the kitchen. It’s just become something I associate with cooking, but now I’m replacing that with sparkling water and lemon. Again, it’s not like I’m never going to have another drink while making dinner, but breaking that habit is a good thing. It needs to be the exception, rather than the rule. Whenever I think about stuff like this I always come back to my Dad’s golden rule: “Moderation is the key to life. Too much of anything is no good, but a little bit of poison won’t kill you.”
As if all this isn’t enough to deal with (particularly in the first week) we’ve decided to complicate our lives even more by going full steam ahead on Ava’s potty training. As of Tuesday, Ava doesn’t wear a diaper during the daytime anymore. We still put one on her at bedtime, but that’s it. As expected, we were both a bit grumpy this week (for obvious reasons), so adding in the necessary patience required for this type of endeavor was challenging, to say the least. Overall Ava is doing well, but there are still daily accidents. Our general attitude is this: if she truly has an accident, you can’t get upset with her, but when she does something on purpose, she gets reprimanded.
An example of doing something on purpose would be walking up to you, pulling down your pants, and peeing on the carpet, or even worse, pooping in her room and smearing it everywhere. I wish these were fictitious examples, but of course they are not. In those cases Ava gets to learn about the word ‘consequences.’ I’ve been explaining to her that there are consequences in life, meaning when you do something wrong, you will have to suffer the consequence of it. She may not completely understand it yet, but she will soon enough. For now we’re just trying to keep our cool and rely on each other rather than some artificial crutch to get through the troubling times of raising a ‘threenager.’
As we have said many times before, someday we will look back to these types of issues that we’re currently dealing with and laugh about how good we used to have it. I can only imagine that dealing with a teenager is going to be much more challenging than dealing with a ‘threenager’, but at the same time it’s probably all relative. There’s always going to be a ‘phase’ that we’re currently in, and a subsequent light at the end of their proverbial tunnel for us to strive for. The important thing is that we get through it together.
Before I go I’ll also mention that Enzo had another checkup with the doctor this week and he’s doing great. He has grown so much lately that he’s suddenly in the 90th percentile for height, which is exactly where his sisters are as well. He got a few more vaccinations, which he obviously didn’t love, but pulled through like the little champ that he is. He is already outgrowing some clothes and getting ready to expand his diet to include rice cereal. Hopefully this will make it easier for someone other than Mom to feed him.
I also just realized that it was a year ago today that we signed the papers on our house. I remember last June as being such an important time for us; we purchased our first house and I graduated from college. It’s crazy that it has already been a year, but of course we’re already onto exciting new challenges. Once again, thank you to Madi and Kristy for making this such a special weekend. Here’s a couple photos of the girls during her stay, plus one of Kallan and I jamming during his visit last weekend.
I think it’s fair to say that the girls enjoyed their frozen yogurt
Yesterday baby Enzo turned 4 months old. It’s a bit hard to believe he has already been here that long, but he’s growing and maturing so fast that it all makes sense. He’s sleeping so much better at night now, and it doesn’t take much to coax a smile out of him. You can tell he already loves his sisters because he totally lights up whenever they approach and talk to him. I feel like he’s got the biggest eyes I’ve ever seen, mostly because he’s always so alert and interested in what is going on around him. He’s very sensitive to sounds and startles easily, which is usually followed by a look of sheer surprise and confusion.
The girls are both doing great as well. The weather has been really nice lately, so they’ve been spending a ton of time outside playing in the yard, the sandbox, riding bikes/trikes, etc. As mentioned in a previous post, Ava is doing really well on her balance bike, so hopefully it won’t be long before she graduates to a pedal bike. Elise loves riding her tricycle, but is usually just as content to be pulled in the wagon. It’s not uncommon for me to come home from work and find them playing outside together. You can’t help but smile watching them running around having so much fun.
We had a nice holiday weekend recently, which included some painting in my office and the guest bathroom upstairs, as well as a fun trip to a car show in downtown Everett on Monday. Not only did we enjoy checking out the ~700 cars on display, but we ran into our neighbor Mike, who was showing his beautiful 1957 Chevy, as well as my co-worker Josh who was there with his family showing his 1966 Dodge Dart and his Uncle’s 1970 Pontiac 442. As a GTO fan, I was blown away by how many I saw at this show (at least 20 including an Orange GTO Judge) and couldn’t help but fall in love with a black on black 1964 GTO. We also enjoyed watching a band of old guys play great songs from the 60’s. I joked to Jessica that someday I would be one of those old guys rocking out on stage, and she replied by pointing out this old Granny showing off her moves near the stage and saying that would someday have to be her then. The girls absolutely loved the live music and couldn’t stop dancing and spinning around. They drew so much attention that even the guys in the band were enjoying them. Jessica and I couldn’t help but laugh. We also saw a Pacific Northwest version of Elvis, who had the perfect hair and glasses, but was dressed in a fleece jacket and blue jeans. Good times.
Tomorrow should be a fun day, as well as an interesting night. We’ve got Ava’s soccer class in the morning, then our nephew Kallan is coming over for a visit at noon. This will be his first time meeting Enzo, so that should be fun. Hopefully we’ll also be able to squeeze in some time to play guitar together. Later that evening Jessica will be heading downtown to work a shift at El Gaucho. Although she isn’t going back to work on any type of regular basis, she told them that she could be available from time to time for special events. This will be her first time working since Enzo was born, and I’m happy for her simply because it allows her to get out of the house and spend some time with adults without having to worry about any of the kids. My only concern is that Enzo has never taken a bottle from me, so feeding him may be an issue. Strangely enough this will be my first time home alone with all three kids for more than an hour or so. I’m sure everything will be totally fine, and if anything it’s long overdue, I just hope Enzo figures out this bottle thing sooner than later.
Sunday we’re heading to Costco with a different type of shopping list than usual. Jessica and I have decided to go on a diet together starting on Monday, so we need to load up on all the right groceries. I told a couple friends at work about our upcoming diet and the question I got from both of them was “Oh, which diet are you doing?” I didn’t really have an answer for them other than to say “a sensible one.” We’re not doing any type of fad diet; nothing with a name or anything like that. We’re simply cutting out junk food, starch, and liquid calories. We’ll mainly be eating lean proteins, lots of vegetables and nuts, plus some fruits. As for beverages, we’re limiting ourselves to water, coffee, and tea. That’s it. I realize it’s pretty boring, and it probably wouldn’t sell any books because there is nothing particularly extreme or exciting about it, but it’s sensible, and that’s what I like about it. I’m just glad we’re doing it together; I don’t think either of us would have the fortitude to go through with it if the other one wasn’t doing it, but together I have no concerns.
I think the biggest adjustment for us will be to make sure to always have appropriate snacks on hand, and to eat more frequently. I generally only eat lunch and dinner each day, and both meals tend to be large, with lots of starch. The goal is to eat smaller, healthier, more frequent meals and snacks throughout the day. Most likely I’ll spend time Sunday afternoon preparing as many appropriate snacks and meals as possible to help prepare us for the first week, which will undoubtedly be the toughest phase of the diet. After two weeks we’re going to evaluate everything and decide what to do next, so for now all we have to think about is the first two weeks of June. Most likely we will continue on the same course beyond those two weeks, but I’m not even thinking about that for now.
Not much else going on for us these days, hence the short(er) post this week. Not even many new pictures to share, but here’s a couple 🙂
Earlier this week my Mom went home after spending a nice long weekend with us. She arrived last Friday after completing Card Player Cruises’ annual trip to Alaska, and stayed with us until Tuesday. This was an especially exciting trip for her, and for us, because it was her first time meeting baby Enzo in person. I vividly remember her meeting Ava for the first time at our little house in Pacific Beach , as well as her first time holding Elise at our house in Bellevue. There was no way I was going to miss this first encounter with Enzo, so I decided to work from home that day, which was a first for me since joining Microsoft in early March.
As usual, Nana arrived with lots of presents in tow for the kids. Some of the highlights included light-up Easter Bunny glasses, new clothes, and best of all, two brand new pink ‘Daisy Rock’ acoustic guitars for the girls. She found these guitars on a Las Vegas auction website and purchased them from a music store that was going out of business for pennies on the dollar. In all honesty I couldn’t believe how nice they were. I was expecting something that was more of a toy, but these are actually really nice guitars. They are scaled down in size in order to be easier for a child to play, and in this case they’ve got the whole Daisy Rock little girl theme going on. For now we’ve only taken one out of the box and are keeping the other one wrapped up. Neither of the girls are old enough to take on an instrument quite yet, but I love the idea of keeping this guitar on display and easily accessible for them. It is there for them to play with, so hopefully inspiration will strike sooner than later.
One of my favorite things to do for my Mom while she is in town is cook for her. I know she doesn’t take the time to cook nice meals for herself (unless she’s having family over for dinner) so it’s important to me that she always eats well while visiting us. After finishing up working from home on Friday, Ava and I went to Costco to load up on groceries and supplies, then later that evening I served three grilled filet mignon, grilled vegetables, and a tomato burrata salad. It was a nice way to start off her visit.
The following morning we got ready for soccer, and of course Nana came along to watch Ava play. Unfortunately, however, the class was cancelled because Ava’s coach was sick. We didn’t know this because we didn’t check the website before class (we never do) so we were pretty surprised when we arrived at an empty field. There were several other kids and parents there who also didn’t get the memo, so several of us made our way over to the adjacent playground to let the kids have some fun before heading back home.
Upon arriving back at our house I got back to work in the kitchen. I wanted to make my Mom a nice belated Mother’s Day brunch, so she, Jessica, and I enjoyed another version of Eggs Benedict. This time I did a crab prosciutto Benedict with homemade hollandaise and hash browns. Pretty similar to what I had made for Jessica the previous weekend, but this dish had crab instead of smoked salmon. After brunch we all got ready for a nice day out and about. We knew we’d be staying home on Sunday, so it made sense to get the kids out for a bit of an adventure on Saturday, plus it was nice to finally be spending a weekend doing something other than yardwork.
We all went down to the Ballard Locks to watch the ships come in and see the water levels change. Nana told the girls stories of doing the same thing on huge ships going through the Panama Canal. We walked all around the gardens, smelled the flowers, and enjoyed ourselves with no real agenda at hand. After that we drove just a bit up the road to Golden Gardens and let the girls play on the playground for a while. Before leaving we took them down to the beach to let them play in the sand and look at the water. By the time we got home everyone was exhausted, which was exactly what we were going for, so the rest of the evening was spent relaxing at home. Since I still had leftover crab and prosciutto from brunch, I used it to make a nice pasta for dinner.
Sunday we stayed home because we had plans with Dana, Brad and Anna. The three of them came over at 2:00 for a nice visit, as well as an early dinner. We watched some basketball and played soccer in the backyard. It’s so nice having a usable backyard now, and Bella seems to have adjusted nicely to her kennel, so it’s all good. After playing outside with the kids, I got to work making dinner for everybody. While at Costco with Ava, I picked up a nice wild Alaskan King Salmon, so we had that for dinner on Sunday. I tried a new preparation where I seasoned it with salt, pepper, chili powder, and brown sugar, then seared it skin-side down in my cast iron skillet. I deglazed the pan with lemon juice, then added a fair amount of garlic butter before placing the entire skillet in the oven and letting it bake for another 10-12 minutes. I was really happy with how it turned out, but the ultimate compliment came from Anna, who said she normally doesn’t like salmon but thought this was delicious.
Monday was Nana’s last day in town, so Jessica and I decided to take advantage by going out that evening for sushi. Going out to dinner just amongst ourselves is a pretty rare treat these days, and of course Nana was more than happy to stay home with her grandbabies. We had a really nice meal, and even made a point to stop by a popular neighborhood bar for a quick after-dinner drink. I was sad to see my Mom go home on Tuesday, mainly because her trip went by so quickly, but I’m so glad she was here. I love watching her play with the kids and wish we got a chance to do it more often. It sounds like she will be coming back up in July for Elise’s birthday party, so that’s definitely something to look forward to.
It’s been pretty busy around here for the past several weeks. We’ve had back-to-back-to-back visitors, so now it’s time for some downtime. We don’t really have any plans until July, but we need to enjoy it because July is going to be a crazy month. Rick and Chris are coming out for the 4th of July, then right after they leave Amy and Tom will be arriving to help us do new flooring in our house. As soon as we finish all the housework we’re going to do a (late) 2nd birthday party for Elise and hopefully have lots of people over. I’m not really looking forward to the flooring project because I know how much work it’s going to be, but I also know I’m going to learn a lot and I can’t wait to see the finished product.
In other family news, the kids are all doing so well. Enzo is sleeping for longer and longer stretches throughout the night. In fact, just last night he slept from 10:00 pm to 6:45 am, which is easily the best night he has ever had. He’s growing so fast and continues to show more and more personality each day. Elise’s vocabulary continues to amaze us; her ability to put together sentences is most impressive, and we probably have Ava to thank for that. There is no doubt that Ava wasn’t communicating this well at that age, but that’s probably because Ava didn’t have an older sibling to learn from the way Elise does. Although Ava still has a hard time sharing her toys with Elise, it’s obvious how much she loves her little sister. What’s equally as obvious is how much Elise looks up to Ava. She copies most of Ava’s actions (which is a double-edged sword) and does her absolute best to keep up with her when playing outside with the neighborhood kids.
As for Ava, it looks like June will be her last month going to daycare on Mondays. Considering all the family we’ll have in town, it doesn’t really make sense keeping her there in July, then come September she (should) be ready for preschool. I say ‘should’ because we absolutely have to get this potty training thing figured out with her. If we don’t she won’t be able to start preschool on time. Honestly I never expected it to be this much of an ordeal, but we’re just not there yet. During Nana’s visit she went about 20 hours between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon without the need of a diaper, and we really thought we had turned the corner, but after Nana left we’ve had another regression. It’s the classic ‘two steps forward, one step back’ scenario. The weird part about it is that Ava knows exactly when she has to go potty, and when she has gone potty. Her new standard is to come and ask you to change her diaper as soon as she goes (either number 1 or number 2), so we’re really trying to get her to tell us before she goes so that we can go sit on the potty. Jessica and I both talk to her constantly about it, and she always says she understands, but as the saying goes – “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink…” or in this case pee. I know we’ll get there soon enough, but I also know how stubborn she can be, so hopefully she will decide for herself that she doesn’t want to wear diapers any longer.
Beyond that everything is great. Ava has become good friends with a little girl named Avery who lives two doors down from us. They go outside and ride bikes in our cul-de-sac almost everyday. Ava is still on her balance bike (a bike without pedals) but she’s doing so well with it that we’re thinking of getting her a real bike this summer. I love watching her cruise up and down the street on that thing, so hopefully the transition to a pedal bike will be a natural one for her. I also love the idea of getting Elise on the balance bike later this summer, but I’m reluctant that this point because Elise struggles with balance more than Ava ever did. I mean that in the kindest way possible, and her lack of gracefulness has certainly become one of her most endearing qualities, but lets just say it’s not uncommon for Elise to fall down… a lot. She’s constantly fall off chairs, running into doors/walls, tripping over things, etc. The other day she tried crawling into Enzo’s vibrating chair, which was on top of the ottoman, and the next thing I know she has tumbled backwards head over heels right into the sliding glass door. She turned out to be fine but it provided a scare for her, as well as for us. I have to hand it to her though, she’s a tough cookie just like her sister, and no matter how many times she falls she always gets back up and keeps on going.
This is my first holiday weekend since joining Microsoft, so we’re all looking forward to having some nice relaxing downtime together. Today (Saturday) will be our work day, so I’m hoping to get a lot done around the house, then hopefully the rest of the weekend will be pretty laid back. I think we’re going to check out a car show in downtown Everett on Monday morning (our first since leaving California), then that evening we’ll be joining our neighbors for a barbeque. Here are some recent photos taken during our visit with Nana.
Before I get to the nice weekend we have been enjoying, I want to send my love to my Uncle Jim. When I called my Aunt Brenda this morning to wish her a happy Mother’s Day I got the news that Jim was hospitalized last night due to some type of stomach virus. She didn’t know much about what was wrong, which made it even worse, and was obviously and understandably upset. I was very concerned after our call, but my concerns were mostly alleviated after I spoke to Jim shortly thereafter. He said he was on antibiotics and feeling much better, so that was a relief to hear. Looks like he will be in the hospital one more night, then heading home tomorrow. I just hope he’s continuing to feel better. We love you.
Now onto the fun stuff. It seems like every weekend for the past month or so has been taken out of the movie ‘Groundhog’s Day.’ Each one seems to be filled with common elements consisting of: soccer practice for Ava, time spent with family or friends, and lots of yardwork. This weekend was no different.
We started off Saturday morning by taking Ava to soccer; this week was particularly interesting because the kids played their first scrimmage. Watching it was hilarious. Basically what they did was separate the kids into two teams and gather the teams on opposite ends of the field in front of their respective goals. One team was given the ball, and as soon as the whistle was blown both teams charged towards each other screaming at the top of their lungs. It resembled a Viking battle more than a soccer game, but it was quite entertaining. As expected, every kid on the field is going for the ball, meaning there is no spacing or passing of any kind, but they all seemed to have fun. Our homework for the week is to sit down and watch a real soccer game; obviously I’ll be happy to oblige.
After getting home from soccer I got to work on my new project in the back yard. The goal was to build a path from our patio to the dog kennel. I was hoping to do all the digging on Saturday, then take care of laying/leveling the paver stones and filling in the empty spaces with mulch today. It’s a pretty decent sized area (15’ by 4.5’) so I knew I’d have my hands full considering I wouldn’t have the help of Rick or Joel this weekend, but I was confident that I could get it all done. As I hoped, I got all of the digging done on Saturday afternoon, and once again our yard waste bin is completely filled to the brim with grass and dirt. This was definitely the hardest part of the project.
By the time I finished digging out my path I had barely enough time to shower, change clothes, and head down to Seattle for our friend Laurel’s going-away party. It was a bit surreal for me because the building Laurel is moving out of is the same one I used to live in when Jessica and I first met about eight years ago. Jessica has been there many times to visit Laurel over the past couple years, but I haven’t set foot in that building since moving out, so seeing my kids running around there was a trip.
One of the best parts of that building is the beautiful rooftop deck, which features 360 degree views of downtown Seattle and the Puget Sound. We ended up spending a few hours up there eating, drinking, and catching up with friends. It was the hottest day of the year so far; it even reached 80 degrees at one point. We all had a great time, but saying goodbye was understandably difficult. I was actually really impressed with how well Jessica and Laurel kept their composure. I know Laurel regularly reads this blog, so hopefully she will always be in the loop with what is going on with us. I hope they have a safe and (relatively) uneventful cross country drive on their way to Raleigh, North Carolina.
Since today is Mother’s Day, there is one thing you know for certain will be going on in our house: we’ll be eating well. Based on all of our years in the restaurant business, Jessica and I both have an aversion towards eating out on really busy days like Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc. Consequently we always make a point to have a nice meal at home and avoid the crowds. Over the past few years I’ve made a tradition out of making some form of Eggs Benedict for Jessica on Mother’s Day; partly because we both love it, and partly because there are practically endless possibilities on what ingredients you can use. This year’s dish featured candied smoked Alaskan Sockeye salmon, fried prosciutto, sourdough English muffins, homemade hollandaise, and crispy hash browns.
After brunch we got out our phones and started calling all the Mom’s in our lives to give them our love and wish them a wonderful day. We spoke to Aunt Brenda, Amy, my Mom (who is currently on a work trip in Alaska), Sherry (Jessica’s Grandma), and Dana. We also left voicemails for my cousin Kristy and my Aunt Norma. It was nice catching up with everyone, and I’m so glad we were able to make plans to get together with Dana and family next Sunday. The only tough part was that I was very concerned about Uncle Jim (I hadn’t spoke to him yet at that point). After all the calls I was noticeably upset, so I interrupted Elise from watching Mickey Mouse to give her a big hug and kiss. She looked me in the eye, and with the sweetest little voice she said “I love you Daddy.” She knew.
At this point it was time to get back to work in the backyard, so I made my first of two trips to Lowe’s to get supplies for the project. I ended up spending the majority of the day working on the path but I’m so happy with how it turned out. Jessica was instrumental in helping me organize the stones into a logical pathway, so the rest of the work revolved around stabilizing each stone with paver sand, then filling in the entire area with pine bark mulch and sweeping the stones clean. I purchased way too much mulch at Lowe’s but as it turned out I had exactly the right amount to fill in the south side of our house along the fence, so it all worked out perfect.
The rest of our evening will be spent watching shows and having a nice dinner. The menu tonight consists of pan-seared wild Alaskan Cod finished with garlic butter, sauteed vegetables, and roasted new potatoes. Since it’s Mother’s Day we may even have to save a little room for dessert. To all the Mom’s in our lives – we love you and hope you all had the wonderful day you deserve. I’m especially excited because my Mom will be arriving for a visit on Friday. I can’t wait for her to meet Enzo and get lots of quality time in with all the kids. Hopefully Jessica and I will be able to sneak away for a nice sushi dinner as well. Maybe next weekend we’ll have to do another special (post) Mother’s Day brunch. Here’s a bunch of recent photos.
Well, I’m exhausted. Let’s start with that. There hasn’t been much downtime this weekend, but I’m so proud of everything Joel and I got done in our backyard. More on that in a bit. First I’ll start by saying that Joel and Melanie got to town on Thursday; Jessica picked them up at the airport and got them to my car, which they’ve been using while they are in town. We all went out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant that night and were able to celebrate Jessica and Joel’s birthdays, which were both very recent.
Although we didn’t end up seeing them on Friday, we’ve spent practically the entire weekend together and gotten a lot done while having a good bit of fun in the process. We started off Saturday morning by taking Ava to soccer class. This was an important class for her because it was the first time that she was on her own and didn’t have me right there participating with her. I was a bit nervous watching from the sidelines, and as her parent my natural reaction anytime she did something wrong was to go out there and help her, but I resisted the urge and watched from afar with Elise and Joel. Melanie, Jessica and Enzo stayed even farther back for similar reasons.
As it turned out she did great and had a lot of fun. She did a good job listening to her coaches and stayed engaged practically the entire time. There was only one time where she got frustrated and just sat down in the middle of the field to scowl for a minute, but she ended up getting back up on her own and participated throughout the remainder of class. Once again I was impressed with how well she did, particularly with how she handles the ball. She runs as fast as she can and hardly ever loses control of her dribbling. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I hope she sticks with soccer because she definitely has a lot of natural talent for it, but ultimately I just want her to have fun and enjoy herself.
After soccer we all headed back to the house and Joel and I got started on assessing the work to be done. If you’ve been reading these posts then you know that I’ve spent the last several weekends in a row working on creating a dog kennel on the north side of our house for Bella. Last weekend I finished off digging out all the grass, and with Rick’s help we were able to line the entire fence with paver stones to keep her from being able to dig her way out.
Since the digging and stone work was done, the only remaining work was to lay down landscaping cloth, stake the cloth down, then fill it all in. The question was, what am I going to fill it in with? I’ve considered gravel, mulch (both natural and rubber), and synthetic turf. There was about 300 square feet to fill in so I had to be considerate of costs, as well as what would be better for the dog. I ended up settling on large garden bark nuggets. I liked the large nuggets because it was less likely to get stuck in Bella’s hair, it smelled good, and it was reasonably priced. It ended up taking 35 large bags to fill the area, but I’m really happy with the final result (see photo below).
With the dog kennel complete we were ready to get started on the next backyard project, which was to extend our back patio. It didn’t make sense to do anything else in the yard until the kennel was done because as long as Bella had access to the backyard there would be no way to keep it clean and usable. After talking it over with Joel and heading to Lowe’s to look at their selection of paver stones, we had a plan. The idea was to purchase a bunch of these 20”x20”x2” concrete paver stones and use them to line the patio, meaning we would extend our back patio by 20” on each side. In order to do this we would need to dig out the grass all around the patio then meticulously place each stone and check it for stability as well as verify that it is level. As usual, it ended up being a lot more work than I ever expected, mainly because you have to be so precise with how much dirt and sand you place under to stones, but I couldn’t be happier with the final result.
We weren’t able to finish this project on Saturday because we had dinner plans, so we did as much as we could, then called it a day at 5:00 to give everyone time to clean up and get ready for dinner. We ended up meeting Joel and Melanie at a restaurant called Cantinetta in Bellevue. My good friend Michael Don Rico manages there on Saturday (he works at their sister restaurants the rest of the week) so we figured it would be fun to go see him, as well as try something new.
As expected it was an excellent dinner (and all around evening), with the exception of the crazy lady at the bar who decided to listen in on our conversation. She completely misconstrued something I said and ended up getting really mad at me. I don’t know what she thought I said, but it upset her and she became most unpleasant. I was tempted to talk back at her but decided to take the high road and suggested to our group that we leave the bar and have a seat at our dinner table. Luckily that was the last we saw of the crazy lady, but it made for interesting conversation amongst ourselves throughout the evening.
After dinner Michael joined the four of us for a drink at a new restaurant next door called 99 Park. Quentin Stewart, their executive chef, is an old friend of ours who used to work with Jessica at Branzino. We haven’t seen him in several years, but there he was right when we walked in. The look on his face when he saw Jessica was priceless. He immediately set us up for desert at the bar and we all spent the next couple hours catching up. It was a great way to end such a fabulous evening. I always love hanging out with Joel and Melanie and wish we got the opportunity to do that sort of thing more often.
We got back to work on the backyard Sunday morning at 11:00 and picked up right where we left off. Joel and I finished off the paver stones, with the exception of the two outermost corner pieces, which would need to be cut down to size in order to fit correctly. Luckily my next door neighbor Troy had a stone chisel that I was able to borrow, and it worked like a charm. I still need to get some paver sand to fill in the cracks between the stones, but it’s not urgent. Again, I couldn’t be happier with the finished product, and appreciate the help from Joel so much. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken me to do this project on my own, plus I wouldn’t have really known what I was doing, so having his guidance was invaluable.
After finishing up on the backyard we did a few more projects around the house. I did some cleaning and reorganizing in the garage while Joel helped Jessica measure our floor space so we’d know how much flooring to purchase for our big project in July. We were also paid a visit by Laurel. Unfortunately this will probably be the last time Laurel comes to this house because she’s only about a week away from moving cross-country to Raleigh, North Carolina. We’ll be attending her going away party next Saturday at Athena, the apartment building in Queen Anne that I was living in when Jessica and I first met.
The rest of this evening should be pretty relaxing. I’m looking forward to making a nice halibut dinner with mushroom risotto and vegetables for everyone, and Joel and I are looking forward to watching the Mayweather vs Pacquiao fight. Amazingly both of us were able to completely avoid social media, news, radio, etc. and neither of us knows how the fight turns out. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a letdown but I’m still looking forward to checking it out.
It’s worth noting that all of our yardwork this weekend was aided by the most beautiful weather imaginable. I haven’t seen a cloud yet, and apparently tomorrow, which is their final full day in town, is supposed to be just as nice. Last week was incredibly busy for me at work, so hopefully this week we will be back to normal. Here are a few photos of our weekend accomplishments.
The minivan all loaded up with bark for the dog kennel
The finished product – Bella’s new outdoor home
As you can see it didn’t take long before Ava was coloring the paver stones with chalk
I just wanted to write a quick post wishing my amazing wife Jessica a very happy birthday! Not only is today Jessica’s birthday, but Enzo also turns three months old today, so that makes it even more special. Unfortunately I had to work today, but I’m looking forward to spending a nice evening at home with her and the kids. Although we weren’t able to spend the day together, I’m glad Jessica and the kids were able to meet with our friend Jodi (whose birthday was yesterday) and her son Miles for a nice lunch this afternoon.
Baby Enzo is doing great; getting past the three month mark with a newborn is a big deal because this is typically when they really start to show a lot of life and personality. It’s not uncommon to refer to a newborn’s first three months as the ‘fourth trimester’ because all they really do during that time is eat and sleep, but now we’re starting to get away from all that. Enzo is sleeping for longer stretches at night now, and spending more and more time awake during the day. He’s a very mellow baby and hasn’t had any issues other than the fact that he practically refuses to drink from a bottle, which makes it all but impossible for me to feed him. Hopefully we’ll get over that soon, but otherwise everything with him is perfect.
Ava and Elise are also doing excellent. They had a blast with Grandpa on his recent visit, and I’m sure they will love seeing Uncle Joel and Aunt Melanie in the next few days. Then after that they will get to visit with Nana, so there’s still a lot to look forward to in the next couple weeks. It sounds like Rick and Chris might be coming back out for the 4th of July, and then we have Amy and Tom coming right after that to help us with painting and new flooring. Can’t wait to get that done.
Last night I met my Godfather Pete and my good friend Michael Don Rico (who was my best man at my wedding) for dinner at Il Terrazzo Carmine for dinner. It’s my favorite Italian restaurant in Seattle and has been a night I’ve been looking forward to for weeks. As usual we had an excellent time filled with delicious food, great stories, and lots of laughs. My old friend Victoria, whom I worked with at El Gaucho for many years, was our server; she made sure to take extra special care of us, which includes putting up with Pete when he gets into rare form.
We enjoyed calamari and an antipasti platter for starters, then I had a cream of cauliflower soup while Michael and Pete split a tomato burrata salad. Although it wasn’t on the menu, I requested veal saltimboca for dinner (which is my favorite dish) and they made it for me. While enjoying my saltimboca I had to tell the story of the time my Mom and I had dinner in Rome near the Trevi Fountain. As usual, I had a pasta entree followed by a veal entree, which happened to be saltimboca that night. In this particular case the veal was the best I’d ever had, so when the waiter came back to ask to see if we’d like dessert I had no choice but to order the veal again. Yes, I literally ate three entrees at dinner that night, plus appetizers and dessert. Oh to be 21 again.
For dessert Pete and I shared a key lime tart (probably my favorite dessert) while Michael had their famous cannoli with espresso. Victoria was even kind enough to serve us a round of her homemade limoncello to wash everything down. It was a fantastic meal that was only outshined by the quality of the company we kept. I definitely need to make a point of setting these types of dinners up more frequently, as they always mean so much to each of us.
When I got home at 11:00 everyone but Ava was sound asleep. When she saw me she said “Daddy you’re back!” as if I’d been gone for weeks. I hung out with her for a little bit and made her promise me that she would say “Happy Birthday Mommy!” in the morning. I’m looking forward to finding out if she came through.
Today has been especially crazy at work due to a big developer conference we’re promoting tomorrow in San Francisco. Consequently it looks like I’ll be working on and off throughout the evening, but it’s okay; I’m just glad to have been able to leave the office at a normal time so I can spend Jessica’s birthday evening with her and the kids. Here are a few recent photos to enjoy.
This morning we drove Grandpa Rick to the airport after a short but very productive and fun visit. His trip began when Jessica and the kids picked him up at SeaTac on Wednesday morning at 11:00. The five of them headed straight to the Microsoft campus to meet me for lunch. I was excited to show them around my building and take them on a shuttle ride over to the main part of campus for lunch in ‘The Commons’, which is where the main cafeteria, as well as many other attractions, is located. It was Earth Day, so there was even more commotion than usual, but it made for an exciting afternoon. After lunch we headed over to one of the soccer fields to let the girls run around and burn off some energy. Not surprisingly, one of their favorite parts about the visit was getting to ride on the shuttle bus back and forth between my office and the main campus. Neither of the girls had ever been on a bus before so they really got a kick out of it. We all had a fun time so it was a great way to start off Grandpa’s visit.
I wasn’t around the house much for the next couple days due to my work schedule, but as usual, Grandpa got a ton of work done. He did a bunch of yard work in our front yard and installed a ceiling fan in our bedroom, however the main project for this trip was to build a sandbox for the kids in our back yard. The final product turned out awesome. He was able to reuse several of the painted boards from the headboard that he and Jessica made at our house in San Diego, and although it was a lot of work for us on Saturday filling it with nearly 1,500 pounds of sand, it received immediate approval from all the little ones. The project hadn’t been complete for five minutes before there were four kids playing in it and having a blast. The kids ended up spending all day playing in there, and although they trecked so much sand into our house you’d think we lived on a beach, it was still well worth it. I’m thinking this will be a ton of fun for all the neighborhood kids throughout the summer.
Friday night we were joined for dinner at our house by Butch and Carol. We ate oysters on the half shell, then enjoyed Halibut Picatta and vegetables for our entrees. Jessica and I love oysters on the half shell, and normally Rick does as well, but he must have gotten a bad one because he wasn’t feeling so well later that night. He was a trooper though and didn’t let it slow him down one bit on Saturday.
We started off Saturday morning by taking Ava to soccer. Unfortunately although last Saturday she had her best class yet, this wasn’t her best week. About halfway through the class she just decided that she didn’t want to play anymore and she totally disengaged. It’s tough from my perspective because I would never want to force her into anything, but at the same time I realize that she isn’t old enough yet to make rational decisions about what she is doing, so she needs to be coaxed at times. Its a bit of a fine line but we’re going to keep going for the next several weeks and see how it goes.
After soccer Rick and I got to work in the yard. As previously mentioned, we finished off the sandbox first so the kids could have fun playing in it, then I got back to work on my dog run project that I started a couple weekends ago. Having Rick’s help out there was great and I can’t believe how much we got done. Not only did we finish digging out all the sod, but we also were able to make a trip to Home Depot and pick up 800 pounds of paver stones to line the entire inside of the fence with. Basically what we did was dig a 4” trench along the inside of the fence, then set these 12”x12” cement paver stones upright inside that trench up against the fence. Once the stones were in place we filled it back in with dirt. The idea was to keep Bella from being able to dig her way out of there, and I think its going to work. Although the project isn’t finished yet, I’m extremely happy with how it already looks. The stones are a nice touch, and the remaining work will be really easy. Next weekend I’m going to put down landscaping cloth, then cover it. The only remaining question is what I’m going to cover it with. I was originally thinking gravel, then I was thinking about mulch, but I’m also considering some type of pet-friendly artificial turf. I’m going to research it this week and make up my mind by Friday. I can’t wait to finish this up on Saturday so I can move onto the next project, which will be to create a pathway from the back patio to the entrance of the dog run. I’ll definitely post photos once everything is complete.
After moving well over a ton (literally) of sand and bricks, we were pretty exhausted, so the remainder of Saturday afternoon was spent relaxing and watching basketball. Later that evening our new next-door neighbors invited everyone over for a Smore’s party around their new fire pit. Jessica, the kids, and I hung out over there for a few hours while Grandpa got some down time to relax and watch a movie.
This morning, after taking Rick to the airport, the five of us headed downtown to Pike’s Place Market. We got to look at ferry boats crossing the Puget Sound, then we saw lots of fresh fish, pretty flowers, and plenty of interesting people enjoying their Sunday morning. We enjoyed a bag of fresh donuts as we strolled around, then before leaving we stopped by my friend Bill Erickson’s shop so I could buy one of his custom made longboard skateboards. Bill and I used to work together at El Gaucho many years ago and have stayed in touch ever since. About seven years ago he decided to leave the food and beverage industry to follow his dream of building the highest quality longboards out of exotic woods and top quality components. In addition to building longboards, he also builds the nicest cutting boards I’ve ever seen. His company, Erickson Longboards, has received a lot of local attention, and his cutting boards were recently featured in the New York Times! I’ve been wanting one of his boards for several years, so I decided to use part of my fitness reimbursement allowance from Microsoft to finally purchase one. I ended up getting a beautiful board made from quartersawn White Oak with white wheels. Not surprisingly I was thrilled to get home and ride it all afternoon, but I was still able to get my chores (garage cleanup, quick Costco run, and fertilize the yard) done as well.
This evening we had a nice surf and turf salad made from leftover filet mignon, halibut, and fried oysters while catching up on the Spurs – Clippers game. Tomorrow night should be a lot of fun for me since I’m meeting my Godfather Pete and my great friend Michael Don Rico for dinner at Il Terrazzo Carmine’s. We did a dinner like this last year and had a blast, so we were long overdue for round two. Tuesday, of course, is Jessica’s birthday, so that is definitely something to look forward to. Hopefully we’ll be going out to dinner that night, but if not we will certainly be going out next weekend when Uncle Joel and Aunt Melanie come to town. I’ve given Jessica a couple options for her birthday present (which always seems like the safest approach to me) so hopefully it won’t be long before we can go pick something out. We should also be getting her wedding band soon. We had to custom order it so it’s taking a little longer than expected, but its certainly well worth the wait.
In addition to all this family fun, I was also able to get some work done this week in terms of web development side projects. Several years ago when I was first getting back into web development I built a website for my friend Dave Talbott, who is an amazing artist in San Diego. About once a year he contacts me with requests for updates to his site, so while I was recently working on one for him I decided that I wanted to rebuild the site. I wasn’t very happy with the quality of the code I had written back then, and it has my name on it, so I decided to spend several days on the bus rebuilding it. Although the finished product looks very similar to the old version, there are some subtle differences that take it to a whole new level. In particular, this new site is mobile friendly, and the gallery pages are a huge upgrade to the previous version. Check it out at www.DavidRussellTalbott.com.
As usual we’ve got a lot to look forward to in the near future, but I’m just glad that Grandpa Rick had such a nice time seeing his daughter and grandchildren for the first time since baby Enzo was born. It’s hard to believe he’s already about to turn 3 months old! Here’s a few photos from Grandpa’s visit.
Grandpa and his girls
Grandpa reading ‘Dragons Love Tacos’ (their favorite book) to the girls
Putting the finishing touches on the sandbox. See how the cover folds up into bench seating on both ends of the box? Pretty cool…
With the beautiful weather on our side, we’ve been enjoying another great weekend. We started things off Friday night by having our friend Laurel over for a sleepover and homemade pizza party. It’s been a few years since I’ve made pizza from scratch, so it was fun to do that again. I did my best to put on a show for the girls by tossing and spinning the dough up in the air; they seemed to get a kick out of it. More importantly, the pizza turned out really good and we all had a nice dinner together.
Saturday morning I took Ava to soccer class and I can say with confidence that it was her best class yet. This was her sixth week of soccer and the improvement she has made during this time is very noticeable. She’s doing great with her dribbling (aka ‘little kicks’), and her shots (aka ‘big kicks’) have been really impressive. They did a drill this week where there was an 8 foot tunnel setup about 8-10 feet from the goal. The objective was for the kid to kick the ball straight through the tunnel and into the net. Considering that it was nearly a 20 foot shot, it was really tough for most of the kids; in fact, most of them couldn’t even kick the ball through the tunnel, let alone hard enough to get it all the way to the goal. Most of the time the ball would be stuck in the tunnel and the kid would have to crawl through it to retrieve their ball before taking it over to the goal for a little shot.
Ava didn’t have a problem with this drill at all. The coach set up her ball in front of the tunnel and she kicked it so hard and so straight that it went rocketing through the tunnel right into the back of the net. I think only three kids were able to do this and she was the only girl. I was really impressed. In true Ava fashion, she still crawled through the tunnel though, just like all the other kids did.
I know I come off as a proud parent when describing this, and of course I am, but I honestly wouldn’t give her a bunch of false praises if she didn’t deserve them. In general I don’t agree with the entitlement culture that many modern-day parents are inadvertently creating, but Ava is doing really well with this. Ultimately all that matters is that she is engaged and having fun, but the fact that she has natural talent makes it even better. I would never force her into any activity, but I hope she continues with soccer. She definitely has a lot of potential and I love seeing her have so much fun.
After soccer I got back to work in the backyard on the dog run I started last week. In order to avoid making the same mistake I made before, I stopped by the hardware store and purchased a couple five gallon buckets. This way I was able to leave the yard waste bin in its usual location in our driveway and just fill the buckets with grass and sod. It resulted in several trips back and forth with filled buckets, and those buckets aren’t exactly light, but it was nowhere near the trouble we had last weekend. I wasn’t able to dig out the entire area because I eventually ran out of space in the yard waste bin, but I’m getting close. I expect to be done digging next weekend; then it will be time to move onto the next phase of the project.
I spoke to my Mom about it and got some good advice; I was originally planning on putting a tarp down and then spreading gravel over it, but she had a great point, which is that the tarp won’t allow any liquid to pass through, meaning every time Bella pee’s out there, it’s just going to sit there on the tarp and create a nasty odor. Her recommendation was to use something called ‘weed cloth’, which serves the same purpose as the tarp (not letting weeds grow through the gravel), but it’s made of a mesh-like substance that will allow liquid to pass through. Thanks Mom.
In addition to digging out the dog run, I’m also going to dig out a path from our back patio to the dog run and fill it in with paver stones. This way we will be able to take Bella back there without worrying about getting our feet/shoes grassy or muddy and then tracking all that stuff back into the house. We also want to expand the size of our back patio by lining it with big paver stones. The goal is to have a functional backyard that the kids can play in, and that we can use for gatherings. Right now that isn’t possible because of Bella, but it won’t be that way for long.
Once I’m done working on the backyard I’m going to shift my focus to the front yard, and particularly to the driveway. If you’ve been to our house you know that we have a long narrow driveway that curves towards our garage. Backing the van out of there while avoiding my car isn’t easy, and what often ends up happening is someone backs into our front yard and starts kicking up a bunch of grass and mud. Consequently the ground directly adjacent to our driveway is extremely soft and difficult to maintain.
Although I’m not 100% decided on what to do, the idea I’m currently leaning towards is to dig out about three feet of grass all the way down our entire driveway. Then I want to hire someone to come in and pour concrete in there to fill it all in, effectively widening our driveway by three feet. It’s important that I get someone who knows what they’re doing because the new concrete needs to match the exposed rock style of our existing driveway. Once the concrete has settled I want to build a little stone wall about two feet high all the way along the driveway. I think this will look really nice and give it some separation from the front yard. I just want to run that idea by a few people to make sure its a good one before breaking ground. I’m totally willing to do most of the work myself, but I need someone with lots of concrete experience for that phase of the project. There’s no way I’d be able to do that part of the job at a professional level.
After finishing my yard work and watching a little playoff basketball, the five of us headed south for a birthday party at the house of our friends Jamie and Melissa. Their daughter Ellie is turning two, and just like her party last year, we all had a really fun time. I met a guy who has been working at Microsoft for nine years and we ended up hanging out and talking for quite a while. We exchanged contact information and made plans to meetup for lunch sometime soon. It’s nice to meet someone with that much experience and tenure at Microsoft, and the fact that we have mutual friends in common makes it even better. The rest of the evening was spent watching the Mariners game, eating leftover pizza, and just chilling.
Today has been gorgeous out all day so I got the girls outside early to enjoy the weather. I set up cones and goals just like they do at soccer class and let Ava do a bunch of drills. Once again she did great and had a lot of fun. Unfortunately Enzo has been out of sorts all day, including a fever and several spit-ups. Since it’s so nice out we thought it would be fun to take the kids for a walk around the neighborhood. We hadn’t had our Radio Flyer wagon out since last Summer so we decided to throw the girls in there and head out. Enzo was strapped to Jessica and quickly fell asleep, and the girls initially loved riding in the wagon. Unfortunately that didn’t last for long.
About half-way through our walk the girls decided they wanted out of the wagon, which was fine. The problem was they both wanted to pull the empty wagon and had a hard time cooperating with each other. Eventually Elise got back in the wagon and let Ava pull her for a while, which was awfully cute, but Ava has a hard time walking in a straight line and Elise was nearly dumped over the curb into the street a few different times. After a while we put Ava back in the wagon and she threw a fit. She didn’t want to be in there and ended up screaming and crying all the way back to the house; so even though our intentions were pure, we ended up with a meltdown on our hands. I’m sure all of our neighbors loved hearing Ava screaming on a Sunday morning as we headed home.
We’re spending the rest of the day relaxing around the house. I’m probably going to take the girls back outside to play some more in a bit, then we’ve got our usual Sunday night bath routine to look forward to. Grandpa Rick will be arriving from Iowa on Wednesday, so that should be a lot of fun, then Uncle Joel and Aunt Melanie will be here right after he leaves. Shortly after that Nana will be out for a visit as well. Lots to look forward to in the near future. Here’s a couple recent pics.
As the title suggests, its been a good weekend filled with good friends, good food, and a bit of yard work sprinkled in. Friday night Jessica and the kids picked me up from work, the the five of us headed out to West Seattle to the home of our good friends Leon, Jodi, and their son Miles. It was only a few weeks ago that they came to our house for dinner, so this time it was our turn to go and visit them. I was immediately struck by the gorgeous view of the water and found myself gazing up endless ferries throughout the night crossing the Puget Sound toward Vashon Island.
The kids all had a blast playing together, and of course Jessica and I always love spending time with Leon and Jodi. They are some of our absolute favorite people in the world and I always look forward to hanging out with them. Like myself, Leon is the cook in his house, and he certainly didn’t disappoint with dinner. We enjoyed barbequed chicken, corn on the cob, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, and salad, then we finished things off with angel food cake topped with macerated berries, homemade whip cream, and vanilla ice cream. Definitely a nice way to start off our weekend!
Saturday morning I took Ava to soccer practice, and all I can say is that it was a tale of two halves. There was an obstacle course set up for the kids to dribble their soccer balls through, and for the first half of class Ava was the front-runner. She lead the whole team and was doing amazing. The at the halfway point she flipped a switch and told me that she was tired and that her stomach was “making hungry noises.” This was due to the fact that we got off to a late start in the morning and didn’t have time to eat breakfast before soccer. I was planning on making breakfast when we got home, but not eating didn’t fare well for her, and she basically disengaged at that point. It’s all right though; lesson learned. No more soccer without having breakfast first.
Later that morning I decided to get to work on the dog run. If you don’t know the backstory, last summer we fenced off the north side of our house so Bella could have a dog run, however it didn’t work out because Bella kept digging under the fence to get out. She has never had a digging problem before this, but apparently old dogs can learn new tricks. Since then we’ve had to keep Bella out of the dog run, ironically, and the whole area has turned into a disaster. That side of the house doesn’t get any sunshine, so its just turned into a bunch of moss and weeds.
I’ve been thinking for a while about how to fix this area and I’ve finally come up with a plan. I started off by using the weed whacker to tear up everything back there. Once I ran completely out of wire (leaving my weed whacker useless) I decided it was time to start digging. I wheeled our huge yard waste bin back there, grabbed my shovel, and got to it. My plan was to dig everything up until the yard waste bin was filled. I knew I wouldn’t be able to dig up the entire area, but my goal was to finish half of it. By the time the bin was about 90% full I was exhausted. My arms felt like noodles, there were blisters on my hands, and my back muscles were as tight as an undersized wetsuit. The worst part, however, was yet to come. Although I have filled that yard waste bin with grass plenty of times, I completely underestimated how heavy it would be when filled with dirt. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it weighed at least 500 pounds. To make matters worse, the ground in our backyard is very soft, meaning the bin had already sunk a couple inches.
I put all my strength into it and it barely budged. I pulled and pulled to the point where my elbow started hurting and I was concerned that if I kept pulling I might dislocate it. I changed my form, got down deep and used my legs as much as possible, and then finally I was able to wheel it from the north side of the house out of the dog run over to the barbeque. I knew there was no way I could get it all the way to the driveway by myself, so I came to Jessica to ask for help. With her help we were able to get it to the south side of the house, but then we ran into our next obstacle, which was getting it through the narrow passage along the fence.
There wasn’t enough room for two of us to pull it through, so I was on my own again. The ground over there is ridiculously soft, so the damn thing started sinking again. Jessica went around to the other side with a shovel and did her best to prop the wheel out of there, but I just couldn’t pull the thing over the paver stones. Luckily my next door neighbor saw what was going on and came over to lend a hand. With his help we were finally able to get the bin up onto the driveway, and I learned a valuable lesson. Next week, when I’m digging up more ground over there, I’m going to use a big bucket, and every time I fill that bucket I’ll take it over to the driveway and empty it into the yard waste bin. It may involve more walking, but should be much less exhausting in the long run.
Once I’m done digging up all the grass I’m going to rake it smooth and spray Round Up all over the place in order to kill everything. Next I’m going to put down a black tarp, then fill in the entire area with gravel. Having the tarp there will prevent weeds and plants from growing through. Finally, I’m going to line the entire base of the fence with paver stones. This will make it look nice, and will prevent Bella from digging her way out (I hope). If this doesn’t work I don’t know what I’m going to do.. Could be the end of Bella 😉
Not surprisingly I was exhausted for the rest of the day and ended up falling asleep on the couch while watching The Masters. I woke up an hour later with my head covered in stickers. Obviously the girls decided to take advantage of my exhaustion by sticker-bombing me, but I was out so cold I never noticed a thing.
Later that evening our friend Laurel and her boyfriend Mark came over to our house for dinner. We had a great time visiting with them, and dinner turned out nice as well. We had salad, then I made a Shrimp Scampi pasta with tomatoes, capers, mushrooms, onion, garlic, bell peppers, and goat cheese. We washed it all down with white wine and champagne. It was a great night for all.
Today we’re going to relax at home and watch the final round of The Masters for most of the day, but we’ll be leaving slightly before it finishes because we’ve been invited to a barbeque at the house of one of my new coworkers. He and I have become friends in my short time there so I’m excited to get our families together. I know the invitation was extended to several of my teammates so hopefully a bunch of them will show up. Should be a nice way to finish off the weekend.
It won’t be long before Grandpa Rick arrives for his visit, then immediately after that Uncle Joel and Aunt Melanie will be here. Definitely a lot to look forward to, but for now here are some recent photos of the kids, including some from the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt last Sunday.
Ava being told she can’t eat any more Easter candy
