Category: Uncategorized

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today is Elise’s half birthday. We took our standard, numbered, monthly photo to mark the occasion. She is changing everyday. She is an extremely happy, healthy and big baby girl (she has almost outgrown 9 month clothes already). She’s sitting up and rolling around, eating lots of new foods, working on her first tooth, and in a new state of awe with her hands, feet and voice. She loves to jump in her doorway bouncer, and hiding under soft blankets more than anything these days(this can be both cute and scary). She is more and more interested in her big sister, with each new activity. The two of them are finally starting to do little activities together and both are showing more interest in each other every day. Ava is quick to sooth Elise with kind words when she cries and runs to her side to make sure everything is ok.

The two of them are keeping Michael and I on our toes, but like I always say, we are doing our best to enjoy every moment. The late night tantrums and bedtime showdowns are probably the worst but that’s mostly because no one in the house has had a nice, uninterrupted sleep in a long time.

I have been recovering the last two days from having a wisdom tooth pulled (just one). I had my first, and only other, tooth pulled a few moths after Ava was born. I don’t know if it’s coincidence that now a few months after Elise arrives, I have another tooth pulled. It has not been fun, and hurts more than I remember the last time. Thankfully, Laurel has been here the last two days while Michael is at work not only taking care of me but more importantly taking over with the girls. Between her and Michael, I have been well taken care of. As I sit here writing this, Michael is tending to a tired, fussy Elise and folding laundry. He never folds laundry (it’s funny to watch) and its sweet that he is always trying to help me out.

This Saturday night, Michael and I are going to the Amazon Holiday Party. They are bringing in a popular pop group, Vampire Weekend, for the event. Neither of us are actually fans of the group but I do not doubt that it will be a fun night. I don’t even know what to expect with the rest of the event but based on the summer picnic, I’m sure that it will be full of fun surprises.

On, Sunday the Seahawks host the 49ers here in Seattle. The whole city has had a cool, spirited vibe about it the past few weeks. I am not a huge football fan by any means but I am really enjoying this. That may actually make me a bandwagon fan. Either way, I will be watching as much of the game as I can before I have to go into to work that night. I volunteered to pick up a shift that night since we are expecting to be busy with all of the fans after the game. I’m lucky enough to get most Sundays off but I’m looking forward to this.

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

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

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

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

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

Ava holding court in Colorado

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

The whole family

Elise started sitting up on this trip

Elise slept in the sleep sack that Nana made for Daddy

Ava loves the oversized look

NYE 2014 – Pampas Room

Having fun at Ayden’s birthday

The site has been down so this was not posted on the date written:

We got back from Colorado this afternoon and are now happily resting at home. It was an awesome mountain Christmas and everyone is thoroughly exhausted. We all had a lot of fun in the snow and Michael and I were able to get a bit of time alone while Grandma and Grandpa took care of the girls. Ava had tons of fun playing with Cole, and has a new love for cars and trains. The two of them did really well together in a small play space shared with 9 other adults. It was a packed house for the week but it was great to get the chance to see everyone together.

My brother and his wife, Melanie, got to meet Elise for the first time which was a really sweet moment. She allowed anyone to hold her all week and was loving all of the attention. They also hadn’t seen Ava since just before her first birthday so it was a totally different experience than their last visit. The week went by entirely too fast and before we knew it we were packing up our stuff to go. It was a memorable christmas and I thank my Mom and Tom for all of the hard work that went into making everyone’s trip special.

We had to get up with the sun this morning at 4:45am, it’s not easy to get everyone up and going at that hour. It was a pretty quiet drive from Grandma’s house to the airport but both girls stayed awake for most of the trip. Thankfully it was a relatively easy flight home, that is until landing and then Ava insisted that she wanted “more” and kept yelling and signing for “more plane” and “more fly”. It was cute and funny for about a minute and a half and everyone around us was laughing. It quickly turned into embarrassing and uncomfortable when she began kicking her feet and screaming. Elise was thankfully clam and happy for the whole ordeal. All was good again as soon as we started walking through the airport and by the time we were pulling out of the arrival area with Uncle Brad both girls were sound asleep.

Our plan for today is to do as little unpacking as possible and spend as much time as we can relaxing on the couch and then off to bed as early as the girls allow. Tomorrow is going to be a full day. We are both working in the Pampas Room at El Gaucho for NYE and our amazingly wonderful friend, Laurel, will be ringing in the new year with our two lovelies. I hope that they will all be asleep by the new year because Laurel is just arriving home from her own Christmas vacation and is literally coming straight to the house for a sleepover.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Getting some z’s on the plane

Elise’s 1st Christmas

Ava loves the snow

Grandma and Elise on Christmas morning

My little musician

Mommy and Ava in front of the tree

Grandma and Grandpa looking at their new book

Mommy and Ava at the winter park

Ava, Jessica, Joel and Melanie

Ava napping in her tent on Christmas morning

Sledding with Joel and Melanie

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

We’ve been in the Christmas spirit here lately. I have been teaching Ava all about Santa, preparing her for snow, pointing out all the christmas tree lots and lights on the neighbors houses. There is so much to show and teach her, she is loving every minute of it. We have gone to the mall near our house about 3-4 times now to say “hi” to Santa. My hope is that this will help ease her into actually sitting on his lap. She doesn’t like most all unfamiliar men so I know that getting her to smile for a picture will be a challenge. So far she doesn’t seem to enjoy seeing him while we are there but as soon as we walk away she’s happily repeating his name. I am hoping to get a picture taken tomorrow or Thursday. I know that Elise will enjoy the experience but I’m almost as confident that Ava will not.

On Sunday we had Dana, Brad, Kallan and Anna over for a little Christmas celebration. They came over at 2:00 to spend the afternoon with us. Michael made a nice spread of dip, assorted cheeses, salami, veggies and crackers. We had red wine and hot cocoa to go with it. It was a fun few hours of sitting around the table, catching up and opening gifts together.

We attempted another Christmas skype session tonight, this time with Rita. Ava was not as cooperative as she was this weekend but it was still fun. Out of all of the gifts her favorite was a set of jingle bells that Rita decorated one of the packages with. All she wanted to do was walk circles in the living room ringing the bells. Elise sat happily in the center of all the action smiling and observing. It’s so great to be able to have those moments with family that is so far away.

Just a few more days of work for us both and one more assignment for Michael and we will all be on vacation. I am definitely looking forward to it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It seems like even the normal, average days around here have become uncontrollably crazy. Life with two small children is like living in an institute for people with bi-polar disorder. To be fair its not really life with two small children that feels this way; Elise is usually easy as long as you’re holding her in a standing position. It’s life with a two year old that tips the scales to don’t even look at me or I’ll cry, crazy.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re having a lot of fun, or at least attempting to have fun. It’s just that one minute is complete joy and the next minute anything is possible and I mean anything! The positive side of this is that every time we have an incident big or small, Ava seems to walk away having learned something. I haven’t been around many toddlers so I don’t know what normal is but the speed at which she absorbs new information is incredible. I love seeing the joy on her face when she figures something out for the first time. The flip side of that is the intense frustration she experiences split seconds later. I witnessed a perfect example of this exact phenomenon this morning.

I walked in on Ava playing in her room after breakfast. She was talking to herself, so I stood quietly in the door way. After a bunch of non sense she started congratulating herself on building a tower, “nice job”, “good girl”, “awesome”, “you got it”. She continued to build and two blocks later she couldn’t get a block to stay put at the top (it was upside down). I could instantly see the panic on her face and the heavy breathing started first then she punctured my ear drums with a scream, gave me a look as if I had sabotaged her just by observing and began to cry. The kind of crying that caused her fits of choking. All of this from one upside down block. I could do nothing to console her. It was a site to see, I promise. And all of this before 9:30, for us that’s a big morning. Happy Monday!