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Halloween 2016 was a wet one. I don’t think it stayed completely dry for any of our October festivities, and there were a lot of them. We visited our first pumpkin patch for the season on October 3rd with our friends Solana, Ronan and Finn. It was a wet confusing mess for us all because the patch itself was only partially open for the month. We made the most of it and spent the majority of our time at the giant sand pit playing with trucks and racing tricycles on the hay rack race track. It was a great way to kick off the short season. All on all we ended up visiting 4 different patches and going a total of 6 times.

Our 4th trip to the patch for the month was a field trip with the girls pre-school. Both classes met together for a combined tour of our favorite pumpkin patch/farm. We dropped off Enzo beforehand so he could hang out with some guy friends for the afternoon 🙂 This made it easier for me to get down and dirty with the girls and their classmates. We made corn kernel angles in the corn bin, jumped on a bouncy, went up and down the large hay slides, pet the bunnies and goats, watched a pig show and duck race, and had creamsicles with their classmates. We even got our own private tractor ride around the pumpkin fields so that each child could find his or her perfect pumpkin. It was a great afternoon, I really loved the special time I got to have with them both and I know they felt the same way because it was the only trip to the patch this season that they thanked me for, several times.

We kicked off Halloween weekend of Friday by decorating our little pumpkins from the girls field trip. Elise wanted a cat and Ava a fish. We ended up with Stinky the cat, a baby pumpkin with painted black ears, green eyes and whiskers, and Sticky the fish, a purple fish silhouette with glitter scales, lashed eyes and a small smile. Both girls were incredibly proud of their little creations and had a hard time just leaving it on the front porch. Elise wanted to carry hers all over the house and play with it.

That night was our annual neighborhood pumpkin carving party. Our party loving neighbors Cara and Jim host this every year and we have been lucky enough to join them for 2 years now. Michael unfortunately had to work late so I took the kids over solo. I didn’t bring a pumpkin for our family to carve because I knew it would be too much for to take on 3 kids and a jack o lantern at once. This was the primary reason I suggested making pumpkins earlier that day. Ava still managed carve one of her own thanks to the help of Jim and she was so happy with herself when we carried it home and lit it up. She would have slept with it had I allowed it. Elise as planned was happy to hang out in the garage with all the big kids and compliment everyone else’s creations while showing off hers from earlier. Meanwhile Enzo hung out in the kitchen, near the food and the adults and was happy to be eating and dragging around an old monster truck that he spotted as soon as we arrived. They all had a great time and love being at Jim and Cara’s parties. We did leave the party a little early because Michael was just getting home and the kids wanted to tell him all about their day plus we had a big day planned for Saturday.

The next morning we got up and got going right away with breakfast and clothes and all the morning rituals. Normally on Saturdays we all take our time waking up and relaxing together at various times in the living room. But today we had a birthday party to get to at the zoo and everyone was dressing up in costumes for the occasion. We were originally planning on dressing Enzo up as a politician this year, thinking that it would be funny with the up coming election but it never came together the way were envisioning it so he was Batman. Not a very original idea but he was still super cute in a little black cape. It worked out better in the long run anyway, because our original idea included a suit for him and it was so rainy and miserable out that he spent most of his time in the stroller where you couldn’t really see what he was wearing. It was only because he had on a very recognizable costume that anyone knew what he was. Elise was Zuma, her favorite dog from paw patrol (a Nickelodeon show). Ava was Judy Hopps from Zootopia. I dressed up as well although truthfully it was a pretty lame attempt, I was a lumber jack. We met the birthday boy, Ronan and family at the zoo entrance and together a big group of us took on the rain. We had already planned on meeting up with Madi and Kristy at the zoo on Halloween weekend for their pumpkin bash so we combined the two and it was a sloppy, wet success. We spent nearly 3 hours wandering from one covered exhibit to the next. It was raining pretty hard the whole time but not one single kid complained, not once. They were too busy running around with each other, checking out all the costumes and decorations and eating lots of treats. I was super impressed with how our family handled the situation. We did finally reach our breaking point, once the adults were cold and uncomfortable enough we decided to have Madi and Kristy come over for lunch and more pumpkin decorating.

I headed home with all of the kids while Michael and Kristy stopped off at the grocery store for fried chicken and pumpkins. After lunch we set up shop in the garage, turned on a heater, some music, and got everyone situated with their prospective pumpkins. The adults carved out a group pumpkin and all the kids painted theirs. By the time we were all finished with our pumpkins the weather had finally cleared up so we got out the scooters and bikes and raced up and down the cul-de-sac for a bit. It was a fun, festive day and we were all wiped out by 6:00, so we spent the rest of the night relaxing.

Sunday night we attempted another Halloween activity but it was a bust. The church closest to our neighborhood hosted a party that we thought was going to be a Truck or Treat, similar to what we had visited there last year. In previous years, they had a huge indoor area filled up with cars that were all decked out, on the trunk end, with their own themes. This year was much different. It was called, I spy, and it was like a pokemon style hunt for specific costumed characters. They gave everyone a pamphlet when you walked in with all of the characters that you were supposed to find and have sign off on your sheet. You won prizes for the most people found. Im sure it was a lot of fun for the older kids but our kids were not interested in standing in line to get someone’s autograph to then turn in for potential prizes. They wanted candy and they were not afraid to say so. We did have a good time wandering around and seeing all of the costumes but the kids were a little disappointed in the lack of treats. Not to worry though, they bounced back quickly, and we ended spending the rest of the night at home with some Halloween movies and treats.

On Monday I had intended to take the kids to a pumpkin patch one last time but it was raining yet again and after the soggy weekend I just didn’t have it in me. The forecast for Monday evening was supposed to be light to no rain so I decided that I would take the kids to Mill Creek Town Center for a little pre-trick or treating before meeting up with Michael at home around 5:30 to head out in our neighborhood. We got to town center right when it started, because in our experience early to kids functions is always better. We hit our first store at 4:20, even though it wasn’t supposed to start until 4:30. We took our time walking our usual route through most of Main Street. The kids had a lot of fun seeing a place that we visit so frequently (this is where they have pre-school) so full of people, decorations, firemen and police! Its no surprise that they had the most fun doing some actual trick or treating and filling up their plastic pumpkins with candy! It took us about an hour to walk the length of Main Street, we stopped for a few candy breaks and one bathroom break but we also took our time walking slowly and chatting with kids and adults around us. The girls made sure to visit every store that was open and they stopped a few times along the way to say hi to other kids that liked their costumes or vice versa. Ava was loving all the attention and at one point turned to me with a huge smile and said “They all know me Mommy, I’m famous”, to be fair they knew who she was dressed up as, they did not recognize her. Elise got a kick out of all the other paw patrol costumes and would run up to a little kiddo dressed as Chase or Marshall and scream a version of “Im Zuma! Paw Patrol to the rescue”, It was hilarious and adorable.

By the time we were heading out, Town Center was packed full with families and just as we were packing up into the van the rain started to come down hard. We barely missed it. It was a very light drizzle for our walk along Main Street but by the time we got home you could say it was pouring. We came home and the kids had some dinner and once Michael got home we all bundled back up for some neighborhood trick or treating. Several of our neighbors round up their kids and head out in a large group for the night but most of their kids are quite a bit older than ours and they are a lot faster than we are so we were only able to keep up with them for a few house before we broke off one our own. Ava was pretty upset at first because she wanted to be “with our team”, but after we explained that Enzo wanted to walk door to door with both of the girls she conceded. It rained on us, pretty heavily for our entire trip around the neighborhood. We only visited about 15 houses but the kids were able to once again fill up their pumpkins with candy and they were more than happy to come home when Michael and I suggested it.

There wasn’t much time left in the night once we finished up trick or treating but we did manage to get in a Skype call with Rita for her birthday and then everyone headed off to their beds to either sleep or read. It was a rough morning on Tuesday for all 3 of the kids and I was definitely expecting it. They were all tired from the long fun fill weekend! I helped ease the kids out of the post Halloween blues by reminding them of all the great things to come in the month of November. Now we have officially switched gears and our focus is on Thanksgiving and Ava’s 5th birthday. We’ve got plans to spend both occasions with family and it is sure to be the topic of many conversations over the next 3 weeks. Now if we could only get a few days without any rain!

It was nine years ago this month that Jessica and I started dating. I remember meeting her for the first time the day before my 27th birthday (July 29, 2007), at an 80’s Prom themed party she and her roommates (whom I was friends with) were throwing. My Uncle Bob had come to stay with me at my apartment in Lower Queen Anne for my birthday weekend, and after having a nice steak dinner on the rooftop of my building, we walked up Queen Anne hill and ended up being the first guests to arrive at the party. Walking all that way probably wasn’t be best idea because Bob was basically dead and ended up sitting in a chair the entire time. The party was still great though, and obviously turned into a life changing night for me. Not because I spent much time with Jessica that night (we only briefly spoke to each other) but because of how things would turn out in the near future.

The next night, Bob and several friends of mine joined me for my birthday dinner at Tavolata in Belltown. We had a big private table upstairs, and to my surprise, Jessica showed up, along with her roommates Julianne and Penny. I had know Julianne for years because she was my best friend Spencer’s girlfriend. They used to come watch my band practice in Ballard, then we would all take a break and go out to a German place called The People’s Pub for beer, fried pickles, and schnitzel. Afterwards we would all go back to the practice space and play songs well into the night. Those were great times, and I really can’t describe how much I miss Spencer (he tragically drowned in Lake Washington while trying to save someone in July, 2006). Other than losing my Dad when I was 14, losing Spencer was one of the toughest things I’ve ever experienced.

After seeing Jessica those first two nights in a row, it seemed like after that I would run into her all the time when I was out in Seattle. At that time I was working as a server at El Gaucho’s sister restaurant, Waterfront Seafood Grill (it has since been renamed ‘Aqua by El Gaucho’) on Pier 70. I remember that being one of the busiest summers ever. People were throwing money around left and right, and we were right there to scoop it up. Obviously we had no idea what kind of financial crisis was looming just around the corner, but for that summer everything seemed to be on the up-and-up. I used to get off work and go out with friends for a drink most nights, and my usual hangout spot was the Queen City Grill. Jessica and her girlfriends would often be out on the weekends and it seemed like we were always bumping into each other. It didn’t take long before I started forming an interest in her, but truth be told, I was still recovering from a bad breakup the year before and didn’t feel like I was quite ready to jump into another serious relationship. I was having fun, enjoying my life as a bachelor, but always enjoyed our random run-in’s.

Things changed for good in October though. I had made plans with Julianne and her brother to go to an Interpol concert at the WaMu Theater (Washington Mutual was another casualty of the financial meltdown a year later). Apparently, as Jessica told me years later, Julianne had written something like ‘Interpol concert w/ MP’ on the kitchen calendar at the BGH (Big Green House) and Jessica saw it. Turns out my feelings for her were mutual, because once she saw what was going on, she decided to tag along. Long story short, after that night we were basically inseparable. A couple months into our relationship I did something dumb – I broke up with her. There was no specific reason other than I wasn’t sure that I was ready to give up my bachelor lifestyle and get back into a serious relationship. I had already been burned a couple times in the past and wasn’t sure if I was ready to go through something like that again. Luckily for me, Jessica was having none of it. We had already made plans (and purchased tickets) to visit her Mom and Tom in Colorado for a snowboarding trip, so Jessica convinced me just to go on that trip and then decide what I want to do. As I’ve said many times, it was on that trip that I truly fell in love with her, and I guess the rest is history.

Since then I’ve always felt incredibly lucky to have her. Not only because of the beautiful family we’ve created, but because of how like-minded we are. In the nine years we’ve been together, I can honestly count on one hand the number of times we’ve been in a real fight. Jessica is her own person with her own ideas and opinions, and I love the fact that she never changed who she was in order to gel more with me. Luckily that wasn’t even necessary because we’ve always had so much in common. Doesn’t matter what we’re talking about: family, politics, religion, etc. We always seem to be on the same page without even trying, and our viewpoints tend to compliment each other.

Lately we’ve seen several of our friends going through difficult divorces and I can’t tell you how comforting it is to know that this will never be our reality. There are only a few things either of us could possibly do to jeopardize our marriage, but neither of us is dumb enough to ever do any of them, so I think we’re good. The truth is, although we’ve never had a rocky relationship, we went through our toughest times early on, and today our bond is stronger than ever. Whether it was my uncertainty early on about not being ready for a serious relationship, or when we lived in San Diego shortly after getting married and were so poor we often weren’t sure if we could afford to put gas in the car, we’ve always come together as a team (without ever asking anyone for help) and gotten through every obstacle in stride.

Obviously we are not ignorant to the fact that there will always be new challenges to face in the future (like raising teenagers), but I have zero doubts in our ability to conquer anything we encounter. Call it sappy, call it corny, call it anything you want, but she’s not just my wife – she truly is my best friend, she is the love of my life, and I couldn’t imagine spending it without her.

In other family news, last weekend Jessica and I dropped the kids off with Kristy and Madi for a sleepover, then went to a glass blowing studio in Georgetown to make our first pieces. It was actually a Christmas gift from Kristy last year (and a very generous one at that) but for some reason we hadn’t made time for it until now. I have to admit it was so much fun, but I never knew until that day that when people say “blowing glass” they literally mean blowing air into the hot glass to make visual shapes and patterns. I never took it that literally, so that was a surprise.

When we arrived, we were looking in the window at their displays to get an idea of what we would each like to make. They had a beautiful collection of colorful glass pumpkins, but for some reason when I saw them I thought they were tomatoes. I said to Jessica “Look at all these colorful tomatoes! They look like heirlooms.” She starts laughing and says “Honey those aren’t tomatoes, they’re pumpkins.” I’m looking at them going, “I don’t know, they look like tomatoes to me.” Then she says “Michael, read the sign above them. It says pumpkins.” I couldn’t argue with that, but nevertheless, I decided to make what I’m calling a Tomumpkin. It’s the shape of a pumpkin, but with the colors of a tomato. Jessica ended up making a beautiful Christmas ornament, and we’ll actually be picking them up this week. Can’t wait to see how my Tomumpkin turned out!

Later that night Jess and I went out to dinner and had a very nice time. Although it’s certainly nice getting a little break from time to time, there is no doubt that the house feels especially quiet and empty when the kids are gone. Too much so in my opinion, and even more so now that Bella is gone. As usual, the kids had a great time staying the night with Kristy and Madi. The girls look up to Madi so much, so we greatly appreciate them having us over. The following morning we arrived just in time to hang out and watch the Seahawks beat the Jets on the road. After the game everyone was exhausted, so we proceeded to have a nice relaxing afternoon/evening at home.

Before I go I quickly want to write about our new favorite family hobby – painting rocks! Basically what we do is find (or purchase) rocks, paint them however we please, then go to public places like Mill Creek Town Center, and ‘hide’ them. I say hide in quotes because we put them in places where they are meant to be found by other little rock hunters. This is turning into a local phenomenon that is receiving tons of local (and even some national) attention. If you go on Facebook and search for #BothellRocks or #MillCreekRocks you’ll see what I mean. Most rocks contain a message on the back with one of the aforementioned hashtags, as well as instructions to keep or hide, and to please post on Facebook, so people can see where their rocks end up. The kids love the entire experience of painting, hiding, and finding rocks.

Yesterday morning we all went to Mill Creek Town Center for a rock hunting adventure and saw several other families doing the same thing. We found at least 6 rocks, which Jessica said was a record. The kids now have their own rock bags, which are Crown Royal bags that Jessica decorated with various craft supplies. Earlier this week I painted my first rock, which had a music theme (shocking I know), and then I hid it yesterday while we were out. Normally Jessica and the kids do this kind of thing on the weekdays while I’m at work, so it was fun for me to be able to join them. I made sure to set a good example for the kids by picking up any trash I found while we were out. We met another family during our adventure and the girls took great pride in giving their son his first painted rock. Jessica was also kind enough to give him one of our spare bags to carry it in. It feels good to do nice things for people, even complete strangers, and I’m glad to see the kids picking up on that at such an early age.

Last night our plans were to pick up a pizza and watch the second presidential debate. I called one of our favorite pizza places up the street for a pickup, and as I was getting ready to leave, Ava asked me if she could come along. Elise was napping and Enzo was busy eating (shocking) so I said yes. She brought one of the recent rocks she had found, which was painted to look like a piece of candy corn, with the intention of hiding it near the pizza place. We got there, hid our rock near a tree, and went in to get our pizza, only to find out that I had mistakenly called (and ordered from) their sister restaurant in downtown Everett, which was 15-20 minutes away. I called them and initially asked if I could cancel my order, so the girl on the phone said she had to ask her manager. When she came back on the phone she said “Yeah, I guess there is nothing we can do, so you can cancel it.” I instantly felt bad and said “No, that’s okay, we’ll come and get it.” She told me that wasn’t necessary, but I said it was my fault, not hers, and we wouldn’t do that to them.

So Ava and I continued our adventure. I told her on the way there that I was going to give her a special job when we got to the pizza place, which would be to hold the van keys while we go in to get our pizza. She did exactly as I told her, then on the way back I showed her the birth center where Enzo was born, which she got a big kick out of. Later that night during bedtime we talked about our favorite parts of the day, which is one of our favorite new traditions. I expected her to say her favorite part was rock hunting, taking a bath, or perhaps playing with playdoh with Elise, Enzo, and myself that afternoon. To my surprise, however, her favorite part of the day was holding the keys for me when we went in to get our pizza. I saw a lot of significance in this because we’d had a very fun day, but Ava thrives so much on helping out and accomplishing tasks, that holding the keys for me outshined all of the fun activities she’d had throughout the day. It’s little moments like that that give you some insight as to the type of person she will someday grow into. I’m so proud of her.

The kids are getting excited for Halloween (Ava will be Officer Judy Hops from the movie Zootopia, Elise will be Zumba from her favorite show Paw Patrol, and Enzo is going to be a politician with crazy hair and flyers to hand out that say “Vote for Zo”). Then of course we’ve got the holidays, as well as our trip to Iowa, to look forward to. Here’s a few recent pics.

Elise holding one of her new rocks

And sporting a funny hat

Enzo enjoying the pumpkin patch

Family fun on the slide

Adventures in rock hunting

Halloween can’t come soon enough

As far as I’m concerned Summer 2016 is over. Football is back, the leaves are starting to turn, and we had another epic Labor Day weekend, so bring on the sweaters and crockpots, the haloween costumes and holiday plans – we’re back to business baby! We definitely ended Summer on a bang by spending the holiday weekend with our good friends the O’Hair’s (Josh, Solana, Ronan, and Finn) at Josh’s family cabin on Hood’s Head Island in Hood Canal, WA.

Door to door from our house, it’s less than 2 hours away, but you have to take the Kingston ferry from Edmonds, drive through this very picturesque little town called Port Gamble, then across the Hood Canal bridge (which is one of the biggest bridges in the state), take a right on Paradise Bay Road, then another right on Seven Sisters Road (which is this super long dirt road with tons of private driveways leading off of it) and park at the very end in a dirt lot near the water. Finally, you have to take a boat ride about 200 yards across a little bay, and then finally you will find yourself on Hood’s Head Island.

Hood’s Head is totally off the grid, meaning you use generators for power, you use wells for running water in the cabin, and you use outhouses for, you know, your business. There are some really impressive cabins out there. This particular cabin has been in Josh’s family for about 60 years and has grown from a small single room to a pretty decent sized abode, which included a wood stove in the living room (totally reminded me of my Nana and Papa’s place growing up), a kitchen, two bedrooms (ours was upstairs), and a nice covered back patio. The best part, however, was the fact that you’re only a couple hundred feet from the water. There’s so many trees that you can’t really see the cabin from the water, but it’s right there.

By far the strangest part about everything was the fact that this wasn’t the first time Jessica and I have been to Hood’s Head Island. We ended up there for a 4th of July party with a bunch of friends back in 2009. If you remember our wedding invitation, there were a bunch of square photos that made up a collage; well two of those photos in the top-right corner were of this really cool dragon made of driftwood that I had taken that night around sunset. I remember having so much fun that night – there was a full band playing up in a treehouse, Jess and I had fun swinging on a rope swing, and I got the most epic photos of a fireworks show gone wrong when everything exploded on the beach.

Fast forward 7 years and there we are, back on that island, visiting the same dragon, except this time with all 3 of our kids. It kinda felt like we had come full-circle. We spent our time collecting shells, sand dollars, and fresh oysters on the beach, taking walks around the island, and watching the kids splash around in the water. It was just a two-night stay, but that was enough – you get the full cabin-life experience, then still get home in time to enjoy the final day-and-a-half of the long holiday weekend.

I made spaghetti at home ahead of time, so we all had that for dinner on our first night, but the second night was what really stood out to me. Basically we had dinner right there on the beach, and it was totally my kind of dinner – a shellfish extravaganza! Fresh dungeness and red rock crabs caught in the pots we had set the previous night, approximately 3 dozen fresh oysters from our beach, grilled salmon with butter, and ice cold cans of Coors Light. It was epic – definitely the highlight of my Summer (which makes sense since I tend to associate memories and good times with food).

We didn’t have crab crackers so I went caveman style and just used a big rock to crack the shells. Josh had a preparation that I must admit I’d never seen before. Normally what I’m used to is putting the live crab in a pot of boiling water, then cleaning it after you’ve cooked it. This approach is great when you’re in a kitchen with running water, but it’s not so easy to clean a cooked (and very hot) crab on the beach, so he took a different approach – he would kill and clean them right there in the shore water, then cook them in the boiling water. The benefit to this approach is that once you pull it out of the water it’s ready to serve, which is much more conducive to dining on the beach.

At first I was a little shocked to see him cleaning the crabs alive, but I was fine with it and decided to make the kids watch so they’d get a little lesson about the circle of life. They understood that we caught those crabs in the water (legally too because Josh has a shellfish license and the season was still open), we let the females go from our pots so they could reproduce and only kept the males; and that was our dinner. I don’t know how much of that really sunk in but it seemed like an appropriate lesson at the time.

As an oyster lover, I was once again impressed with Josh. Some of the oysters we collected were pretty large and would be very difficult to shuck when they’re raw, so he would pull about a half-dozen at a time out from our bucket in the water, and would just quickly grill them on both sides (I forgot to mention that they have a gas grill next to the boathouse, which is very near the shore). So anyway he would very quickly grill the oysters on both sides, which would just barely pop them open, then we could easily shuck and eat them. The consistency of the oyster was perfect; it was warm but not cooked through, so the four of us adults would just stand there at the water’s edge eating these fresh oysters with a dash of hot sauce, then throw the spent shells back into the water. I learned (from Josh of course) that new oysters will grow in these spent shells, so there was another sense of this whole give/take relationship with the sea. I have to give their oldest son Ronin a lot of credit too because he ate a couple of oysters himself – something none of the other kids were willing to try. Even before I ate one I had no doubts about the quality of these oysters. Just a couple hundred yards down at the end of the bay was a private oyster farm, so there was no reason to think that ours would be any different than theirs (and of course they weren’t). Just to give you a sense of how many oysters there were, when the tide goes out there are so many of them you can’t really even see the ground beneath them. There are literally millions of them, everywhere you look. It was just incredible.

By the time Sunday morning came around I think everyone was ready to head home. I was definitely looking forward to a long hot shower, and a good night’s sleep in my own bed. Since there were 9 of us (4 adults, 5 kids) staying in the cabin, we obviously had a lot of stuff with us. So much so that it took us 3 boat trips across the bay to get all our stuff (and people) into the cabin. We had so much stuff that I just sat there waiting on the beach with everything while Josh shuttled everyone across the bay. People walking by were asking me if we were staying for a month, and got quite a kick from my response of “two days actually”.

The morning we left it was so foggy that when Josh and I started taking stuff across the bay to load into the van, you couldn’t even see the other side (remember it’s only about 200 yards across). This time we had a bit of a problem though because his old outboard motor was acting up. We got about halfway across on our first trip and the motor decided to die. So here we are floating out in the middle of this bay in super thick fog, Josh is trying his best to start the motor but with no luck, and we can’t really see anything. Jessica and the kids were back on the beach by the cabin but they couldn’t see us, so let’s just say Michael had to row the boat ashore. I tell you what, rowing is not the easiest thing to do with a Sunday morning hangover (I forgot to mention we enjoyed a very nice bottle of Anejo Tequila with our shellfish extravaganza the night before). By the time we reached shore I was starting to get the hang of it, but it was a bit humbling at first.

He eventually got the motor running again, but mysteriously it always seemed to crap out when I was in the boat. That’s okay, I got more practice with my rowing. Although it took 3 boat trips on the way in, for some reason it took 4 on the way out, even though we (presumably) had less stuff (food specifically). By the time both vans were loaded, the boat was locked up in the slip, and everyone was buckled into their carseat, I was exhausted. We lucked out on the way home though and got right on the ferry as it was preparing to head back towards Edmonds. It was definitely an epic couple of days that we won’t soon forget. Big thanks to Solana and Josh for having us out; I hope we can do it again.

A few days before the big weekend I received the good news that I had been promoted at work. I’m now a Software Engineer II at Microsoft, which is kind of hard to believe, but nevertheless is something that I’m very proud of. I didn’t even know that my manager had submitted me for a promotion, so getting the news that he submitted me, and that upper-level management had approved it after I’d only been there about 16 months (at the time) was very humbling. Normally the promotion schedule for people around my level is every 2 years, so to have been approved at 16 months, and then actually received it at 18 months was really cool. We went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant that night to celebrate, but the best part of the whole experience was getting home from work that day and being greeted by Ava and Elise (who looked so pretty in their dresses) saying “Congratulations Daddy, we’re so proud of you!” That was very special.

Although I had a new sense of pride going into work the following day, this isn’t something that I’m dwelling on. It’s nice to take a moment to reflect when something like this happens, but I’m already thinking about what’s next. One thing I love about this industry is that there is always room to learn and grow, and one thing I love about Microsoft is that you will always be rewarded for your growth. I’m working with my manager on improving my technical breadth, technical depth in certain areas, leadership, communication, etc. He knows what my goals are and is obviously committed to helping me achieve them. I definitely feel lucky to have landed where I have at Microsoft and intend to be there for the long-term.

Earlier this week I got to have a surprise lunch with my friend Garth, who was my first mentor at Amazon back in early 2013. He’s actually the person who interviewed me over the phone when we were living in San Diego, which means he basically gave me my first opportunity with Amazon. We were teammates for a couple years before he left to take a Senior Software Engineer role at Disney. He was on Microsoft campus this week for a special ‘Hackathon’ event being sponsored by Microsoft and Disney, so we got to catch up over lunch on Tuesday. We’re about the same age, married with kids (although he’s got me beat with 5), and we’ve always gotten along great since the first time we met. It was nice sharing what I’ve been up to at Microsoft and hearing about all the big things he’s got going on, including special recognition for a room availability website he put together internally at the Disney offices in Downtown Seattle that uses motion detectors in meeting rooms to collect data on their usage, then reports it to their space planning staff. He’ll be receiving an award at a private Disney conference in Burbank, then will be speaking at a big public NodeJS conference in Nashville in the coming months. I’m proud of him and everything he’s done, so it was great to catch up.

The day before yesterday was the first day of preschool for Ava and Elise, so I worked from home in order to be able to take them to and from. Although Ava already started going to preschool back in January, it was still surreal (and a bit emotional) to see her and Elise going in for their first day together. They go to the same school on the same days (Tuesday and Thursday) but at different times of day, meaning Enzo gets some quality time with each of them on those days while the other is at school. As expected they both had a great first day and were excited to show me what they had made. Elise made a paper with her hand prints and when Ava saw it she said “Oh did you make that for me Elise?” and Elise replied “No I made it for Daddy.”

Although Jessica didn’t work a ton during the Summer (because that’s their slow season), things are picking up now and she’s going to be working more frequently through the end of the year. Things are also picking back up for me at work after a slow August (when practically everyone is out on vacation), hence the title of this post. We’re already thinking about our next house, and have set some big goals for ourselves, so it’s back to the grindstone for us.

This evening we’ll be taking the kids to a fund-raising event being thrown by some relatives on Jessica’s side. There will be a pumpkin patch, corn maze, and I think even pony rides, so it should be a lot of fun for them. Then I can’t wait to watch the Seahawks play the Dolphins in the season opener tomorrow afternoon. It’s been a good summer. Bring on the photos!

Our wedding invitation – notice the dragon in the top-right corner

Here’s a few photos from our first visit to Hood’s Head Island – July 4, 2009

Best shot ever! This was not supposed to happen…

Visiting the dragon with the kids

Every time Ava came to shore her boots would be overflowing with water

Ahoy matey! Straight ahead!

This photo describes our girls perfectly. One is cautious and stays at the edge of harm’s way, while the other forges ahead throwing care to the wind. I love them both beyond words.

The kids! Left to right: Ronan, Ava, Elise, Enzo, and Finn

Hanging our on our little private beach. That’s the boathouse behind them.

Ready to go home on Sunday morning

Hanging out with the kiddos

Returning from one of my sherpa trips with Josh. The fog had cleared by then.

See you next time, Hood’s Head Island!

Ava getting her hair done before the first day of school

Elise getting ready for her first haircut

All done up and feeling good

Having fun at the Zoo yesterday

Hi birdy

Although it took a while for the weather to fully kick in this year, we’re still having a summer to remember. The biggest thing we’ve done since my last post was attend the Pellegrini-Giuntoli family reunion at Wilcox park in Lynnwood. There were people there that I haven’t seen since our last family reunion in Lakebay, which was about 30 years ago. Obviously it was really cool to see how everyone has turned out. My sister Lora traveled from New Hampshire to be there, my Mom flew in from Vegas and stayed the weekend with us, and our cousin Bob and his family came all the way from China! We also had plenty of people driving from Aberdeen, Eastern Washington, and Idaho in order to be there, so it was really special to have everyone together.

The most important thing about the party was that my Aunt Norma, who recently turned 90 and is most certainly the matriarch of the family, was there with us. It wouldn’t have been complete without her. I hadn’t seen Lora since our Grandma Gigi’s funeral, which was about 12 years ago, so she had never even met Jessica, let alone met any of our kids. We ended up spending time with her (and Dana of course) on 3 consecutive days. I honestly think that was the first time in my life that my two sisters and I spent time together 3 days in a row. I guess that may have happened before when I was little, but it’s certainly the first time I can remember. It was such a nice visit and seemed to rekindle our relationship, in fact just this morning we did a Skype call with Lora and her 3 kids: Carl, Megan, and Evan. I really hope we can stay in regular contact with them, and I look forward to showing Evan, who is about to turn 15 and recently started playing guitar, my collection of guitars, amplifiers, and effects. I’m sure he would get a kick out of it, or at least he’d probably humor me and listen to me blabber on about my gear.

We wanted to get together with Dana, Brad, and Lora before the family reunion, which was on a Saturday, so on that Friday night the 3 of them came over and joined us for dinner at our house. We had first considered going out to a restaurant, but Jessica and I didn’t think that would be best for the kids. We felt better about having everyone over to our house so we could take our time, and Lora could see the kids in their own environment. Plus I wanted to cook a special meal.

I felt like the most obvious dish to make that night would be Cioppino, which was our Dad’s favorite thing to make for special occasions. If you’re not familiar with the dish, it’s a seafood stew in a light tomato broth that originated in San Francisco. It’s normally made with a variety of fresh shellfish and served with toasted sourdough, which is perfect for dipping in the broth. I made it this time with fresh dungeness crab, scallops, clams, and pacific rockfish, plus a variety of minced veggies. I was very happy with how it turned out and everyone seemed to enjoy, so that was great. We ended up hanging out and chatting for quite a while, so it was a perfect way to start off the weekend.

All this talk about food just reminded me of Enzo’s new Instagram page. Basically Jessica was showing Dana and Lora a bunch of photos she had taken of him eating, and they were pretty funny, so one of them said “You’ve got to put together a photo collage of Enzo eating.” After thinking about it, she decided it would be a cute idea for an Instagram page, so she created “Eat with Enzo” (just search for #EatWithEnzo). There’s no question that eating is his favorite thing to do these days, so hopefully this will be a good place to capture him doing what he loves most.

We were hoping for beautiful weather the day of the reunion but had to settle for mid 60’s and cloudy. It may have been a blessing in disguise though because we weren’t able to secure a rental on one of the park’s covered areas, meaning we just set up a bunch of tables and chairs in the park and had our party, but had it been a hot sunny day it certainly would have been uncomfortable. Catching up with cousins I hadn’t seen in so long was really nice, and we ended up exchanging numbers with several people. Hopefully we can stay in better touch now. As expected, the kids were a big hit at the party, and I was so proud of how they conducted themselves the whole day. We were out there for quite a while, and there was no time for rest, but they all powered through and had a great time.

In addition to the family reunion, we got together with Kristy a couple times recently. On the night of my birthday we met up with her and a friend to watch the Seafair Torchlight Parade in Seattle, then exactly two weeks later we celebrated her birthday by going swimming at Jim & Brenda’s place, then having lunch and watching the first Seahawks preseason game. We’re getting together with her and Madi again next weekend so that should be fun.

Jessica and I have been enjoying watching the Olympics this summer. I totally remember writing a post during the last Summer Olympics (when we were living in California with just baby Ava and the dogs) and saying that we would be going to the Rio Olympics in 2016. Obviously that didn’t happen, but we’ve got 2 more beautiful babies instead, so I think we’ll take that. I’m actually glad we didn’t go, considering everything I’m hearing in the news about the conditions in Rio. They’re coming off pretty 2nd world at best.

One of the sports podcasts I listen to was recently trashing on the Olympics saying that they’re sports for non-sports fans, and that real sports fans don’t like the Olympics. They went on to hypothesize that people watch the Olympics more for the stories about the athletes than they do for the actual competition. I couldn’t disagree more, and I am a true sports fan, but I totally enjoy watching the Olympics and would never consider the two to be mutually exclusive. Although I do enjoy some of the stories, the competition is still easily my favorite part. Some of the finishes in the swimming races we were watching last week had me jumping off the couch and yelling like a lunatic… with a bum foot too! And don’t get me started on the sprinting in Track and Field. That said, I was bummed last night after watching the recent HBO Real Sports episode on the IOC (International Olympic Committee). Basically the level of corruption behind the Olympics is disgusting and can only be rivaled by FIFA, so you know it’s bad. It’s not the athlete’s fault though, so I’ll continue to enjoy the competition (and the occasional heart warming story).

Speaking of a bum foot, after wearing it for 3 weeks after my skateboarding accident, yesterday was my first day out of the protective boot. I was supposed to get new X-rays that morning but they had to reschedule my appointment. I decided to stick to the schedule though by not wearing the boot to work that day and everything was totally fine. Then today we decided to get out and enjoy the hot sunny weather by going on a family hike over on Lord Hill. We ended up going about 4 miles through the forest and I had no problems, even though I carried Enzo on my back for 90% of it.

Although there is no more pain in my big toe, unfortunately I’m unable to really bend the front joint, which is the one that had both fractures. It’s funny because on my right foot (the one that has never been injured) I can easily ball up all my toes and make the foot’s equivalent of a fist. Not so much on my left foot though. I had already broken a toe on my left foot a few years ago, and now this whole ordeal, so let’s just say that when I try to do the same thing with my left foot, the range of motion is embarrassingly less. It’s so weird because I’m looking at my toe and I’m telling it to bend, but it’s just not listening. It really doesn’t matter though, and I honestly have nothing to complain about. In fact, I’m ‘all in’ with that scrunching up of the toes move as being the most useless movement the human body can make. I’m open for debate though so leave a comment if you’ve got something better 🙂

Obviously we’re still in the middle of a presidential election, and although I’ve shared my feelings here in the past, I’ve been doing my best to save that stuff for in-person conversations only. I try to keep from sharing too much on social media, and I figure there’s no reason to double down on my feelings here in the blog. Things are playing out pretty much as I expected, meaning Bernie didn’t get the democratic nomination (although I must admit I was somewhat ignorant to the rigging of the system that assured his demise), and Trump, who I always knew would get the republican nomination, appears to be self-imploding.

It’s tough because I listen to a lot of political podcasts from a variety of sources, I’ve put effort into forming my own opinions, and I enjoy talking politics (particularly with Jessica) more now than ever, but ultimately I don’t feel that this is the right place for me to spout off on all that stuff. I guess that’s all based in having respect for you, the reader, who may or may not agree with me, but either way isn’t coming here for political commentary. You’re coming here because you care about our family, and I appreciate that, so it wouldn’t be right for me to force my views down anyone’s throat, even though they are quite centrist I must say… There’s a bit of a fine line here though, because I want my kids to read all this stuff some day and have a good solid understanding of who we are as people, what our principles and priorities are, etc., but there’s a way to get all that stuff across without being forceful about it. It’s a fact of life that not everyone you’re close to is always going to agree with you politically and religiously, but I always fall back on the mindset that differences of opinion and perspective are a catalyst for strength, not weakness or individualism. Plus, to put it more succinctly, family will always come before politics.

We’ve been seeing some good live music this summer and tomorrow will certainly add to that. This will be our 3rd (and final) Zoo Tunes show of the year. We’re seeing a couple old geezers by the names of Jeff Beck and Buddy Guy. As a guitar fan, and an aficionado of playing the blues, seeing these two guys will be a major bucket list moment for me. We’re going with my friend/co-worker Chad and his wife Renee, who are expecting their first child (a boy) in October. We’ll be bringing the girls with us while Enzo stays with a friend. A couple weeks ago we went to a Zoo Tunes show with our friends the Palmer’s and saw my two favorite reggae groups: Steel Pulse, and Ziggy Marley. That was a great time, so I’m sure tomorrow will be a lot of fun as well.

In a couple weeks we’ll be celebrating Labor Day by roughing it with our friends the O’Hair’s at their cabin in Hood Canal. I say roughing it because the only form of power is an old generator, and the ‘facilities’ are basically just an outhouse. A far cry from last year’s Labor Day, when we stayed in Amy and Tom’s bus in Lake Chelan for the weekend. I’m sure it will be fun though; we’re only there for two nights and our days will be spent playing on the beach, setting crab pots, and probably putting back a few Coors Lights. I think I’m going to bring my acoustic guitar too.

Ava’s 5th birthday falls on Black Friday this year, which is funny because she was born on Black Friday. I’ll certainly never forget that Thanksgiving, even though it was just the two of us at our beach house in P.B. and we didn’t even make a turkey. We’re going to do Thanksgiving this year over at Kristy’s with her and Maid, plus Uncle Jim and Aunt Brenda, then do Ava’s birthday party that Sunday after Amy and Tom arrive. Then of course we’ve got Iowa to look forward to this Christmas.

Alright enough of my blabbering. I know you’re just here for the recent photos anyway, so here you go. Thanks for checking in on us!

Enjoying our hike on Lord Hill this afternoon

Love these girls

Ready for Daddy’s birthday dinner

Our little helpers

I guess Enzo likes birds

Ava in her happy place

My beautiful little girl is getting big

Repeat that last caption again right here

Elise doing her best lion impression. Love that mane Weese.

Who says we’re done with the bath?

#EatWithEnzo

Before I get to the story of what happened last night, I first want to wish my sister Lora a happy birthday, and wish our sweet little Enzo a happy 18 months! He’s officially a year and a half old now and couldn’t be doing better. We had a bit of a close call last night, which I’ll get to in a second, but he’s totally fine. Lora, whom I haven’t seen since our Grandmother Gigi’s funeral 12 years ago, will be in town next week for our family reunion, so it will be great to introduce her to Jessica and the kids.

I also want to give my love to my Uncle Jim, who had neck surgery on Tuesday. I’ve been speaking to Brenda and Kristy via text messages and they said he’s doing really well. He went home from the hospital last night and I’m looking forward to talking to him this weekend. I’m just thankful that he got it done and everything went well.

Okay, so last night started off no different than most other recent nights when Jessica has to work. Since the weather is so nice, the kids and I go out to the cul-de-sac to ‘scoot ‘n skate’ after work. The girls ride their scooters and I ride my longboard skateboard while holding Enzo. If you’ve been to our house then you know that we live on a basically flat street. There is a very slight decline coming down the street towards the cul-de-sac, so we ride about half-way up the street, turn around, and ride back to (and around) the cul-de-sac. Enzo loves riding with me and gets very upset if I make a run without him. Of course I always make sure he’s wearing a helmet when we take a ride.

The day before, which was Tuesday, our next-door neighbor Marcus turned 9 years old and received a motorized scooter for his birthday. On an unrelated sidenote, that day was also the 10 year anniversary of my best friend Spencer drowning in Lake Washington. Obviously he was on my mind a lot that day.

Marcus has been out on the street riding his new scooter as much as possible, so when he saw the kids and I outside riding, he came out to join us. We all rode up and down the street a couple times, then the girls went to draw on the sidewalk in front of our house with chalk. I think Ava was a bit upset with me because she wanted to ride with me on the skateboard, but I was still holding Enzo. I figured I’d get her for the next run and started heading back up the street. As I was on my way I noticed Marcus coming up behind me to do a run with Enzo and I.

Now here’s where it gets weird. I can’t explain this at all, but I absolutely promise this is true; as I was turning around to head back down towards the cul-de-sac I felt a strange sensation that something was wrong, and I knew Marcus was going to crash into us. I specifically remember saying to myself before making the run “Don’t crash into us down there Marcus.” It’s not like this was the first time I’ve been out there with him either, and nothing like this had happened before, but in some very strange way that I cannot explain, I knew we were about to crash a full 10-15 seconds before it happened. Why I didn’t listen to this strange instinctual feeling is beyond me though, so I headed down the street for another run. I’m not trying to sound weird by saying this, and I don’t even know how to explain it, but I definitely sensed it before it happened.

As I approached the cul-de-sac I went left, then looked back and saw Marcus go right. So basically we took opposite sides of the circle but soon found ourselves coming at each other towards the back of the cul-de-sac. Not unlike riding a motorcycle, when you’re riding a skateboard (or snowboard), where you look is where you’ll go. I made eye contact with Marcus from 25 feet away and he had a look of panic on his face. I turned to go inside and so did he, so then I quickly tried to turn back outside, but so did he. Not because he wanted to hit me, obviously, but because he was looking at me, and where you look is where you shall go.

As we got closer I tried to stop the skateboard by dragging my back foot on the ground, but it was too late. Since I was holding Enzo with my right arm, my primary concern was to fall to my left and shield him from the blow. I was wearing my Crocodile clog sandals and my left (front) leg slammed into the front arm of his scooter, fracturing my big toe in 2 places and opening up a cut on my shin that would later require 5 stitches to close up. I fell to my left, as I had hoped to, making contact on the ground on my left kneecap and the palm of my left hand. After that there was nothing I could do to stop myself from falling to my right. I kinda bent my right wrist outward while holding Enzo and was able to fall onto that, but his helmet still hit the ground.

Of course the fall scared him to death, and a second later he was screaming uncontrollably. I was a bit disoriented, and poor Marcus was sitting there very scared and silent. My only concern was Enzo, because I heard his helmet hit the concrete and I was so afraid of a head injury. I think I cursed once or twice but don’t remember exactly what I said; I was just so worried about my little guy. Marcus’ dad Jim heard all the screaming and came out to see what was going on. I just remember him saying “Was there an accident?” and I said “Yeah we ran into each other head first.” I stood up while still holding Enzo and realized as soon as I took my first step that something was definitely wrong with my big toe on my left foot. I looked down and there was a fair amount of blood starting to run down my leg, and I was missing my shoe. By this point Ava and Elise came running over and they were totally freaking out. I had a big abrasion on my left knee cap that was full of gravel, a nice gash on my left shin, and another abrasion on my right wrist. Ava definitely didn’t like seeing all the blood and had a hard time calming down.

Jim’s wife Cara came running out to see what was going on and I told them Marcus was okay, but that I was worried about Enzo. Cara took him for me and started examining him very closely. I was in a bit of shock and didn’t know exactly what to do. I went into our house to try and clean up my wounds but quickly realized that I wouldn’t be able to do it by myself. I then shifted focus to my toe and tried to bend it. Let’s just say that the pain I felt at that point was insane. There was no question it was broken. I’ve broken/fractured multiple bones before this, including a toe when we lived in San Diego, but the fact that this was my big toe made it different. Obviously that toe carries more weight when you walk than any other toe, so the only way I could walk was to put all my weight solely on my heel when stepping on that foot. Placing any weight towards the front of my foot simply wasn’t an option.

I knew I had to see a doctor immediately, but I didn’t want to act like it was that bad because I could tell Ava and Elise were really scared, so I sent Jessica a couple text messages explaining what happened and then called El Gaucho Bellevue to leave a message for her at the front desk. I then (slowly) walked back outside with the girls to see how Enzo was doing. Immediately Jim and Cara told me Enzo was totally fine, so that was a huge relief. I watched him for a couple minutes anyway and could tell that he was completely back to normal. Though I couldn’t help but think of what could have happened had he not been wearing his helmet. It may have saved his life.

I then told Jim and Cara that I needed to go to the hospital because my big toe was broken and they looked mortified. They felt so bad about what happened, which in turn made me feel bad because I certainly wasn’t mad at Marcus. He’s just a kid and obviously didn’t intend for this to happen. If anything I’m the adult out there and it’s on me to avoid him. Their whole family have become good friends of ours over the past 2 years and I didn’t want them to worry about anything. The only person I was mad at was myself. Riding my skateboard while holding my child probably wasn’t the best decision to begin with, and the collision with Marcus was a total accident.

Luckily Jim and Cara immediately offered to watch the kids so I could go to the ER. Jim offered to drive me but I said no, just stay here with the kids. I knew Jessica would be heading home immediately once she got my messages. Although my plan was to go to the same ER everyone in our family not named Elise has been to this year, which is Swedish Mill Creek, Cara recommended trying Mill Creek Family Practice, which is where both of our families go, because it would be much faster and much less expensive. I didn’t realize they could do X-rays there but it turned out they could. I called them once I was on the way and they said their office was closing in 30 minutes but if I could be there in 10 minutes then that would be fine.

Jessica called me while I was on the way and of course she was a bit panicked. Her main concern was Enzo, as it should be, so I did my best to assure her that he was totally fine. She left work immediately, came straight home and did a full examination of him last night, then another one this morning, and literally couldn’t find a single scratch or bruise on him. His helmet was the only thing that hit the ground, and we’ll be replacing it today.

So I got to the doctor’s office and hobbled in, for some reason still carrying the clog for my left foot. I was a disoriented. By this point the pain was ridiculous and I think I was in shock because I was overly chatty with everyone I came across. Since I was bleeding in multiple locations, they did a quick makeshift patch-up of my cuts, then took me back for X-rays. This was rather unpleasant because they have to put these big foam wedges between the big toe and the rest of the toes in order to get a clear photo of it. Even the slightest movements of the toe were incredibly painful at this point so I couldn’t wait to be done.

After X-rays they took me to a new room to start cleaning up my wounds. I immediately loved my nurse so that made things better. She told me about having 4 sons and being no stranger to these types of injuries. She was just so cool the whole time, but for some reason I forgot to get her name. As soon as my X-rays were developed she stepped outside the room to check them out. The first thing she said was “Whoa, your pain is legit. This is pretty bad.” Although that’s generally not something you want to hear, I have to admit I was actually a bit relieved. I guess a small part of me was worried up until then that I was overreacting and that nothing was actually wrong. She offered to show them to me, so I hobbled out there to take a look. She showed me two crossing fractures in the joint of the toe that basically formed the letter T. It also looks like part of the bone was splintered. I’m not gonna lie or pretend to be tougher than I am, seeing and hearing all that made me a little queasy.

We went back to the room to continue cleaning up my wounds and she decided to take my blood pressure. She strapped that thing onto my bicep, started pumping the little ball, unstrapped me, then less than a minute later she was strapping me up to do it all over again. This should have been a red flag to me, but I’ve always had normal blood pressure, and was still a bit out of it, so I didn’t think about it. She told me my blood pressure was very low and that it was a bit of a concern. All I remember was that thing getting tighter and tighter on my arm, and then I started seeing stars. I sort of meekly spoke up and said “Can I have a glass of water? I think I’m about to pass out.” She was on it immediately and a few seconds later there was another nurse in there in position to catch me in case I actually did faint. I think the combination of the pain, seeing the X-rays, hearing about the damage to the bone, seeing the gash in my shin and gravel-crusted abrasions on my knee and wrist, punctuated with that ever-tightening strap on my arm was about as much as I could handle. I didn’t pass out though. I slammed 2 glasses of water while they removed the blood pressure strap and I kinda snapped out of it.

The doctor came in shortly thereafter, but before entering the room I could hear him and my nurse discussing my X-rays. She was pointing everything out to him as she had to me, and I just remember him saying “I don’t know what that is.” Not exactly very confidence-inspiring. He came in and explained that I would need to see a specialist about my toe. He said that if it were any other toe it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but the big toe (or Great Toe as they call it) is different because it carries so much of your weight. He explained that I had a “comminuted intra-articular fracture of the distal end of the proximal phalanx left great toe.” This was written down, otherwise there is no way I could have remembered all that. Only a podiatrist would know the best way to treat this type of fracture, so he gave me a referral, then moved on to sewing up the gash in my shin, which required 5 stitches. Obviously they numbed it before sewing, but those 4 numbing shots he gave me right on my shin may have been the most painful part of the entire evening.

He said it wasn’t crucial that I get to a specialist immediately, like the next day, but that I needed to stay off my left foot in the meantime. They gave me a set of crutches, a CD with the images from my X-rays, and a prescription for painkillers. By this point it had been a couple hours since the accident and I still hadn’t had anything to help with the pain, so I was pretty eager to get that script filled. It’s that type of pain that’s kind of dull but just keeps building and building. Then you accidentally put some weight on it and it turns into this searing acute pain that takes your breath away.

As I stood up to walk with crutches for the first time my nurse says “Michael how are you feeling right now?” I told her I was okay and she said “Really? Because you look pretty green. How about we wheel you down to your car?” I reluctantly accepted and went from walking on crutches for the first time to riding in a wheelchair for the first time. Once again everyone was so nice and helpful, they even helped me in my car and got me all situated. I really can’t say enough good things about Mill Creek Family Practice, in fact I plan on writing a really nice review about them on Yelp. There’s no question that our whole family will continue going there.

On my way home I drove through the Bartell’s pharmacy near our house and dropped off my prescription, then when I got home Jessica got me all setup on the couch before going back to pick up my pills. By the time I actually took a pain pill it had been over 3 hours since the accident and the pain was just wearing me out. Normally pain pills don’t bother me much, but as luck would have it this time was different. It didn’t take long before I started feeling nauseous, then soon found myself dry heaving over a mixing bowl in the kitchen. Not fun.

I considered sleeping on the couch last night so I wouldn’t have to deal with the stairs, but I felt like I’d sleep better in my bed, so I came up with a system for going upstairs. Basically I sat on my but facing the living room on one of the bottom stairs, then while keeping my left foot elevated, I used my arms and right leg to lift myself up one stair at a time. It was a slow process, and I felt a bit like Lieutenant Dan from Forrest Gump, but it worked. I’ve been upstairs ever since.

Luckily I was able to get an appointment with the specialist tomorrow morning at 8:30, however I’m a bit nervous because I don’t know what to expect. Are they going to re-break it to straighten it out? Or are they going to put a pin in my toe, which the doctor last night said was a possibility. I’m kinda just hoping for one of those big black boots and my crutches, but we’ll see.

I’m refusing to let this affect our plans though. We’re still meeting Kristy for the Seafair Torchlight Parade on Saturday night, still meeting Jodi, Leon, and Miles for the reggae concert at Woodland Park Zoo on Tuesday evening (Steel Pulse baby!), and certainly still attending the family reunion next Saturday in Lynwood. I’ll be zipping around on these crutches in no time.

Ava confided in Mommy this morning that she is mad at me for walking with crutches. She wants me to stand on my own two feet. She’s been so sweet all morning though; she keeps coming up to check on me. She says she’s going to take care of me until I’m all better.

Honestly this whole thing is a bit embarrassing, but more importantly I just feel thankful that Enzo and Marcus weren’t hurt. If anyone was going to take the blow it needed to be me, and I’m glad it was. Jessica also made a good point that I’m lucky it was a toe getting broken rather than a finger. Not being able to type wouldn’t be good for me professionally. Obviously I won’t be riding my skateboard again anytime soon, but I’ll eventually get back on it. Yesterday wasn’t the first time I got stitches from a skateboarding accident, however my days of holding a child while riding are officially over. At least I’ll always have my guitars.

Last Saturday we celebrated Elise’s 3rd birthday by holding a dinosaur-themed party at the house. Although the official theme of the party was ‘dinosaur’, I think this one will be remembered as the Bouncy House party. Basically we rented a bouncy house for a day and set it up in our driveway for all the kids (and adults) to play in. I would have written sooner about the party but was waiting to get the photos back from my good friend Leon, who was taking tons of pics throughout the day.

We were joined by Amy, Uncle Jim & Aunt Brenda, Kristy, Dana, Brad & Anna, Leon & Miles, the Lester’s, the O’Hair’s, our neighbors the Schreiber’s, and our neighbors the Brown’s. It was a pretty full house, but we had more than enough room because Jessica put a lot of work into converting our garage into a party space. There were tables and chairs setup everywhere, plenty of fans, and more importantly, plenty of food. Like last year, we put out a taco bar (including my homemade guacamole) for everyone to enjoy, plus lots of snacks. Then later of course we enjoyed a nice big birthday cake from Costco.

We were expecting hot weather like last year, but this summer has been much milder than we’ve had in the previous few, so we ended up with a 70 degree, partly cloudy day. It was totally fine though. Considering how much jumping everyone was doing, had it been much hotter it probably would have been uncomfortable.

All I can say about the bouncy house is that it was a huge hit. Obviously it was mostly filled with kids, but every once in awhile one of the parents would get it there as well. We ended up having it for a full 24 hours, so on Saturday afternoon we just kept it going even after the party had ended. Kids from throughout the neighborhood kept coming over and everyone had a great time. Several parents were also coming over to say thanks to us for allowing their kids to bounce, which of course was totally fine with us. Next thing we knew, some of these parents started breaking out some bottles of wine, and all of the sudden we had a full-blown block party on our hands. The Brown’s even got out their mobile fire pit and started making s’mores for everyone. It was a really good time; so much so that Jessica and I are actually considering getting our own bouncy house someday. We figured if we only got it out 3-4 times a year for the next 10-12 years it would be worth it. We’ll see how that turns out, but regardless I’m glad we got it for this party because everyone had a blast.

As usual our guest were far too kind – not only to Elise but to all 3 of our kids. Thank you so much to everyone who came for all the presents. You’re too good to us but we appreciate it very much. It was definitely a day to remember.

I’ll keep it short this time and let the pictures do most of the talking, however I did want to mention that this month PellegriniPage.com turned 5 years old. It’s hard to believe it’s already been 5 years, but when we started this thing we were living in a little shack by the beach in San Diego, Jessica was pregnant with Ava, and I had just made the decision to switch careers and get back into web development. I guess it’s fair to say we’ve come a long way since then.

Big thanks again to Leon for taking such great photos. We’re quite lucky to have such a talented photographer in our inner circle. We’ve got plenty of fun stuff to look forward to in the near future, including the Torchlight Parade with Kristy on the night of my birthday, then the Pellegrini-Giuntoli Family Reunion the following Saturday, followed by Kristy’s birthday the Saturday after that.

Happy 3rd Birthday Elise – we love you to the moon and back!

The birthday girl with her new tiger

Settling in with the bouncy house

Love that smile Ava

Sweet little Elise with her new doll Chloe

Best friends forever

Although cautious, Enzo enjoyed the bouncy house as well

Elise savoring her birthday cake

There were plenty of presents to open

Ava loves cheese puffs. Actually they all do.

Happy Birthday sweet Elise

Today our sweet little Elise turns 3 years old! Since her party isn’t until the day after tomorrow, and I know I’ll be writing a post about it shortly thereafter, I promise to keep this short and sweet. I just want her to know how much Mommy, Daddy, Ava, and Enzo love her. As Jessica and I often say, she’s our little Peanuts character; she’s always got something either smeared on her face or tangled in her hair (or both), she’s usually wearing her shoes backwards, and she’s always dragging Pippo around everywhere. It’s pretty hilarious.

These days Elise’s favorite characters are Arlo (The Good Dinosaur), and a dog named Chase from Paw Patrol. She loves bread enough to make any Italian proud, and she looks up to her sister Ava like you wouldn’t believe. On Grandpa Rick’s recent visit he commented on how much she has grown and matured since he last saw her in January. She still says she’s going to play the drums once she and Ava form their band, but for now she’s content with ponies, trains, and dolls.

Elise frequently says to me “I love you Daddy, you’re my best Daddy.” She’s so sweet and loving with everybody and already knows how to make others feel good. Her favorite color is orange, and her favorite animals are tigers and kitty cats. Like Ava, Elise can haul ass up and down our street on her scooter, which kinda freaks Jessica and I out, but to attempt to stop them may as well be futile. Ava frequently likes to say to me “Daddy I love you around the volcano” and then Elise always follows with “Daddy I love you around the rock climber”. Although I’m not exactly sure what to make of that, I’ll stay in that same vain and simply say: Elise I love you around the volcano being climbed by a rock climber, over the moon, around the sun, and back. Looking forward to celebrating your birthday this weekend.

Today Grandpa Rick flew home after spending a nice long weekend with us. As usual with his visits, Jessica had a long list of house projects for him to work on, but just as usual was Rick’s willingness to go above and beyond with all the help he provides. Painting, hanging chandeliers, installing fans and lights, cleaning the gutters, and manicuring the front yard were all standard daily activities. In the end it all turned out looking great and of course we appreciate the help so much. I could only wish to be a fraction as handy.

Besides all the time spent working, there was still plenty of time for fun. Rick made us nice steak dinners on Thursday and Friday night, so on Saturday afternoon I got a wild hair to get down in the kitchen and make a seafood feast. I took the girls to the park for a bit, then off to a couple different stores to get groceries for the evening. It was one of those great nights where you’re in the kitchen all night long, taking your time with each course, then sitting down to enjoy it before beginning on the next. We enjoyed Japanese Kusshi oysters on the half shell, a seafood salad with all kinds of fresh shellfish, grilled octopus, and various fresh fruits and veggies. Then for entrees we went to work on some beautiful jumbo Alaskan King crab legs, with roasted carrots and sauteed brussel sprouts on the side. Dinner turned out nicely, but more importantly it was a great night full of conversation, stories, and catching up. Before we knew it the clock struck midnight and we were still sitting around the kitchen table.

Sunday ended up being a really fun day as well, and it almost happened by accident. I was supposed to have band practice from 11:00 – 1:00, but it got cancelled the night before due to a scheduling conflict. Jessica immediately got on her phone looking for things going on, and ended up finding a vintage car / plane show at Paine Field in Everett. I always love going to car shows, but I’ve never been to one like this where not only did they have a sick collection of cars to look at, but they also had a variety of old WWII bombers that were flying around overhead and parking up close for people to check out. I couldn’t believe how loud those things are when they fly over you! There were so many vintage planes to check out, plus they had a few cars that I’d never seen in person before, including a 1966 Ford GT-40 and an original Shelby Cobra. Rick loved checking out the planes, but couldn’t help going down memory lane a few times when seeing an old car that he used to drive back in the day. It was a really cool event.

After the show we went down into Downtown Snohomish for lunch. They’ve got a really cool little scene down there in Snohomish and we always end up having fun. Lunch was great, then we strolled around a bit and did some window shopping. Shortly after getting home I had to throw the girls in the van and head down to our friend Miles’ 3rd birthday party. They rented out a gymnastics gym and the kids had the place to themselves, so they could run and jump to their heart’s content. I was walking across this huge trampoline to find a place to sit, and let’s just say I stepped in the wrong spot near the edge. What I thought was solid turned out to give away beneath me like a trap door and I basically fell one entire leg down between trampolines. Then some mom comes over to rescue me and the embarrassment just completely washes over me. Luckily I was with friends.

The girls loved it though and I couldn’t believe how much energy they still had considering what a busy morning we’d already had. Both of them would run full speed back and forth and jump into these huge pits filled with foam blocks. Then next thing you know they’re bouncing on a trampoline or swinging on a rope. One thing that surprised me was how much they both enjoyed the balance beam. It was definitely fun to watch.

We finished off the weekend with a trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant. Jessica and I had been eating healthy since getting home from the cruise, but we decided to break our streak during Grandpa’s visit, and I’m glad we did. Rick couldn’t believe the way the girls can put away some chips and salsa, and Jessica enjoyed a much deserved margarita. The final game of this year’s Copa America soccer tournament was on all over the restaurant, and everyone was really into it, so we hung out and watched as it came down to penalty kicks.

The kids were sad to see him go today but we’ve got a white Christmas to look forward to in Iowa this year. I’m sure it will be here before we know it. We always have fun when he comes out so hopefully it won’t be too long before we get another visit.

Last weekend was Father’s Day, and for the second year in a row, we met up with Jim, Brenda, and Kristy, at the car show in Burien. There were tons of classic cars, food trucks, performances, and a bouncy house for the kids to enjoy. Later that night we had King crab legs (yep two weekends in a row) and watched game 7 of the NBA Finals. Definitely my kind of day. I’m glad to have the Father’s Day car show as an annual tradition and even more glad we got to spend it with them. We’ll be spending the day with Kristy and Madi for the Fourth of July so we’ve got that to look forward to next.

In other family news I had a nice talk with the owner’s of Card Player Cruises this morning and decided that it would be best for me to transition out of working for them. It was nothing negative or uncomfortable in any way. I just explained that as I continue to take on more responsibility at my day job, I have less and less time to devote to them. The only thing that was able to give lately was family time, and I soon felt like I was ignoring my family in order to get work done. As I told them, I don’t want to be one of those Dad’s who thinks bringing in a paycheck is the only thing that matters. They’re only going to be little for so long and I don’t want to look back down the road with regrets because I spent too much time working and not enough time involved in my kids’ lives. They totally understood where I was coming from and agreed that family has to come first, so it couldn’t have been more amicable. Since there’s basically no limit to opportunities for career advancement at Microsoft, it seems pretty logical to keep my focus there and not distract myself with anything else moving forward.

Elise’s 3rd birthday is coming up in a few weeks and we’re planning a fun party for her. We’ll be renting a bouncy house and inviting a bunch of families over. Then a few weeks after that we’ve got the Pellegrini/Giuntoli family reunion. This will be the first time in many years that I’ve seen quite a few family members, most of whom have never met Jessica or the kids. It’s far overdue so I’m glad we’ve finally got this nailed down. We changed the location from Moscow, Idaho, to Lynnwood, WA, mainly so my Aunt Norma, who just turned 90 this month, could go. There would be no point having this event if Aunt Norma couldn’t be there so I’m glad it all worked out. I just spoke to her last week on her birthday and I truly can’t believe how great she sounds. So vibrant and full of life, just as I remember her 30 years ago. Jessica and the kids made her birthday cards and dropped them off at the front desk of her building the day before her birthday, along with flowers, balloons, and a recent photo of me with the kids. When I spoke to her on the phone the next day she was beaming. She loved everything, but what I loved more than anything is when she said Enzo, whom she was seeing for the first time in that photo, had an uncanny resemblance to my Dad when he was a little boy. Of course I was happy to hear that, but most of all I can’t wait to introduce them at the party.

Guess that’s about it for now. Happy 4th of July weekend to all, and of course happy birthday on the 4th of July to my amazing sister Dana, or Auntie Dana as we call her around these parts. We love you so much and hope you have a great day!

Ava is quite the little photographer these days. You never know when she’s going to strike!

Grandpa’s girls

Yesterday morning we returned home from a week at sea with my Mom aboard Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas. We visited ports in Juneau and Skagway, Alaska, as well as Victoria, British Columbia. The Explorer was the largest cruise ship ever to sail out of Seattle, and was also the largest passenger ship to ever visit any port (or glacier) in Alaska. As expected we had a great time, as well as a few challenges along the way, but without question we will never forget our first true family vacation, and I’m so thankful we got to spend it with my Mom. This week was the longest visit she’s ever had with the kids and I think it was good for everyone.

Before I get into the details of our trip I want to pay my respects to Bella. I know Jessica already wrote about her passing but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say something. As I’ve said in several posts, the past 8 years have been the best of my life, and the only daily constant for me other than Jessica during this time, has been Bella. I remember when Jessica and I first started dating and her saying to me “I hope you like dogs because we’re a package deal.” I’ve never had a dog as long as I had Bella, and although I frequently complained about cleaning up her poop in the backyard, or vacuuming up her hair inside, the truth is I’d gladly trade it all back to have her with us once again. Her passing taught the kids (Ava especially because she’s old enough to understand) an important lesson about the meaning of life and death. Losing her has been sad for everyone and we will always have a special place in our hearts for her. Love my Bellers.

This past Christmas Jessica got me a present that I’d been talking about wanting for a long time. She found a deal on Groupon to drive a Ferrari or Lamborghini 3 laps on a track, and I was thrilled. I booked my ‘driving experience’ for Friday May 20th and marked my calendar. A few weeks later my Mom brought up the idea of us going on the Alaska cruise, which also happened to be on Friday May 20th. My plan was to stay the night at Kristy’s house (because it’s much closer to the ‘track’, which isn’t an actual track but just a big parking lot setup with a bunch of cones) on Thursday night, drive the supercar on Friday morning, then bust a move back to my house up north to pick up Jessica and the kids, then head off to the ship for our vacation. It was going to be a very busy day.

Everything seemed good until the week of, when I started going through the 20 page release form they required me to sign before driving the car. As I read through everything I started getting very concerned. I won’t go into all the details but basically it quickly became apparent to me that the discounted rate Jessica paid on Groupon was just a scam to get me in the door, then all the real expenses would start piling up. They were trying to sell you on all kinds of specialty insurance for different parts of the car that could become damaged, even though your personal insurance still had to be used for primary coverage. Then they warn you that if you rev the engine too high it’s an automatic $2,500 charge to your credit card. Any damage to the car would incur an immediate $7,500 charge just to get started on repairs. On top of it all they expect you to tip the driving instructors 25% of the original cost of the package.

It all seemed pretty sketchy so I went online to read reviews. There were over 100 reviews on Yelp and the average rating was 2 out of 5 stars. Not a good sign. There were a few people who gave it 5 stars, but even they said you’re out there for 90 minutes but only in the car for 5, and only driving for about 2.5 minutes, never going above 40-50 mph. The number of 1 star reviews was ridiculous and after reading most of them I was convinced that the whole experience was nowhere near what I was hoping for and would have been a major disappointment. I felt bad because I knew how excited Jess was to get it for me, but even she agreed that the whole thing felt like a scam. So long story short, I skipped it and just focused on the cruise. We’re going to contact Groupon about a refund since the package didn’t seem very well advertised. I definitely appreciate the thought though, and came out of it with a story none-the-less.

Anyway, enough with all that and onto the good stuff. Although I must admit, the first day of the cruise was definitely our most difficult. We left our house at 10:30 am and proceeded to basically stand in various lines all day. It started with the parking lot (we parked in an offsite lot that shuttles you to and from the ship). There were lots of people and only so many shuttles, so we waited about 45 minutes there. Then we got to the ship and waited in a long line to tag our bags. After that was a long line to go through security, followed by another long line to check in and get our sea passes. By the time we actually got on the ship it was nearly 3:00 pm. My Mom said that of all the cruises she has been on, these were the worst lines she’s ever seen.

Once we got on and got to our rooms we were in good shape. I say ‘our’ rooms because the way my Mom booked it, we had side-by-side balcony rooms with a private door in between them. This turned out to be great because the kids could run back and forth between the rooms. There ended up being plenty of space for everyone, and Jessica and I ended up getting the best of it because the girls insisted on sleeping with Nana every night, leaving us only Enzo to share a room with. One thing that we hadn’t thought about but turned out to be a nice surprise was how well everyone would sleep on the ship. The slight rocking motion was really nice.

If you’ve never been on one of these ships they’re basically like little floating cities. They have everything. There’s a street-style promenade with a bunch of shops, various bars and restaurants, swimming pools and hot tubs, a theater, conference rooms (which is where the Card Player Cruises poker room is located), a casino, an ice rink, a Flowrider for surfing and boogie boarding, sport courts, rock climbing wall (which Jessica scaled with ease), video arcade, chapel, and more. It’s crazy. At first it’s somewhat daunting, but before you know it you know your way around everywhere. One thing that was funny was that as soon as we got on the ship it felt very similar to the ship we sailed on with my Mom to Mexico back in 2010. As it turned out, this ship was the sister ship to the one we’d been on before, so the layout was identical.

We set sail Friday evening around 5:30, then spent all day Saturday at sea, before arriving in our first port, Juneau, Alaska, on Sunday morning. Juneau was the only stop of the trip where we’d be doing an official ‘excursion’, which in our case was whale watching. Since we didn’t think Enzo would get much out of it, we decided to leave him with Nana for the day and spend the day with the girls. As we rode the bus to the docks where our boat was located, we learned about the history of Juneau. I was surprised to learn that Juneau, which is the capital city of Alaska, has only 33,000 residents, yet is the third largest city in the United States (based on square mileage). The other two largest cities are also in Alaska. There are more miles of hiking trails in Juneau than there are paved roads, and as we learned from our guide on the boat, there are only 3 ways into Juneau: by boat, by plane, or by birth canal. There are no roads leading in or out of Juneau.

The whale watching excursion definitely ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. The funny thing was that for several months now Ava has been saying she wants to see Orcas, but to be more specific, she wanted to see a baby Orca. We weren’t sure what to expect when we got on the boat, but our guide soon explained that we would be seeing humpback whales. A slight bummer but certainly not a big deal. On our way out I was chatting with the guide and I mentioned that my daughter had been hoping to see some Orcas, but that I’m sure the humpbacks would also be amazing. He paused for a minute, then leaned in and whispered to me “Don’t tell anyone yet but we’re in for a surprise today. We’re heading out further than normal so we can see some Orcas.”

I kept my lips zipped, then soon enough the boat slowed down and our guide (or ‘Naturist’ as they call themselves) told us the news about the Orcas in the area. We all headed out to the deck and literally within a minute or two we started seeing them. The best part was that it was a whole family and Ava got to see her baby Orca several times. She was going completely nuts and screaming the whole time; everyone was getting a huge kick out of it.

After viewing the family of Orcas for a while we turned around and headed to another area to check out the humpbacks. They too are amazing, and because our guide Brendan was so knowledgeable, we ended up learning a lot about the differences between them. We also got to see a glacier while we were out, so it was a pretty incredible experience. On our way back the captain told us that last year, out of over 100 days in the whale watching season, they only saw Orcas on 15 of them. It’s definitely something we’ll never forget.

After the whale watching we went into downtown Juneau to enjoy some snacks at Tracy’s Crab Shack. We were seated outside at these big picnic tables surrounded by people from all over the place. There were a bunch of New Yorkers at our table, then at the table next to us were people from Alabama that kept yelling “Roll Tide!” A crow landed on the pier and one of the New Yorkers excitedly started yelling because they thought it was an eagle. It was quite entertaining. We actually did see several eagles that day in Juneau, but this crow certainly wasn’t one of them.

The next day we woke up in port at Skagway, Alaska. It was much more of an old-timey frontier town. There was a 19th century steam engine, and lots of people dressed up old west style. It’s not a very big town so the 6 of us walked around all day. We did some shopping, had a nice lunch at the Skagway Brewing Company, and found a great little local park for the kids to play at. The snowy mountain backdrop was gorgeous and everyone had a really nice day.

Tuesday morning our ship sailed up to an area called Endicott Arm so we could view the Dawes glacier. All I can say is I’ve never seen anything like it, and it was beautiful. One thing that really stood out to me was the color of the water. It was this crazy shade of greenish blue, but it was so crystal clear. There were all of these little glaciers floating in the water that had obviously broken off the the main glacier. Then the whole backdrop was entirely mountains. There’s no shore or flat ground either; it’s literally water right up to the base of the mountain, which is covered with green trees, and topped with snow. It’s how I imagine New Zealand to be. We saw tons of waterfalls where the snow runoff was heading back to sea. I’ve heard people say several times that Alaska is beautiful but until I saw it with my own two eyes I didn’t really get it. It honestly is an amazing place that everyone should have a chance to see at some point. I took a bunch of pictures but they don’t really do it justice; there’s just something about being in the middle of it that can’t be replicated, or explained.

We spent all of Tuesday and Wednesday at sea and kept busy with all of the ship’s attractions. The kids loved going up to the arcade and the girls now love playing air hockey together. It’s funny because when you’re out at sea like that it’s really easy to lose track of time. Consequently they change the sign in the elevator daily so you know what day it is. We did some family activities like art projects and dancing, we saw an ice show, but the main activity for us was ‘mucking’ chips for Nana.

If you don’t know what that means, basically the poker room is open whenever you’re at sea, and the house (Card Player Cruises) gets a little piece of every poker hand that gets played, in the form of chips. It’s called the rake, and it’s standard operating procedure for all card rooms. It’s how they pay their expenses and make a profit. As you can imagine, at the end of the day the house has raked in a lot of chips, and those chips need to be sorted and racked, or as they call it in the poker world, mucked. Well, the kids fell in love with it and insisted on helping Nana muck chips each day. So we would dump out these big buckets of chips, gather up a bunch of empty racks, and start mucking. As you would expect, Ava was in charge, and made sure that only she got to muck the red chips, which were of course, the highest in value. If your rack accidentally included a chip of the wrong color, Ava would call you out for having ‘dirty stacks’, another poker term she picked up on this trip. It was most entertaining.

Ava was also a huge hit with all the people on the cruise. To be fair, all 3 of the kids were, but Ava really ate up the attention. We would get on an elevator with a bunch of strangers, and as if on queue, Ava would announce “My name is Ava. This is my little sister Elise, but she’s a little shy, and this is my brother Zoey.” Everyone got a kick out of her, but there were also a few instances where she refused to listen to us and ended up getting in a bit of trouble. The worst of it was at the formal dinner on night 2. To her credit though, she was overly stimulated by everything going on, and couldn’t help but be on 10 the entire trip. I don’t know how she does it, but that kid just goes and goes and never slows down. She would usually outlast us at night and still be up before us the following morning. That’s just my Ava P. She’s like the Energizer Bunny (another musty stale reference from my childhood that they won’t understand by the time they read this).

One thing that I really enjoyed about the cruise was how friendly the entire staff was. Everywhere you go you’re greeted by a staff member and they’re always so genuinely nice. You end up meeting people from all over the world, but one that I absolutely cannot go without mentioning is Vanessa, our room attendant. There was an instant connection between her and our kids, and we just loved her. She has a 6 year old daughter back in the Philippines, and because of her work schedule, she goes 6 months at a time without seeing her. I cannot imagine. She was completely in love with Enzo and kept joking about packing him up and bringing him home with her. She also continuously joked with the girls about bringing her a baby Orca while we were out, so I went into a gift shop in Skagway and bought her a toy stuffed Orca from the kids. She was just the best all week long and really helped make the trip special for all of us.

We also met quite a few of our fellow cruisers on the boat who were from Australia. As it turned out, the Explorer started out a month earlier in Sydney, Australia, before heading to the Pacific Northwest as it’s new home. As I’ve said before, Aussies must be the friendliest people on Earth. I spoke to so many of them on the boat and they were all great. It just reaffirmed to me that we absolutely must visit Australia at some point in the future.

The last stop of the trip was in Victoria, B.C. on Thursday. I’d been there once before with my Mom, Uncle Jim, and Aunt Brenda, but that was about 20 years ago, so my memory of it wasn’t great. We had a nice day exploring the city, eating lunch by the water, and taking a nice long walk back to the ship. They were preparing for a yacht race (going on today actually) so there were lots of pretty boats to look at. Victoria is also the city of Orca’s and everywhere you go you see Orca-related art. The girls just loved it.

That night we had the Card Player Cruises farewell party, as well as a goodbye parade put on by the ship on the Promenade. It was a busy week, and yet it flew by so quickly. Before we knew it we were scooting off the ship Friday morning as they prepared to do the same voyage all over again with 3,000 fresh faces. They will continue doing this exact same trip until September. The timing worked out nicely for us though, because we returned home on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, meaning I had a four day weekend at home to look forward to before returning to work on Tuesday; a mini vacation in it’s own right.

By the time we got home we were all ready to get back to our routine, as well as enjoy a home cooked meal and a night in our own beds. I was especially anxious to get home and play guitar; it’s been awhile since I’ve gone a full week without playing and I didn’t want to get too rusty. The main focus of this weekend is potty training for Elise. She did really well with it on the ship, so we went shopping yesterday afternoon to pick out special underwear for her. As expected, there have been some accidents, as well as the occasional outburst (by parent and child alike) but we’ll get through it just like we did with Ava. In Elise’s case we’re doing this a full year earlier than Ava did, so it won’t be easy, but we know she is ready and up to the challenge.

Before I go I just want to say thank you again to my Mom for making this trip happen. If it wasn’t your insistence, we never would have gone, and I’m so glad that we did. As I said in the title, this was our first family vacation. Yes, we’ve traveled together as a family before, but always to visit and stay with family. Although there certainly was a family aspect to this trip, it was still our first time going on a true vacation together. It’s something that we’ll never forget and I hope she enjoyed it as much as we did. Here’s some of our favorite photos from the trip.

Just before boarding the ship for the first time

Formal night dinner with Nana, night 2.

Elise being a good girl at formal night

Looks can be deceiving because this was not exactly Ava’s best night. Memorable though.

Like a boss

Nana having fun with the girls

Setting sail on day 1

Visiting the bear chair in Juneau

Getting started with the muck

Visiting one of the many Orcas we found in Victoria, B.C.

On the docks in Juneau

‘Hanging’ out in Skagway

The little monster

On the lookout in Alaska. Elise kept using her binoculars backwards.

Mom climbing the rock wall. When she rang the bell at the top Ava yelled out “Mommy I’m so proud of you!”

Playing with the selfie stick in Victoria

At work with one of my little helpers

Lunch in Skagway

On September 24th, 2004, a litter of mixed pups was born at the Little Waif Shelter in Woodinville. I was called up about 2 weeks after they were born and told a little bit about them. I had been in communication with the lady that ran the shelter for a few weeks now and had been eagerly waiting for this call to come in. The mother of the pups had been abandoned and appeared to be a German Shepard mix. After seeing the puppies they concluded that they would be declared Labrador and German Shepard mix. There were 6 in the litter and all were healthy. I was going to be the first potential parent to meet the pups and I would get to select which one I wanted first.

I met them all a few weeks later for the first time. They were all of course, completely adorable and I had never before been so close to so many baby pups. I sat in the pen with them all for a while but I knew before too long which one was mine. She was the most beautiful of the bunch (hence her name) and she was both playful and independent. She also was the only dog that didn’t whine when you put her down. Something that I loved at the time and also something that she would be notorious for later.

Just before Thanksgiving I was able to pick her up. I was over the moon excited and remember driving there to get her and forgetting to bring a leash with me. I was forced to carry her to and from the shelter and my apartment and we got a lot of attention. She was so cute! The first few months were rough living in an apartment. We lived over the water and didn’t have much of a yard, plus, to get out you had to walk all the way around the first floor and back around the building to get to any grass. With a puppy that’s potty training, I soon decided it wasn’t going to work. I found myself moving to accommodate my dog and it started a shift in my life. I was taking care of someone other than myself, something that depended on me. I was finally growing up. I was 24.

On Thursday of last week she left us. She died at home. We are unsure as to the cause but believe that she ate and chocked on something that was not edible.

She was a great dog. Aside from the shedding and the peeing (yes both very annoying), she was awesome. She cleaned up anything that was dropped on the floor. She was gentle and patient with the kids. She always allowed poking, pulling and hitting as forms of endearment from the kids. She greeted you with enthusiasm EVERY time you walked in the door. If you were in the bathroom a long time you sometimes got the same greeting. She really didn’t require much. She just loved to hang out and sleep near you. She was annoyingly hyper when meeting someone, but after 10 minutes or less she was fine. She loved to play games, and by play, I mean destroy. We called her the fun hater because she wanted so desperately to play games with you that she would jump all over like a mad dog, squeaking and acting a fool. She always barked to let you know someone was coming but she never went overboard unless something was actually wrong. I always felt safe when Michael was away knowing that Bella was such a great watch dog. She was a lover and all she really ever wanted was a bite of whatever you were eating and to be near you. As near to you as you would allow her to be.

I am stunned at how much I miss her and how empty the house feels without her soft round self asleep on the rug. With her passing goes a chunk of my life, 1/3 of it actually. She watched me grow up, helped me too. She was by my side through 8 moves, countless roommates, boyfriends and jobs. She literally witnessed me fall in love with my husband. She came over to Michael’s apartment with me nearly every time I was there. She loved to sit by his sliding glass door and look out onto the backside of Queen Anne and watch the comings and goings of the Puget Sound. She rarely moved from her spot once she got settled.

In this pain is a sort of waiting for her; to hear her scratch at the back door. Remind me that I need to let her back inside with us all. I know she isn’t coming home again, it hasn’t completely set in though. I hear the neighbors dog bark and I instinctively want to call out, “Quiet, Bella.” I woke up this morning and thought, I wonder if Michael has fed the dog yet.

No pets are not humans; but they give and take love, and they are loyal friends. R.I.P. Bella. You were my first girl and I will never forget you.

“Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.”
– Vicki Harrison