Pellegrini Page

Oh my goodness it has been way too long since I contributed to the blog! I can think of a 1000 reasons why I haven’t taken the time to sit down and write a post but I won’t waste our time on that, there are too many much more interesting things to share. We are currently enjoying our morning routine of a pre-breakfast bite, milk and a show, on our last day of Spring Break. We didn’t go anywhere this year but that didn’t stop us from staying busy all week, but first we celebrated one of the kids favorite holidays Easter Egg Day before officially kicking off Spring Break on Monday.

Easter Egg Day was a huge success this year. On every holiday I like to surprise to kids with some kind of special set up on the kitchen table, since its a central location and we always head downstairs first thing in the morning. I had a few eggs filled with candy sprinkled along the hallways heading downstairs and then everyone had an Easter basket filled with goodies and a few community toys for them to share. After a light breakfast and some heavy snacking on sweets we all got dressed and headed out to the farm. This is the second year in a row that we are heading north for the day to spend the day at the Palmers. This year they have a new family member that joined us, their new 8 week old puppy Noah. He was adorable and the center of attention for the first half hour we were there. Ava was drawn to him right away and was very gentle and calm with him. He was a very mellow little guy and Im sure that all the craziness was a bit much for him because it didn’t take long before he was passed out in his create deep in sleep. The kids on the other hand went full speed all day. We arrived around 11 and headed inside for just a little bit of catching up and then some bundling up before we went out in the backyard for an epic egg hunt. I know that we contributed at least 200 eggs and Leon and Jody put together more than that. There were a ton of eggs, most all scattered in easy to find places, but even still it took the kids a good 20 minutes to find them all. The kids ran in circles around each other trying to get them all faster than the other and no one complained that it was windy and raining the whole time. After they each filled and dumped their baskets out twice we bagged up as many eggs as we could and went inside to warm up for a bit and let the kids marvel over their loot. The kids over indulged in sweets for far too long then we got out some Easter coloring actives and waited for lunch to finish up. It was a great adult meal while the kids hung upstairs and happily ate together in Miles’ playroom. He has so many cool toys and they love hanging out in his room discovering all his cool, new things together. Miles is always happy to let them come crash his pad and they all act like they do this every week. Time always slips away from us when were hanging out at the Palmer Farm, before we knew it is was 5:30 and time to start heading home. We made plans to meet up later in the week with Miles and Leon so it made our departure and good byes that much easier.

We started off the week with a trip to the zoo on Monday. We met up with some of our favorite people, Solana and the boys, and Laurel and baby Sadie. We met at our usual spot near the penguins and let everyone get situated for the adventure ahead. We were prepared for a cold but sunny day and we were lucky enough to actually get hot, yes hot. It was a beautiful day (for PNW standards) and we spent several hours wandering form animal to play areas with a nice picnic lunch in the middle of it all. It is always great when I get to combine my mom efforts with my best friends. They always make things more enjoyable and the kids love each other so much. Its so fun to watch them grow up together. Our day didn’t end after our 3 plus hour tour of the zoo though. Ava has been taking swim lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays, and this week is no exception. After the zoo, we came home for just under an hour of down time before getting ready to head out to the gym for swimming.

Ava is currently in a level one class. She has what I am going to say is a slightly debilitating fear of the water. Specifically of going under the water. She is only just now starting to put her face completely in and blow bubbles for 5 seconds. She will not put her head under (like a head bob) or jump into the water. She has been making progress in the past few weeks but she has a long way to go. She did better than any class before on this particular day because, thanks to spring break, she had a private lesson. She seemed much more comfortable doing new things and had tons of fun getting so much attention from the teacher. After class we were all exhausted so we headed home for dinner and a movie.

The next morning was April 3rd, Michael and I’s 8th anniversary. We don’t generally do much for each other as far as gifts go but it was nice to wake up to a sweet message from him and plans to celebrate with the whole family this weekend. I’m going to take this opportunity to say a quick word about my wonderful husband, my partner, the one who laughs at all my bad jokes, the one who see eye to eye with me, my clam when I’m irrational, the one who still kisses me when I have morning breath, the one who can still make me blush, the hardest working man I know. I love you more with every challenging day, I love your drive and passion, I love your music and your voice. I love you, I love us, I love our life. Thank you for choosing me. ok, now back to our Spring Break.

We had a little adventure planned for the morning and then I was dropping everyone off at the kids club so I could head to the dentist. Our morning adventure was a meet up with a new friend of ours and hike through the woods with some rock hunting for the kids. We’ve recently met a few new, painted rock loving, families that have kids within the same ages and we’ve been on some really great little hikes that we never knew of before. During our hike the kids came up with a cute idea, they decided they wanted to put together a rock hunt for their new friend Elias. I thought this was an adorable idea so I contacted Eli’s mom and set something up for the next morning. Immediately after their fun at Kids Club and dentist appointment we went to work on putting their plan in motion.

Ava suggested that we all paint some new rocks that we knew Elias would love, things that we already knew he liked. SO I got out paper and pen and asked them to start listing off things that we knew about Elias. We came up with these things that we were positive he liked: Pirates, the Beatles, Coco, farts, owls, orange, blue, purple, yelling and jokes. Some of these were a little difficult to go with but we managed to come up with eleven really great rocks just for him, three of which we already had and eight that we made. After the rocks were finished we decided on a place to hide them. Elise came up with a brilliant idea of coloring the tress and sidewalk along the way with chalk, so that they would know which way to go. We also decided I would take pictures of each spot and the kids could help me with little clues along the way. Everything was all mapped out and we were ready for the next morning.

On Wednesday it was raining when we woke up but the kids were still really excited about the treasure hunt we were about to set up. So after a good breakfast we bundled up and headed to Lowell Riverfront in Snohomish. It’s a great river trail with several little shoot offs and tons of trees. We started by writing a “Hi Elias” note at the beginning of the trial and then peppered the walkway with arrows as we went. When we found a good hiding spot we drew pictures on that area of the trail with our chalk and sometimes even left a few markings on trees. We also took a picture of each rock in its hiding spot before we camouflaged it with leaves or branches. After walking a little over a mile and hiding all of the rocks we sat down at a bench an went through each picture and came up with a little note to go along with each before sending them off to Elias and his mom. By this point we were a soggy mess but the kids were still too excited to leave so we wandered around a bit more and played hide and seek for a while before going home to freshen up for the next part of our day.

After drying off and changing into new outfits we hoped back into the van and drove to see Daddy for lunch at Microsoft. The kids are always excited to see dad at work but this time we were going to a new building so they were even more pumped up about it. Michael came down and met us at visitor parking and then after checking in with the receptionist we made our way to the cafeteria. Even after the lunch rush the place was buzzing. Michael gave us a tour of all of our varied options before we spotted a table and each made our individual decisions on what we’d be eating. It took several trips to various stations and then more to get drinks, napkins and utensils but Michael has happy to accommodate us all and the kids were enjoying just sitting at the table and watching all the action around us. Even for me it was a little overwhelming, mostly because we are 4 of about 10 people within the whole building that clearly do not belong. Its not that anyone said or did anything to make us feel uncomfortable, it’s just obvious, even to the kids, that we do fit in here. We did all have a delicious and entertaining lunch and it’s always special to visit Daddy at “his Square” or rather is office. I don’t think the kids will ever tire of seeing Daddy at work.

By this point in the day we were all feeling sluggish and we still had swimming in the early evening so we headed home for some R and R; or at least that was the plan. We ended up stopping at a park near the house on the way home and played for over an hour. After that we went home for just a short while before heading off to the gym. After another great lesson for Ava, we decided to stop at McDonald’s on the way home for some happy meals. The kids don’t get this kind of thing often so they very much look at it as a treat and are overjoyed every time I ask “should we stop at McDonalds?” It usually feels like a huge parenting win and this case was no different. The kids were all at the table enjoying their food when Michael got home from work. He actually had plans to play music with a friend later that night so he wasted no time diving right in with the kids and making the most of their time together. This helped make it an easy night for me once he left. We read a few books and I put on one show for them and 2 of the 3 were asleep before it even ended. Ava of course, was still awake but after a little chat she too drifted off.

On Thursday we had a little communication problem with our friend Leon about wether or not we were going to meet up. When we didn’t hear from him about solid plans we figured something else had come up and we decided to make it a day at home and began to create a blanket fort. We were all still in our pjs and deep into fort construction when Leon finally got back to us, he and Miles were in fact already at the agreed meeting place, a local trampoline spot. Although I was rather enjoying our morning at home we didn’t want to pass up the chance to see our friends because they are also on Spring Break and our normal weekly schedules don’t allow us any play time together. So I begrudging agreed to quickly change and told him we would be out the door in 20 minutes and we were pulling out of the driveway exactly 19 minutes later. It’s amazing how quickly we can actually get our things in order if we really, really want to. I’ve never seen the kids dress and find their shoes so fast. I may have to trick them with this same tactic at some point. I was expecting the trampoline place to be busy when we arrived because it is Spring Break after all; I wasn’t however prepared for what we walked into. Not only was the trampoline area at least three times as busy as we have ever seen it but the ticket line was more than half the length of the building, and it’s a BIG building. I will not sugar coat it, I was not happy. As a solo parent with three younger children, I had literally just walked in to my worst nightmare. Seriously WTF! Thankfully Leon is about as chill and calm as anyone I know, after some encouraging words and multiple apologies, we came up with a plan. The line was actually long because they had reached capacity and were not able to sell tickets until the next jump slot of 1:05, it was 12:20 at this point. We really didn’t want to leave because our options of indoor play areas were limited and it was too icky outside to even consider that an option. So Leon agreed to sit down with the kids and feed everyone whatever snacks I had thrown together, I waited in what was now a quickly dwindling line. All in all it actually worked out. We were able to get in just a little over an hour of jumping and running, which even for Ava is enough. She had beat red, tomato cheeks when were getting ready to go. It was a very quite ride home and Elise and Enzo fell asleep. After their short car naps we all played a few board games and built a lego castle. the rest of the night was pretty uneventful.

We’re calling Friday our last day of spring break because then comes the weekend and as Elise says “the weekend already is a break”. We spent all morning at home for the first time this week just vegging in front of the TV, it’s definitely apparent that the week is catching up to the kids. We did not spend the day at home however, just the morning. At noon we met up with Solana and the boys and went hiking in the woods in Bothell. None of us had ever been to this new area, Shelton View Forest and it was a really cool place to explore. Along with several different wildlife, we saw three old, abandoned cars, a tire swing on the side of a cliff and ran into a pack of the cutest little dogs. Everyone had a good time (some more than others) and we were all really hungry afterwards. We weren’t far from Country Village, a quirky little outdoor eating and shopping center, so I suggested we find lunch there where that kids could continue to play. We found the perfect spot to eat outdoors and had some delicious BBQ. After we took the kids to the playground, because yes, they still had more energy. It ended up being much nicer out than we had expected and it was a lovely last day of spring break.

Now were heading into the weekend and getting ready to get back into our school routines. Elise is gearing up for kindergarten and is really starting to show interest in school. She has terrible jealousy issues with all of the stories Ava is constantly telling us all of her BFF and all her “school stuff”. She is very much ready to embark on her own school adventure. She is still very tender and sensitive but she is showing more self confidence and assertiveness. She is really enjoying dancing and already looking forward to dancing on stage for us all at her recital in June. She is very good at coming up with cleaver ideas and loves to build things. She made up her own joke the other day and unlike most of the jokes the kids make up this one was cute and funny.

Q. What do you call a Tiger Mermaid?
A. a Catfish

I know you’re laughing out loud right now. Most of the kids jokes include poop or farting so I really appreciate this one. She still has a deep love for cats, sparkly things, being held, rainbows, board games, holding hands, pouting and anything baby. You will likely find her in a costume if you leave her at the Kids Club longer than 10 minutes, and do not tell her what to wear; ever. Don’t tell her she cant change her clothes anytime she wants, because sometimes she needs to feel better in different clothes, or she’s just tired of her morning outfit wold like her day or night outfit on.

Ava is really starting to thrive in school, we recently had her school conference and her teacher said she is making huge improvements over the beginning of the year. I’d like to think that this is in part because of all of the extra time we have been spending on home work at night, or the fact that we have letters, numbers, and sight words posted all over house, or it could be that yes, she is maturing, slowly, but still she is maturing. She has recently expressed an interest in theatre and would love to be in a play. She said to me the other day “Mom, I think I would be really good at being in a play, but I’d like to go see a play first”. So I guess a play of some kind is in our future because she’s right, she has never been to a play. I’m hoping we can find a high school play or something like that to start with. Ava is still fiercely independent and sassy as a teenager but she is also extremely nurturing around babies and pets and younger kids, full of determination, protective of her siblings and loving and loyal like no other.

Enzo is a little handful these days, as I sit here I am constantly having to run out to see what that loud crash might have been, or why did I hear the garage door open? Who’s been in the bathroom for more than 5 minutes? Who scattered all the clean laundry all over my bed? Who ripped the sheets off the girls bed? Who dumped out all the toys on the stairs? who… Enzo, every single time. There is no need to even ask, it’s always Enzo who did it. He is literally into everything. The other day as I’m trying to console Elise I hear a clatter in the kitchen. I went down as soon as I could to find him attempting to climb in the panty to get something off the second to top shelf. The week before last we were all outside in the cul de sac riding bikes (I finally got a bike) and I couldn’t find him. I panicked a bit and ran around the neighboring yards yelling for him. Then Ava says ‘Mom, I hear him laughing!” The sneaky, little guy had gone inside and gotten one of the kids chairs and climbed into the van through the open window. He was happy as could be, sitting in the drivers seat pushing buttons and ejecting CDs. Typical Enzo these days, he prefers to play by himself for the most part but you can never be sure what he’s up to. He is also so hot and cold these days within a five minute span it is not uncommon for him to say ” Mommy you’re the best mommy in the whole wide world” and “Give me a cookie or I’ll throw you in the garbage” he also enjoys telling me “I don’t love you anymore”, “you’re rude” and “I’m going to lock you in a room”. I have no idea where he came up with most of these sayings but he has repeated them all several times the past month or so. He can also be very genuinely loving but the harsh ones cut deep at the wrong moment. I know its just his was of expressing frustration and sadness, it’s a phase like everything else. He has an adorable, cheesy new smile and is growing and maturing everyday.

It’s a crazy life we’re living but I couldn’t be any happier. That’s enough till next year…. or at least for now.

First thing Easter morning

Moments before the big egg hunt!

Selfie on the farm

Watching otters at the zoo

Heading home after a great trip

Rocks that we made for our friend’s treasure hunt

Elise marking the sidewalk with arrows

Leaving clues for Elias

“You’re rude”

Playing games

Too much fun

Shelton View forest

nzo’s leading the way

Our final Spring Break adventure

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and we’ve got a nice day to look forward to. We’ll be driving up to Sedro Woolley to spend the day with our good friend the Palmers. Like last year, they’ll be hosting an Easter Egg hunt in their massive backyard, then later in the afternoon we’ll all sit down to an excellent family dinner. I’m not sure what’s on the menu this year, but it really doesn’t matter – Leon is an amazing chef and someone I definitely look up to in the kitchen. I may even bring a guitar along, as the kids always get a kick out of someone playing music for them, and I never need much of an excuse to jam.

Another exciting upcoming event for us is our 8th anniversary, which is on Tuesday. I’ll quickly do the obligatory bit and then move on: “It’s hard to believe it’s already been 8 years. Time really does fly by.” We usually celebrate by going out to dinner, and I guess that still holds true this year, except that we’ll need a larger table. In my last post I wrote about taking the girls out to a nice Italian dinner at a nearby restaurant called Calabria, then taking them to our first Daddy-Daughter dance.

Well, that dinner really made an impression on them. Elise’s dance school is just a few doors down, and recently after dance she saw the restaurant and started going on and on to Mom about the dinner we had. Then we had a similar experience with Ava raving about it. So, based on all the excitement we thought it would be fun for the 5 of us to go out to Calabria for a nice fancy anniversary dinner as a family. Since our anniversary falls on a Tuesday, we’ll have to wait until the following Saturday to go out, but it will be worth the wait.

The funny thing is the kids don’t really get the concept of simply going out to dinner, so they keep asking what we’re doing afterwards. They seem to think we’re going to another dance, or something of that nature, so we keep trying to explain that dinner is the event. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet, so we’ll see if we end up finding something else to do after we eat.

There’s a few other events in the near future we’ve been planning. On April 14th we’ll be attending Madi’s birthday party, which they’re doing at an indoor trampoline park (similar to what we did in Vegas). Those places are fun for everyone so we’re looking forward to it. Speaking of Vegas, we’ve selected the week we’re going (last week in June), so it’s just a matter of purchasing tickets at this point, which I expect will be done in short order. We’re timing it so that we go right after school, Ava’s hockey session, and Elise’s dance recital have completed. Can’t wait to get some hot weather and pool time!

The other thing we’ve been planning is Elise’s 5th birthday party, which will be right after we get home from Vegas. Normally each summer we take the kids to at least one Everett Aquasox game, which is the Single A minor league affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. The games are close to our house, it’s a really family friendly environment, and the kids absolutely love seeing their mascot – Webbly.

Well, when we asked Elise if there was anything she wanted to do for her birthday, she asked if we could go see Webbly. We were intrigued by the idea of doing a baseball birthday party, so we looked into it. As it turns out, Elise’s birthday falls on a Saturday, the Aquasox have their final home game that night before going on a road trip, and it’s one of the few ‘Fireworks Nights’ of the season, meaning there will be a fireworks show after the game.

Based on all these factors it seemed meant to be, so Jessica got in touch with someone from the team and we have started planning a party. We decided to do it right by going with a party package, meaning all you can eat for all of our guests, all you can bounce (for the kids going to the bouncy houses), a meet & greet with Webbly, Elise’s name on the scoreboard during an intermission, and she even gets to go out on the field to throw out a pitch! Obviously she’s going to love it, but beyond that, it will be a very memorable occasion for our whole family. We’ve started extending invitations to guests and interest seems to be high, so it should be a lot of fun.

As of last Sunday, Jessica is back to working Sunday nights at El Gaucho Bellevue. The offer has always been there, and since I’m already gone playing hockey for a few hours on Sunday evenings, she felt it made sense to go back, but just that one night per week. Tomorrow is an exception because it’s Easter, so neither Ava or I has hockey, and Jessica won’t be working, but then we’ll be back to (our new) normal the following Sunday. It’s a nice chill night to work (compared to the craziness of Friday and Saturday night), she gets to see all our friends, and they love having her, so it seems like a good fit.

Things have been crazy for me with work, as usual, but even more than normal this week because I’m on call. Now that I’ve made it to the weekend, the worst is behind me, but the long consecutive days start catching up to you, so I’m more than ready for a relaxing weekend. Based on Jessica’s encouragement, I ended up purchasing a new amplifier on eBay this past Monday, and although it wasn’t scheduled to be delivered until this coming Monday, it ended up coming early, literally as I was writing this post.

It’s a Cornford, which no longer exists as a brand, but they’re these incredibly high-end boutique amplifiers that were hand built in England from the late 90’s until about 2012. I’m not sure what happened to the company, but their products are legendary, and very hard to find. The funny thing was, I hadn’t even considered a Cornford while shopping around because they’re so hard to find, but I was looking on Craigslist last Sunday night, and found a Cornford for sale right here in Snohomish county. My jaw practically dropped, because again, they’re very rare. I’ve never even seen one in person. It was too late at night to call the owner, so I figured I’d call on Monday, but my on-call shift started on Monday morning and I was so busy all day that I didn’t get a chance to contact the owner until after work. Not surprisingly the amp had already sold.

I was pretty bummed, but now I had this specific amp in mind and started looking around for it online, and ended up finding one (and only one) on eBay all the way out in Michigan. It was slightly more expensive than the one I’d found on Craigslist, but again based on Jessica’s encouragement, I ended up getting it. Getting it delivered today is awesome because the only other thing I’m doing today besides writing this post and going to the gym, is playing guitar. I’ll crank it as much as I can at home, but what I’m really excited for is taking it to jam with my buddies, where I can really let it loose. I’d been having amp issues for a while, so this is going to be a drastic upgrade. I’ve owned a lot of nice amps over the years, but gotten rid of them because they were all so large, heavy, and too loud for practical use. This one is smaller, lighter, and just as good (if not better) than any of the classic amps I used to own. I never really thought I’d own an amp of this caliber, but look forward to keeping it forever – after all, you don’t get rid of a Cornford.

I’m currently working on a big / highly visible project at work, which is to rebuild the entire header and menu for azure.com. I’ve been on it for two weeks already, and it’s going to be another 2-3 weeks before it launches, but it’s so important that we can’t afford to ship it in less than a perfect state. This is different than building a special component, page, or set of pages, because it lives on literally every page of the entire website, so it gets seen and interacted with by millions of users over time. I could tell some of my teammates were relieved not to get this project, but I don’t see it as pressure. Instead, I see it as just another opportunity to deliver big results, and so far it’s going really well. I’ll definitely mention it on here once it goes live.

I have to be honest in saying that the main reason I’m writing a post today is because I didn’t want to break my consecutive months streak, which dates all the way back to July, 2011. That’s longer than I’ve been a parent, which pretty much already feels like forever. Normally I would wait until some exciting things have just happened (like our Easter Sunday and Anniversary dinners), then write about those, but the family blog is important to me and I didn’t want to skip the month of March. The truth is, sitting down to write these posts is a bit of a time commitment, and sometimes it’s hard to make that time when you’ve got so much else going on, but it matters. Not just to Jessica and myself, but it’s really going to matter to the kids someday. It’s the greatest gift I can give them, and staying on at least a monthly cadence is something I’m committed to.

I look forward to filling in the details about our upcoming adventures sometime in April. We recently received some of Leon’s photos from Enzo’s 3rd birthday, so here’s a few of those, along with a handful of other recent goodies. Happy Easter, Happy Spring!

His little smile kills me

Wonder Woman twinkle toes loves to entertain

Our little helper

My new Cornford Roadhouse 30. May not look like much, but a very special amp.

From Enzo’s party at Chuck E. Cheese

Ava has fun at any gathering

Make a wish buddy

Family

There’s been a lot of cool stuff going on for us lately, and I’ve got a lot to get to, but first I need to wish my Dad a happy birthday. I can’t believe today he would be 90, but I keep doing the math and it keeps checking out. After all, he was 52½ when I was born and I’m 37½ now, so there you have it.

As always, I still think of him every day, but on days like today I can’t help but think of him a little bit more. Obviously it sucks that he never got to meet my wife or any of my kids, but I know he would be very happy with how my life has turned out, and my God would he love his grandchildren and daughter-in-law. Even though he was gone well before any of them came along, he is still very much a part of our lives.

I’ve done my best to not just talk about him, but to associate his memory with good. So, on a special occasion when we’re having birthday cake for breakfast, we call that a Grandpa Elmer breakfast. Or when Ava knows she did something wrong, I’ll ask her “What would Grandpa Elmer tell you to do?” and she always knows immediately. I’ll be pulling that on Elise and Enzo soon as well.

I feel like not only does he deserve that, but the kids deserve it too. They deserve to know who and where they come from, and he was a great man who deserves to have his memory live on. I especially love the way we celebrated his birthday today, which was by me taking Ava and Elise to our first Daddy-Daughter Dance at the local high school. We found out about it through Ava’s school, and as soon as I mentioned it to the girls a couple weeks ago, they got super excited. They had their dresses picked out a week in advance.

I figured if you’re going to a dance then you have to go out to dinner first, and being that it was Grandpa Elmer’s birthday, an Italian restaurant seemed appropriate. We went to a local place called Calabria, and had a delicious meal. The girls both had pasta, while I enjoyed Veal Saltimboca, then we got down on some serious dessert (see photo below). After dinner we headed off to the dance where we enjoyed an evening of games, pictures, snacks, and of course – dancing. It was great fun, as it should be, and was a night I won’t forget.

So before moving on, happy birthday Dad! I find myself telling my kids a lot of the same things you used to tell me, and I love the fact that you are still a part of our lives.

Jessica has been quite busy lately. She worked a few shifts at El Gaucho Bellevue recently, as they always get busy around Valentine’s Day. They love having her there and keep asking her to come in and work more frequently. She got a call from the General Manager this week saying they received the nicest letter from a customer regarding the service Jessica gave them. It’s a true testament to her natural ability not just to do a good job, but to connect with people and make sure they really enjoy their evening. She’s been thinking about picking up a few more shifts so we’ll see if it works out.

She’s been continuing to work hard with the kids on reading, writing, and counting. Ava is getting close to having all her sight words up on the wall, and Elise is soaking it up. I’ve been extremely busy with work lately (more on that in a bit), so Jessica has taken on so much in terms of homework and studying with the kids. On top of this, in addition to our two family trips per week to the gym, she’s been squeezing in a couple extra workout sessions per week, just to keep her sanity I guess.

The kids are all doing great. Yesterday was Ava’s 100th day of Kindergarten, so they had a classroom party where each kid was supposed to wear a shirt with 100 of something on it. Jessica ended up going onto her local Buy Nothing site and found another Mom giving away her daughter’s shirt from last year, which had 100 smiley faces on it. So Ava wore that, and we’re keeping it for Elise to wear next year 😉

Elise is continuing to enjoy dance classes on Wednesdays, but I’ve still only had a chance to see her once, so I really can’t wait for her recital in June. She is also showing a lot of interest in two things: building (like with Legos or Duplos), and music. She also insists on picking out her own clothes each day (even her pajamas), so I love all the creativity we’ve been seeing from her.

Enzo loves playing the Ukulele we got him for his birthday. As I write this, he is sitting next to me watching a movie, while holding (and strumming) his Ukulele. On command he will play you his favorite song “Dumpy Dump Truck”. He has also been really interested in hockey lately. He insists on coming to Ava’s hockey practice every Sunday, and keeps asking if he can put on skates and play. The funny thing is, since his entire exposure (so far) to hockey has been through Ava’s team, he thinks its a girls game, so he said “Daddy I want to play hockey, but not on the girls team.” I had to explain that boys play hockey too and he could get on a boys team if he wanted.

I was talking to some guys at my hockey class on Sunday afternoons, and found out that next Saturday (March 2nd), there will be another “Try Hockey For Free” event in Everett. Basically kids of all ages are invited to come out and play on the ice. All the gear is provided for you, so it’s a nice way to give your kid some exposure to it without making the commitment of buying all the gear up front. In Enzo’s case, he already has his own skates, but we’ll get everything else from them. He’s super excited about it, so I hope he has fun.

Then right after that all 5 of us will be attending the hockey game between the Everett Silvertips and the Seattle Thunderbirds. The following day Ava has hockey in the morning, and I have hockey in the afternoon. So in other words, next weekend is all about hockey. I’ve been watching as much of the Winter Olympics as possible lately, and was super excited to see the US Women’s hockey team win the gold medal for the first time in 20 years (Canada’s first loss in 20 years). I showed Ava some of the highlights, including the post game celebration, and she was so excited. She kept saying she wants to play hockey on TV…

One more little thing about hockey before moving on: I used to play right-handed, but then after breaking my right elbow in July, I switched over to playing left-handed. It was a fairly natural switch for me, and I’ve played that way ever since, even though not that much later I ended up injuring my left elbow as well. Last weekend I was practicing shooting in the garage, and as I was wrapping things up, I saw my old right-handed stick sitting there, so I decided to pull it out and have a go. Well, even though it’s been a while, shooting right-handed still felt a little more natural and comfortable, so when I play tomorrow I’m going to play right-handed and see how it goes. I figure I can always switch back if I want, but I’m excited to give it a try.

After I finish playing hockey tomorrow night, I’m going to quickly clean up, run home to grab Jessica, then we’re heading to the Moore Theater in downtown Seattle to see a Jazz Fusion band from New York called Snarky Puppy. I’ve become a fan of their music over the past year and was stoked to see them coming to Seattle on their Winter tour. Jessica isn’t familiar with their music but is always down to catch a show, so it should be a lot of fun.

Speaking of music, I’ve been getting a decent amount of jam sessions in with friends this year. It’s not a weekly thing, but we tend to get together at a rehearsal studio on Monday nights from 8:00-10:00. Up until this week, it’s just been my friend Sam on bass, myself on guitar, and a drum machine plugged into the P.A. system. However, this week we had a designer I work with come in a play drums.

I’ve been recording all the sessions and have been posting the recordings here on our website for download. I’ll put a link to it here, but with a warning – none of this stuff is rehearsed or practiced. It’s totally improvised on the spot, meaning a lot of it sucks, but there’s also a few little nuggets of sonic goodness in there.

I’ve been going through the recordings, trying not to focus on the abundance of cringe-worthy moments where I played the wrong note, or missed the beat, and instead focus on extracting the good stuff and working on it. I can envision a scenario where eventually we’re writing songs, while still embracing that jam-based influence. It’s all instrumental too, so the focus is entirely on what we can do musically, rather than just holding down a progression and hiding behind a singer. I’ll eventually be putting the recordings up on SoundCloud, but for now it’s all available at https://pellegrinipage.com/music/

I’ll wrap things up with a work project I recently completed. I spent the first 6 weeks of the year working on a brand new website, which we launched on Valentine’s Day, called Microsoft For Startups (https://startups.microsoft.com/). It was a project I had volunteered for, was named lead developer on, and was excited to be a part of. It was a ton of work, but as expected, a great learning experience. There were some 16 hour days, and working on some weekends (all the typical tech industry stuff), but in the end the launch went super smooth, and I ended up finding myself on some email threads with VP’s and other people much more senior than myself who were offering congratulations on a job well done.

It felt great to get that type of recognition, but as always, there’s no time to sit around soaking it up. We’re in the middle of the cloud wars baby, and times are as busy as ever, so you take a quick victory lap, maybe treat yourself to a nice lunch, then jump back into the fire. I’m already working on another cool project in anticipation of next month’s Gaming Developer Conference. The announcement we made with the launch of the site was a really big deal, and within just a few hours of going live, there were already articles about it on some major websites like GeekWire, TechCrunch, and VentureBeat. I couldn’t explain it better than any of them, so if you’re interested in learning more, just check out those articles.

I guess that’s about all for now. As always, things are great, and we’re staying busy. Here’s a few recent photos.

Getting ready for our big night out

My girls

Family couch selfie

We couldn’t pick between the Tiramisu and the Chocolate Cake, so…

Face painting at the dance

Mommy and Enzo, enjoying a cookie outside

Enjoying their bedroom fort last weekend

The girls getting some couch snuggle time

Elise looking studious, Enzo caught booger-handed

Ready for our snow day!

A perfect snow angel by Elise

Happy Birthday Dad

Today our big boy turns 3! Although today is his actual birthday, we held his birthday party yesterday afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese in Lynnwood. It was a small gathering consisting of us, the Palmer’s, and the O’Hair’s. Definitely the smallest birthday party we’ve hosted, but that was of no concern to Enzo. As one could imagine, Chuck E. Cheese is absolutely packed on a Saturday afternoon, so while our group was small, there was no shortage of excitement or activity.

We spent a while playing games, then eventually migrated over to the table for food, photos with Chuck, cake, and presents. It was fun and easy, and everyone had a good time. After the party we came home and had a video chat with Nana so she could see him open her presents.

The girls have definitely noticed that we were taking it easy this year because they keep saying stuff like “Who’s coming over today? When will they be here?” When we say no one is coming over today, they’re like “What!? You mean we’re not having a bunch of people over to our house? What’s going on?”

This morning we woke up and came downstairs to open a few gifts, play with new toys, and have breakfast together. After that we had a video chat with Grandma and Grandpa Martin. As usual, Enzo received some really cool gifts this year. Some of the highlights include a light up race car track, a big dump truck, cement mixer, various books, a ukulele, remote control monster truck, and a personalized construction outfit.

We could tell that he wasn’t quite feeling 100% this morning, but Enzo insisted on coming to hockey with Ava and me this morning. This is his third week in a row joining us (by choice), so it seems like some level of interest is brewing. Although there is no doubt that currently his favorite part about going to hockey is watching the Zamboni clean the ice. Normally he loves running all over the place, but today he insisted on me holding him the entire time Ava was on the ice. At one point I made the mistake of sitting down, but he quickly corrected me, saying that I needed to stand up while holding him.

Enzo is also still doing great with his potty training. It’s actually probably not fair to use the term “potty training” anymore because he’s not training at all, he’s just using the bathroom like anyone else. It’s been over two weeks now and we’ve only had 2 or 3 accidents that whole time. So, in other words, birthday presents were reciprocal this year. After all, diapers have been a part of our daily lives for the past 6 years and change, but that’s over now. Re-gifting our remaining diapers felt pretty sweet.

Elise has completely recovered from her cold a couple weeks ago, and has been keeping busy with school and dance. She is continuing to learn letters, numbers, and words, and her ability to hold a pencil has improved noticeably since my last post. My Mom got her and Ava some great workbooks to help facilitate all this learning, and both girls are loving them.

Elise continues to love dance, and I’m already excited for her recital in June. I feel bad that I have only been to one of her dance classes, but she goes on Wednesday’s at 10:00 am, so there’s nothing I can do. I keep asking her to show me things she has learned in class and she’s starting to do it more and more. She is also showing more and more interest in music, so it’s probably only a matter of time before she starts getting into some form of lessons.

Ava is continuing to do great with her reading and writing. She now has 23 of the 45 sight words up on the wall (meaning she knows them). Getting number 23 today was exciting because it means we have crossed the halfway point. We started working on these sight words about 3 weeks ago, with a modest goal of knowing all of them by the end of the school year. Based on her current progress I think we’re going to have no problems meeting our initial goal, so it might be time to start shooting a little higher. Regardless, we are so proud of her and excited to see all the progress she continues to make. The sweetest part about it is that her number 1 goal with learning to read is to be able to read a book to her brother and sister.

Ava is also continuing to have so much fun playing hockey. The improvement she continues to make is pretty amazing. Just this morning I was watching her doing skating drills where she was skating backwards, and jumping! So she’s doing a two-foot hop while skating backwards. Trust me when I say that’s really hard to do, especially on hockey skates. She has no fear though. She loves to warm up by going on the ice (first one out every time), grabbing a puck, and skating laps around the rink while stick handling the puck. Again, not easy, and not common for most of the girls out there, but she is already showing an impressive level of determination and skill.

Guess that’s about it for now. As you can probably infer, everything is good and we’re all doing well. Wishing a very happy birthday to our big boy Enzo! Here’s some photos (and a video) from yesterday. My good friend Leon was taking pictures yesterday, so I look forward to sharing those once they are available.

Bringing new meaning to BFF. Love our girls so much.

His new smile cracks me up

Sporting his new personalized construction outfit from Nana

So, the ticket blaster wasn’t such a big hit…

Make a wish Enzo

The kids! Left to right: Miles, Enzo, Elise, Finn, and Ava (Ronan was there but refused to get in the picture)

All three of our kids are doing big things these days, and I couldn’t be more proud of each of them. As you may already know, Ava is in Kindergarten this year, and let me say, Kindergarten has changed significantly since I was there, which was over 30 years ago. I can’t believe the stuff she’s learning at such a young age! I also can’t believe how much homework she’s responsible for each day. Her teacher warned us at orientation last summer, and it’s no joke. Jessica spends at least an hour each day after school working with Ava on letters, numbers, sight words, writing, and basic arithmetic. Then when I get home from work I’m spending another 30 minutes working with her (and Elise quite frequently) on reading and writing.

Ava is supposed to be able to read 45 sight words by the end of the school year, and we have all of them on flash cards. Once we are convinced she knows a word, we tape that flash card up on the wall. We’ve only been at it for a week or so, but she already has the following words on the wall: look, I, go, is, my, come, like, the, and to. I expect we’ll be adding one or two more this evening. Although Ava was struggling a bit at first, she has already turned a corner, and I can tell she is starting to actually read words by sounding them out, rather than relying on some form of rote memorization. She gets very excited when doing a good job, so positive reinforcement and encouragement have been key from our perspective as parents and teachers.

In addition to everything she has going on at school, Ava just got started with a new 3 month hockey session. She hadn’t played in 3 or 4 weeks before getting started on Sunday, and she was absolutely chomping at the bit to get out there. In fact, before class begins she always pushes her way to the front of the group so she can be the first one stepping out onto the ice as soon as the door is opened.

It was so cute to see her helping a younger little girl who had never played hockey before. We were getting suited up and this little girl was afraid to put some of the gear on. Ava took so kindly to her and told her we have to wear the gear to stay protected, then you can fall or slide on the ice and it doesn’t hurt. I know how much Ava is already looking up to the older girls, and it’s clear she can’t wait to be a role model for the younger ones. Hockey is already doing great things for Ava, and they’re not just athletic.

As with most of Ava’s milestones, Elise is always right there paying close attention and soaking things up quicker than we realize. Since Ava has been so active with letters and reading, Elise has naturally gravitated to them as well. I can tell things are coming quickly for her, because she has an impressive ability to focus for someone so young. While Ava can sometimes get easily distracted, Elise tends to stay locked in. Her biggest difficulty at this point is more mechanical than anything; she often struggles with holding a pencil, which in turn affects her ability to write. However I expect this will only be a temporary struggle. Even this morning she was showing improvement with how she holds the pencil, and I’m so impressed with how many letters she has already learned!

Poor Elise had a difficult week this week because she came down with a cold. She had a fever, cough, and partially lost her voice, so we kept her home from school and dance until Friday. At this point she seems to have fully recovered, and she had a good day at school yesterday, so I think we’re in the clear. She’s excited to get back into her dance class next week, as she has a recital in June to prepare for.

With Elise being so under the weather this week, Jessica ended up staying home with her and Enzo on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. While this may sound like a recipe for cabin fever, an incredibly positive thing came out of it: Enzo is now potty trained! His 3rd birthday is a week from tomorrow, and as I write this on Saturday, he hasn’t had an accident, or gone potty in a diaper, since Tuesday. He actually ended up getting sick this week as well, so Jessica had two sick kiddos to care for, but even throughout all of that, he didn’t have any accidents.

He’s waking up in the morning with a dry diaper, going to the bathroom on his own, then coming to get one of us for a bottle of warm milk. He tells us when he needs to go, and isn’t bothered by using public restrooms when out and about. Obviously we’re going to have minor setbacks or accidents at some point in the near future, but there’s no question he has turned a corner with this, and there’s no going back. To think that diapers have been a daily part of our lives for the past 6 years and change, and we’re now basically all done with them, is just crazy. It’s definitely a parenting milestone that we’re happy to surpass, and I just couldn’t be more proud of our little guy.

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of taking all 3 kids to Monster Jam, which is the annual monster truck show at the Tacoma Dome. It’s funny because I’ve been seeing commercials for monster trucks shows at the Tacoma Dome for literally as long as I can remember, and finally now at the age of 37, I have finally attended my first show. I have to admit, it was a lot of fun. I wasn’t really sure beforehand, so I got seats up in the nosebleeds, but it didn’t matter. The kids loved it. The only bummer was that I didn’t realize our seats were behind the huge TV screen that shows replays, so we weren’t able to see any of that stuff, but again, it didn’t matter. All 3 of the kids loved it, so I suspect we’ll be going again next year. I’ll certainly pony up for better seats as well, now that I know how much we all enjoyed it.

It’s extremely loud in there, so ear protection is a must, and not surprisingly I got a lot of resistance from Enzo when it came to wearing it. However, after the trucks came out for an opening lap and he got a taste of just how loud they really are, suddenly he wasn’t complaining about wearing his headphones. I wasn’t totally sure how much the girls would enjoy it, but as it turned out, Elise definitely liked it, and Ava loved it the most of anyone. Grave Digger is her favorite truck (and Enzo’s), so she would get super excited whenever it came out for a run. There was a big “puppy dog truck” that instantly became Elise’s favorite. Personally, I liked Earth Shaker, which was a big Cat-style dump truck.

Not only was it a fun event, but it was a nice special day for the kids and I to have together. I loved the idea of getting a whole day with them, and consequently giving Jessica a day to herself. The Tacoma Dome is more than an hour from our house, and I took them to lunch before the show, so we were gone from 10:30 to 5:30. Jessica spent her free day meeting Laurel and baby Sadie for lunch, going to the gym, and getting some stuff done around the house. She deserves more days like this, so I’m glad she enjoyed it and made the most of it.

We recently made a nice upgrade to our living area, and I’m actually enjoying it right now as I write this: we bought a nice new leather sectional couch! Our old sectional had been with us since we lived in La Mesa, and had been basically destroyed by the kids over the past few years. The cushions were getting flat, there were plenty of uncomfortable spots, and it didn’t have any recliners, so you had to move a big ottoman into position if you wanted to put your feet up. First world problems for sure, but still ready for replacement.

We had seen this beautiful dark gray leather couch with golden brown stitching at Costco and fell immediately in love with it. It had 2 power recliners, 1 manual recliner, stainless steel cup holders, multiple power and USB outlets for device charging, and a storage bin so big that Enzo immediately crawled right inside. We didn’t buy it on the spot, but kept it in mind, and did a little comparative research online. Then, a week later, after going to the gym that morning, we decided to go back to Costco to see if it was still there. With luck, it was, so we got it. It’s so big that even with our minivan emptied out, I still had to make 4 trips to Costco just to get it all home!

Once I finished my final trip we all jumped in the car and drove down to Des Moines for a late Christmas at Kristy’s house. We had a nice afternoon with her, Madi, Uncle Jim, and Aunt Brenda. There was good food, football, quality family time, and of course, Christmas presents. What more could you ask for? Once we got home that evening, we took out the old couch (we actually gave it away on Jessica’s “Buy Nothing” group) and got the new one setup. It’s much larger than the old one, and also much more comfortable.

We’ve been staying busy going to the gym a lot lately. Jessica and I have never been huge gym people, but I have to say I love Columbia Athletic Club. It’s a really nice atmosphere, with excellent quality machines and equipment, plus tons of classes to choose from. They intentionally keep the number of members relatively low, and guarantee you that you’ll never have to wait to use anything when you’re there. It’s true too. Even when the parking lot is full, you never have to wait because there are so many different things for a person to do. We’re not even members of the tennis facility or the golf facility, but there’s just so much stuff to choose from.

The kids are unlimited members at Columbia’s Kids Club, as well as gym members, so they’re having a lot of fun there. It’s funny how quickly going to the gym can become part of your regular routine. Already I’m at the point where I would be pretty bummed if I missed one of my (now) regular workouts. We’re making a point to go twice a week as a family, and either Jessica or I have been sneaking in here and there as time permits. Combine that with my Sunday afternoon hockey and I’m now as athletically active as ever, and it feels great.

We all went to the gym today, and the kids played in the Kids Club while Jessica and I got a good workout in. Then after that we scooped up the kids, changed into our swimsuits, and headed to the pool. In addition to the outdoor pool (which is closed until Summer), they have a full-sized indoor pool, a hot tub, steam room, and an indoor kids pool that’s as warm as a bath. It’s actually deceptively large so Jessica and I played in there with the kids for a full hour. The pools are salt water too, which is much better than chlorinated. The kids loved it, and it was quickly obvious that we need to get Enzo into swimming lessons right away. He’s already fearless in the water, and the gym offers swim lessons, so I think we’ll be getting involved in those very soon. I hope we continue to take advantage of this place, as it’s already turning out to be a hit for everyone.

Things are going well for Jessica, and she’s as busy as ever. As previously mentioned, she has been so dedicated to working with Ava and Elise on reading, writing, and arithmetic. She has decorated our house with letters, numbers, and sight words. That way no matter where you are in the house, there are letters to learn and words to read. As you might expect, her dedication to keeping the kids on top of their school work has been top notch.

Between all the school stuff with the kids, and me being so busy with work, we made a conscious decision to keep Enzo’s third birthday very small. Instead of doing some big gathering at the house, we decided on doing something at Chuck-E-Cheese with just a few friends. Kristy doesn’t have Madi that weekend, and Dana is teaching a class, so it’s just going to be us, the Palmer’s, and the O’Hair’s. Nice and easy, but Enzo won’t know the difference. He’s going to have a great time, and I look forward to writing about it.

Things have been especially busy for me at work since returning from Christmas vacation, but that was my own choosing. I have been assigned a lead developer role for a special project, which is due in the middle of February. It’s something I initially volunteered for back in mid December, and after nudging my manager a few more times, he gave me the project. I can’t give any details right now, but look forward to sharing them once it goes live. I’m working closely with some developers down in Buenos Aires, Argentina, so that’s been fun (as well as a good learning experience). I’m also still working closely with some developers in China (which I’ve been doing since June), so I have a lot of responsibility these days. This is what I wanted though, and I have no concerns about being able to deliver, so it’s all good.

I have also been getting together regularly with friends to play music, and looking forward to doing so again this Monday night. We’re just improvising and jamming, but it’s getting better and better. I’m going to start recording these jam sessions soon because every time we finish one of us always says “Wow, we came up with some cool stuff there. I wish I could hear that again.” Well, now we will be able to hear it again, and maybe even start turning some of these spur-of-the-moment ideas into more structured songs. We’ll see. It doesn’t really matter though, as just the experience of playing music with people is more than enough of a reward.

I guess that’s it for now, but with our big boy’s birthday next weekend, it won’t be long before I’m giving another update. Once again, our kids continue to amaze us with all their new milestones and achievements. Jessica and I couldn’t be more proud, or lucky, and look forward to whatever comes next. Here are a few recent photos from our world.

Our new couch!

Playing Bingo for Books at Penny Creek Elementary

We take our Bingo seriously in this family, and it all started with my Nana

Enzo found his favorite hiding spot

Ava getting started with the new hockey session

Her hockey stance is looking pretty darn good…

Having fun at Ava’s hockey practice

Enjoying a special treat with Mom

Taking in Monster Jam with my little sweetheart

All smiles at Monster Jam, 2018

On Thursday evening we returned home from an excellent Christmas vacation at Nana’s house in Las Vegas. We were there for a full week, and were kept busy with all kinds of fun and exciting activities. Lots of memories were made, some bucket list items were checked, and a great time was had by all. There’s so much to get into, so let me dive right in.

Rather than fly out of SeaTac airport, which is always very busy and crowded (especially during the holidays), we opted to fly out of Bellingham, which is north of us (about 20 minutes from the Canadian border). Although the distance is further, it’s much easier for us to deal with because it’s such a small airport. This is our second time flying to Vegas out of Bellingham and we love it.

There was a bit of excitement flying in, as the winds that day were ferocious. The plane was jumping all around as we were preparing to land, and a few passengers could be heard yelping as the plane bounced up and down from all the turbulence. Once we landed Ava shouted out “That was fun!” and the entire back half of the plane erupted in laughter.

Between the 5 of us, plus all of our luggage, no one had a single car that was big enough to hold everything, so I had been coordinating with my Mom and Uncle Bob to pick us up. Basically Bob would be taking the bags, and we would be riding in my Mom’s car. The airport was typically busy, so there was a long line of cars waiting to get into the passenger pickup area.

My Mom was ahead of Bob in that line, so she arrived first. I started getting the carseats setup in my Mom’s car, then in the distance, I could see our other ride, which was coming to get our bags. My typically sour traveller’s mood immediately disappeared as I saw Bob coming to get us. You see, his car has become a bit of a tourist attraction in Las Vegas. It’s completely covered with toys, bobblehead dolls, poker chips, Christmas lights, and more. You have to see it to understand, but luckily I have included photos below. His car gets so much attention that even cops pull him over to take photos of it. When you’re with him, he’s constantly responding to photo requests saying “Yeah, take as many as you want.” He actually makes a little money from it too – basically he drives down to the famous “Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas” sign at the south end of the strip, and people pay him to take photos of/with his car. It’s perfect for Bob and I know he enjoys all the fun and attention.

We had plans for our first evening in town, but everyone was exhausted from all the traveling, so we ended up staying in and relaxing. It’s good too, because Friday was going to be a busy day, and as it turned out, a major highlight for the whole trip.

We got out of the house around 9:00 Friday morning and headed out to the Lion Habitat Ranch, which is southeast near Henderson. Bob and Sandy were on their way to meet us there, sitting at a red light, and ended up getting rear ended. They were at the front of a 3 car pile up. The guy that caused the accident was driving a fancy BMW, and he slammed into the car in front of him so hard that he completely totaled his car. The car he hit then ran into Bob and Sandy, and they were pretty shaken up. Damage wasn’t horrible, but he hurt his back and neck. They’re so lucky they didn’t get hit by the BMW directly, as it probably would have killed them.

They still made it to the ranch though, and were able to join all of us for a private tour. As it turned out, this ended up being my favorite part of the entire trip. I’ve always loved lions, and I’ve seen them at the zoo, but this was a completely different experience. You’re separated from them by 2 chain link fences, but you’re only about 8 feet away, and let me tell you, being in their presence at that proximity is nothing short of amazing. It’s a visceral reaction you have and you quickly realize that although humans may be the smartest animals in the world, they are completely powerless in relation to these majestic creatures. For a second I made eye contact with a 620 pound male lion, and he didn’t even growl or roar, but simply perked up and grunted at me. My instinctual reaction was “Oh my God!” as I stepped backwards so quickly I nearly fell over. Suddenly those fences felt like nothing but thin air.

We had an amazing tour guide who showed us all around the place. She introduced us to every animal they had, but the biggest (pardon the pun) highlight of all had to be Ozzie the giraffe. Ozzie is the only giraffe to have ever entered the state of Nevada. He’s a reticulated giraffe, which is the tallest species of giraffe. He’s currently nearly 16 feet tall, weighing 2,000 pounds, but he’s got a lot more growing to do. Once he is fully grown he will have grown another 5-6 feet, and will put on another 2,000 pounds! For each foot he grows, his massive purple tongue will grow another inch, making it easier to reach out to grab food.

Ozzie is so friendly that everyone in our group got a chance to feed him. Giraffes eat a strictly vegan diet, so we were all feeding him pieces of lettuce. He would bend way down so he was at your eye level and let you pet him on his chin. All I can say is it’s an amazing experience to be at eye level with a giraffe, then watch him elevate directly above your head another 10 feet into the air. It’s humbling actually.

In addition to being an all-around nice guy, Ozzie is a talented artist. Every day he sets up with his painting supplies and paints pictures by holding a brush in his mouth. For those that don’t know, giraffe’s are Ava’s favorite animal, and it just so happened that one of Ozzie’s paintings featured Ava’s favorite colors (purple & black), so I had no choice but to purchase it. It’s now proudly displayed on our art wall, along with a magnet containing a photo of Ozzie working on one of his masterpieces, right as you enter our house.

Speaking of paintings, my Mom was so kind to get me an absolutely beautiful painting of a lion from the Habitat Ranch. It’s one of their younger male lions named Benny, and it looks strikingly similar to the lion tattoo I have on my right shoulder. It was too big to carry on the plane, so she’s going to mail it to me. I can’t wait to get this up on our art wall, right there with Ozzie’s painting.

After the Habitat Ranch we relaxed at home for a bit, then went out that evening to this really cool indoor trampoline park. Unbeknownst to me, ‘trampolining’ has become practically a professional sport, and there were some kids doing stuff there that makes your jaw drop. The place was huge and there were so many different areas and activities to explore. Jessica frequently goes to places like this with the kids, and she said this was easily the coolest one they had ever been to.

So for an hour we basically jumped around and played games. It was a ton of fun, and an extensive workout. Everyone was starving by the end so we treated ourselves to burgers, fries, and milkshakes before calling it a night. Friday really was an awesome day.

Saturday was mostly a chill day at the house, but that night I went to an NHL game with my friends Devin and Tiko. Meanwhile Jessica and the kids hung out and played at Tiko and Tina’s house with their daughter Helen. This is the first season for the Las Vegas Golden Knights franchise and they’re having an extremely good year, which no one expected from a brand new team. It was only my second NHL game ever and it was a blast. The arena is right on the strip and the atmosphere was excellent. Lots of energy, and plenty of cheesy Vegas entertainment during game breaks. The Knights ended up beating the Capitals 3-0 and Fleuri got his first shutout as a Knight, so it was cool to see that in person.

Sunday was Christmas Eve, so I took the kids to the park in the morning for a couple hours so Jessica and Nana could get stuff done around the house. It ended up being a memorable park trip because Ava finally figured out how to swing on her own. I’ve been trying to show her how to swing for years whenever we go to a playground, and on this day it finally all kicked in.

That afternoon we went to this newer shopping mall nearby called Tivoli Village. There was a Christmas store there that was putting on these amazing Christmas experiences for kids. We arrived early and had lunch, then walked and shopped for a bit. When we first entered the Christmas experience it was like you were entering Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. There were all these bubbles coming down, Christmas music was playing, and these cheerful elves were out greeting us and explaining our upcoming adventures.

Each room we entered had a new theme and activity for the kids. In one room you’re building ornaments with elves, while in another you’re eating cookies, sipping warm cocoa, and chatting with Mrs. Claus. The grand finale was when we met with Santa and got our picture taken. Ava was so sweet when she tried to get Santa to keep the ornament she had just made.

Christmas morning was totally fun and crazy, as you’d expect. Lots of paper flying everywhere, shock and awe from the various gifts being revealed. It was great. We had tentatively planned on going sledding at Mt. Charleston that day, depending on weather, but there wasn’t enough snow, so we decided to just relax at home and have a nice dinner. Terry and his girlfriend Lana were there for a bit, and Bob and Sandy came over for the afternoon. I made spaghetti bolognese and we had a handful of other things as well. It was a nice day of family, gifts, relaxation, and food. Oh, and for no particular reason, I decided to show my face again and shave my beard completely off for the first time in 18 months. The kids were pretty freaked out by it, and Ava actually got visibly upset, but it didn’t take long for her to start coming around. At first she was afraid that I wasn’t going to be the same person, but she’s good now.

Bob gave me a couple really special Christmas gifts that I will hold onto forever. One was a Seattle Mariners coffee cup that he gave his dad back in 1977, which the first year they were a team. Not only did my Grandpa never drink out of it, he never even took it out of the box. When he passed away, it went back to Bob, but never came out of the box, and now I have it, still in the box. It’s a brand new coffee cup that’s older than I am, but it comes with some sentimental value.

The other gift, and this one really means a lot to me, is the United States flag that was folded by soldiers during my Grandfather’s funeral. Bob has been holding onto it since Grandpa died (which was about 17 years ago), but he said he spoke to his siblings about it, and they decided I should have it. I got a little choked up when he told me that and had to step away for a minute. It means a lot to me to have this, so Jessica suggested we get a flag box for it and put it on display in our house. It’s definitely something I’m proud (and honored) to hold onto.

Tuesday was another fun and busy day, filled with exotic animals, and an unexpected surprise. We met Bob and Sandy at the Mirage, then headed over to the dolphin exhibit. Nana sent Jessica, the kids, and myself on a VIP tour with a dolphin trainer. We got to see the entire area, learn a lot about dolphins, and meet a really friendly 39 year old male dolphin named Lightning for a snack, photo, and a few splashes.

They have an underwater office we visited, and all the female dolphins were swimming near there at that time. So we got to see Cocoa, the new baby dolphin that was just born there 5 months ago. They had microphones setup to capture all their communication and it was incredible. I’ve never been up close with dolphins like that before, and just like our experience at the Lion Habitat Ranch, it was simply awesome. My mom’s main goal was to send us home with memories, rather than stuff, and she totally came through. We did stuff on this trip that I will never forget, and hope the kids don’t either.

Later that afternoon we were in the tiger exhibit, which is connected to the dolphin habitat. It was pretty busy and crowded, but then out of nowhere I recognized our friend Kendra, who Jessica and I have known forever in Seattle. Her sister Julie used to be our roommate at the house in Queen Anne, and we’ve all been close ever since. She was there with her family, presumably for New Year’s Eve, so we all hung out for a second to catch up. It was just a nice random small-world surprise.

Wednesday was the day we weren’t looking forward to because it was the day Nana was scheduled to have shoulder replacement surgery. Something strange happened though, which may have been a twist of fate. While we were on the tour at the dolphin habitat, my mom got a call from her doctor. He said he’d been thinking about her for a while and had come to the conclusion that full shoulder replacement surgery was the wrong first step. He wanted to try a much easier procedure where they inject stem cells into the bone, then do some type of compression therapy, in hopes that it will stimulate new bone growth.

She was ecstatic because it was day surgery, rather than 3 days in the hospital, and felt like it would be worth it to try based on his recommendation. So I took her to the hospital early Wednesday morning, then picked her up and brought her home that afternoon. Everything went perfectly well during the procedure so hopefully things continue to go smoothly.

We wanted to give her some quiet time to rest, so after getting mom setup at home, Jessica and I took the kids down to the strip. Destination – M&M World! The place was so busy you had to wait in line to take an escalator. No joke. So each of the kids got to pick out a toy, then we got out of there as quick as possible. Enzo got this little toy fan (which I assume is more popular in the summer), and has proceeded to get it stuck in Ava’s hair twice now. Once was so bad we had to cut some of her hair off to get it out. The girls both got Miss Green stuffed animals, but Elise has already lost hers, which is another story.

The other place we really wanted to show them was the indoor gardens at Bellagio. It’s only 2 blocks away from M&M World, but these are Las Vegas blocks, so it took us quite a while to walk there. Walking with your young kids on the strip is a bit of a trip. There’s a lot going on, plenty of distractions for the kids, so you have to walk with purpose. It turned out that just getting there was the adventure, and by then the kids were pooped. We still walked around the Christmas displays though, and were blown away by several of them.

It was a long walk back to the car, but I noticed I suddenly wasn’t feeling very good on the way. By the time we got home I was as white as a sheet and needed to lay down. I got in bed at 7:00pm and that’s where I stayed until 1:00 the following afternoon. It was one of those nasty combinations of fever and chills and it hit me out of nowhere. I had been sick before this trip but was taking antibiotics and had gotten past it, then I basically got blindsided by the flu. Jessica got it too, and so there we were, faced with travelling home in a matter of hours, feeling like hell, with 3 kids to keep in check.

Somehow we pulled it together and were able to get everything out the door. We actually left with one more suitcase than we arrived with, but that’s just how it goes. We had no troubles at the airport, as practically no one was leaving Las Vegas 3 days before New Years Eve. Once again flying through Bellingham was simple and easy, so we found ourselves home around 11:00 that night.

The kids all did great, and to their credit, none of them were 100% either. They were all exhausted, Enzo was showing signs of having caught a cold, Ava had been dealing with Enzo’s fan getting stuck in her hair, and Elise had (actually still has) a black eye because Ava hit her in the face with a badminton racquet.

Upon arriving at home, we didn’t exactly have the homecoming we were expecting, in that our new fish Taco, was unfortunately dead. Our neighbors had been feeding him, so we’re not sure what happened, but it was a bummer because we knew the kids would take it rough. They were all sleeping, so the conversation would have to wait for the morning. As expected, Ava took it the hardest (although Elise was quite sad as well), but we used it as a life lesson about being a pet owner. Later that day we went to Bridges (our favorite pet store) and ended up getting a tank heater, 4 male guppies, and a frog. Look at us with 5 pets.

We decided to name some of them after the animals we’d met on our trip, so one fish is named Ozzie, and another is Lightning. Elise named her fish Oreo, and then there’s Coconut, which is how my kids refer to my favorite hockey team, the Vancouver Canucks. Oh, and we can’t forget about Stevie Ray Frog. He seems pretty lonely though so we may have to go back for Jumpy Hendrix to join him.

While Jessica recovered pretty quickly from the flu, I had no such luck. Since we’ve been back I’ve been really sick and have barely left the house. Jessica is working at El Gaucho Seattle tonight for New Years Eve, so this is my big day alone with the kids. Unfortunately I was still feeling like hell, and to make matters worse, the pain had spread to my ears, which freaked me out into thinking I had an ear infection. Since it’s the last day of the year, I knew I could go to the doctor at no cost because my deductibles had all been met, but if I waited another day, everything started over. Plus I’m on call at work starting tomorrow, which means I’ll be extra busy all week, so I made the call to go into Urgent Care this afternoon, even though it meant bringing all 3 kids with me.

I got there and started coughing so hard during check in that they made me wear a mask. They got us into a room quickly, but it was there we sat for a full hour before a doctor arrived. After a full exam he told me it’s not an ear infection, or pneumonia, but a classic case of influenza, which in this context was good news. He said the worst of it is behind me, but prescribed a cough syrup to deal with some of the lingering effects. He said the pain I was feeling in my ears was a reflected pain, coming from a nerve in my respiratory system. More than anything it just ended up giving me some peace of mind that I’m almost over it and there’s nothing more serious to deal with. In a strange way, it felt appropriate to finish off 2017 with a few hours in a doctor’s office, considering everything we’ve dealt with this year.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Day, so I’m off work. This year I decided to change my Stay Fit benefit at work, so starting tomorrow, our family is enrolled at Columbia Athletic Club, which is a very nice facility that’s only 5 minutes from our house. The kids are also enrolled in their kids club, meaning we’ll always have care for them there, plus they do all kinds of weekend activities, so it should be fun. Jessica and I are excited to be able to start working out together, and they have a killer combination of indoor and outdoor pools, so going there in the summer is going to be sweet.

2017 was a pretty crazy year for us, mainly being dominated by Jessica’s neck surgery and my 2 elbow surgeries. We’re not getting any younger and this year was a good reminder of that. This was the year of hockey and ice skating for Ava and myself. The first of many I assume, as we both have come to love it. Elise has started exploring a lot this year, including participating in a running team, and taking ballet lessons. This year Enzo has developed a vocabulary most 2 year olds can’t even touch, and Jessica has shown a dedication to giving and community support that I’ve been extremely impressed by.

Looking ahead to 2018, we know we’ve got Christmas in Colorado, but we’re also thinking about an early summer trip to Vegas. For the near-term, I’ve got a big work project due at the end of January, so it’s going to be a busy month for me. Then at the end of January Mr. Enzo will be turning 3!

To our family and friends who actually take the time to read this, thank you, and happy new year with love from all of us. Here are some of our favorite photos from the trip. To Nana, thank you so much for a Christmas we will always remember.

Uncle Bob’s ‘Toy Car’

Enzo taking a closer look

Elise couldn’t decide which pair of sunglasses to wear, so…

This is the 620 pound lion that scared me half to death

Jessica saying hello to Ozzie, the giraffe

Mom got a lot of quality time with him

Ava holding our painting by Ozzie

Enzo wearing my Dad’s actual U.S. Navy hat. I’m sure it has shrunk over the years, although Enzo does have a very large head…

Jumping into some milkshakes after the trampoline park

Ava showing her newfound skills on the swing set

Elise and Enzo patiently awaiting the Christmas village extravaganza

I had to hold Ava for a bit after shaving my beard so she would believe it was still me

Wearing silly Christmas clothes in front of the tree, our annual tradition

Enzo wearing my crown from a school play – 30 years ago. Yep, Mom still has it, and it’s in perfect condition.

The little sweatshirt is one I used to wear as a little kid, but then Mom broke out the big one on Christmas. Jessica swooned over it and had to have it.

Bob and Enzo quickly became buddies on this trip. It was great to see.

Getting some time with our new friend Lightning

Exploring the tiger park at the Mirage

Ready to explore the Bellagio kids!? Maybe not. It was beautiful though.

Elise has never seen a Christmas tree she didn’t like

Ava enjoying her Princess Poppy travel pillow on the plane ride home – a gift from Nana

On Friday night, her first night of her first holiday break from school, miss Ava lost her first tooth! She had been wiggling it for a couple weeks, and Jessica noticed during our fried chicken dinner with Rick and Chris that it was more than ready to come out. She told Ava to pull it out, but she was scared, so Grandpa (who was sat right next to her while she was sitting in Grandma’s lap) reached in there, gave it a couple tugs, and it popped right out.

It was almost surreal – one second I’m taking a bite of spicy fried chicken from Ezell’s, and the next, Rick has Ava’s tooth in his hand. Meanwhile she’s sitting there with her mouth wide open and this funny look on her face, not sure how to react. She didn’t really like seeing some blood, but as we all know, it was no big deal. She was totally cool about it and got super excited about her impending visit from the Tooth Fairy. She immediately ran and got her Polaroid camera from Nana to document the occasion.

It was an exciting moment for all, and the first of many, in terms of losing teeth. I was always scared of pulling teeth as a kid, but as a Dad I’m going to have a chance to get over that. Ava’s dentist said there are 3 more coming soon after, so I may get my chance soon. The Tooth Fairy was kind enough to leave Ava one dollar, and a chocolate gold coin. She’s so excited to go spend her dollar at the Dollar Store, but I’m not sure how she’s going to cover the 10.4% sales tax.

That night had to be my favorite of Rick and Chris’ visit, because in addition to dinner and the whole tooth debacle, we also built an awesome gingerbread house, and opened Christmas presents from Grandma and Grandpa. The gingerbread house was really fun because literally all 7 of us took part in its creation (or maybe I should say its decoration, as the house was already constructed for us). Everybody was adding their own little touches to it, and of course Enzo kept trying to eat stuff on it so you had to keep an eye on him.

After they went home on Sunday morning, Ava had her final hockey class of this session. There were lots of kids absent for the final week, so she got extra one on one time with her coaches. She now has a 3 week break from hockey before starting back up for the next round. Speaking of hockey, I was able to get back the previous Sunday and play with my friends for the final session of the year. I was a bit out of shape but still had a blast, and most importantly, suffered no injuries.

Sunday night we decided to do our own little Christmas thing at home, just the 5 of us. The main downside to travelling for Christmas is that it can prevent you from forming your own holiday memories at home, so we just pretended last night was Christmas by giving the kids all of their presents from Mommy and Daddy. Instead of wrapping everything, we did this fun thing where the kids all waited in the living room while one of us went upstairs to pick out presents for them. Then we would come downstairs and play everything up before surprising them with their gifts. It actually worked out really well, and for each ‘round’, the kids seemed to bubble up more and more with excitement. Plus there was minimal cleanup, and you’re not wasting wrapping paper.

Each of them loved their presents and consequently spent the rest of the evening playing with all their new stuff. Some highlights included:

• Big dress up dolls for Elise and Ava
• Enzo’s ride-on firetruck
• Costumes (Elise got a Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) dress, Ava got a Lego Batman outfit, and Enzo got decked out like Sir Lancelot)
• New clothes for the girls
• A toy Zamboni and a toy street sweeper for Enzo
• A coin book filled with pennies (Enzo is obsessed with pennies)
• And lots of little trinkets

This Thursday morning we’ll be flying out of Bellingham, heading to Nana’s house in Vegas for Christmas in the desert. I know my Mom has been working extremely hard to get the house ready, so I hope she can finally relax and just enjoy the time with her grandkids. She has a busy itinerary planned out, which includes visits to Lion and Dolphin habitats, pictures with Santa, baking cookies with Mrs. Claus, sledding on Mt. Charleston, trampoline parks, and much more.

We will also be visiting our friends, and I’m super excited to go to the hockey game Saturday night with my buddies Devin and Tiko. The Washington Capitals will be in town to play the Golden Knights, so it’s going to be packed, and I’ll get a chance to see a future Hall-of-famer in Alexander Ovechkin play. I’m sure I’ll also make it out for a poker tournament with my Uncle Bob. Should be a great week.

I’ll definitely be writing again after our trip, so for now, here’s a few pics and videos from our recent visit with Grandma and Grandpa Rudd. Merry Christmas!

Ava’s Polaroid after losing her first tooth

Nice shades

Grandpa and his “main man”

On 3 say “Gingerbread house!”

Enjoying the new costumes for a bit

Today we celebrated Ava turning 6 in style, by hosting a ‘Unicorns on Ice’ themed birthday party at a local ice rink. We knew plenty of our guests had either never ice-skated before, or hadn’t done so in a long time, so we were a little nervous that people wouldn’t like it, or wouldn’t get it. Luckily everyone had a really good time, and several of the kids trying it for the first time ended up loving it and not wanting to leave. Hopefully we’ve sparked a little interest in a few of them.

The girls in our family took the Unicorn theme pretty seriously. Grandma, Ava, and Elise were each wearing Unicorn pajamas, meanwhile Jessica was sporting a beautifully colored Unicorn wig, which drew plenty of attention on it’s own. As you can probably imagine, our group was pretty easy to notice.

Most importantly, Ava had a great day that I’m sure she will always remember. Having Grandma and Grandpa Martin staying with us for her big day certainly makes things more special. She had a blast this morning opening boxes of dress up jewelry, clothes, and toys. The party went on pretty much all afternoon, then we came home to chill and let the kids play with all the new toys and gizmos.

Beyond today, Ava has been doing great with Kindergarten and is loving learning to read. She is beyond excited to have 4 loose teeth and can’t wait for the tooth fairy to make its first appearance. She loves playing hockey on Sundays with the girls and is constantly improving in all phases of the game. I hope today was a really special day for her because everyone loved celebrating with her. Happy 6th birthday my sweet girl.

Elise is doing really well and has been enjoying attending dance/ballet classes for the past several weeks in a row. Her running series ended a while back and we transitioned straight from that to dance. She is loving it and it seems to suit her, so it looks like something worth continuing. She is still attending pre-school 2 days a week, but I think we’re going to add a 3rd day after the new year. Won’t be long before we’re sending her off to Kindergarten as well.

Enzo is a raging ball of two-year-old energy. Sometimes he’s the sweetest, funniest little boy you’ve ever seen, then he suddenly transforms into an outburst of emotions without warning. His experience with the Terrible Twos has been different from the girls, but we seem to be moving away from the worst of it. Sometimes he’s super difficult to contain, then suddenly you’re playing with the funniest, coolest little kid ever. He’s doing well out on the ice, actually quite surprisingly well considering he’s still in diapers, yet is able to skate several feet in a row without assistance. He’s pretty hilarious without meaning to be, and might be the most talkative child in our family history. I remember Ava being a very talkative baby, but I don’t think she can compete with Enzo. He loves trucks, bulldozers, front-loaders, trains, and tractors.

Things with Jessica and I are going well and we’re just getting into all the holiday hustle bustle. A few weeks ago we had Grandpa Rick out for a Halloween visit, now we’ve got Grandma and Grandpa Martin out for Thanksgiving and Ava’s birthday, then we’ve got Grandpa Rick and Grandma Chris coming back out in mid December for a long weekend visit, then that following we our whole family is going to Las Vegas to spend Christmas at Nana’s house. My Mom has tons of stuff planned for us to do while we’re there, so yeah, the holidays are on in full effect.

Earlier this month I had my second elbow surgery of the year (actually in the last 3 months), this time on my left side. Everything went really well and I’m doing physical therapy on my way to an easy recovery. Although the first surgery wasn’t too major and was relatively easy to recover from, this most recent one was even less serious and will be even easier to recover from. It should only be a few more weeks before I’m done with PT and moving on.

As always, plenty to be thankful for, plenty of good stuff to look forward to. I don’t see how things could be better. Here’s several photos and videos from Ava’s big day. Happy birthday Ava! We love you to the moon.

Getting started with presents a day early

Trying to get a good view for Elise at opening night of Snowflake Lane

Winter trains and gingerbread cookies

Ava on her birthday morning. She loved her crown.

The Unicorns and the Dragon, preparing to party

Mama Unicorn

Grandma and Grandpa Unicorn, I mean Martin

Our good friend Julie and her awesome little boys

Love this pic of Carol, Butch, Dana, and Brad

Keeping each other upright

The Unicorn cake!

Ava opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa Rudd

Opening presents from Nana

Ava’s birthday morning

Free skating during her party

The cake photo

Happy Birthday to you

I can’t even believe I’m saying this, as it doesn’t seem quite possible, but it looks like I’m going to need surgery on my left elbow for the same problem I just had on my right elbow. As I mentioned in my last post, I hyperextended my left elbow in my first hockey game back after recovering from surgery on the right elbow for an avulsion fracture. It was painful, but not a big deal, and didn’t compare in any way with the injury to my right elbow back in July. The motion was different, and the pain was less.

It felt like it was getting better all week, and I ended up playing hockey the next Sunday and everything was fine. I had a great time, scored the only goal of the game, and enjoyed seeing my friends. This whole week I’ve been taking care of it and it’s been fine, but then yesterday morning I was putting together a set of bunk beds for the girls, and while pushing these two pieces together, I felt a pop in my left elbow, then a bunch of pain.

With Jessica’s help, I finished assembling the bunk beds, then started hemming and hawing for a while about whether or not I should go to urgent care. Based on her insistance, I decided to go get it looked at. There’s a brand new Urgent Care less than a mile from our house, so I had no excuse.

I explained everything to the doctor, including my previous injury, then he proceeded to do a bunch of tests by having me push and twist different ways with my hand/arm. At the end he said, “If you put a gun to my head, I don’t think you have another avulsion fracture, but we could do an x-ray if you want, it’s just that someone has to pay for it.” My response was basically “Well, my family has already reached our out-of-pocket maximum for the year, so let’s go for it! I hope you’re right, but I’d like to have the peace of mind I can only get from a negative x-ray.” He said that was fine and set me up for the next step.

Fast-forward to the moment the doctor is bringing my x-ray images up on screen. He hasn’t seen them yet, but as soon as he does he starts to chuckle and says something like “Well, I guess you were right.” I looked at the screen and saw almost the exact same x-ray I saw back in July on my right arm. As he explained, I have a bone spur on my elbow that is partially attached to my triceps, and it has partially avulsed. I showed him a photo of my x-ray from July on my right elbow and he said the injury is the same, except the spur on my right elbow had completely avulsed (broke off), which is why that experience was more traumatic and painful than this one. In this case, it’s a partial avulsion, but if I were to go out and play hockey tonight (or do anything athletic involving my arms), I would almost certainly experience a full avulsion. Having been through that recently and knowing how painful it is, I’d rather not experience it again. The memory of it is still fresh in my mind.

I know it seems like hockey is the culprit here, so I asked him for his opinion on that. What he basically said is that it’s not very common for people to have bone spurs like this on their elbows, and that while hockey isn’t something he necessary recommends for grown men, this issue would have likely surfaced elsewhere, assuming I was involved in some other activity. Hearing this was a bit of a relief because I don’t want to quit permanently, even though I know I am now being forced into taking another break from it.

So what’s the next step? Well, tomorrow morning I will call my Orthopedic surgeon who fixed my right elbow, and setup an appointment. My assumption, based on recent experience, is that we won’t need an MRI this time, and will just schedule a new surgery, but we’ll have to wait and see. My biggest concern is how long it will take to see him. I have jury duty in Snohomish this Wednesday through Friday, however if that’s the only time I can get into the doctor then I’ll just have to figure something out.

I was pretty bummed out yesterday afternoon knowing that in all likelihood, I’m going to need another surgery, then have to go through another 6 weeks of physical therapy. However at this point I’m over being bummed about it and need to just take things one at a time. I probably shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself, but I can’t help it based on recent experience. I suppose there’s still a chance I won’t need surgery, but I doubt it. I have no pushing strength in my left arm and simple tasks like pumping a squirt of hand soap are very painful. It’s so weird for my right arm to suddenly be my ‘good arm’ again, considering all the time I just spent rehabbing it, but it’s doing great. I have full mobility, zero pain, and it honestly feels stronger than before the injury. I think that has to be part of the consideration to have surgery on the left one, but we’ll see what the doctor says.

To end on a positive note, the girls love their new bunk beds, or as they call them, “bunker beds”. Kristy found them for sale online near her house and ended up getting them for us. I wasn’t sure if everything would fit in our minivan, but it did, and setup was relatively painless. Actually ‘painless’ probably isn’t the right word here, but I digress. Elise had completely outgrown her tiny bed, so we handed it off to another mom with an infant son. Now all 3 of the kids have ‘big kid’ beds that they won’t outgrow for years to come.

We’ve got a busy day today: hockey for Ava at 11:30, running for Elise at 3:00, and game 2 of the NLCS at 5:00. It’s Dodgers vs Cubs again this year, so I’m hoping for my revenge against the Northsiders. Dodgers took game 1 last night, so tonight will be interesting.

My right elbow x-ray from July. The spur has completely avulsed.

My left elbow x-ray from yesterday. The spur has partially avulsed.

The girls sitting on their ‘bunker beds’ for the first time

For the girls and I, a new sporting season has recently begun. Elise has been on a kids running team for a few weeks now and is having a lot of fun, Ava just started the hockey 2 program with the Washington Wild, and I’ve been back to playing hockey on Sunday afternoon for two weeks now. There’s a lot to get into, but first, an update on Enzo and Jessica.

The little guy took a big spill on his bike this weekend and has a split lip to show for it. I was out in the garage practicing shooting with my hockey stick when I heard Enzo start screaming and crying. I started making my way outside to see what was happening when I heard Ava yelling for me, saying Enzo was bleeding. I sprinted over to him and found him in the neighbor’s driveway with blood all over his face. He was a huge mess so I swooped him up into my arms and ran back inside. Jessica was home but upstairs so I yelled for her to come down, then started looking for the source of the bleeding.

We quickly traced it to his inner bottom lip, which was split wide open and already starting to swell. Once we got him under control (with a popsicle of course), we called a nurse hotline available through my work. After talking it over with the nurse we decided to stay home, keep ice on it, and watch the bleeding. He turned out to be fine, but the next morning his mouth was really swollen and bruised. It’s been getting better each day, and he barely even notices it now, but it was no fun in the moment.

Other than that he’s been doing great. He’s been regularly asking me if he can go ice skating with the girls, so I expect to start taking him soon. Jessica recently took a really cute video of him dancing in our living room, which I have posted below.

Jessica, in her quest to become Mill Creek Citizen of the Year, is continuing to brighten the days of complete strangers by giving out all of the painted rocks she spends so much time working on. Whether it’s responding to a request on social media for a particular themed rock for someone going through a hardship, or just leaving rocks unannounced for people whom she interacts with on the local ‘Buy Nothing’ site, she’s constantly spreading joy and receiving public (social) thank you’s. Her work is quite impressive these days, so I’ve recently put in a couple rock requests for myself. Fingers crossed that those requests receive preferential treatment.

Elise has been running on Sunday afternoons for a few weeks now, and she’s having a lot of fun. In all honesty, the program we enrolled her in is a bit of a joke, and Jess & I regularly comment that we could do something much better, but it’s fine. Basically you show up, wait for your race (which in Elise’s case is 4-5 year old girls), run the race, and go home. In terms of providing a minimum viable experience, it meets that bar, but that’s about it.

When you consider that these are all young kids with very little experience in track or running, you’d think they would do some type of group stretching or warm-up before starting the races, but that’s not the case. So instead, we arrive a little early and I do the stretching/warm-up with Elise (and usually Ava). Elise may not be the fastest kid out there, but no one is having more fun, and that’s all I care about. Ava likes to say things like “Elise, you lost the race and you’re not even crying”, but Elise always shows impressive maturity and tells her that she doesn’t mind if she loses the race because she still has fun running with her friends. She gets noticeably excited when seeing kids she recognizes from previous outings, so it’s all good. We’re hoping to get Elise started in a dance class soon as well. She’s been showing an interest there so we’re excited to let her try it out. As long as the kids are staying active and having fun, we’re happy.

Yesterday was Ava’s first day with the Washington Wild. Going into this I knew that they were one of the top female hockey programs in North America, but it didn’t really sink in until seeing it all in person. I actually play hockey on Sundays with one of the guys that helps run the organization, so I ran into him shortly after we arrived and he ended up introducing me to everyone.

The Wild were formed 15 years ago by two women who had grown up playing hockey, but always struggled with the fact that there were very few options for female hockey players. One of the founders has an award named after her, and the other is in the hockey coaching hall of fame. What started as a single team has now become an entire league, with multiple teams and age groups spanning from 4 to 19. In addition to local league play, the Wild have multiple travel teams who frequently compete in tournaments in other states, as well as Canada. They consistently place girls in NCAA hockey programs, and just last year they graduated 4 girls from various universities.

I want to be clear that I’m not expecting Ava to reach the highest levels this program offers, but simply point out that if she does decide to stick with hockey, she’s definitely in the right place. It’s a really cool program and I’m glad we’re now a part of it. Since Ava has done several skating classes already, including the hockey 1 program in Everett, she was invited to start out in the hockey 2 program with the Wild. This means wearing full hockey gear and using a stick on the ice, both of which are firsts for new participants in this class.

Ava was so excited to get out on the ice, but first we watched the end of a game featuring 8-10 year old girls. Honestly I couldn’t believe how good they were! They’re probably playing a cleaner game of hockey than the group I play with on Sundays, and their skating is definitely better. After their game Ava was right up front waiting to get out on the ice. Watching her there with the other girls, knowing this would be her first time playing with pads and a stick, my heart was racing. I knew she would be totally fine, but I was pretty anxious.

She ended up doing great and was bursting with pride when she came off the ice. It’s an hour long class, so it’s twice as long as any other skating/hockey class she has ever done, and while other girls were coming off the ice for a break here and there, Ava was having none of it. She didn’t want to leave even after the hour was up, but she had so much fun and couldn’t stop talking about it. When we were leaving, she got her own USA Hockey headband, and a sports card for one of the girls from the Wild’s oldest division. She kept the headband on all day, and refused to set the card down. We’ll see what happens, but I think she’s hooked. Can’t wait for next week.

After Elise’s race yesterday, I played hockey for the second Sunday in a row. On my first day back (the previous Sunday), I got to reunite with all my buddies and get caught up. Not surprisingly, when I finished playing my elbow was sore, but what is surprising, is that it wasn’t my right elbow (the one I had surgery on) that was sore. I managed to hyperextend my left elbow half-way through the game. It was painful, but there was no way I was coming off the ice. I can tell the difference between being hurt and being injured, and this was definitely the former. This was my first time playing left-handed, so I probably over-compensated, but I couldn’t believe it. It’s like, are you kidding me? I’ve been nursing my right elbow for 2 months, and now as soon as it’s healthy I’ve got to start dealing with the left one? I ended up getting a couple shots off during the game, but didn’t manage to score. Didn’t matter though, it was just good to be back out there.

I took good care of the left elbow all week, then yesterday came along and things went much better. With a brace on each elbow, a knee brace, and all my hockey gear, I felt like the bionic man getting on the ice. We did power skating drills for 30 minutes, so by the time the game started, everyone was gassed. It was a low scoring affair, but my team won 1-0. Fortunately for me, I got the one goal of the game. While I generally don’t celebrate my goals in favor of acting like I’ve been there before, this one was special for a number of reasons:

1. It was my first goal since my injury
2. It was my first goal playing left-handed
3. It was the best goal I’ve ever shot

The whole play is still fresh in my mind, so I’m going to describe it. I was playing left-wing and my teammate (the center) got out on a fast break with the puck. If you drew an imaginary line down the center of the ice from goal to goal, we would have been about 8 feet to the left of it, and I was following him about 15 feet behind. He took a shot on goal, the goalie stopped it, and the puck deflected way up in the air. The goalie lost site of the puck, but I could see it the entire way.

As it came down everything went into slow motion for me. The puck landed about 10 feet in front of me, the goalie was out of position, and there was no one between me and him. That’s when you have the realization that you’re about to get a wide open shot, which can often lock people up. I’ve seen people (including myself) end up falling and/or missing the puck all together, but I’ve been practicing wrist and snap shots from the left side in my garage, and I was ready.

I took two strides towards the puck and set up for a snap shot, which is a power shot generally used when you’re close to the goal. I reached forward with my right arm, pushing the butt end of the stick down to create flex, then pulled it in, rolling my left wrist under the puck as it made contact, in order to get lift on the shot. As I was making contact, I saw the goalie diving back in front of the goal with his glove extended. The puck was rising, as I had intended, and it just barely passed by the goalie’s glove, then hit the inside of the top-right corner bar and ricocheted into the back of the net.

Our coach, who was playing defense on my team, immediately started yelling about “That’s why you always follow on the fast-break!” and “Position is everything in hockey!” and “Nice fucking goaaaaal!!!!!”. It was awesome. It just felt like this total comeback moment, being back out there with the same group on the same ice where I was injured a couple months ago, to be having this feeling of validation and achievement after dealing with surgery and physical therapy.

In many ways I feel like the situation I have with hockey now is very similar to Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego. When I was working in La Jolla, I’d go to the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu school a couple times a week on my lunch break, and became part of this great group of people. I loved it and always wanted to be there. Then we moved back to Seattle, and leaving my school was the hardest part. I tried two different Jiu-Jitsu schools but was never able to find something that felt right. It was a total bummer, but now I have this great group of people to play hockey with every Sunday, and it feels very much the same. I’m definitely glad to have found it.

Rather than end a post with recent photos, as I usually do, this time I’m going to switch things up and share some recent videos we’ve taken. There’s one from Jessica of Enzo dancing in the living room, one of Elise running her race yesterday, and three from Ava’s first practice with the Wild. Enjoy!

I normally find Ava on the ice by looking for the pink helmet, but that doesn’t really work anymore.