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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Getting some z’s on the plane

Elise’s 1st Christmas

Ava loves the snow

Grandma and Elise on Christmas morning

My little musician

Mommy and Ava in front of the tree

Grandma and Grandpa looking at their new book

Mommy and Ava at the winter park

Ava, Jessica, Joel and Melanie

Ava napping in her tent on Christmas morning

Sledding with Joel and Melanie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One year ago today we arrived in Bellevue after nearly 3 years in San Diego. First and foremost, we couldn’t have done that move without the help of Jessica’s Mom, Amy. Jess was in the early stages of her pregnancy with Elise at that time and we had just hosted a big party to celebrate Ava’s 1st birthday and Thanksgiving. That party turned out to be the last fun thing we did in San Diego, because the following week was nothing but cleaning out our house and loading everything into a moving pod. I remember we had the steepest driveway ever at that house and the pod couldn’t be left on the street so we had no choice but to keep it in the driveway. The downward angle ended up working in our favor when loading things into the pod, but then you had to walk out uphill. Good times.

One thing I’ll never forget about that move was the first day of driving. Jess and I have done some crazy trips before, most notably riding my motorcycle from Seattle to Reno in one day (16 hours), but this one was right up there. Jessica and Amy drove the Durango, which contained Ava, both dogs, plus everything else that could possibly fit inside, and they towed a small trailer rented from U–Haul, (tip: never rent from U–Haul) because we couldn’t fit everything into the pod. I was following them in our Accord, which was completely packed with stuff. There was literally no space anywhere in that car besides the driver’s seat. We pulled out from our house in La Mesa at 7:30am and didn’t stop until we reached Eugene OR, which is 1,000 miles north, at approximately 1:00am. Going through the pass at the Siskiyou Mountains that night was the worst storm I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s darker than night out there, you’re on a winding mountain highway, and the rain is coming down so hard that you can’t hear the stereo and your wiper blades can’t keep up even though they’re on their highest setting. In hindsight we shouldn’t have done it but we were determined to get to Eugene that night and we did.

Everyone was so relieved when we arrived at Dana and Brad’s house the following night. That was a special type of exhaustion. Amy had to be up at the crack of dawn the following morning for a flight back to Florida, but luckily Brad was also flying out early that morning and Dana was already planning on driving to the airport. That morning our little caravan pulled up to our new house and we were met by our friend Kim, who is a real estate agent and helped us get the house. We had only seen pictures at this point and had our fingers crossed as we walked in for the first time. We had already signed a year lease and I was starting work as a contractor at Amazon in a couple days so there was no going back.

We’ve already made some good memories at this house, including just last weekend with Ava’s birthday party, but hopefully it won’t be too much longer until we make one final move, into a house we own. As much as we hate the thought of moving again, we love the idea of buying something that we can stay in long–term. Once we get through the new year we’re going to sit down with Aunt Carol and get down to business. I think its safe to say that we’re staying in this area and I love the idea of the girls growing up near family.

After all the excitement we had last weekend celebrating Ava’s second birthday, the plan for today was to have a nice relaxing day at home with just the four of us. Last night we received the photos Leon took at Ava’s birthday party and we’re thrilled with how they turned out. Not only did he get tons of great shots of Ava, but he also got a lot of photos of the other little kids that were there. If you’d like to download the Hancock, Kipper, Klinger, LaFleur, or Lester family photos, go to: pellegrinipage.com/downloads

We went on a mini–hike this morning on a trail near our house. It’s been pretty ideal weather here considering the time of year, so we wanted to get out and enjoy it before gorging ourselves for the remainder of the day. We didn’t do a turkey this year but did make a ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and veggies, followed by pumpkin pie with extra whip cream. We’re in a bit of a food coma now but its been a great day. I’ll be working tomorrow, and its a bit of an ‘all hands on deck’ sort of day considering all of the holiday shopping, but it’s also Friday, which is inherently good.

Nana got Elise some Thanksgiving pajamas and Jess was able to get a great picture of her in them. The rest of the photos were taken by Leon at Ava’s party.

Elise’s first Thanksgiving

It was a whirlwind of a weekend for all of us as we celebrated Ava’s birthday. We hosted a rainbow themed party at our house for 30 of our friends and family. It was a huge success and Ava had a great time. She truly seemed to know what was going on and ran around the house talking with everyone. I was a little afraid that she would be overwhelmed with all of the people in our house but she was a little social butterfly with most of the guests. Hands down, my favorite part of the whole day was singing Happy Birthday to her. I have never seen her look so sweet and happy. It is a moment of the party that I will never forget. I will willingly admit that I went a little overboard with all of the custom decorations and rainbow themed party flair, but I do not regret any of it. I think that everyone that joined us for the afternoon enjoyed themselves, and I know that Ava had a blast, and that’s all that we were hoping for.

Today is her actual birthday so I wanted to do a little something different for the day. I didn’t really have any specific activity in mind so after we said good-bye to Nana at the airport we headed into Seattle.

We started off with lunch at The Fisherman, a total tourist attraction but perfect for kids. Ava did unusually well at lunch, keeping happy eating both Grandma and Grandpa’s oyster crackers. They gave us free tickets to the carousel in the arcade next door so I took her on her first carousel ride. She did not like sitting on the moving horse but was thrilled to be held while spinning around so we just stood in the aisle between horses. After that we couldn’t resist the urge to ride the Seattle Great Wheel. I wasn’t sure if she’d like it but we figured it was worth a try. I’m so glad that we went. She loved it and kept saying “I’m in the sky” and smiling. After the Great Wheel we weren’t quite ready to head home so we took a walk through the market and ate some fresh roasted cashews and doughnuts. It was a fun impromptu afternoon.

It’s hard to believe that I have only been a parent for two years. I can easily say that becoming a mother is the most wonderfully, amazing thing that has ever happened to me. Ava is such an awesome kid. She is so funny, independent, smart, loving, energetic, adventurous and so much more. She continues to amaze me everyday with the little person that she is becoming.
Happy Birthday, Ava!

Ava loves her slide

Watching everyone sing Happy Birthday to her

Our little rainbow warrior

Yes, that’s cake on the walls

Visiting the market on her birthday

“I’m in the sky!”

Elise enjoying the festivities

Two years ago today Jessica and I became parents, and our lives were forever changed for the better. In one sense it’s hard to believe that it’s already been two years, but when I look back and think of all that has happened in that time. As the story goes, Ava was born on “Black Friday” in 2011. Leading up to her birth I was working about 80 hours per week between my two jobs. I was working days at Scrollmotion and bartending at night at the Tractor Room. Thanksgiving was going to be my first day off in over a month, and since Jessica was so close to delivery we decided to have a very low key meal at our home in Pacific Beach.

Shortly after Thanksgiving dinner Jessica went into labor. We knew not to go to the hospital right away, so we watched a UFC event, then went on a walk around the neighborhood with Bruno and Bella. We arrived at the hospital in the wee hours of the morning and began the roller coaster ride that was Ava’s birth. The hospital was pushing Jessica to have a C-section but we didn’t want that and held out as long as possible. As they were preparing the room for surgery, the doctor decided to give Jessica one chance to have a natural birth. After only a few minutes of pushing our sweet baby girl was born. I had never cried tears of joy before that moment, and I’ll never forget how special it was. Since then we’ve come a long way, including another baby, two moves, a job change, and me getting back into school to finish my degree. To say we’ve been keeping busy would be a major under statement, but that’s the way we like it.

This past Saturday we celebrated Ava’s birthday at our house in Bellevue with about 30 friends and family members. It was the biggest party we’ve ever thrown, and it was a huge success! Jessica did an amazing job decorating for the party, and I rekindled Gigi and Aunt Norma’s ravioli recipe, which was a hit. Although putting on a party of this magnitude was a ton of work, seeing Ava’s face when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her made it all well worth it. It was a look of pure joy and happiness, followed by a barrage of cake making its way all over Ava, her tray, and the surrounding walls and floor. My explanation can’t do it justice so keep an eye out for the photos to come.

Both of our girls were great all day and I think Ava had a blast opening presents and going down the slide we got her. She literally went down that thing at least 100 times throughout the day. Elise was so well behaved and content to be passed around by family members and close friends. My good friend Leon took tons of photos, which I’ll be getting later this week, and will be posting ASAP. I’m going to save the photos that we already have for Jessica’s post tonight, but I couldn’t resist recapping the wonderful day we all had.

Ava, you and your sister are the best thing that has ever happened to your Mom and I. You’ve brought a sense of joy and purpose to our lives that we never even knew existed. I thank my lucky stars everyday for having such an amazing family. Although you probably won’t remember your second birthday, please know that it was a very special day that was attended by so many people we love. Thank you for making me such a proud Papa; I love you with all my heart.