May hasn’t been nearly as crazy of a month for us as April was, but we’ve still got a few cool things to share. Most notably, the school year recently came to an end and the kids are now on Summer break! Enzo had a great year in second grade and made lots of friends that he will continue with for the next three years. Elise, in all honesty, didn’t have her best year of school this year, but we had some heart-to-heart talks with her towards the end of the year and we definitely saw an improvement afterward.
Jessica did a lot of work to get her the help she needs and we feel great about the class she will be in next year, so we’re excited for her. In a way, we’re hoping she can follow in Ava’s footsteps in this regard because 5th grade was easily Ava’s best year of elementary school. She really came into herself this year and the progress, including test score improvements, has been nothing short of amazing. We have no doubt that Elise will be able to do the same thing next year.
The end of the school year was filled with activities that the kids loved. There were field days filled with games, and a school choir concert for families to attend, plus the 5th graders got to go on an all-day field trip that included swimming and a trip to the movie theater to see the new Super Mario Bros movie.
The crowning achievement at the end of the year was Ava’s speech during the school’s graduation ceremony. Jessica worked with her on it for weeks and she practiced regularly, but I never heard it until her delivery in front of at least 300 people. I know she was nervous but she did an excellent job. I gave her the same advice my cousin Ken told me to give to Elise when he found out she was doing drama club; plant your feet, lift your chin, and speak to the back of the room.
I realized within the first ten seconds that Ava’s speech had a very different tone to it than the rest of the kids’ speeches. While the other kids were giving speeches with a mostly comical tone, Ava’s speech dove directly into her learning differences due to her dyslexia and ADHD. The central theme was explaining why her teacher this year was the best one she had ever experienced in school. A teacher who understood her learning differences and leaned into them. A teacher who found the right books for her and helped her develop a love of reading. A teacher who taught her to believe in herself when others made her feel stupid, and who made her realize that she really can become a scientist when she grows up if she sets her mind to it.
I’m not talking about Jessica when I reference this teacher, even though the lengths Jessica has gone to in order to improve the kids’ education is nothing short of amazing. I’m talking about the teacher Jessica assists at the school, and she really is fantastic. Ava’s speech was so powerful that parents and teachers were crying while she delivered it. Very few of us would be able to open up like that in front of hundreds of strangers, yet nearly everyone identified with her. Afterward, Ava and Jessica were both approached by many students, teachers, and school administrators talking about how amazing the speech was. Several people said it was the best of the day and many more said they couldn’t help from crying while listening to her. As the one filming the speech, my eyes were filled with tears almost instantly, so my job turned into just trying to hold it together and keep the camera still. We posted the video of Ava’s speech to the Pellegrini Kids YouTube channel, which you can see below.
Ava and her 5th grade teacher
Elise finished really strong in science this year!
Enzo at the beginning and end of 2nd grade
Mother’s Day 2023 – A.K.A. “MothersGate”
Before moving to Nevada in June 2021, Jessica had us scheduled for family photos. She wanted to get nice photos of us taken in the great Pacific Northwest before heading away, but it wasn’t meant to be because the day of the photos turned into a big rainstorm and there was no other day for us to do it before moving. We figured we would get photos done after moving but ended up getting so busy with everything that we lost track of it.
Recently Jessica and I started talking about doing family photos again, but this time I offered to do them myself since I have a decent camera and have learned a lot about photography in the past year. I decided that the best Mother’s Day gift I could give her would be to do photos of the kids on the morning of Mother’s Day, then take everyone, including my Mom, out to brunch.
We decided to do the photos in the Downtown Las Vegas Arts District because they have so many cool murals which could serve as backdrops. The kids stayed the night at my Mom’s house the night before, then we picked everyone up that morning and headed downtown. I had extra batteries for the camera, plus a tripod just in case. We scouted the area and picked out our favorite murals, then I proceeded to take a couple hundred photos.
I was wearing prescription sunglasses and didn’t notice until literally the last photo of the morning that the camera didn’t have a memory card installed. I instantly started to panic. As it turned out, Jessica had used the camera the day before for one of her YouTube videos and forgot to reinstall the memory card after downloading the video files to her laptop.
I was heartbroken and she was beside herself in anger. We had waited two years for these photos and I was so excited to give her this gift, but again, it wasn’t meant to be. After regaining our composure we went out to brunch at a restaurant downtown called Eat, which was excellent, then we went back to a few of the murals and used our cellphones to get some photos. It wasn’t what we had in mind but was going to have to do, for now. I still plan on taking the kids back to the Arts District for more “official” family photos, but here are a few of our favorites from that day. It was certainly one that we will never forget!
Hiking at Valley of Fire State Park
One of our first big family activities of the Summer break was to go hiking at the Valley of Fire state park. Located about an hour from the strip, Valley of Fire was the first state park in Nevada. We’ve been meaning to go there since moving to Nevada nearly two years ago, but we finally made it on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. We arrived at 8:30 am and started exploring instantly. There are over 40,000 acres of trails, rock formations, petrified logs, petroglyphs, wildlife, camping, and more!
We did a few hikes with the kids and I took a ton of photos, but Jessica and I plan on returning this Fall to do more serious hiking without the kids. They have some advanced trails that we didn’t feel like taking the kids on, especially considering how hot and crowded it was getting as we approached noon.
There were various lizards out and about, plus we got lucky by seeing a pair of big horn sheep crossing the road. In addition to our hikes, we drove around the scenic loop and visited several iconic photo spots. Seeing the ancient petroglyph drawings was definitely a highlight, and the kids thought the petrified logs which had become stone were amazing. It’s a really beautiful place that I recommend anyone go to visit if you’re in the area. We saw people of all ages out there and look forward to returning.
Here’s the video I made, along with a few of my favorite photos.
The Chicks Concert with Jim and Cara
Our old next-door neighbors Jim and Cara were recently in town for the weekend, and when we found out they were going to The Chicks (formerly The Dixie Chicks) concert, we decided to get tickets and meet up with them. The Chicks are one of Jessica’s favorite bands and we used to listen to one of their albums a lot back in the day. In fact, the CD we made for our wedding guests started with a song by them, yet we had never seen them in concert until now. We got general admission tickets and found a spot right at the front of the audience. I could literally reach out and touch the stage!
It was an excellent show that we will never forget, and it was really fun catching up with our friends. They ended up coming over to our house the next day for lunch, so it was fun showing them around our new place. Here’s the video I made of the concert.
New Pool Decking Coming Soon
When we bought our house in June 2021, the concrete area around the pool wasn’t looking so great. Part of our negotiations was that they would paint the area, which they did, but they used the same paint for the pool decking that they used for the entrance steps in front of our house. It’s dark brown paint that isn’t meant for pool decking, but we didn’t know the difference and thought it looked good, so we didn’t say anything.
What we later learned was that this concrete gets so hot during the Summertime that you can’t walk on it barefoot. It also gets slick when wet and just isn’t ideal as a surface around your swimming pool. We lived with it for two Summers but decided to have it replaced this year. On Thursday of this week, we have a concrete company coming out to grind it all down to a smooth surface, then they will coat it with a real pool decking which is cooler to the touch due to its sand color, and less slippery. We’re also going to have them fill in all the holes from the old fence they used to have here.
Not only will this new pool deck look much better, but everyone will be able to walk barefoot on it, which will be nice. Our backyard is such a focal point of our home and we have several guests coming to stay with us this Summer, so having this upgrade completed before anyone gets here is going to be awesome. I look forward to sharing photos of the finished project in next month’s post.
That’s about all for now. I wanted to keep this month’s post a little on the shorter side considering how long it was last month. We’re really looking forward to getting a visit from Kristy, Tito, and Madi in June, so I’ll write all about that afterward. I’m just glad the new pool deck will be completed before they arrive. Wishing everyone a happy Memorial Day and a nice start to their Summer!