Sunday Nights

Sunday nights are tough.  And not because I have to go to work the next day.  I generally like my job and appreciate the time with adults by the time Sunday roles around.  It's because they remind of what we're missing being here in DC.  This week, Jenn went back to Denver to celebrate the birth of Alice Ann Nelson, daughter of two of our favorite people, Ryan and Emelie Nelson.

When we lived in Denver, we started a tradition of Sunday night dinner.  It started out as a way to get our friends caught up on Firefly (call me!), one of Jenn and I's favorite series.  Every Sunday we would get together with our kids, Brynn, their wonderful daughter Maggie, and eventually Jonah joined the group.  We would have dinner, wrangle kids, swap stories, then put them to bed and start watching our show.  We did this for about eight weeks until we ran out of Firefly episodes.  No one wanted to say anything, because we didn't want them to end.  Thankfully Ryan casually said, "You know...I know another series that sounds really good."  We eagerly agreed and pretty soon we didn't even need an excuse.  Sunday nights became my favorite night of the week.

So why are Emelie and Ryan so awesome?  The easier questions would be, why aren't they?  But since you asked, I'll see if I can answer.  Ladies first; Emelie is a Wyoming grad, nuff said - Go Pokes.  When I first met her, she brought over ice cream after a meeting her and Jenn were having for the Arthritis Foundation, where Emelie worked.  She was in.  She's generally worked for non-profits, making the world a better place and all that garbage.  Those jobs are incredibly economy dependent, so opportunities come and go rather quickly.  Still, Emelie has always been able to land on her feet, grabbing an equal or usually better job than the one before.   She's awesome and did I mention that quality Wyoming education?

Now Ryan.  Ryan is a lot like me, only much taller, nicer and was a decathlete in college while I was tripping up the stairs in front of cheerleaders.  He's almost hard to like if he wasn't so effing nice, as mentioned earlier.  He introduced me to KET, a fantastic chess-like strategy game involving lazers.  That's right lazers, look it up.  He's a fellow science geek being a 6th grade science teacher in Jefferson County, again making the world a better place and all that garbage.  As a dad, he's second to none.  If every kid had a dad like Ryan there would be a) a female president, b) no strip clubs and c) potentially world peace.   It's been great to go through the experience of parent hood side-by-side with two such great parents.  If Brynn and Jonah are even slightly well-adjusted, it will be thanks to them and Jenn's influence.

So on this Sunday night when Jenn is in Denver spending time with Baby Alice and the Nelsons (band name?), I'm missing the nights we had and looking forward to the nights to come in 2013.  Congratulations Emelie and Ryan, I can't wait to meet Alice!