Portraits

(Jenn) Henry had his 18 month pictures taken at JC Penney last week. Here are a few of the samples! He still gets a little tentative about the whole portrait studio thing, so it's hard to capture his happiest faces. But these are still cute and turned out well. Enjoy!

Important Figures

(Ben) Jenn has been making an effort to teach Henry the names of three very important figures in history. Next up, Socrates?






Important Figures from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo

Jenni & Troye

(Jenn) Last week, we had a great visit with Jenni (Wahlen) and Troye Davis. They were here from Tuesday to Saturday. It was so fun to catch up on them and get to know Troye better. Right now Jenni and Troye live in West Point, Utah. Their twin boys, Declan and Keegan (sp?), are almost three years old. They are expecting another boy in September!

On their visit, Jenni and Troye covered a lot of NYC essentials (Times Square, Rockefeller Center's "Top of the Rock" view, a Yankees game, shopping on Canal street, Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, etc.). We also took a day to go visit the New Jersey shore, which was a nice break from all the chaos of the city. It was a beautiful day, and we got to see the view of the Sandy Hook shore from the top of a lighthouse tower. We got to go up the towers of two different lighthouses, which I hadn't done before. We also got to see the ocean just as a storm was coming in!

Unfortunately, the only pictures I have of the Davis' trip was on this day at the shore, and I didn't get any pictures of Jenni. I remember feeling like I was taking a lot of pictures of the two of them, but it turns out they were all on their camera, not ours! So maybe when Jenni sends me a few of her pictures, I'll have to update.

Update: Here's a picture of Jenni and Troye at the "Top of the Rock" at Rockefeller Center. We decided it's by far the best way to get a view of the city.

Grandma and Grandpa Griffin

(Jenn) We have been lucky this week to have a little taste of what it would be like to have grandparents living 15 minutes away. My grandma and grandpa are on a gardening tour, mostly looking at gardens and other sites in New York and New Jersey. Their hotel for the first four days was in Secaucus, just 10-15 minutes away from our house. We were able to have them over for dinner on Monday night, and we went out to eat together on Thursday night. Tonight we will go to their hotel in Fort Lee for a regular Sunday night visit! It's been quite a treat! Henry absolutely LOVES seeing them, and it didn't even take a minute for him to warm up to them. He was quickly comfortable letting Grandpa hold him, read to him, and play with him. All week, he's been saying "Bye Bye! Gomps!" which I interpreted to mean that he wanted to go see Grandpa again. I can't resist a demand like that.