Day at Dad's Office

Steve's office had a family day recently and everyone was strongly encouraged to bring their kids. I had to work, so we were skeptical how it would work out with just Steve and Griffin. But the office was really organized and had lots of activities for all ages, and lots of helpers. They had a great time! He just got these two photos, but they're super cute!

Cheering up Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa lost their beloved dog Hinckley last weekend. He was a sweet old dog, and his time had come. To cheer up my folks, we took a quick trip home for a night, because a visiting grandson and 2 grand doggies makes anyone smile!

Play Doh

Griffin's Nana and Papa got Griffin a number of cool birthday presents, which included a bunch of play doh. Griffin absolutely loves it!! He hasn't figured out yet how to do very much with it, but it's nonetheless amazing how long he'll sit and play with it!

Bicycle TV

We very rarely let Griffin watch tv, but we had a few weeks of a special treat while Steve and I were glued to the Tour de France every day for 3 weeks. This is our annual ritual, probably 10 years now! Griffin was himself quite interested in "bicycle tv." We look forward to cheering him on while he rides it one day!

Stickers

Griffin loves stickers! So much so he covered himself with them, then moved on to Bentley!

University of Richmond Reunion

In early June Griffin and I headed down to Richmond, Va for my class reunion at the University of Richmond. We haven't been in the US so far for any college or high school reunions so since we were here, I really wanted to go. Steve ended up having to travel for work to Ethiopia, but I went anyway. We stayed with my friend Erin and her family, and had a really nice time with her family (including a trip to their neighborhood "Big Swimming Pool! as Griffin passionately called it), plus some other wonderful friends I hadn't seen in a long time, as well as exploring the campus. It's really quite an amazing place, and I'm still very proud to be a Spider! When we got home at the end of the weekend, I put a very tired Griffin to bed, but as usual, he laid there and babbled for a bit before he fell asleep. I would hear a lot of blah blah blah and then every now and then he'd exclaim, "Lucy's house!" Erin's daughter is named Lucy and at age 6, I think Griffin may have fallen in love.....

Autumn, Erin and myself

Myself and Erin, with the former Dean of Westhampton College (part of the University of Richmond), Patricia Harwood. What an amazing lady!!!

The kids of myself, Autumn and Erin! Molly, Olivia, Lucy, Max and Griffin.

Max, Lucy and Griffin

My favorite photo! We always made fun of Erin for ALWAYS taking pictures but she made beautiful scrapbooks of them and we had so much fun going through them over some wine, later one evening. Her  daughter Lucy snuck out of bed and wanted to join, so I showed her Erin all dressed up, with her Grandpa (Erin's dad) for our Junior Ring Dance, a great Richmond tradition! (and to note, there were certain photos I quickly skipped over....for when Lucy is much, much older- haha!)

A U of R football player helping Griffin toss a football into the target hole. We always think he'll be a pitcher for the Red Sox, but who knows, a quarterback instead? He does have a hell of an arm!

At Erin's neighborhood pool....

 These two photos are at our house, after the weekend. The Whealton Family graciously gave us a scooter that the kids had outgrown. Griffin, while barely able to ride it yet, just thinks its the cat's pajamas and always wants to ride it!

Memorial Day at the Beach- More Photos

Here are a few more photos of our weekend in Ocean City.  A cute one of Steve reading the book "Snuggle Puppy" to Evangeline and Griffin. If you know the book, you can't actually just read it, you have to sing part of it- so it was a cute thing to watch! Also, we went one evening to the pier where they have some rides, with several for little kids. Griffin was fascinated by all the action going on- totally mesmerized! Very quickly he was all about riding the train- so we waited and waited and waited and wouldn't you know it, when it was our turn to get on it, we walked up and sat down and then suddenly he was having none of it! "Off! Off!" "No no mommy!" He told me. So we got right back off! And we watched the train go by, with his friend riding, from beside the tracks. He did agree to go on the merry-go-round but was not all that excited about the idea, I must say. He agreed to ride on it, next to a horse, but I had to hold him the whole time.

Memorial Day at the Beach

Over the long weekend of Memorial Day in late May, we went to Ocean City, NJ with another family and rented a house for 4 days. It was a wonderful time, and Griffin really enjoyed the beach, both the sand and the water, and also playing with his friend Evangeline!