bonnie & jason

Saturday with the Chaos (pronounced ‘Chowz’)

After staying in Manhattan for a few days with my cousin, we spent the weekend with Vin and Denise.  Vin is a fellow griller and did a nice job with a summer BBQ dinner.  (Notice the Kingsford charcoal with Sure Fire grooves.)

Their dog, Gunther, supervised the grilling and enjoyed a taste of some corn on the cob.

Alissa wasn’t a big fan though, so we walked to town through a summer night festival to get some ice cream.

A nice day overall.  Except I forgot to mention all the manual labor Vin made me do prior to dinner.  First we fixed the bench.  Then we fixed the deck.  Then we installed an air conditioner (for the room we were sleeping in).  Then another air conditioner.  Then we built a table (the same one we ate on that night.)  Maybe next time we visit, we’ll stay in the Holiday Inn down the street!  Just kidding… I kinda like doing this kind of stuff anyway.

Hot summer day in NYC

 Alissa gets her first taste of a pool on the terrace with Chloe and Aidan.

Dinner in NYC

We spent a few days in Manhattan with my cousin’s family.  While we were there, we had dinner with Bonnie’s friend Vivian.  Here are a couple pics from our walk to dessert coffee at 71 Irving:

And some of us enjoying said coffee on Anna and Chrisitian’s super nice terrace:

 

City pics

I don’t have a lot of experience with city shots, but I thought these turned out ok.  It’s amazing what a little post processing can do.

Visiting with Abington HS friends

We had some visitors yesterday!  Craig and his daughter Samara drove in from New York.  Jenny and her husband Eric came in from New Jersey.  And Sanjay and his wife Neha came in from Philly.  They’re some of my closer high school friends and we’ve managed to keep in touch over the years.  (Can’t believe it’s been 15 years since high school.)

We went to Jim Dandy’s for lunch and Mannings for ice-cream.  It was like being in high school again… except for the whole crying babies thing.  It was a little surreal hitting these old haunts being about twice as old (and not quite twice as heavy) as we were in high school.  How the time flies.  Anyway, here are a few pictures from the day.  Unfortunately, the one we took in front of Mannings didn’t work for some reason… stupid technology.  Oh well, we’ll just have to get together again soon to retake that picture.

Funny Alissa faces

Here are a few pictures from the last few days that capture some different Alissa faces.

This picture reminds me of my Uncle George.  From this angle, her head looks particularly oval.  Also, like my Uncle George, she’s receding, has a double chin, and has a nice smile.  Uncle George still has all his teeth though… as far as I know. 

This is Alissa after waking up from a nap.  Apparently, she developed some stubborn eye booger gunk which glued her right eye shut.

Alissa with her second most favorite person in the world.

Alissa with her most favorite person in the world.

Alissa continues to get stronger but still doesn’t really like tummy time.  She also seems to have forgotten how to roll over to her back.  Maybe she just has decided not to demonstrate that particular skill for us.