I didn’t even see it, until she got home from work. She let me take some shots of it.

After our race on Sunday morning, Reagan and I had a very long and relaxing visit with Piper. For some reason, all of the photos that I took, came out looking like Piper was groggy and sad. She probably was groggy. She definitely wasn’t sad though. Just the same, I thought that if she could talk, she probably wouldn’t want me posting those shots of her, not looking like her normal princess self.

After our visit with Piper, we met up with some friends of ours (John and Kat), who are visiting from SC. Reagan knows John from HS. We spend the evening palling around lower Manhattan, since it was so nice out.

Highlights included a jumping contest on the benches at the Battery Park City Promenade.

^–Reagan’s Jump

^—John’s Jump

^—My Jump (shot by Reagan)

Kat also had a pretty impressive jump. But the lighting was throwing off the AF, so it came out all blurry. I’m retarded.  More photos of this outing are here.

If you get grossed out by people kissing, ignore this post. Here are a couple of more shots from our little shoot in Sandy, UT.

^–Reagan, dancing around in excitement over her new (second hand) glasses.

^—About to get a room, hehe.

Nothing caps off a mini-family reunion like family photos. It was a pretty miraculous ordeal, considering all of the logistics. Highlights included, watching a huddle of moms try to position all of the grandkids:

Kelton’s awesome face, during the huddle:

And last but not least, my brother Pete bribing my autistic sister Laura to be in the group photo. After everyone had tried their hand at coaxing and pep-talks, cash money spoke the loudest. Genius move, Pete.

It has been pretty crazy in SLC, so far. Reagan and I have been loving every second of it. Here is a little taste of what we have been up to, since we arrived.

^—–Reagan holding our new little niece Clover

^—-Me, holding our new little niece Penelope

While NYC was having a snow day (our firm even closed early), I was having a little bit of a snow day of my own, enjoying all of the fresh pow that had fallen the night before. I took Reagan back country snowshoeing/snowboarding for the first time in her life. She loved it. I was so impressed by her toe touch, while wearing snow shoes.

^—-Looking down at Little Cottonwood Canyon from UT back country.

^—-”Flipping out” over all of the fresh powder. Heheh, I couldn’t resist, the pun.

Yes yes. How many times have I thrown up photos like this one before? Right? As I mentioned earlier this week, my Nike Plus sportband died on me, again. This is the third time it has happened. My cousin Liz suggested that I just abandon the sportband and go with the Garmin. I am almost to that point. I probably would have done just that, if it weren’t for the ever smooth and adept Nike customer service team. That, and the super cool staff at the running store in my building. I called Nike, who quickly trouble shot my watch with me and determined that it was a dud. They suggested that I try returning it where I bought it, before  sending it back to Nike. So I called Urban Athletics, who told me they would trade it straight across, for a new one. So, here we go. Sportband number 4 (pictured above). Treat me right, baby.

Switching gears completely, Reagan and I will be flying out west tomorrow. We have not been to the land of Deseret (yes that is Deseret, not desert), also know as the beehive state, since 2008 for my sister’s wedding. Since that time, one nephew and two nieces have joined the family. We have not met any of them yet. So, we have been anticipating this visit for quite a while.

Reagan and I were having a lot of anxiety about being able to go, because of Piper’s condition. But, it seems like she is on a pretty good plane, at the moment. God willing, things will continue that way, at least until we can return. Additionally, some of our amazing friends have agreed to take care of our car. Our lovely friends, the Alaska/Hofstra missies will be keeping an eye on our pad for us.

We will be taking a notebook computer with us (mostly so Reagan can play the cake building game). But I’m not sure how much posting we will get done over the next week. So, if it tends to be sparse, that is the reason.

We took a ride to Westchester pretty early Sunday, so that we could have an extra long visit with Piper. She was really mellow. This was a nice change from her  crazy behavior over the past couple of weeks. The doctors feel like they were trying to ween her too fast from the narcotics, so they bumped the methadone back up and are bringing it down more slowly, this time. Poor little squirt. She still doesn’t really seem like herself. Part of the reason, I’m sure, is because they are giving her muscle relaxers, to try to mitigate the violent cycles of the withdrawals.  She also seemed a bit puffy, today.

We ended up having a really great visit with her. Especially, I had a lot of good one-on-one time with her, since Reagan was taking a nap for part of the visit. It was nice for me, since normally I don’t get to have the kind of visits where I can just hog Piper the whole time. It is going to be tough, not to see her for so long, while we are away. But hopefully, she will be more like herself, when we return.

A few more (similar) shots over here.

I had a really fun day hanging out with my valentines. Reagan and I work up early, because she has been building pork barbacoa for the last day and a half. She has been making the stuff in the slow cooker, for some burritos tonight. It smells totally delicious. Before heading to Westchester, we took a quick jaunt out to Williamsburg, Brooklyn so that Reagan could pick up her Valentines Day present at Catbird.

We had a pretty nice visit with Piper. She was kind of rowdy. I think that it is just because she loves her mom so much, she can’t contain herself. She was kind of obsessed with my hat, today. She kept taking it almost all of the way off of my head, then putting it back on. Then, tapping the little button on the top. Silly little monkey.

I hope that everyone else had a great Valentines Day!!

For the first time in my life, I did karaoke with Reagan and some of our friends, on Saturday night. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I was definitely the worst person in our group. But, that didn’t keep me from having fun watching everyone else. Yes, there was a kick line at one point.

^—Reagan doing up some Abba (I think).

^—-Richard and Jamie: duet of the Cure

^—–Col, melting faces with Yellow Ledbetter.

After our karaoke session, we had some Korean dumplings, then spent some time browsing one of the Koreatown supermarkets. They has some seriously tasty hard candy. No, it didn’t come in the cool fish cans, above (unfortunately). I liked the fish on the cans because they look so friendly.

To kick it off, I attended a runway show last night at Hotel Rivington (not the tents). I better not mention the label, as not to preemptively draw any Google traffic (i.e. before I have edited 9000 photos and posted something on SoJones about it, hehe). Although, feel free to read the floor tiles in the photo, if you are curious. Hahaha. Despite the snowpolacalypse, there was a very good turnout.

After I covered all of the red carpet and runway stuff, I took off the flash and threw on the 30mm with the aperture dialed open, to get some behind the scenes-type of shots. For whatever reason, these always end up being my favorite. I guess because I love watching the whole process as much as I love being a part of it.

Anyway, expect plenty more of this type of stuff between now and the end of next week. Woot!