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.

Something really exciting happened yesterday. The WLB clan was expanded by one, yesterday. Reagan and I now have a nephew. My little sister Melinda, who was actually not due for another couple of days, went into the hospital early yesterday morning. Apparently she was in labor for several hours, before the doctors ultimately made the decision to conduct a C-section. Reagan and I were both thinking about Melinda and Thomas all day, wishing that we could have been there.

My sister Mimi forwarded the photo above of little Asher Wallace Lyon, and the proud new father. We are sending a huge congratulations out to both Melinda, Thomas and little Asher.

Ok, yes, this picture is exactly what it looks like: A ton of blurry little baby fish swimming around one of their proud new parents. It is getting a little out of control. I mean, I know it is spring and everything, but for these guys to spawn twice in  2 months seems to be a little excessive. Does anyone want some convict babies? We have about 300 more than we can take care of, at the moment.

I would be moving these little guys in with their older siblings, over the weekend, but it turns out that I will be working the whole time. I was barely able to talk my way into coming in late tomorrow, so that I could run the Brooklyn Half Marathon. Sorry to be complaining, but this situation is stressing me out.

These little guys have been doing great. They are eating twice a day, now. I moved the mama back to the large tank, so she could be back with her homies, and resist the urge to cannibalize any of her young. This week some of them have started to develop their little convict stripes.

Reagan and I have been watching the pair of Convicts in our fish tank, flirt and dig for the last couple of weeks. They have emptied all of the substrate from an area of about 1 square foot, in the back corner of the tank. They piled it all up around their little nursery, like protective walls. We could tell that they were probably going to spawn. Yesterday, Reagan said that she saw the male convict take on Tina (the oscar), who is about double its size, and scare Tina away to the other side of the tank. After hearing this, I suspected that they had probably already laid eggs somewhere. I wanted to try to see them, if I could. So I closely inspected that little corner of the tank. It was really cute to see how nervous they got, with me close up against the tank like that. They were ready to fight. At first I couldn’t see anything. But then I noticed the female herding some little fry back to the pack. She has them all tucked away in a little nook of the rock that sits in the back corner. If you couldn’t see them in the photo above, here is a close up.