It has been kind of a crazy string of days, since I last posted anything on JNB. First of all: credit where credit is due. Reagan snapped the above photo of me bowling. It is quite possibly one of my favorite photos that has ever been taken of me.

Now, rewind to Wednesday night.  Reagan and I ordered sushi from the same place that we always do (2-3 nights per week). It took a lot longer to arrive than normal, and it was all disheveled.  The rolls were falling apart in the chopsticks, etc.. I don’t know if that even had anything to do with anything. But Thursday morning, I felt like I was dying a slow death. And I’m guessing that it was something from the sushi that was doing the killing. Reagan had a bit of an upset stomach, too. But hers appeared to be a bit more manageable.

I wasted most of the day in bed trying to recover. We were planning on leaving that night to visit my sister  and her family in VA. Because of various items that came up and committed me to being in NYC on Friday morning, we ended up not leaving until around Noon on Friday. I was loading the car right as a blizzard was reaching it’s crux over the island of Manhattan. Luckily, once we were over the GW, the accumulation was minimal.

We arrived at the home of my B-I-L’s father early Friday evening, and spent the rest of the weekend having one blast after another. I wanted to get some fun portraits of my sister’s family. Unfortunately, in my haste to get out the door, I left two of  my favorite lenses at home. Also, let’s be real, I’m not much of a portrait photographer. We still shot a ton of photos, though.

Here is a shot of my little nieces having a jumping contest:

Then of course, Reagan played salon with the girls.

My nieces took turns playing assistant and client.

Let’s not forget the shoot that we did in the library, where Reagan directed (inspired by several 80′s era wedding announcements, and other awesome stuff). All of the images looked totally natural, and not contrived, at all. An example:

We rounded off the visit with a trip to Broadview Lanes. It was the first time that both of my little nieces had ever bowled. They clearly take after their second-cousin Ted Swenson, in the sense that they were total naturals.

To finish off this never-ending post: a shot of Reagan, lining up a strike.

We are pretty amped to have two road trips back to back. The firm is closed Friday, in observation of the day that Jesus first set off fireworks. Sorry for the sacrelig’. It was something funny that Reagan once overheard a Long Islander saying, and we have joked about it ever since. Anyway, we are off to Newport, RI for the weekend. We shall be spending Independence Day with our good friends the Truscotts. The weather forecast currently calls for patchy rain. But, we can always hope. I took the photo above, right before we got on the road last weekend, and that was pretty much the only time that we saw rain the whole weekend. Fingers crossed, we will have more of the same luck. I’m guessing that the blogging will be pretty sparse between now and Monday. So, have a happy and safe 4th of July.

We had a really great weekend in Boston, with our homies. It was the first time that Reagan and I had ever gone up there, for the race. Our good friend Becca ran it yesterday, so we had an extra good excuse to go watch. Some of Becca’s friends have an office that sits about 200 yards from the finish line. So that is where we watched the race. The photo above is of the women leaders right before the final stretch. We were cheering for Kara Goucher, since she was born in Queens. She ended up finishing 3rd. Still super impressive. Watching the men finish wasn’t as exciting, since the winner had opened up such a large gap, by the end.

Surprisingly there wasn’t a lot blooming yet. In fact, Boston Commons still looked like a dead forest, except for the fact that the grass was getting green. The magnolia trees were the exception. There are several streets, like the one above that are completely lined with blooming magnolia trees.

We had a really good time palling around with our friends. The day before the race we wandered around, had brunch and enjoyed the sunny weather. We were also able to check out the Shepard Fairey exhibit at the Boston ICA. It was very cool. I fully recommend checking it out. Both Saturday and Sunday night, we were able to get in a little rock band-action with the Truscotts, as well as eat some delicious food. Sunday night our friend Mike came up from NY  to join in on the action, we barbecued at the Truscotts, then watched the re-enactment of Paul Revere’s ride.

Monday Morning was super exciting. We were staying in Cambridge, so we had to walk across the river to get to the finish line. We timed it perfectly to be able to the winners come through. As we were waiting to cheer Becca through, I randomly spotted my uncle! Hahahaha. It was really cool.

The shot below is of Becca (in the black jersey looking pensive) running the final stretch of the race. More of the photos from this weekend are posted here.