And all that JAZ!

Glenn and I are in New Jersey.

This is our son, Chris.

This is Kate, Chris's wife and our daughter-in-law.

And this is Jazmine, Chris and Kate's daughter; our first grandchild.

Isn't she beautiful?

And this is their family, complete with the dog, Shadow.

What a wonderful family!

For the past week, I've held Jazmine as much as possible.

She said to me, "Mimi, I love you this much!"

She feels very comfortable with her grandpa!

Glenn used to hold our daughter, Kari, just like this when she was an infant!

We love it when she is awake.

She likes to be held, which is a good thing this week!

She has two doting grandma's!

The grandma's can't get enough of her!!

Four generations in one photo. Josephine, the great-grandmother, holds Jazmine as Kate and her mom, Barbara, stand behind them.

Chris, Kate, and Jazmine live with Kate's grandmother, Josephine, in the borough of Rutherford, which is one square mile. We walked into the next town, Lynhurst, for some Italian ice! It has been unbelievably hot since we arrived here so this was a nice treat.

Notice Glenn's tongue sticking out of his mouth?

It's a family trait. Chris does it, and Jazmine does too!

While I've been holding Jazmine, Glenn helped Chris with several projects around the house.

Not sure which one was the worker and which one was the supervisor.

Shortly after Glenn got out from underneath this wash basin made of concrete, the legs crumbled from age and collapsed! Glenn estimates it weighed about 100-125 pounds! I shudder to think of what COULD have happened!

They worked on plumbing projects and electrical ones too. Josephine was so thankful to have a new laundry area by time they finished!!!

They also worked on Chris's jeep one day.

Kate and I went shopping one day, leaving Jazmine with Chris and Glenn. She wanted to be near her daddy (and her daddy wanted to work on his jeep) so she napped in the front seat of the jeep while her daddy and grandpa worked on it.

After a week of me taking about a 1000 pictures, Jazmine said, "Please, no more pictures!" She is just like her daddy in this way. He lets me take about 3 pictures (if I can take them in 2 minutes or less...) and then he says, "No more pictures."

Well, she's in luck. We now have a grandson to oogle and ahhh over!

Alec Glenn Masson was born on July 31 to our daughter, Kari, and our son-in-law, Jonathan, who live in Dakar, Senegal. (More info on this wonderful event next week when we are in Senegal and I update my blog of our trip to see them!)

When Kari got home from the hospital and was feeling up to it, we held a family Skype call with video so we could see Kari, Jonathan and Alec. It was "way cool!"

We couldn't talk long because Alec was getting hungry but it was great to be able to see him via video on Skype. When I think of how far technology has progressed since the days we lived in Ivory Coast in the late 80's and early 90's, I realize how fortunate we are! It used to cost us $4 a MINUTE to call from Ivory Coast to talk to our parents, if we could get the call to go through on the "one" line out of the country!!! We can keep in touch so much easier these days via Skype, and using video is such a blessing!!!

We wanted to introduce cousins Jazmine and Alec to each other, but they didn't seem too excited about it. They just slept right through the video call!! I know in 5 or 6 years from now, they will be the best of buddies!

Kate's grandmother got great, inexpensive tickets to a Broadway play and asked if I wanted to go with her and Kate's mom to see it. Of course! So we drove about 10 minutes toward NYC and parked the car, hopped on a transit bus that took us to within one block from the theatre house.

We had about an hour and a half to walk around a little bit and get a bite to eat before the show started.

We walked and talked and enjoyed the perfect weather.

The sidewalks were an obstacle course, packed with ethnicities of every kind. A real mission field.

We stopped by a Starbucks to enjoy a drink before the show. "A low-fat, with whip, white chocolate mocha grande with an extra pump for me, please."

Barbara (Kate's mom) and I went to see Baby, It's You! Kate's grandmother went to see Catch Me If You Can, which was 10 blocks away.

It was a musical with all the songs I grew up on as a teenager so it was great fun! Soldier Boy, It's My Party (and I'll Cry If I Want To), Dedicated to the One I Love, I Met Him on a Sunday...

The description of the play is above. One of the most enjoyable evenings I've had.

On a TOTALLY different note, as we were walking through town today, I took this picture on the door of a local restaurant. Did they mean Re-Grand Opening, or Grand Re-Opening???

We are here for two more days and then we head to Atlanta for a few days to have a quick visit with our parents, and then on to Senegal (via one night in Budapest) to see Kari and Jonathan and meet Alec. We have been having a great time here with Chris and Kate, and Josephine (lovingly called Bub), taking it easy, holding Jazmine, and taking some long walks to burn off all Josephine's great Italian meals!!

Catch you later!