Our Families

We are both children of loving, deeply connected families. Carson’s parents are Ken and Kristi, and they live together in the house where Carson grew up outside Brookings, South Dakota. They grew up in nearby small South Dakota towns, where their parents and grandparents were born. Ken is a retired pharmacist and Kristi worked in small businesses in Brookings before retiring. These days they spend their time growing vegetables, apples, and especially grapes in the vineyard they planted just down the hill from their house. Carson has one sister, who lives in southern Minnesota, and a nephew who is also his godson.

The Mains, Christmas 2021
South Dakota wine country! This is the beginning of the annual picking party.
The vineyard in winter.
Sometimes we like to burn things in South Dakota, like old stumps.
We took Carson’s nephew to Colorado.
Baby Carson, with grandma Main

Jamie’s parents are Richard and Karen. They live in Lyme, Connecticut, on a hill overlooking the Connecticut River, near where Jamie grew up. Richard is a non-fiction writer, of books and magazine articles, and Karen is a real estate agent. They grew up in the same town in New Jersey, just outside of New York City, but didn’t meet until they were working in New York in their 20s. They love to cook, garden, fix up houses, sit and look at the water, and spend time at their vacation house on the ocean in Maine. Jamie has a brother, who married his wife a month after we got married, and a sister who lives with her partner in Brooklyn.

The annual family photo in Maine
The Conniffs
With Jamie’s brother at a cooking class in Oaxaca
From the time machine.
Jamie and his siblings with our guide in Ethiopia

The view from the porch in Connecticut.
The view from the porch in Maine.
Ken and Kristi visiting Jamie’s parents’ place in Maine.
Carson and the in-laws.

Jamie captains Sophie in a stiff wind.
Jamie and his sister’s partner on a calmer day.