First Word

That's right, Talmage is saying his first word.
I guess he's been able to say 'mam' for a while, but it's mostly associated with food or when I leave to go somewhere he crawls frantically towards the door saying, 'mam...mam...mam...
But this is a real first word. Baaaal. In case you don't know what that is, it's a ball. His intense love and devotion for wheels has recently transferred to balls. (Can you tell we have a boy?) He loves to sit and throw balls back and forth. If you ask him to get the ball, he'll crawl over and throw it to you. It's so funny and very exciting to see his little brain working. If you're lucky and you ask him to say it, he'll say Baaaal.
p.s. We TOTALLY miscast him for Halloween. He should have been Frankenstein. He walks around stiff legged with his arms out and half the time he's bellowing. A perfect match.

So long, farewell....

For the past month or so, Truston has been looking for work. 'Unemployed' is such a nasty word, so instead we decided to tell people we had started 'living lives of leisure'. You know, like aristocratics. Living at Cherry Hill kind of cramped our style, but I'm pretty sure most people bought it. This last Wednesday, Truston decided to leave his live of leisure and get a job. The gall. He will be working with Tandem Labs. They are just down the street (3 miles downhill...I told him to ditch the car and get a razor scooter instead), and they thought he was really great.
In all reality, Truston wasn't very good at living a life of leisure, he's not lazy enough. I guess aristocracy is not for us. :(

Family Pictures

I wanted to take some family pictures in the beautiful fall leaves and because Talmage is almost 1. These are a few of our favorites.
He doesn't really walk yet, but he is taking little baby steps by himself. It's so cute. He has a little push toy that he walks all over the house with. He looks like Frankenstein pushing a lawn mower. This is a picture of his new trick. Spitting. It's so charming, especially when his mouth is full of food.
This is our favorite picture. Talmage was only half-heartedly participating (what a surprise), until we gave him a leaf. Then the fun really began.

Oatmeal Vs. Steel-Cut Oats

Ever since our ward had a provident living class on Steel-cut oats earlier this summer, I have been eating them and loving it! They are so good, with more texture and flavor and chewiness then regular oatmeal. Talmage loves them too, we eat a bowl of steel-cut oats together every morning. Well, this week I forgot to get more at the store, so I thought I would just try regular oatmeal for breakfast. BARF. I don't know how I ever ate that. Talmage took a probationary taste and spit it out. The baby who eats everything, would not eat this. So, in my estimation, oatmeal is grossly deficient in comparison to steel-cut oats. If you eat oatmeal...make the switch, it's totally worth it.

Babies... they take care of themselves

So the other day our neighbor, Danielle and her daughter Laneah, watched Talmage for us while we went out to see a movie and dinner. (We saw Forever Strong, it was awesome, we would totally recommend it). Laneah volunteered to help feed him dinner. Here is a pictoral sequence of the following event.
So far, so good.
That's right. Into the mouth.
Oh, that might've been a little too much. Yosemite Sam thanks you for your help, though.

Star Struck

So this morning, Truston and I went on a hike up Millcreek Canyon. We passed the Lamb's Canyon trail and I told Truston to turn around and park there because we hadn't done that one yet. As we were turning around, a brigade of super nice cars park in the parking lot. An Escalade, huge Ford Truck, a BMW. Truston was like, "What the heck? Who are all the richies?" So we park and then a suuped up Impala parks next to us, I look over and it's Daron Williams!
Sure enough these huge black guys get out of the cars and start gearing up for a hike. The whole Jazz team was there (except Boozer, AK, and Mehmet Okur). It was crazy. They were laughing and joking and Daron Williams looks over at me, and I have this huge, sappy grin on my face. I couldn't stop smiling.
I did say, "Daron Williams, we are your biggest fans." and he was like, "ah, thanks." I'm such a loser, I should have said "Awesome job in Beijing."
We were too chicken to ask to take a picture with them, so we just took a picture of their cars...I know, we're losers.
Don't be fooled, the Subaru is not a jazz-mobile. And that guy is not a jazz player, although he could be. Truston has awesome skills.
The Impala, that i sat staring at....while Daron Williams looked back at me and probably though, "Who is this psycho girl?"

August in Alaska

This post is dedicated to my friend Haley, who wanted to see more pictures of Alaska. I feel sorry for her, because she lives in Maryland and refers to it as hell. Haley, we can't all live in paradise.

Here is my dad, Robert and Thomas. This is the day we went berry picking at hilltop. It was beautiful, but there weren't a lot of blueberries. We ended up picking a fair amount of crowberries and made a cobbler out of them. It was so delicious. Thomas is showing you how much we had so far... not a lot.
Always the optimist. Don't you just love 1st graders?

We went to the State Fair and saw some giant vegetables, and some cool fireworks. The vegetables weren't so giant this year becuase it's been a little cold. Still, a 68 pound cabbage is pretty awesome. My aunt Dana thought so too.

We went on a walk one day and the sides of the trail were loaded with raspberries. I was eating them like candy, when I leaned over to pick some more and almost picked this giant spider. Sick. It looks like a mushroom, but that is really the body, the legs were pretty short. Here is a clear picture of Mt. Mckinley. You can see it all the way from Anchorage on a clear day. Even in the Denali park, you can barely see McKinley. Not until you get farther away is it visible. Plus, the sprawling metropolis of Anchorage.
This is me, sumo wrestling my brother Robert. Right before I body slammed him. Truston and Talmage fought like gladiators.