October 15 the Talcott tribe descending from my lovely parents conglomerated at the ranch for a bit of a reunion. Also my sweet Oma flew down from Alaska at 85 to see her Oregon grandkids and all the great grandkids.
When I was a little girl, Oma and Papa would drive the Alaska highway down to Oregon every year in October to see my brothers and I. We would do crafts with Oma, Papa drove us to the ocean, and the last night we would carve pumpkins with Papa and eat Donuts they had made for us. These were good memories and I'm thankful to have had grandparents who took time, all the way from Alaska, to have a relationship with us kidos.
So this October we resurrected the tradition by having Oma fly down from Alaska, my oldest brother Joshua and his family fly up from Denver, me drive up from Arizona and my older bro Luke come back from Eastern Oregon. Yes we are spread out!
My niece and nephews were taken to the pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect carving pumpkins. My nephews are both 11 months at the time so they basically just looked at the pumpkins, slapped the pumpkins, played in the dirt and looked cute. My niece who is 2 made it a shopping trip, trying every pumpkin out before choosing.
Pumpkins at home, washed, and set out on the table.
Check
Nephews dressed in matching outfits.
Check
Ready for festivities....
As I had an artsy pumpkin photo set up...in comes the hand of my broski. The cracked and calloused hand of a hard working man who supports his family by the sweat of his brow. He's the bro who got me into fire fighting...because he has been a firefighter for a long time and he's basically the best at it. No bias.
Here he is again concentrating on helping my sweet sister-in-law Sarah (his wife) with a Pinterest pumpkin. That my friends is a loving husband.
Here is Sawyer James...Luke and Sarah's sweet baby boy. Aren't those eyes to die for?
And this boy with the crazy sweet cheeks is Junior. He's my brother Joshua and sister-in-law Jenni's boy and I cannot stop kissing that face!
These guys were born about 12 days apart...on accident thought...Sawyer was waaaaay early and spent a long time in the NICU but look at them now! Bright eyed boys who are going to be walking soon!
They are just too much
Concentrating on those toys...and learning to share.
Sweetness. Lot's of sweetness surrounded by lots of love.
Sarah my sweet-sister-in-law making her Pinterest pumpkin. Just a shout out to her for the dinner she made for the whole family at her house. Homemade bread. Homemade chocolate cake with homemade chocolate gnash. Homemade lasagna with homemade lasagna sauce. This woman can cook!
And she can use a drill...watchout.
Jenni getting some laughs out of Sawyer man....he was a big fan of her necklace!
Ok back story. We have this old video of Luke carving pumpkins with Papa and LOVING it at about the age of 6. He has this look of absolute glee when he pulled the "guts" out and a laugh that, well, if it doesn't make you smile then you must have no soul.
SO we HAD to document Sawyer's first reach into a pumpkin to pull the guts out. Granted he's only 11 months but he has no fear. Put him on the ground in the garden and he's picking up leaves to crunch, rubbing the dirt around, splashing his hands in cattle water troughs...he loves to learn.
This was his reaction. This is not crying. This is confusion, a little disgust, but curiosity as well.
And he plunges his hand down in there again...and again...he was perplexed but did not want stop!
Now Junior on the other hand, he is very observant. Very serious and quiet. Sometimes he gets giggly and smily but often seem content to simply watch.
I had no idea how he would react to the odd texture of pumpkin innards. But tell me he doesn't look crazy cute right now!
He's his father's son for sure. Put his hand in the pumpkin...got some on his hand. Hands immediately went up by his ears and he looks away, completely calm, but not at all interested in continuing the gooey tradition.
Had to get some family shots...Last year when Luke and Sarah carved a pumpkin...Sawyer decided to come into the world ahead of schedule!
After all the scariness and hospital time and driving to Eugene and tears and IHOP food...who would have thought one year later we'd all be together with two healthy happy baby boys!
His wee face. His Dad's strong hands. His Mama right behind him...this child is blessed
This is a cell phone photo so low quality but it's precious to me. We had 4 generations in that kitchen doing the donuts. Sawyer only observed (he was transfixed by the circles in the dough) but it was a very sweet time. Left to right: Oma, Sawyer, Sarah