We're finally in our summer home! We're staying at Tony and Debbie Bentley's place—they'll be out of town and needed someone to keep an eye on things for them, so it should work out nicely for everyone. Mom and Dad helped us get settled in yesterday while Tim was at work, so today should be a little more relaxing. Here's a shot of Grandpa Lloyd and Joseph enjoying some time together in the Bentleys' rocking chair!

We're out of our hotel, but our new place isn't vacant quite yet, so why not explore a bit? We're going to take a drive along the scenic Turquoise Trail between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and if we're lucky, Joseph will get another little nap! Speaking of the little sausage, he is certainly enjoying not being the only one in the backseat on this day's journey!

Grandma Susan and I should be looking out the windows, but we're a little distracted by our other backseat companion!

As it turns out, Joseph did manage to get a fairly (around two hours) long nap in. Here he is just waking up!

He's soooo sleepy! He looks just about the way I feel sometimes when I wake up—I'm sure it won't be long, though, until he's smiling and playing games with us again!

Despite his current crazy nap schedule (or lack thereof), Josephus is coping quite well—he just catches some ZZZs when he can and is pretty cheerful the rest of the time! Here he is snoozing just before checking out of our hotel—what a sleepy little angel!

What a lovely afternoon we're having! Since getting back from Church this morning, we've just been hanging around our hotel room, chatting, relaxing, napping, and playing with little Josephus!

Speaking of our little sausage, here's (another) cute bath shot of him! He's not only happy to be in the tub, but also because Grandma and Grandpa Gedlaman are watching him!

Joseph's usual bedtime routine proceeds in the following order: bath, nursing, song, sleep. He obviously knows what's supposed to come after his bath!

Here's a fun video of the way his feet move around while he nurses. What a sweet little guy!

Grandma and Grandpa Gedlaman met us here in Albuquerque today! We haven't even moved into our place yet, but they couldn't wait to see the little sausage! Joseph is much bigger than he was the last time they saw him, though: six months old today, in fact!

To be honest, the thing I've been anticipating the most about NM is the chance to be near family for a while. I'm so glad my parents could practically meet us here!

Joseph is obviously glad, too—he's having a great time with his grandparents! He just can't stop smiling and laughing, even though he's getting pretty tired!

We may be all through traveling for now, but Josephus still wants to play with his favorite travel toy: this bag of H-E-B trail mix. We may not live in TX anymore, but we still love H-E-B!

Another big day is done and Joseph is off to sleep!

"There never was a child so lovely but his mother was glad to see him asleep." —Ralph Waldo Emerson

We finally made it to Albuquerque this afternoon! Tim took this shot himself (using the timer) outside the Albuquerque Temple (note the Sandia Mountains reflected in the window). We took turns watching Joseph so we each could do a little temple work—it's so nice to have a temple close again!

This Texas-shaped waffle illustrates just what I mean about the illimitable Texas pride, and it tasted pretty good, too! You gotta love those free hotel breakfasts!

We're taking Joseph for his first swim at our hotel tonight!

He loves the bath so much, why not the pool as well?

Although it's a bit of a new experience, he does seem to be enjoying himself! He gets especially tickled watching his two crazy parents splash around!

We'd better head up to bed soon—what a big day it's been!

We made it to Lubbock today—just one more day and we'll be in Albuquerque!


One funny thing we're discovering along the way is that Joseph is absolutely crazy about cups!

He's not particular about the size, shape, or color, he just likes to grab them and chomp on the rim!

The only trouble comes when there also happens to be some water or ice inside!

All that fun at the restaurant really pooped our little guy out—what a cutie!

Before dunking Joseph in the bath tonight, we tried giving him a little more mashed banana. He didn't seem quite so hungry this time, but he sure enjoyed chomping on that spoon!

This afternoon, Aunt Harriet, Sophie, and her three kiddos stopped in for a little visit!

It sure is nice to see them all—the last time we saw Etienne, he was about Joseph's age! What a bunch of cute kiddos!

One of our favorite things to do with Granni at the Ranch is just sit out on the old porch swing, and that includes Joseph, too, apparently! He sat like this on Granni's lap for over an hour, just chomping on Granni's knuckles and watching the big trees in the yard sway in the breeze!



Joseph also really enjoyed playing on this old patchwork quilt—he just loves being outside!

It's banana day! Today Joseph is going to try some mashed banana for the first time. It's really his first stab at solid food, since that portion of avocado we gave him previously was almost microscopic!

As this little video shows, Joseph is definitely enjoying his first real eating experience, just as predicted by Granni!

He still hasn't connected the approach of the spoon with another mouthful, but I'm sure it won't take long to figure all that out!

On the other hand, he has figured out that the bowl is where all the good stuff is!

I can't believe Joseph's eating real food—what a big guy he's getting to be!

Charly and Casey also dropped in at the Ranch tonight to show off their recent arrival: tiny, little McKayla, or at least she seemed tiny to me! When I picked her up, it was like picking up a jug of milk you think is full but is actually empty—I can't believe how much Joseph has grown since he was two months old!

Today we made it to the Ranch! It's fun to be back in Texas again where people get so excited about, well, being in Texas! For example, Granni just couldn't resist picking up this cute Longhorn onesie for Joseph at the local H-E-B (any self-respecting Texan shops at H-E-B) and insisting we put it on him as soon as we arrived!

We're so grateful for this opportunity to finally introduce Granni to Joseph. Here they are having some fun together!

Here we are eating lunch again on our second day on the road! We left Nashville this morning, are in Memphis right now, and will hopefully make it to Texarkana this afternoon. Joseph, increasingly determined to join in the mealtime fun, has claimed this tub of orange bell pepper sticks for his own!

Can we have some, too, Joseph?

Joseph is definitely getting better at expressing himself. For example, he let Tim take the tub from him long enough to take this video, but it's pretty obvious he wants it right back!

Although it's nice for us all to be out of the car for a bit, overall we've been extremely impressed with Joseph's attitude toward this whole road trip thing—what a cheerful little guy!

We're on our way to Albuquerque for the summer! Tim's doing an internship for Sandia again, and hopefully we'll be spending a lot of time showing off Joseph to the grandparents in AZ! Here we are having lunch at a rest stop somewhere in eastern Tennessee!

All three of us were ready to get out of the car and stretch (or, in Joseph's case, kick) our legs a bit! Joseph is even tolerating his tummy time a bit better today!

Before heading back to the car, Joseph decided to practice his Cirque du Soleil routine—what a little hoot!

We also decided to take Joseph to the park today, our last day in Blacksburg until August! We discovered this cute little park recently—it's really close to our place and surrounded by houses (no busy streets, etc)!

Although Josephus is obviously a bit small to swing on his own, he loves swinging with his mama and daddy!

Just look at that happy face!

Here we are giving Joseph a formal introduction to the grass—it's a bit wet for rolling around, but he can definitely explore it with those little hands!

As we should have predicted, Joseph decided his mouth was the preferred investigational tool. It took some quick action to keep him from eating that grass!

Joseph is just starting to work on sitting up! Although he can stay like this for a few seconds, the main thing working against him is his habit of straightening out his body whenever he gets excited—we have to make sure he won't knock his head on something when he suddenly flies backwards!

We love our bath shots around here! Today, Joseph is having fun learning about the water coming out of the faucet. He's not quite sure why he can't grab on to it yet, but he likes the way it feels running over his hands!

It's my first Mother's Day, and it's been a great one so far! Tim has really pulled out all the stops: strawberry-topped waffles for breakfast, homemade pizza for dinner, and another chocolate cake for dessert! The best thing about the day, though, was being able to spend it with my super hubby and our little sausage. How blessed I am to be a mommy to this little cutie!

Just look at all those cans full of food! We recently ordered a whole bunch of canned beans, rice, flour, oats, dried fruits and veggies, etc to have around in case of an emergency. It arrived today—now we just need to figure out where to put it all!

Our little Josephus is learning to play peekaboo! He still doesn't quite get it if you completely disappear from view, but he loves it when you hide part of your face and pop back out again—what a hoot!

Joseph has finally figured out how to get those little toes into his mouth, although it's hard to catch him at it! Note that he's also started to become quite a little ham whenever the camera shows up!

Recently, our chili pepper suet (good for repelling squirrels) ran out and we decided to try some regular nutty suet. All the birds, including this mockingbird, really love it—I never knew mockingbirds would eat from a feeder!

Here it is caught in the act, although not very clearly! I'm glad it's around, but I hope it won't start chasing off other birds!

While the mockingbird enjoys its suet, Tim and Joseph are enjoying some Sousa! Here they are marching around to "Stars and Stripes Forever"!