Flagstaff

On Sunday, August 1st, after attending sacrament meeting at church, we drove to Flagstaff to find a place to live. This was a pretty important trip, considering we only had three weeks before Jeff's start date at Gore and a place to live might be considered a necessity. Lucky for us, Gore gave us a handsome little sum to pay for gas, food, and hotels during the trip. They also paid for a realtor to take us house hunting, which was incredibly helpful and surely saved us a lot of trouble.

For the most part, Luke did great on the 8-hour drive. We learned a few things that made the trip back even easier, but Luke turned out to be a good little traveler. Although, he must have been having a growth spurt because he ate a TON. He was hungry about every two hours and ate quite a bit each time. I would jump in the back and pump a bottle each time he got hungry. After stopping to feed him the first couple of times, we figured out that it would be much more efficient if I just filled the 5 oz. bottle and fed it to him in his seat while we drove. At the angle of his car seat, he can eat without sucking air until there is just one ounce left in the bottle. I would feed him four ounces, dump the last ounce out the window onto the side of the road and then refill the bottle for the next feeding.

Luke was a pretty happy camper until about the last hour and a half. Then, he'd had enough of being strapped into a car seat. I understood. I had had enough too. I think a big contributor to his frustration was that he is constantly moving and stretching and his movements are restricted in his car seat, especially his ability to arch his back, which he likes to do when he stretches. But eventually we made it to The Little America Hotel and checked into our room. Apparently, the Arizona Cardinals football team was in town and since The Little America is the nicest hotel in town, several of them were staying there. That fact became clear when we saw about 10 Escalades lined up out front. I was really hoping to see a giant linebacker in person, but I think the team must have had their own section of the hotel because we didn't see them around.

Jeff and Luke trying out our massive king sized bed. They just stared at each other for the longest time. Luke slept between us every night we were there. So spoiled! Fortunately, the transition back to his crib when we got home was a smooth one.

We did get a little Pack n' Play from the hotel, but Luke never actually slept in it. The only time he spent in it was a couple of minutes the first morning we were there. We took a few pictures. He was his usual crazy active little self and I caught him in some great poses ...

This one just shows how intense his activity level is. Those little limbs never stop moving!

Leaping? Flying? Whatever it is, he's excited about it.

I couldn't resist making a few side by side comparisons.

Luke really does have the strongest little legs. Jeff tipped the Pack n' Play to get him out and Luke planted his foot and held himself upright. Meanwhile, his other leg went crazy, pumping up and down at break-neck speeds.

We headed out that morning to do a little exploring around Flagstaff. We drove in a few different directions and were pleased to spot some necessary stores in the tiny town. We stopped at Wal-Mart and bought some "Little Swimmers" diapers so that we could take Luke into the hotel pool. The smallest size fits 16-26 pounds. Luke was probably only 10 or 11 pounds, which might have been a hint that we shouldn't be taking him in the pool, but we bought them anyway and decided we could use them later on if folding them down didn't work.

We went to Olive Garden for a delicious lunch of soup, salad, and bread sticks. Then, we went back to the hotel to meet Gregg, the realtor. He took us all over Flagstaff to look at several potential apartments and a couple of town houses. He was very friendly and extremely helpful. Just about all of the managers we met knew him. Luke was so good the entire time. He spent most of the time sleeping and just needed one bottle and one diaper change. Gregg told us that our baby was too quiet to be normal. He was shocked that Luke didn't cry more.

We were out with Gregg for 3 or 4 hours and when we got back to our hotel, we had narrowed down our choices to the two bedroom Timberline apartment or a three bedroom town house. I had a good feeling about the apartment when we saw it and the significantly smaller cost had me pretty convinced. However, Jeff was a little hung up on the nice two story, spacious town house. After discussing it, he admitted that the apartment was the smarter choice and we immediately filled out the paper work and went and paid the deposit. It felt great to know we had a nice place to live, although Jeff was a little disappointed not to have gotten his town house.

We stopped by Denny's for a yummy dinner on our way back to the hotel from Timberline. By the time we were back in our room, we were exhausted after our long day. We were asleep by 9:00.

The next morning, Jeff and I took turns going for a run on the hiking trail outside of the hotel. It was a nice little trail that went through the forest and it was a beautiful cool morning. This was a great start to our day. After we were both back at the room, we decided to take Luke for his first "swim" in the hotel pool. We read about the care involved when taking a baby into a swimming pool and then got ready and headed out. A woman at the pool gave us some pretty disapproving looks for having such a tiny baby at the pool. I guess we looked like young, immature parents, but we knew what we were doing. We only stayed a few minutes - long enough to take a few pictures of Luke's first "swim." He was perfectly content in the water. He really didn't have much of a reaction to it.

Luke got a little hungry. It quickly became clear his mind was on something other than the water.

I tried to keep his face shaded from the sun as best I could, but a hat would have been nice.

After a few minutes in the water, we hurried back to our room to give Luke a bath before the chlorine water had a chance to dry on his skin, as we had read to do.

Bath in the sink

After Luke's bath, we drove downtown and walked around for a few minutes before heading to Coco's for lunch. Jeff and I were 2 of just 3 people in there who were under the age of 60 and the food was not worth the price. If it had been the right season for strawberry pie, that might have made up for it, but alas, it was not. Oh well. We learned our lesson.

After lunch, we decided to drive by our apartment to see exactly where ours was as well as our parking spot and to scope it out as much as we could from the outside. The previous residents were still living there so we couldn't actually go in yet. When we got there, Luke was letting us know he needed a diaper change so I started to change him on my lap in the back seat of the car. Bad idea. I know better than to leave his little bum uncovered longer than is necessary and I was on my guard, but there was nothing I could do. Without warning, during the few seconds that I was vulnerable as I wiped him, he pooped all over me and the card door. It was pretty gross. Jeff thought it was hilarious. He was careful not to get too close as he handed me wipes from the behind the open car door. Luke didn't seem to see what the big deal was.

You might not be able to tell from this picture, but there is poop in several places.

We headed back to the hotel so I could change and then out to TCBY while our room was cleaned. TCBY is the only frozen yogurt place in Flagstaff. Thank goodness they at least have one! Before heading back to the hotel, we drove by Gore and found Jeff's building. It was fun to see where he would be going every day even though his building was one of the uglier ones. Then, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our hotel room.

Wednesday morning we woke up and started the drive home as soon as we were ready to go. Luke did even better on this trip than he did on the drive out. He slept a lot and complained very little. And it helped that we had figured out the easiest and most efficient ways to do things.

For lunch, we stopped in a tiny Utah town called Kenab. I didn't recognize the name of a single restaurant in town, but a new western restaurant had just opened and it looked interesting so we decided to check it out. The food was nothing special, but after we ate, we got to explore the western themed surroundings. We had so much fun walking around looking at everything and taking pictures.

Luke and I on a GIANT chair with boots for legs.

These next few pictures of Jeff and Luke in jail crack me up. Luke is making a face similar to Jeff's in every picture we took, including the one or two I didn't post, and he looks genuinely sad to be stuck in jail in second and third ones below.

A nice family from Spain helped us to get these hilarious pictures. If you look closely, you can see the teenage son holding Luke up from behind the Sheriff.

Luke is the law.

I tried to let Luke hold the reigns.

The next couple of pictures are of a dummy that Jeff spotted in a cop car on the side of the road. Apparently, these are common in little towns like this, but we had never seen it before and we couldn't believe it! We laughed so hard!

The car looked like it had been sitting there untouched for weeks and notice the Hitler stache.

Sweet Luke sleeping in his car seat, where he spent an awful lot of time during this trip. Such a little trooper. They are not in this picture, but for most of the car ride, I put nursing pads between his thighs and the seat belt to keep the seat belt from making him too uncomfortable. It was funny-looking, but effective.