Moving to Flagstaff

The morning after Luke and I got back from California, the moving company came to pack us up for our move to Flagstaff. Let me tell you, having a moving company was glorious! Jeff and I just hung out with Luke while these two guys packed us up in an extremely impressive display of efficiency and brute strength. There were only two of them and they had our entire apartment packed up and loaded into the truck in under 5 hours! And on top of that, they never once used a dolly! One of the two in particular carried stacks of big heavy boxes and big pieces of furniture on his back without help. He was a machine. He would take load after load to the truck without taking a break and don't forget, he had to carry everything up about six stairs.

In no time, the apartment was empty and the movers drove away with all of our stuff. Jeff and I decided it was early enough that we would drive halfway to Flagstaff that night. We quickly cleaned up the apartment and headed out at around 3:30pm, me in the Accord and Jeff in the Jeep with Luke.

Poor neglected Luke feeding himself while Mommy and Daddy finish cleaning and getting ready to go.

We could not believe how tiny our bedroom looked with nothing in it!

Somehow we fit a bed, a crib, two dressers, a chest, a clothes hamper, a space heater, a stroller, a bedside table, a fan and a two trash cans on this floor!

Leaving Provo after four years! We were so excited to start the next chapter of our lives.

Less than an hour into our drive, we ran into a torrential downpour. It was crazy! The windshield wipers couldn't move fast enough to keep the giant drops at bay. It was very difficult to see. I just tried to stay close enough to Jeff that I could see and follow him so I didn't drift out of my lane. After a few minutes, we were out of it and Jeff called my cell. I thought he might be calling to ask me how I was doing after driving through a waterfall for the past 10 minutes, but I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised when the first thing he asked was how the Accord handled in the rain.

After a while, Luke started to complain that he was hungry and needed a diaper change so we pulled off to take care of him. It was insanely windy outside. When I tried to push open my car door, it pushed back and against my will, I fell back into my seat and the door slammed behind me. It was a pretty funny sight I'm sure. Before we got back on the road, Jeff had the bright idea to cover Luke's seat with a blanket in hopes he might sleep. It reminded me of when I had two parakeets and I used to cover their cage at night so they would sleep. And guess what? It worked like a charm. He slept through our dinner stop and all the way up until about 15 minutes before we arrived at our hotel in Kenab, UT. When Jeff found out that the hotel was charging us more than the online price, he used their Wi-Fi to make a reservation on my laptop and saved us $12. That's my husband!

Luke got his own queen-sized bed in our hotel room.

The next morning, Jeff and I got up at 6am for the continental breakfast. We had been warned that we needed to get there early to avoid the big tour group that was staying at the hotel. We were the first ones into the room and it was a diverse and tasty selection. And as an added bonus, when e got back to our room, Luke snoozed contentedly in his carrier while Jeff and I got in another two hours of sleep. Such a good baby!

As soon as we were all packed up, we set out for Flagstaff. Luke was a great little traveler once again. We stopped once to change and feed him at the visitor's center at Glen Canyon Dam by Lake Powell. We only stopped one other time (at Denny's for lunch) before we arrived at our hotel in Flagstaff, and Luke slept through that stop.

Luke and I taking advantage of a photo op at the dam.

We were on track to arrive a little before check-in time at our hotel in Flagstaff so to kill time, we took a little detour just outside of town. We stopped by the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and the Wupatki National Monument. Unfortunately, it was very warm, bright, and windy outside - not ideal weather conditions for baby Luke - so we didn't spend much time exploring either one.

The crater was created by a volcanic eruption 900 years ago. Sadly, people are no longer allowed to hike up to the rim to see inside it, but the fields of black rock and dirt around it were a pretty cool sight.

Luke got hungry.

Sitting on one of the cool black rocks (It looked blacker in person).

Jeff and Luke at the Wupatki Indian ruins

We checked into our hotel, which was an incredible find for the price, that afternoon. Luke suddenly became a VERY hungry little 7-week-old and ate 11 ounces in less than 2 hours! I guess he was going through a growth spurt.

The next morning, we got to go across the parking lot to a little cafe for our continental breakfast. Soon afterward, we got a call from the movers telling us they would meet us at our apartment at 10am. We quickly got ready (actually Jeff got most everything ready, while my movements were a little sloth-like for some reason) so that we could get to the main office of our apartment complex in time to fill out some paperwork before the movers arrived.

We filled out all of the paperwork, got our keys, and spent about 10 minutes checking out our new apartment and trying to decide where everything would go before the movers pulled up outside. Unfortunately for the two guys that brought in all of our boxes and furniture, our apartment is on the second story. Unlike the guys that packed us up, they used dollies for everything.

The movers were sure that this chair was one of the first things they brought up so that I could sit in it with Luke and direct them for the rest of the time.

Jeff had the important task of marking off each box and item on the list as it came in.

By the time the movers had finished bringing everything in, it was past lunch time and we were hungry so we went to Olive Garden for soup, salad, and bread sticks. I decided that moving day was cause enough to celebrate by not being concerned with my calorie intake for the day. That, in addition to the fact that this would be the last day Gore would be paying for our meals, led to ordering an appetizer and dessert along with our meals - something we never do. I may have pigged out just a little bit.

After lunch, we headed back to our apartment to tackle the arduous task of unpacking all of our possessions. I was actually excited to do this. It was fun to organize all of our things in our shiny new apartment. In fact, we got so into it that we just ordered pizza for dinner instead of going out and I continued to work well into the wee hours of the morning after Jeff went to bed like a sane person. I only got two hours of sleep, but it was oh so satisfying to move closer and closer to our goal of having everything unpacked and tidy.

The next morning, Jeff went to the Wal-Mart to buy food for breakfast and lunch that day while I grabbed two more hours of sleep. Then, we jumped right back into unpacking and organizing. We spent virtually the entire day getting every last item into place, only taking time out to eat, go grocery shopping, and take the adorable pictures of Luke below. And by the end of the day, we were about 99.9% moved in (all that was left was to hang our pictures).

Brooke gave me this adorable little bear costume. I had forgotten about it until I found it while unpacking. I had to be sure to get some pictures before Luke got too big for it. Here he is with his bear posse.

Happy little bear

On Sunday, Jeff hung all of our pictures around the house before church at 1:00, making us officially moved in. We also watched a Disney movie with Luke (our Sunday tradition). I had to take a couple of pictures of him looking adorable propped up on my side of the bed:



Jeff and I enjoyed our first week at church. We met some very nice people in our new ward and enjoyed all of the speakers and lessons. Luke made himself known by having a loud poopsplosion during Gospel Doctrine. That got everyone's attention and made a great first impression, I'm sure.

After church, I took pictures of the apartment. Here is a little tour:

To begin the tour of our new apartment, here is the living room. It is the first room you see when you come through the front door, which you can see on the left of this picture.

This is the entry way closet. (you can see the front door on the right of this picture)

Another view of the living room. We have a fireplace and I love the big windows in this apartment and the hanging shades.

The dining room is connected to the living room. They are like one big room. We are on the second story and you can see the sliding door out to our balcony on the left of this picture.

I had to take a close-up of how neatly I organized everything in the hutch. It used to be quite jumbled.

The balcony.

It wraps all the way around to a second sliding door leading into our bedroom. I love it!

The dining room leads into the kitchen. In this picture, you can see that the guest bathroom is straight ahead and the doorway to Jeff's and my bedroom is on the left.

Those white doors lead to the laundry area.

The washer and dryer each have a HUGE capacity!

Jeff's and my bedroom is across from the kitchen.

Our bathroom.

Shower

Lots of shelf space!

Our walk-in closet. So nice!

Here is the guest bathroom, which comes off of the kitchen.

It's bigger than our bathroom.

Another closet with tons of shelf space.

This is the hall that leads from the bathroom to Luke's room. There is a closet on the right and an identical one directly across from it.

The closet on the right side of the previous picture

The closet on the left side of the previous picture

Luke's room. His door is to the right as you walk in the front door. This picture is taken from that doorway. The hall coming from the bathroom is on the left of this picture.

Jeff and Luke hanging out on the balcony, while I took pictures.