Moving on

We have finally arrived in California -- Luke has road tripped over 5,000 miles in the past two months.  Not too bad!

Before we left Spokane we got one more hike in with Jason's mom in the Dishman Hills and a last visit with his sister and bro-in-law - Melody & Eric.  

On our way south, we were able to spend a couple days with my sister, Bonnie and her crew of boys.  My nephews surprised us by being a lot more interested in the baby than we'd expected.  To the point that we thought Luke might be feeling a little claustrophobic :)

Blackberry picking - Yum!

Stopped in to see my Aunt & Uncle - Aunt Yvonne was calling Luke "man cub," which seemed to fit.

Our final stop before getting HOME -- Kim who I met in a Bible study home group well over 10 years ago, but hadn't seen in the past five years.  What a fun time of reconnection and getting to know her two kiddos.  This first picture is waaaay too dark, but Luke was actually looking at the camera! 

HOME!  Luke meets his Papa for the first time and gets to know his Nana again.

My Mom shared a toy ostrich with him...of course, he wouldn't be a baby if it didn't go right into his mouth!

Flip flop weather

Luke's first set of flip flops! (Thanks Spulers!)

All about Luke

Our time in Spokane has been going by SO quickly!  Most of our time here has literally been all about Luke, so here are a few pictures of him :)

Meeting his cousins, Bailey & Kalyn for the first time.

Fourth of July at Independence Point in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Luke goes swimming for the first time --

With the woman who delivered Jason in Cameroon almost 35 years ago!

First date with Paige Sandin -- an older woman by about 3 months!

First slide -- at the Big Red Wagon in Riverfront Park

Luke meets his Schlafmann grandparents

At last!

Images from the road west (2700 miles with an infant)

We just completed our 10-day journey from Vermont to Spokane and boy are we happy to be here!

Overall, Luke was an amazing baby and did really well, but we are all very ready to be out of the car and to stay in one place for more than a few nights.  I realize that road tripping with an infant is a lot easier than with a toddler since Luke will literally sleep for hours everyday, but it still certainly made for a different kind of trip.  Stopping for 30-60 minutes every 2 - 3 hours to feed him made for much longer days.

This is probably the most repeated overall picture of our trip ... finding a bit of shade and grass alongside the road for the baby to stretch and eat in.

Our overnight stops => Buffalo, NY--Fort Wayne, IN -- S. Bend, IN -- Stoughton, WI -- Minneapolis, MN -- Bismarck, ND -- Big Timber, MT.  Fortunately, for six nights of our trip we had family and friends to stay with which was great for showing Luke off and reconnecting.

We had the chance to introduce Luke to some of his second cousins!  My cousin, April, had her handsome boy in January and had family from Scotland visiting at the same time which was so much fun! (these photos are from April's camera)

Luke was clearly excited to meet his 2nd cousin, Fraser.

We got to take some of Luke's footprints which was great - his first set!

Our next stop was to see Jim, the property manager of Forest Echo who has been our boss for the past two years.  We are so glad that he has become part of our lives!  Since we hadn't gotten a chance to see him during this past season of caretaking, it was lovely to stop in, say goodbye in person and thank him for the opportunity to become part of Forest Echo.




























We had three nights along the way that we camped - the first one was at Lake Kegonsa in Wisconsin. All things seemed to be headed for a better experience than our rainy weekend in Acadia until a little after midnight when we had a HUGE thunderstorm that lasted about four hours!  It was incredible to be laying in bed with only a thin piece of nylon between us and lightning, thunder and pouring rain. We stayed nice and dry inside, but ended up with a very wet tent again :(

In Minneapolis, we got to stay with Jason's cousins Todd & Jenn and also see his aunt Sharon & uncle Doug.  Luke got to meet another second cousin, Shiloh.  We had a great day seeing Minnehaha Falls --

Our favorite photo from the day -- getting caught in a thunderstorm!  Luke didn't seem to mind at all :)

Our second to last stop was in Bismarck to see Jasons' grandmother.  Elsie is 101 years old, it was crazy to think that there was 101 years between she and Luke.  She was quite taken with her great grandson and he with her.