Luke the travel guide

On our way back to Albuquerque from our whirlwind of winter travel, we counted up the number of plane take-offs that Luke has experienced in the past year. Not counting in utero travel, we came up with 18 takeoffs! (which, thankfully, were all followed by smooth landings.) The fact that Albuquerque doesn't have direct flights to most of our destinations really amplifies those take-off numbers, but nonetheless, we feel that we've come a long way toward becoming savvy baby air travelers since the apprehension of our first flight with the little man. This time we were showing other parents how to strap a car seat into the airplane seats and offering some of our well-packed baby snacks!

But the travel surely hasn't all been on our end. We also counted up the number of visitors that Luke has received from the east coast. Not counting kids, there are 20 people who visited us from the East since Luke was born, and several of them multiple times! It has been such a blessing to maintain those dear relationships despite the distance, and has also given us extra impetus for visiting the many gorgeous sights this area holds.

We were reminded of both blessings once again this past weekend when we enjoyed a fun visit with Emily, a sweet friend from Princeton. Despite the unusually cold weather, we drove up to Santa Fe and toured the new history museum there and then took a snowy walk up to the La Luz trailhead in ABQ. You can see below that we decided the stroller was the safest, warmest spot for Luke on the icy road. He didn't seem to mind!