Luke's First Road Trip

The night before we left for our road trip, Rick and Vicki (Stephanie's parents) had us over to their beautiful new home for tamales, rice, beans and Mexican cheesecake! It was delicious and Luke got to meet some new friends. The bunch of us went to high school together and are now introducing our children to each other! This is Ian and Luke playing together as much as a 1 1/2 year old and 8 month old can. Ian lives in England with his parents Ben and Jill and was just in Texas visiting. Luke also made a new friend named Adam but I didn't get a picture of them together.

Here is Ian showing Luke the ins and outs of crawling. Jill is supervising with the margarita. SCARY!

On to the Ragas Road Trip 2008. I thought it would be a good idea to visit family in Indiana before Luke got too big, so we packed up the car (very tightly) and headed out for a three night adventure. Like I posted earlier my husband is a trouper. He drove all but 1 hour of the 26 hour journey without one complaint and loaded/unloaded the car 7 times. Here is Luke playing with his car "aquarium." We kept hearing all this banging from the front seat and it looked like he was trying to pull it down.

Lunch stop at McDonald's. What a big boy.

Getting some fresh air at a rest stop and helping dad read the map. What you don't see is that Luke was naked from the waist down. After riding in a car seat that long you need to air out!!!

Ah, Luke's first hotel bed! The Drury Inn in Sikeston, Missouri was good to the Ragas' providing us with a nice breakfast before our departure.

Upon arriving in Bloomington, we met Great Grandma Brumleve (my grandma-dad's side) at our favorite local restaurant, The Trojan Horse, near the Indiana University campus. It was so cold it took about 15 minutes to bundle Luke up enough for a quick walk around the square and into the "Horse."

The cool, old movie theatre on Kirkwood. Just felt like it...

The first night in Bloomington we stayed with Great Grandma Brumleve. She generously gave us her bedroom to stay in and we promptly filled it with baby paraphernalia. We had a delicious dinner and Luke loved showing off his new toys he got for Christmas. He was all smiles for his Great Grandma.

After a yummy breakfast (seriously, all we did was eat this trip) we headed out to see Great Grandpa and Grandma Mercer (my grandparents-mom's side). We ate lunch together and they took turns holding the little guy. He loved all the attention and even gave out a few kisses.

That night my grandparents had planned a big pizza dinner for the whole family. It was nice to see everyone if only for a short while. Here is Luke with his Great Aunt Rhea. At first he cried and then obviously he saw the err of his ways.

Luke mostly enjoyed staring at people as you can see. This is his great aunt Terri.

Ever seen two exhausted parents?

My camera got really funky with this one but I thought it was so cute. This is Luke's second or third (I am not sure how it works) cousin Trislyn. She loved Luke and wanted to take him home with her (she even asked her dad if they could).

Luke must have just sneezed. Ah Todd the baby/child whisperer!

My cousin Kathryn and her husband Scott wanted to borrow Luke to see what it would look like if they had a kid.

What a professional!

Not sure how it started but we all ended up trying on my grandpa's glasses. Anyone seen Office Space?

After everyone left, Luke was so tired he fell asleep right on his Great Grandma's lap.

As if this post isn't long enough...

My favorite part of our trip was seeing my family with Luke. It is funny but in each grandparent and aunt I saw some of my mom and myself. Especially in the way we play and talk to Luke. Seeing my family as a mom is a totally different experience. I can appreciate more all the summer bar-b-ques in the backyard, swinging on the front porch, making mud pies, pancakes that spelled out our names, non stop checkers, playing tennis, trips to the park...I realized the effort that was put into ensuring all of my cousins and I had a wonderful childhood and I hope to do the same for Luke.