Cross country travel and settling in

After 2 weeks of traveling, we finally made it to the amazing state of Washington. Traveling from coast to coast is never easy, and we were not excited about taking a 5-month old baby on this trip, but Malachi absolutely amazed us. Not only did he hardly ever cry or fuss in the car, but he managed to entertain himself for hours at a time, fall asleep on his own, and still sleep between 6-8 hours a night in the hotel. Wow. Aaron and I were both blown away by how easy going Malachi was (and is). Every time we'd take him out of the car when we stopped for the night at the Super 8 (free WiFi, free breakfast, and well, there weren't many other options in the middle of South Dakota and Montana), Malachi would start giggling and laughing. It was hilarious! Then he'd finally go to sleep in his Pea Pod (which is basically a mini tent with a built-in sleeping bag) and not wake up until the morning. Granted, he stuck to his East Coast time until just a couple of days ago, meaning that he was waking up at 4am and 5am depending on which time zone we were in, but it wasn't bad at all.

We toured Badlands National Park (he slept through the whole thing), Mt. Rushmore (where the temperature was about 45 degrees and the poor kid didn't complain a bit when we made him take the 1.5 mile hike around the mountain - good thing we had hats and blankets!), and Yellowstone National Park. Mac didn't seem to mind the sulfur smell too much, slept through much of the Canyon, and started to get cranky when it started raining and the wind was blowing 30 mph in quickly falling temperatures at Old Faithful and I refused to go change his diaper because I didn't want to miss the thing going off. So I guess his one bad mood wasn't really his fault. : )

We finally made it to our new apartment and Malachi was so excited to be someplace where he could spread out. He has now visited downtown Seattle, gone shopping at the outlet mall, gone jogging around a lake, and gazed at views of the mountains. At 5 months, he's done more than I did my entire life up to this point! He's tried 2 churches, where he listened attentively to the music, fell asleep for the sermon, and woke up just in time for communion. He has been a huge blessing, and we are so grateful for everyone's prayers during our travel and settling in. We are so thankful for his laid back personality (except that he is so laid back that he will probably never crawl or roll over because he's not motivated enough) and for his ability to help us make friends - everyone who sees him stops to talk to us, which makes it much easier to meet people in a new place where we know no one. God is good, and so far, all three of us seem to be enjoying this adventure He has for us.