Nelson Family Update...because it's been a crazy December

It's time for an update. It's been a crazy year for us, and a crazy December thus far. I don't know if I'll ever get all the stories written, so it's time for a summary.

Where We Live
We moved again...so we have officially made it to 4 houses in one year. We are still in Bountiful, and beautifully enough, still in the same ward (which is a huge miracle as Utah ward boundaries are really small). We really wanted to stay in the ward, so we would have support when the baby came, we really like it here, and I wasn't ready to totally uproot again. So far, we love our new dwelling and have gotten all but 4 boxes totally unpacked (not counting all of the book boxes that we left boxed up because we don't have enough bookcase space for all our books, and because we need to go through our books more and downsize, but the time for that is not now). We are pretty expert at moving now. We were packed, moved and 95% unpacked within about 1.5 weeks. We have also gotten even better at getting rid of things we don't need. Hopefully the next move we make will have less boxes.

Weather
We have had incredible amounts of snow the last weeks! We had a couple of great snow storms come through. Jonathan stayed home from work one day because the plows didn't come through until 11am, and it was still snowing at that point, and we live at the top of the hills (plural, hills), and Jonathan was worried he wouldn't be able to make it home (super valid concern). But other than that one day, the plows were amazing and kept the roads clear. We bundled Peter up a couple of times and went out. He had to crawl through it because it was too deep for him to walk in. We still have a few feet of snow on the ground, and even more on the drifts along the roads. It's crazy, but fun too.

Clearing off the car (17 inches at this point)

There is a sidewalk under there somewhere...

Baby
Nothing new. He hasn't come yet. But we are all ready for him when he gets here. We have his bed, his car seat, clothes cleaned and mostly organized, diapers washed (need to fold them), and Peter is excited to meet his brother. We toured the hospital last week, and Peter was most excited to see that xiao didi had his own bed, but he was sad to learn that he couldn't climb into the small bed. I'm due on Monday, and my midwife is out of town for Christmas until Monday morning, so I'm hoping I don't have the baby until then. Time will tell, but I promise everyone, we'll let you know when he is born.

Peter
He's had a hard time adjusting to all the recent changes lately. He's pretty defiant, stubborn and emotional these days. He has way more tantrum breakdowns and he is sleeping pretty awful at night again. We have to remind ourselves that he's gone through a lot lately, and it just trying to adjust, but lots of days are tough. Luckily he is pretty cute and when he is being sweet, he's a blast to be around. Peter is still super social and really really happy whenever we have visitors. His vocabulary is increasing all the time and frequently says words I have no idea he knew. He currently loves to have "sleepovers" (I don't know where he learned that word), with me...sleepovers are the same thing as naps except in the big bed with Mom. He loves attacking Jonathan with pillows, making houses with the couch cushions, and playing with flashlights. He likes eating cereal, cottage cheese and sweet toast (cinnamon rasin toast), all separately. His favorite color is orange (sometimes red) and his favorite animal is a triceratops.

That's all for now, it's time to hit the sack so we can be awake and ready to go tomorrow for Christmas. Loves!

Yosemite- May 2015

I had all these ideas of stories I was going to write about our trip to Yosemite, which did indeed happen many months ago back in May. We drove up after Christina's wedding, and traveled with Jonathan's parents. We stayed for a couple of days in their trailer, met up with Jonathan's Dad's biological dad, saw some beautiful trees, waterfalls, and got snowed in for a day...in May. I was going to write all these stories, and share them with you. But, I got distracted and busy and life kept going and it just wasn't happening. Then, I got a code for a free Shutterfly photo book, and I made a photo book instead. I figured instead of rewriting everything for a blog post, I'd just share the photo book! It's so much faster this way! So, here it is, Enjoy!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.

Bowling with Peter

Last week, we went to go look at a house. We are looking at moving again...it's been 3 months, so it's about time. We are looking at buying a home, but also looking at renting in a different area. We don't really know what we are doing, but we are doing things.

Anyway, back to the house. It was a duplex in Bountiful, across from a lovely park, cost more money than I want to spend at this point, but we figured it wouldn't hurt to take a look, so we did. We did a tour of the house and were upstairs in one of the bedrooms talking house things. Jonathan was looking around the attic area, and I was talking with the realtor about changes to make to the house to increase property value. Peter was checking out everything- the house was empty, so we let him wander, knowing he couldn't really get into anything...that was our first mistake- never let your guard down.

Peter happened to find, of all possible things, a bowling ball. The house was totally cleaned out, except for a black nine pound bowling ball in one of the closets. Peter rolled it to the edge of the closet, but couldn't pick it up over the closet lip, so I helped him get it out so he could roll it around the room. Again, I thought, "He can't pick it up, so he can't really do any damage, and it will keep him occupied while we talk." Second mistake...never give a small child a bowling ball unless you are keeping a good eye on him.

The realtor saw the bowling ball and laughed, "Where did he find that?" he exclaimed. I told him that Peter fished it out of the closet, and the realtor looked at Peter and jokingly said, "You know what you do with that buddy? You take it to the stairs and push it down! Hahaha!" Third mistake- never joke with a toddler...they don't get your humor.

We continued looking around, talking about removing walls, adding a tub, putting in new windows, and I clearly wasn't paying enough attention to Peter, who I thought was just pushing the bowling ball around the room. Then, I hear the first fateful, "Bump!" followed by many more bumps. The adults all ran to the stairwell, where Peter was sitting peacefully, watching the bowling ball bounce down the stairs. To my horror, I notice a huge window at the bottom of the stairs. I gasped and held my breath as the bowling ball took its last few thumps on its way down. It happened so fast, there was nothing we could do, but watch. There was no way any of us would be able to run down and stop it, so we just watched.

I heard the last "Thud!" but, I couldn't see where the ball had hit because Jonathan was already heading down the stairs and he was blocking my view. I knew the sound wasn't a breaking window, so that was a relief, but I was terrified that I was going to see a bowling ball embedded in the wall, or a hole through the wall or something equally terrible. Jonathan yelled up the stairs, "It's fine! It only left a small dent in the window casing!" Meanwhile, the realtor was laughing and said, "I am so sorry. I didn't think he would actually do that! He did exactly what I told him to do! Haha." I was just glad he wasn't telling us we would have to pay to fix the dent...and I was wishing Peter listened to me as excellently as he did this stranger.

All ended well. We didn't break a window or put a hole in the wall. No on got injured and the realtor thought it was humorous, he still wants to show us more places, so I figure we must not have been too bad. We decided it is a no on the duplex. If I had a couple extra thousand dollars to put into renovations, I'd have considered it. I could see it being a great house, but I'd have to bust out a couple walls, re-carpet, paint/tear off paneling/both, change the bathroom and master bedroom closet. I had too many ideas of things I'd do. So, lack of funds...and being very pregnant with a toddler, put a stop to the duplex. It's a lovely place, but a lovely place for someone else to take on. And it comes with a new slight dent to the left of the window in the stairwell!

Halloween 2015- Trick or Treat!

This year we (read- I) had a tough time deciding on what we should dress up as. I really wanted some kind of costume idea for the family that incorporated Jonathan's beard. We tossed around the idea of a lumberjack family, How to Train Your Dragons cast, Bob Ross and trees, and pirates. But we couldn't settle on any of those. Then, we thought about being robots or dinosaurs. Jonathan and I were dinosaurs many years ago, so I would only have to make a costume for Peter...so that was sounding good. But then Jonathan said we should be robots because we have heaps of boxes from moving and then Peter could help make his own costume- which was a fantastic idea and I was totally behind that. But then it just wasn't happening and wasn't happening, and Halloween was getting closer and closer. 

Then, about a week before Halloween, Jonathan sent me a picture of a guy dressed up as Yukon Cornelius, the miner from the old Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie. As soon as I saw the Yukon picture, I knew we had to be part of the cast from that movie. Yukon has a great beard. I googled the cast and decided the easiest/most known characters, aside from Yukon, who Jonathan had to be, would be Rudolph, Bumble the Abominable Snowman, or Hermey the Elf who wanted to be a dentist. I didn't narrow it down any more until I found what clothing items we had or could be easily acquired from friends or the thrift store. 

I sent out a quick email to some friends in the area asking for specific colored pants, hat, jacket, etc. I got a response back pretty quick from a friend who had most of what we needed. For the rest, Peter and I ran to Wal-Mart for some felt, then to the thrift store for white pants and shirt for me. We found everything pretty quick and all was well. Peter decided he wanted to be the reindeer (which was great because his costume was by far the easiest, and I was going to be Bumble. 

The finished products!
Robin as Bumble, Peter as Rudolph, and Jonathan as Yukon.

Peter's costume: a pair of brown pants (a size too small, so they were high-waters, but whatever), brown shirt, and the giraffe headband I made for my costume last year, and I just cut the nubs smaller. Red lipstick on his nose. We owned everything for his costume, and it was the fastest to assemble.

Robin's costume: white pants and pajama sweater from thrift store (basically I chose the ones that at least semi-fit,trying to find non-maternity things that fit was near impossible, I think I tried on at least ten pairs of white pants.) We made the hat from cardboard, twine, felt and left over pieces of furry white from Peter's panda costume from last year. Jonathan engineered most of the hat/face, and did a great job. It looks better in pictures, and the glue gun saved the day on that part of the costume.

Jonathan's costume: borrowed red beanie, and used a safety pin to hook a red pom pom on the top. He covered a pair of black earmuffs in white fuzzy material. He made his ax by using cardboard and aluminum foil with a hammer as the base and made the belt buckle out of foil and cardboard. All of his clothing and backpack he already owned. He even thought to stuff the backpack with pillows to make it look full. He's pretty much genius level at making costumes.  

Our living room post costume making. 

Yukon and Rudolph, just hanging out. 

I learned a couple of things from our costume making- first, never wait until Halloween to make your costume...rookie mistake. Second- Jonathan is excellent at engineering things to work and have a good structure, and I can sew/design the outside look...so basically we are unstoppable. Third- Peter is a good helper, and sometimes makes things harder, but is still fun to have around when we make things.

Costumes were finished around 6pm, which was perfect timing for us to set out and gather some candy. We explained to Peter how it worked, and he did great. He would go up to every door, hit it with his bucket and yell, "Trick or treating!" Haha, I think by the end he got "trick or treat" down. Everyone thought he was adorable...because he is, and they loved that we all dressed up. I think most people knew who we were. Peter wasn't scared by any of the decorations or costumes we saw. Although the below house had a pirate skeleton sitting in a corner of their front porch with a sword sticking out of him. Peter said, "Oh no! Skeleton...pirate skeleton. He hurt. Oh no. He sad." He wasn't scared of him, but he did want to help the skeleton. He also would ask almost everyone who answered the door if they had a dog, and then proceed to tell them about our dog (our upstairs neighbor's dog). I'm pretty sure he liked chatting with everyone more than he liked getting candy.

Peter and Robin and the pirate house

We learned that we have a fantastic neighborhood for trick or treat. There was only one house with no one home. There were a few who left candy buckets on their porch. But almost everyone was home handing out candy. We live in a neighborhood with lots of empty nesters, and they were all in love with Peter. Also, you know how as a kid you would always spread the word, "Go to Mr Smith's house on the corner. He's giving out full sized candy bars!" Well, we had at least 4 houses giving out full sized candy bars. Candy for weeks! Peter did great at only taking one piece- although many times the people encouraged him to take a few more, apparently the neighborhood doesn't get a ton of kids, so they all were trying to give it away. Also, there was one house who had a candy bucket with candy and one dollar bills and they let kids pick if they wanted to get candy or money. HA! Peter picked candy...because that is a lot more appealing to a small one than a green and white piece of paper. Although if the choice had been between candy and pennies...he might have picked a penny. He likes the little coins.

There was a cool sunset, but we could either capture faces or sunset...not both.
So here are our cute faces!

We had a great Halloween night. Peter had a blast running to all the houses and looking at their decorations. His favorite adjective for things was "spooky". "Oooo mom, that man spooky." It was fun. We wore him out and got a ton of candy- we still have half a bucket and we only went around a small part of our neighborhood. We also learned where more people we see at church live, which was nice. Happy Belated Halloween, I hope everyone else had a great time!

Pumpkin Carving

A few days before Halloween, we set aside some time to carve our giant pumpkin. Last year, Peter wanted nothing to do with getting his hands dirty with pulling out the pumpkin guts. This year was more of the same. He helped a bit in the very beginning, but was very quickly done with touching the seeds or stringy insides.

Peter helping Jonathan get some of the pumpkin guts out.

After prepping the pumpkin, we looked at some pictures until we found a pumpkin idea we liked. Peter really wanted a sad pumpkin...I'm not sure why. But we convinced him to have a happy/silly face instead. I was in charge of drawing the face on the pumpkin and then Jonathan carved the face.

Robin, pumpkin artist.

Jonathan, pumpkin carver, with Peter, self-appointed photographer.

Peter has recently learned how to take pictures on our phones. Jonathan's phone has hundreds of photos of Peter's feet, close-ups of the ground, random toys, and blurry arms/legs/faces of anyone nearby. It's pretty fantastic. He was all about taking pictures the whole night. Here are two of the clearer ones-

Almost artistic

There were at least 20 of these close-ups

Jonathan finished carving our mustached pumpkin. It seemed fitting for him to make. I think it turned out pretty good. He looks happy and it was fun working on it together. 

Peter, Jonathan and mustached pumpkin

Belated Father's Day

Since the last posts were quick turn around posts, it's now time for a really belated post (and don't you worry, I have plenty more really late ones saved as drafts, just itching to become real posts)! This is what we did for Father's Day...back in June. I would laugh at how long ago that was, but I know I have posts from way longer than that still waiting in the queue. Anyway, here it is.

About a week before Father's Day, I started asking Jonathan what he wanted to eat for dinner and dessert on his day. Turns out, he doesn't really have a favorite dinner, or dessert...so he didn't know and didn't know and didn't know. One of the hard things for me in cooking special dinners for this husband of mine is that he usually wants to have a meat dish. I on the other hand, don't love tons of meat, so I usually don't cook it, so I feel inadequate in making steak, or burgers, or any manly meaty dinner. So, naturally, Jonathan wanted bacon burgers for dinner. I told him I'd buy everything if he made the burgers. He was more than happy to make them, and I was happy that he was happy, so everyone won. 

Washing Dishes and Making Bacon!

I've learned there are few things that I love more than my boys working in the kitchen with me. It's just more fun to make food together, even if it does mean it's a little messier and, with Peter, more chaotic. So this day was fun. Peter "washed" dishes for a good 20 minutes. And by wash I mean used the rag to splash around and soak his body- but hey, it's a start.Jonathan did the meats, and I put together dessert.

Look at that focus.

For dessert, I made cream cheese fruit bars. They were good, but way sweet. Even as I was following the recipe I remember being nervous about the amount of sugar it called for. Also, it called for 2 cans of fruit filling, while one would have been enough. I don't know if China made this happen, but there are so many desserts I've made since being back that I think would be way better if they used less sugar. But anyway, not a terrible loss, but I wouldn't make them again. 

Dessert prep and pan of fries waiting to go in the oven

Dessert! (Don't worry, his beard is not touching it. It's just the angle.)

Dinner turned out fantastic, and we ate happy. I just asked Jonathan if he remembers what we got him for Father's Day, and neither of us could remember...whoops. But he asked what we did and I showed him the above pictures, and he said, "Oh yeah, those burgers were soooo good. I remember that. Wait, we still have bacon in the freezer from that don't we? We should make that again." Haha, so the burgers were a total success, and we had a great day in the kitchen together. 

Now let's get a little sappy. I just want to say a few things I love about Jonathan as a Dad. 

Jonathan is great at teaching Peter things- especially things he loves, like the outdoors and tools. He is pretty patient when doing projects with Peter. On Saturday, he took Peter outside to help him work on the car (putting in a new wheel-well cover/fender liner). Do you know how helpful a small child is when doing car repair? Not terribly helpful. Jonathan would have done it faster if he'd left Peter inside. But he was fine with it taking longer and showing Peter some car things along the way. Also, with swimming. Jonathan will go in the pool with Peter and work on putting his face in the water, blowing bubbles and kicking. He is way more patient in the pool than I am (and he knows what he's doing), and they will play/learn for a loooong time before either one is bored. 

Jonathan is great at giving me a break and helping with Peter. Since becoming pregnant, Jonathan gets up with Peter every single morning, without fail, and lets me sleep in until he has to leave for work. It's beautiful. Peter wakes up and comes into our room, usually asking for "cereal and milk?" and Jonathan gets out of bed, and feeds Peter, and then keeps him occupied until he goes to work. At which point I usually convince Peter to crawl into bed and warm up and he talks/plays while I lay quietly until Peter gets too bored and we get up. I know I won't have too many more of these sleeping-in mornings, so I cherish them and am so grateful that Jonathan lets me get a little more sleep each morning.

At night, Jonathan reads books to Peter before he goes to sleep. I'm not sure how this started, but every night, we read scriptures as a family, say prayers, and then I leave and Jonathan lays down and reads a couple books with Peter. I think it's adorable, and I love that they have some quiet time together.

Jonathan plays with Peter...sometimes rougher than I like, but Peter LOVES it, and I'm pretty sure Jonathan thinks it's great too. I love it because I just don't have the energy to play around with Peter as much these days, so it's great for getting some of his massive amounts of energy out. 

Something great that Jonathan does as a dad is he reads/researches parenting things. He has read (actually listened to as audio-books) 2 books that have been on my list to read for a while- they weren't at the library and I had to wait for them to come back in. I didn't even tell him about these books. He heard about one from a guy at church, and the other one from this blog: https://www.fatherly.com/. Yeah...he follows a parenting blog of dad stuff. He'll send me links to articles he has read and finds interesting, and when he comes home (if he remembers he sent it, or if I bring it up), we'll talk about it- do we agree or disagree with the thoughts of the writer? Do we want to implement any of those ideas into our family? Etc. I'm glad he reads things and doesn't leave parenting up to me. 

Jonathan is a good dad, and we are lucky to have him. I'm grateful I married this man and that we get to raise a family together. It is fun to watch someone take on a new role and see them grow and change. Jonathan is not the perfect dad. He gets frustrated with Peter sometimes and sometimes we disagree on how we should do certain aspects of parenting. Sometimes I know he'd rather sleep in and let me take care of Peter. Sometimes he doesn't want to get hit in the face with another pillow. But even if he is not perfect, he is a perfect fit for us. He balances me and overall we work together great. He loves his boys and he will help them become great men. We love you Jonathan! 

Quilting Class

There is a lady in our stake that does a quilting class during the fall. She does it once a month for a couple of months in the fall and has been doing it for the past seven years! She has been quilting for much longer than that, and she knows her stuff. When we moved to our second Bountiful home, a lady in our ward congregation, Carrie, invited me to the quilting class. Carrie has been going to the class for the last 4 years. Also, this is the last year this teacher is going to do the class. 

Now, I'm not good at quilting because I don't do much of it, but I'd love to get into it more. So, I decided I'd go. Naturally, I forgot about it the first month...bummer. But Carrie didn't give up on me and she reminded me again and I made it yesterday! Her class is more a her showing class instead of an us doing class. She brings her sewing machine, iron and board, baskets of material, examples of what she is teaching, rulers and anything else you could think of needing. We bring a notepad, something to write with, and a camera....and in my case, Peter. The class is in the middle of the day, and I can't just leave the small man at home, so he got to tag along. I packed a bag FULL of toys, coloring books, reading books, and snacks, and we were off.

The class focus yesterday was scrapes, and what you could do with them. I thought it would be simple little side projects...instead, it was a bunch of gorgeous quilts. Each time the teacher would show something my thought was, "Scrapes?! No pattern?!! And you made that beauty?! Amazing." Here are a couple examples.

Christmas Tree Quilt- made from the selvage scraps 

Star wall hanging from scraps pieced together randomly

There was a good group of ladies at the class. Most of them were grandmas. There were a couple of moms with older school aged kids, and one other pregnant lady. Peter was the only kid there. And, he did awesome the entire time! He played quietly, ate his snacks and made friends with the ladies sitting around us. Everything said he was darling, "He didn't even make a peep!" "He's such a good boy." "What a cutie!" Haha, all the ladies love him. I was really proud of him for being so good. We were there for about an hour and a half, and he was a beautiful gem. 

Peter during quilt class.

It was great to sit and watch this woman teach the class, and I had a couple realizations while I was there. First, I realized that all passions have a group. They have their people. All of the ladies at the class loved quilting. People were at different stages of ability, but they loved creating, sewing and making beautiful things. The people who had been doing this for a while knew the lingo. "Oh that's a layered cake." "Oh yeah, the jellyroll." I have no idea what these were, but they understood each other. Many of the women knew each other. At the end of the class, the women shared projects they'd been working on, and there was a real sense of community as they complimented each other and shared stories of the quilts. It was neat. It was cool to see this group of women bonding over these beautiful things they had made. 

Second realization: people need a love. For this lady it was quilting. She loved it. She had fun doing it and was great at teaching it. I wish I could see her quilting room, because just from what she brought to class that day, you know her room had to be something great. But this was her love, her passion. So I got to thinking, what's my passion in life? For some people I think it's reading, for some it's planes, for some it's restoring homes, for some it's cars, or painting or landscaping. Some people have the love of outdoors, or sports, or music. There are so many different passions that people have. I don't know that quilting will be a passion for me like it is for these women, but it's fun to go to, so I'll at least go to the next class and try quilting more to see if it's a love, or just a side like. What's your love? 

My last realization was that I need this class, at least right now. I needed to be out of the house, with other people, learning and doing something beyond being Peter's mom. Don't misunderstand, I love being a mom. I love watching him grow and learn. I love our weird conversations and random projects. But sometimes life gets really monotonous. Some day feel like breakfast, wash dishes, start laundry, play games, read books, snack, watch show, change laundry, lunch, play outside, change laundry, nap, make dinner, go to bed, start over in the morning. Predictable. Repetitive. Some days, I don't want to do that anymore. Some days, I want to go back to teaching. I want to learn something new without a small person attacking me for attention. Some days, I feel like I have lost some of my identity and I don't know how to be Robin instead of Peter's mom. I know that I am both those things. Going to this class gave me a little break- mostly because he did so awesome- in that I did get to be around adults, not talking about parenting things, but learning about something totally different, and being inspired by the things other hands created. I realized that I need to learn things from time to time. I need to keep learning, and beyond reading a book- which is great, but doesn't feel that need. So this class was perfect and I'm glad we got to go. 

This post just got way more introspective than I was planning, but there you have it. I'm glad Peter and I went to quilting class and learned a few techniques and had a break from the routine. Quilts are neat, and hopefully I'll be doing more of it. I'm going again in November, and we'll see what I learn then!

Pumpkin Picking with Peter

This will probably be the fastest turn around from something we did to being a post! Tonight, we went to a pumpkin patch to find ourselves the best pumpkin in the world! I've been wanting to take Peter to a pumpkin patch for a bit. I was talking with some other ladies earlier this week and they told me that Packs Farm was the place to go. So, we took their advice. When Jonathan got home from work, we ate a quick dinner and headed out! 

We drove up to where the map said it would be, only to find a really amazing house for sale....but we weren't there to buy a house, we were there to buy a pumpkin. Luckily, we passed a sign pointing us in the right direction. We turned around and drove for a while...and it seemed like we were headed nowhere. We were almost about to give up, when we saw another sign! Then we found the pumpkin patch. 

It was a pretty cool little place. They had a couple of tractors that kids could climb on, a photo booth with some scarecrows, a hay bale maze, bins of baby/special pumpkins, and of course the patch filled with pumpkins. Everything was free, except for the pumpkins. We wandered around and checked out everything before heading to the pumpkins. 

Peter and Jonathan, farmers in the making.

Peter and Jonathan on the big tractor!

Peter loved the tractors! He liked touching everything. Each time, we'd put him in the seat and he'd scoot his little bum to the side so Jonathan had room to sit with him, "Dad, come sit with me!" He loves his dad so much. It's adorable.

Peter and Robin at the hay bale maze!

Peter was also a huge fan of the hay bale maze. He would just run and run, get to a turning point and pause, looking at both ways he could go, pick one and jet down it as fast as he could. It was great for adults too because the bales were low enough to look over the sides, so we could just walk along and keep the speedster in our sights. We ended up making a small loop in the maze and came out the same entrance we went in. But Peter was happy and then we had time to find our pumpkins! 

Peter in his pumpkin wagon! Jonathan did a great job of being his driver.

It was super fun to walk around the pumpkin patch with Peter. He loved being out there. Jonathan commented that we probably need to just take him to a field from time to time and let him run free. He just walked around with his arms spread wide out and just went. We kept trying to get him to choose a pumpkin but he just wanted to walk around the field. We would say, "What about this one Peter?" He'd respond, "No." We'd ask, "Why not?" And his response a couple of times was, "That one not mine." Haha. We would ask if he wanted a big one, or a small one, or a bumpy or smooth one. His answers always changed. I think he just wanted to be walking among the pumpkins with Mom and Dad. 

I found the pumpkin I wanted...it was a fat guy, and it will make for a great one to carve! It had a good stem and I liked it's colors. Then, we started walking back towards the entrance through the patch. We told Peter he had to pick a pumpkin by the time we got to the end. We pointed out little ones, big ones, and everything in between. But none of them were his. Until the very very end. He found a little white pumpkin that he claimed as his own! He carried it for a while, then put it in the wagon. 

Peter and Robin with Peter's little white pumpkin!
Also, props to Jonathan for getting that beautiful sky in the picture!

The pumpkins at their new home.

It was a great way to spend the evening! On the way home, it started to rain a bit, so we had great timing in the pumpkin search. Now, we'll have to find a time to carve the big one, and we might do some painting on the albino pumpkin- depends on how Peter feels!

The Salt Flats of Bonneville

Peter, Jonathan and Robin at the Bonneville Salt Flats, 8 August 2015

I have an unwritten bucket list of Utah things- either things in the state, or in a bordering state. Now that the time is potentially coming that we might move from Utah (no word yet on anything), I am feeling a need to get through some of this bucket list so I don't feel like we missed out on our time here. One of the things on this mental list was to go see the Bonneville Salt Flats.

One Saturday, we did it! Peter slept almost the whole way up and much of the way back. I was grateful for his napping because it's about an hour and a half drive, and a sleeping boy for that drive is much easier. Also it was nice because then Jonathan and I had a good time of a drive to talk about important things and just spend time with each other without a small person interrupting every 5 seconds. It was a pretty drive and we saw the Morton salt factory on the way. We also saw this cool sculpture:

Jonathan and Peter walking towards the "Tree of Utah" sculpture
Read more about it here.

We wanted to stop at this sculpture that we'd read about online. Maybe it looks weird, but it's pretty cool. You drive along to the same desolate yet beautiful views then out of nowhere, there is a this sculpture that grows as you near it. We just pulled off on the side of the road, there isn't any parking lot or anything, just pull over, and look in awe at this massive strange structure. Each of the big spheres are covered in minerals and rocks from a different part of Utah. 

Peter woke up when we were about 5 minutes away, so it was perfect timing to let him out of the car and eat a sandwich while he wandered around. He and Jonathan touched the water, and played on the "boat" a little bit and got some wiggles out before we finished the rest of the drive. 

Peter and his "Boat"

It's gorgeous. We went on the most perfect day.

As we got closer to the salt flats, the ground got whiter and whiter. It looked like it had snowed. It was such a stark contrast to the dark mountains. 

I love that this picture almost looks like it's split into two different pictures, but it's not!

We got to the official Salt Flats area, we wandered out past the dirt and into the salt. It was the strangest thing to me. The texture was very different than I expected it to be. It looks like snow, but it's not that feel at all. I thought it would be super grainy, and that I'd be able to kick it around. I imagined it would be more like someone had thrown down tons of loose table salt and the ground would be more movable. Instead, it was dense and crunchy. It was a little wet in some spots, and those areas were a bit mushy. It had a lot more texture than I expected. 

Salty Texture

Peter loved the mushy salt the best.

It was eerie to just wander around the salt flats because it looks like nowhere else I've ever wandered. It was so bright white with huge mountains around. It was so barren. No trees, so animals, just a handful of tourists amazed by salt. Kinda weird. Also, Peter started eating it, so we had to keep an eye on him. 

I really wanted to get some good family pictures while we were there. Unfortunately, I didn't make us do them until we were done and ready to go home. So, Peter was a little crazy and not loving the idea of standing still. But, luckily, we had a digital camera, so we could just take a ton of pictures and check them on the spot, and once one was pretty good, we called it a day. 

Best family picture of the day with a wiggly two and a half year old.

Maybe this one is the best, everyone is looking at the camera!

It was a fun time at the Bonneville Salt Flats. We went, we saw, we all left happy. Peter slept some of the way home. We stopped near Tooele, and grabbed some food in the quietest McDonalds we've ever visited and took advantage of their play place to give Peter some more running time. We did some errands in Salt Lake which included buying our new tent and sleeping pad, and going to the maternity clothes store to exchange a pair of white pants I've been terrified to wear and get some shirts for excellent clearance prices. Then, after a long long day, we headed home. 

He is the most handsome.
"Hipster enough for the hipster club?" -Jonathan-

Father and Sons Camp-out

Peter and Jonathan went on their first Father and Sons camp-out a few weeks back. They had practiced tent camping for our Yellowstone trip the 2 weeks prior by sleeping in the backyard on Friday night, and this camping trip gave them a chance to see how well Peter did camping in a new place. 

It was a little crazy getting the boys out the door for this camping trip because we had to take our car into the shop to check a couple things before they left. Jonathan took the car in Friday morning and learned there was a gas leak- and a couple of other small things, but because of the leak, the car was unsafe to drive- turns out, it could catch on fire! So, we left the car at the shop the whole weekend so they could fix things, and Jonathan and Peter got a ride to the camping trip with another guy from our church. *Sidenote: the mechanic fixed everything- and it ended up being inexpensive fixes, and the car is back to running great.

So, Jonathan got a ride to work with a co-worker and the guy who was driving them camping told him that he would pick up Jonathan and Peter at 5:30. Jonathan called me at 5:20 to say they were just leaving work, and could I get everything packed in their bags, and get a lunch together for Saturday. Gah! So, I frantically tried to get everything (2 sleeping bags, 2 pads, Peter's clothes, Jonathan's clothes and foods) into a big hiking backpack- so Jonathan wouldn't have to try to wrangle all the 'things' along with the 2 year old, and I did this while making dinner for Peter and hoping that the guy from church didn't show up and have to wait around for too long. But, everything turned out fine. The guy didn't come until about 6:15, and by then Jonathan was home and could help get everything together. 

In the truck heading to the camp-out.
I promise he was more excited than he looks.

 Peter was so excited the whole time to go camping, and when Jonathan got home and saw how I'd packed most of the stuff he said I did a great job. So, we were good to go. They got off safely, and the house was silent. While they were gone, I cleaned the house and reveled in the fact that everything stayed clean the entire night. I also watched any show I felt like. It was great. I had a relaxing night, and knew that Peter and Jonathan would come home with lots of fun stories to tell me.

Peter "fishing" with a stick.

 Jonathan says that lots of other kids were there and Peter played with them all Friday night and Saturday. Apparently Peter was really good at getting snacks from all the other people. The guys made cobbler that night. There were cabins at the camp site that most of the guys slept in. We have a tent, but Jonathan said the ground was quite rocky, so they opted for the cabins as well. They slept good and stayed warm.

Peter and his head lamp...so he doesn't get lost.

Jonathan and Peter with his pliers.

Jonathan and Peter, enjoying cobbler and pliers. 

Saturday morning, they shot off homemade paper rockets, made sand castles and went "fishing". Jonathan said that they kept increasing the air pressure going to the rockets until one of them "exploded" instead of taking off. He also says that Peter had a great time with everyone, and loved playing with a baby- 8 months old- who was there. They got back around 10am, and everyone was happy and full. Camping trip was a success. Peter is an excellent camper and loves being outside, and I'm glad he and Jonathan had a great time together!

You got a fast car, I got a plan to get us out of here....

Ok, before I tell you about the newest addition to the Nelson family, I have to ask- do you know the reference in the post title? When you read it, does any specific tune come to your head, or can you sing the rest of the lyrics? I know my mom will know it, and probably dad...who else? This was the song that was running through my head when I thought about writing a car post, and I was reading over the lyrics and remarked to Jonathan that it's actually quite a sad song. Jonathan looked at the lyrics and didn't recognize the song. So I played it for him, he vaguely recognized the guitar part that goes between the verses and chorus, but he didn't know the song at all...and I could sing along with it entirely. So, I'm wondering who else knows this song, and were the 2 lines enough to have you know it. (In case you don't recognize it, it's Fast Car, by Tracy Chapman.)

Anyway, enough of that, on to the good stuff. We are officially a two car family! It was no problem having just one car when we lived in Provo and Jonathan was either in class or work, which was only a 5 minute drive. If I needed the car, I could drive him to work just fine, and he always walked/biked to class, so I had the car then. Also, I could walk anywhere I needed to go. The library, grocery store, and park were all a 15 minute walk or less. I could even walk to Peter's doctor if needed. It was great.

Then, we moved to Bountiful, but we chose the house we did because things were still in walking distance- even though there were more hills involved, it was still doable. Then, I got pregnant, and my doctor is in Salt Lake City....can't walk there quite so easily. Then, we got kicked out of our first Bountiful house and where we ended up is not really walking friendly. Also, I'm still pregnant and after my appointment next week I have to start going every 2 weeks, and things were getting really tricky trying to switch the car and figure out a different way for Jonathan to get to work and such. So, we started car hunting. 

The car search was one of the most stressful things for me.We didn't know if we wanted to get a good family car, a cheap car that we could sell before we move again, if we wanted to spend more money and get something that would last as a commuter car for Jonathan, or this or that. We weren't narrowing down, which meant we were looking at every direction instead of just specific things. Finally, I came to the conclusion that I wanted a car that we could rely on, even if we spent more money on it...and if we got a loan, then we could build up our credit. 

Narrowing it down helped things be less stressful...until we had to take the one car that we did have into the shop- where it stayed the whole weekend, due to a fuel leak (and a couple other things) which when the mechanic said "Your car could have caught on fire." we decided it was best to leave it with him until the piece to fix it came in. We were car shopping without a car...gah. Luckily our lovely neighbor let us use her car that weekend to look at cars. So, the hunt continued. We found cars we loved that were out of our price range. We found cars I loved, but Jonathan didn't fit well in. We found cars that Jonathan felt great about, but I was on the fence. It was a joy.

Jonathan and Peter with our new ride.

Then, we found it. I kept seeing this car- the Nissan Versa- on the road, and every time I loved it. But, it was a little guy. I thought for sure it would feel too cramped for Jonathan. We went to go see one I'd found that was for sale. It was a miracle! We sat in it and we both felt comfortable. Jonathan could put the driver's seat back far enough and still fit Peter's car seat in, which is a big deal since we will soon have 2 car seats in there and one of them will have to fit behind the driver's seat.  It's a hatchback- which I love, and it's a lot roomier than it looks. Also, it gets pretty good gas mileage. Right now, Jonathan drives it to work everyday (since he drives more, he gets the car with better mpg), and we have the red car at home. But when baby #2 comes, then we'll switch and I'll drive the Versa since it fits the boys better. 

We train 'um young.

Jonathan modeling the trunk space.

So, we have 2 cars, and it's beautiful. I love that Peter and I can get out of the house whenever I'm feeling stuck. It's great that we can run errands during the day and I don't have to save them up until Jonathan comes home. And, something that we didn't foresee, when something on one of the cars needs to get fixed, Jonathan can do it and we don't have to pay the mechanic. There isn't a time crunch to get it fixed because we have the other car we can still use in the meantime. He has already fixed a 2nd fuel leak in the red car (let's pray that car is done leaking gas), and the windshield wiper fluid sprayer. I'm glad everything worked out great, and we found a car we love and will be good for our family for a while. Here's to many years of life for the red car and the Versa! 

This Year's Best Neighbors Goes To....

Last Monday, we went and visited our old upstairs neighbors. While we were there, I was reminded how great they are and how much we loved living below them. It was fun to always have friends to play outside with and an adult to talk to while the kids played in the yard. Also, that yard is still the best yard in the world for kids. I miss the creek and shade trees so much. So, this post is dedicated to our old neighbors and friends, the Monets.

When we looked at the house- back in March, we learned that the Monets were the upstairs renters. We were in the same ward in Provo about 2 years previous. Kristen and I were pregnant and due around the same time. We got together a couple of times when we were living in Provo, but then they moved to Salt Lake, and we moved to China, and I thought we'd never see them again...so naturally, we would end up being neighbors.

They were the best neighbors. Peter and I ate lunch at their house many days. Kristen and I swapped babysitting from time to time, and sometimes she just offered to have Peter come upstairs and play for an hour or two if I was feeling sick or when I was packing for the move. We always had someone to borrow a missing ingredient we needed for dinner or someone to get a good quick kid-approved recipe. Here's a bunch of photos that document our fun times. 

Cow boys!

Cutest cow I've ever seen!

So, Chick-fil-a has a day that if you dress up as a cow, you get a free meal. Kristen knew about it and told us, so naturally, we threw together quick cow costumes and got free dinner! It was fantastic.

Ty and Peter, Popsicle Boys

There were many days that the Monets shared treats with us as we were playing outside. I can't even recall the number of popsicles that Peter got this summer that I didn't buy. They were so kind to always share their treats.

Cake day!

Also, they had tons of fun water toys. Many days were spent playing at the water table, or filling up the sled, or using the squirt guns. We found these sweet watering buckets at the DI, and they were a great addition to the water toys in the back. The boys usually used them to water the plants, but sometimes they used them to be robots...or something.

Bucket Heads!

Pool Day Everyday!

All the boys in the pool!

Water fun!

One day, Kristen was doing a volcano activity with her boys when we came outside, so we learned about volcanoes too! They put some baking soda in a bottle, put the lid on and buried it, then took the lid off and poured in some vinegar. The boys thought it was the coolest thing they had ever seen. I'm fairly certain they could have watched it explode for hours and wouldn't have gotten the least bit bored.

The Volcano!

The Monets are fantastic. I'm glad that we can still go over and play with them. When we went over on Monday, Peter had a blast and we stayed 2 hours longer than I planned because the kids were playing so nicely together. It was fun to be able to talk to someone again who is in a similar phase of life. Kristen and I could commiserate about potty-training, and share successes in life. We shared thoughts from the Women's Session of General Conference and caught up about life. Great neighbors make life so much happier and I'm glad we got to be neighbors with this great family. They are such a fantastic example of what it means to love your neighbors. We miss them, but I'm glad we still live close enough to visit.