Christina and Big Peter Get Married!

The Nelson side of the wedding party!

So, the biggest reason for heading to California was for the lovely wedding of Jonathan's sister Christina to her now husband Peter. (We frequently refer to him as Big Peter, and ours as Little Peter.) The wedding day was great. They were sealed together in the LDS Redlands Temple. The ceremony didn't take too long, and the photographer took lots of great shots. (All of the pictures in this post are taken from facebook.)

Peter and Christina...they are so happy!

Nelson Siblings- Christina loves loves loves the beard.

It was hot during picture taking, but they kept us in the shade, so it wasn't too bad. They were pretty quick about getting groups in and out and getting the needed pictures. Christina and Peter looked great and they were happy. The two youngest wedding guests- Peter and Charles- got a little bit crazy as the day went on, but they were pretty awesome...and adorable.

Christina with the little boys, Peter and Charles.

Christina! She is so gorgeous! 

Peter and his Mama.

Little Handsome Peter

After the temple ceremony and the pictures at the temple, we headed back to the Nelson home to finish setting up for the reception. Tables needed to be decorated and it was a bit windy...so we got creative and used a mix of double sided tape and safety pins to keep the smaller square to stay on the bigger table cloth. Luckily, the wind died down by party time, so it was never an issue during the reception. We also got to put up all of the candles around the place- they were all battery operated- no fire issues. I grabbed a couple of Big Peter's sisters and we got them placed in no time. Then, before we knew it, people started arriving and the party began.

The reception at the Nelson's home

Peter enjoying some Russian blini.

Christina and Peter had lots of foreign food- Middle Eastern and Russian dishes for their reception. Little Peter and I loved the blini- Russian crepes- I miss those and ate as many as I could. Jonathan got to be the MC for the night, and Peter did a great job playing with other kids and eating any food people would give him. He and Charles were constantly having a love hate relationship with each other. The dancing began and Big Peter and Christina were having their first dance, when the bouncy ball fight broke out. Charles has a ball, and Peter grabbed it when it was bouncing along...soooo...this happened.

Christina and Peter's first dance...and a small tussle between the small boys

The tackle

Yeah, they tackled each other in the middle of the first dance. Then, the parents swooped in and broke them up. He keeps me on my toes everyday. But at least they did it in style.

Jonathan, Peter and Robin at the wedding.

It was a great day, and we had lots of help getting things set up and taken down, which is always a welcome thing. We are so happy for Christina and Peter and are happy that we got to be in California to celebrate with them. They will have lots of adventures in their life together. We wish them the best, lots of happiness and lots of grand adventures!

California Vacation Life

In the end of April, we headed to California for Jonathan's sister's wedding. Although we were there for the wedding, we spent some time having fun with family and taking a break from the daily grind of life. Peter and I went out a week before Jonathan was able to come out, and we missed him, but had lots of fun. Here's a quick rundown of what we did.

Explore the yard!

Lizard Finder Extraordinaire 

Orange Boy

Take lots of naps! They always turned out more comfortable for Peter than for me. He's a wiggly little guy and thinks the entire bed belongs to him.

Initially I was sleeping in the space of the white pillow and his head was on the flowered pillow...this is why we don't nap together.

Pool time! Erica and I hung out poolside because the water was cool, the boys loved it, and then you couldn't get pulled into chopping veggies for the wedding reception!  The water took a bit to get used to, cold!, but Peter loved it. He could have played in that pool all day, everyday.

Poolside Peter

Grandpa came out and played with them for a bit. He threw them both in the water. The first time, I caught Peter before his face got wet, but the second time, I let his face go under. He was a little scared, and didn't want Grandpa throwing him again, but he was okay with it pretty quickly. I wish we had more regular access to a pool; I think we could get Peter to be a swimmer in no time.

Cousins- Charles and Peter wearing Grandpa's shoes- best of friends and worst enemies

Helping with Wedding Prep! We mostly chopped lots of veggies, skewered lots of meat, and folded blini. I mostly tried to keep Peter out of the way, but we did what we could to help. Peter liked to help in any way he could too!

Peter is the best sous chief! Helping Christina with blini batter.

Beach Day!! On one of the days before the wedding, Beccah and one of Big Peter's brothers had to be picked up from LA airport in the morning. So, Erica and I decided the best thing to do would be to go to the beach after picking them up! It was a grand idea. The weather was lovely, the little boys played well together, and traffic wasn't awesome, but it could have been worse. We met up at the beach with one of Erica's friends and her family. It was a fun beach group. We played in the sand, touched the water a little bit, and chased birds.

Peter loves the sand.

Feeling the sand between his toes

Selfie on the beach- Robin and Peter

Ready for some sand castle making

Blue skies and water

Cousins- Charles and Peter

Robin and Peter at Redondo Beach

We had a fun time in California. We loved spending time with family and getting to know Big Peter's family. Peter was happy that week, took good naps and had a few small adventures. He loves the beach, the pool, and we went to the park with Charles and Erica one day- which was also fun. We talked to Jonathan at night, and we sent him pictures, but it was great to have him back together with us to have more adventures all together!

Car Baby

At this point in our lives, we are well aware that Peter is an awesome traveler. He gets fidgety just like any kid, but overall he is awesome. The day we drove to California, we drove for an hour to Provo to meet up with the rest of the Nelson family, drove 30 minutes to Payson for the temple open house, then drove the rest of the way to California with only a couple of rest stops- one of which involved lunch and rock collecting! I think he cried a total of 30 minutes the entire day. This kid is great at car trips, plane trips, and having routine interrupted. 

Peter and I drove down with Jonathan's parents in the big van. Jonathan stayed in Utah for work, and flew to California at the end of the week. It was lovely being in the van with a small number of people, because whenever Peter fell asleep and I wasn't entertaining him, I took a nap on the back seat. Being able to stretch out during a long drive is a beautiful thing. My day looked a little bit like this:  

Nap #1, an hour or so after the temple open house

Eating chips and rolls

First toy- about 2.5 hours into the trip, amazing we made it that far without entertainment
Toy was a dollar store doctors kit that was destroyed in about 30 minutes.

Throughout the drive, I would text pictures to Jonathan. I asked Peter if he wanted to say anything to dad. He nodded and said, "Wow." Haha, silly boy. We had a cooler full of sandwiches, fruit, yogurt, and other foods. And I'd brought some fruit snacks and little crackers Peter likes. We also bought some new toys/activities from the dollar store to open and play with along the way. The most successful were stickers. A sheet of robot foam stickers kept him happy for a good 20 minutes- which is like an hour in toddler time.

Stickers through Vegas

We stopped in Baker, and Peter collected a cup full of rocks and we had lunch. Peter ran and ran and ate and ate. We got back in the van to do the last leg of the trip, and Peter was done. He was quite upset being back in the van and didn't want any treats or toys. Then, Grandpa turned on an audio book, and within 5 minutes, Peter was sleeping. He slept for a good part of the last leg, and eventually we made it to Riverside, and Peter could run free. He explored everything he could, thrilled to be released from his car seat. It was great to be out of the van. Peter is an excellent traveler, which I love, because it makes all of our trips go more smoothly. Good job Peter for traveling well. A+ and a gold star!

Now it was on to a week of wedding prep to help an any way we could for Christina and Big Peter's wedding!

Payson Temple Open House

Just over a month ago, Peter and I got to go to the Payson LDS Temple open house with some of Jonathan's family. We were driving to California that day and were lucky enough to get to see the temple before we headed out of the state. LDS temples don't allow the public to tour the buildings after they are dedicated, but prior to their dedication, they have open houses where anyone can go and walk through and see the building. Read more about LDS Temples here. 

Peter and Robin at the Payson Temple

It was fun to go through the temple with Peter. He has seen the outside of many temples throughout Asia, and a couple in the US, but he has never been inside. Members of the LDS church can't go through the temple until they are old enough to have a temple recommend- at the age of 12. So, Peter loves the temple, but it was neat to take him through the inside and talk about all the pictures of Jesus, and how the temple is the House of the Lord.

One thing that I thought was super neat about this temple was that they commissioned a number of paintings for the inside. Some were landscapes from the mountains and canyons around Payson, which were cool because they were the views that you see outside the temple. Some were pictures of Christ. I really liked those ones because they were different from the pictures you see in most church buildings, so it gave a different image of Christ. Instead of just glancing over them, I paid more attention to them because I'd never seen them before so they got my focus.

It was a great way to start our trip. I loved walking through the temple, and it was great to have Peter with me to talk about the temple. The grounds are beautiful, the temple is gorgeous, and it was a calm and happy place. We love the temple and it was a great open house.

Selling?

Just under a month ago, I got a text from our landlord saying they were thinking about selling the house...gah. We were in limbo for a few days until she sent another text saying they decided to sell and the realtor would be coordinating everything. The next week, the realtor sent me a text saying she would be coming by to take pictures of the house. Yeah, good thing we'd just gotten back from being out of town for 2 weeks and the house was a disaster...also we had only been living in the house about a month and a half and there are still boxes in the living room waiting to be unpacked. Gah. No fun.

I cleaned like mad until she came to take pictures. She then informed me that I needed to clean off all counters, and box up things we didn't use frequently. "So, just put the toaster away when people come to see it. They need to have empty space so they can visualize their toaster on the counter." She also said to take off all personal pictures and things off the walls so people could imagine their own things there. Also, put the dish drainer away because we didn't want people thinking the dishwasher wasn't good...yeah, except it doesn't work good, which is why I hand wash all my dishes. She also said that we would have to leave the house every time someone came to see it. To say I was frustrated by the time she left would be an understatement.

I called my mom after the realtor left and she got frustrated with me- which was actually reassuring. Then I didn't feel like I was crazy for being upset. She told me I didn't have to pack anything up, and if they wanted it cleaner, they could come and clean it. I felt much better after talking to her. I did clean up, and make an extra effort to unpack some more of our boxes, but I didn't pack our toaster or put our pictures away.

Then, the showings started. We had an open house one day and had to be gone from 9-12...and it was raining all day...and I don't have a car. Luckily, Kristin (the upstairs neighbor and good friend) was in the same situation and had contacted the Relief Society President to ask if we could hang out in the church building for that time. We pulled out the nursery toys and played in the gym until we could go home. It turned out to be a much better day than I was expecting. We had one other showing that day, and about 3 more throughout the week. As the showings went on, I did a less thorough job of cleaning...mostly because I don't really want the house to sell fast...because it might mean we have to move. We also just started hanging out in the backyard during showings instead of totally leaving.

So far, we know that they have had multiple offers, and have made counteroffers. We know that all the offers are from investors, but one of them would want us to move. Our guess is that offer is from a family who would live in the bottom of the house and use the upstairs rent to help pay the mortgage...which is a great plan for them, less great for us. Our landlord said they would let us know when they have made a decision.

If we do have to move, we would have 30 days after they close on the house to find a place and move out. So, we aren't really worried about having to find a new place. I know we could find a place in that amount of time. But, I don't want to move. We know we will likely move within the year for Jonathan's job, and we just moved here...so I really don't want to move 3 times in one year. But, we will see what life has in store for us. If we move, I will really miss our backyard and our excellent upstairs neighbors. It would be nice to have a bigger kitchen, but that is the only thing I really dislike about this house. So, fingers crossed that the landlords choose the buyer who doesn't want us to move! We'll keep you posted.