Nelson Review- Moving Is Our Life

Ok, so clearly, blogging has fallen to the side lately. Our lives have been busy and lots of changes are in the works/have just happened, so here's an (ideally) condensed version of what we are up to and what's keeping us busy.

- Jonathan has a new job working at BCA (Bicycle Corporation of America)! He started working on 10 May. It pays better than his last job, has more time off (he went from 4 holidays to 9!), and he gets to be home more with the boys (new hours 7:30-4:00). The company is 49% Chinese owned and 51% US owned. So, Jonathan gets to go to China 3-4 times a year. He was hired as translator/whatever else they decide for him to do.

Ezra the firefighter
(We went to a park when Jonathan had his first interview with BCA) 

Peter climbing cypress tree roots at the same park

- Nelson Family Beach trip! After three days of Jonathan working at BCA, we left for a week for the NC Outer Banks. It was a little crazy getting ready for the trip since Jonathan was gone and I got really sick- high fever, achy and super sore throat. I was supposed to be packing for the beach and for moving. Instead, I laid on the couch and made Peter get me more blankets. I'm pretty sure Peter and Ezra survived on graham crackers and apples for a couple of days. Ha! But, we made it through that week and got rewarded by a beach week! We got to see lots of fun things, hang out with family, and spend lots of afternoons on the beach.

Ezra, Jonathan, Peter and Robin and the Bodie Lighthouse

- We're moving again! The new job is in South Carolina, about 2 hours from where we are now. Presently, Jonathan drives down at the beginning of the week and stays with some friends and comes back on Friday. Hopefully soon we'll get down there too....which leads to....

- We are buying a house! Short version- a lady from church's daughter is moving to Kentucky and they are trying to sell their house fast. They hadn't even listed it, and they are selling it for less than it's worth. It needs some work, but it has good bones (and a nice backyard, which we've been needing) and I think we can make it really cute. It took more to convince me to buy it than it did Jonathan, but it's really happening. We hope to close in the end of June. But, we hopefully get to move in within a week or so and just rent from them until it closes.

- Peter is getting eye surgery mid-July. Our current eye doctor is still in our insurance network and we'd rather stay with him than have to start over getting to know a new doctor. So, we'll drive up and stay with my parents a couple of days for the surgery. He'll have the surgery and then 4 days later he'll have a post-op appointment. It's an out patient surgery, and I'll try to write a post about that in the future.

- Ezra has started talking more! It's still at the parent understood level, but he's getting more and more words! He says, Mama, Dad, dog, apple, up, help, bubble, shoes, a word for plant/tree- but it doesn't sound like plant/tree, and a few more. He signs- more and please.

- Robin- I started working for a cool company called Tinkergarten. It's a nature based learning class that meets once a week for 8 week seasons. I was hired to be a Tinkergarten teacher! They have great curriculum and send me all the materials I need for the classes. I get to bring my boys with me to classes. We go and explore and create things outside. It's super fun and we love it. I have to recruit kids to come, but the company does lots of the other work. I started teaching, but then Jonathan got the job and with being sick and packing and crazy life, we canceled the classes here and I'll get going again once we get moved down to SC.

Ezra making stone soup

Peter and his potion

- I just asked Jonathan what things were happening in our life, just to check and see if I forgot anything. He laughed and answered, "Everything is happening."

It's crazy, but we feel like we are progressing and that all these big changes will give us a better life. We are excited to move and to be able to see Jonathan more everyday. I'm excited to be able to paint the house any color I want. The boys are excited for a backyard- we've been telling Peter for about a year that we can get a dog once we have a yard with a fence...and he has not forgotten that. It's crazy, but it's good. Onward and upward.

40 Acre Rock in the Rain

"We are taking a picture and we are happy about this hike!"
- Dad to complaining Peter and fussy Ezra

Two weeks ago, we decided we needed some adventure. We needed to get out of the house and get outdoors. We went to hike 40 Acre Rock. We've gone a couple of times before and we've loved the hikes each time. It's very family friendly and has lots of interesting areas. This time around, we met up with my brother and his family. They did the upper trail and we did the lower trail and met on the rock. It was the perfect weather, and we were one of the only ones on the trails.

"Mom, take a picture of my leaf."

Peter braved the huge hill that he couldn't conquer last time.

Little hiker

"Mom! I found a dung beetle!"
Not quite, but still cool. 

This tree has a mouth...

Nelson family 21 Jan 2017

We got to the rock and had a little picnic. The rock is not actually 40 acres, but it's pretty huge. We ate and talked about different things we could see. We got in touch with Andrew and met up with them after our break. We all went down to one of the waterfall areas and let the kids play and run around for a bit. They had a good time playing and it was so nice to just be outside.

Ezra and Robin, picnic on the rock. 

Jonathan and Ezra at the small waterfall

Cousin party!

 We knew there was rain in the forecast for the afternoon, so after letting the kids climb around on rocks and go "fishing" in the stream, we gathered up the kids and parted ways. Peter was an awesome hiker this whole trip. It was about 2.5 miles round trip, and he walked all but about 15 minutes of being carried. He was a trooper. On the way back, we saw another trail that we hadn't explored before. Jonathan said, "What do you think? Should we check it out?" I said, "I don't know, it's supposed to rain soon." His response, "What's the worse that will happen? We will get rained on. Not a big deal. We have jackets and I have a rain jacket for Peter. I think we should check it out. We don't have anything else going on today." So, we did. We took the path less traveled.

We found a tree that was eating its trail marker.

 So, of course, it started to rain. And you know what? It wasn't even that bad. Our jackets did a great job of keeping us pretty dry. Ezra was in the carrier with a rain guard, and Peter looked like a little gnome in his (Jonathan's) rain jacket. I was a little nervous because we didn't know how long this trail was, and I knew the boys were reaching their limits. The rain got harder, and we got a little wetter, but we saw some cool things, and we will definitely do this hike again on a clear day. There was a cool bridge, and a bamboo grove, and a really cool overlook area of a marsh.

Little one hiking in the rain.

Rainy, but beautiful. Please note, Ezra's small foot poking out.

Gosh yes. We live in a beautiful world.
Jonathan says it looks like the dead marsh from the Lord of the Rings.

It was a great adventure. It was so nice to get outside, and it was great to have a free weekend where we could do something. Hopefully we'll get a few more hikes in here in different seasons; I'm banking on it will be beautiful when it's green! Here's to hikes, even ones in the rain. 

Pumpkin Patch- Wise Acres Organic Farm

Mid-October, Jonathan's parents came to visit the east coast. Jonathan has two sisters who also live on the east (one by Washington DC and one in eastern NC), so his parents came out and made their rounds to see all of us. It was great to have them visit, and the next couple of posts will be from their trip here. 

One thing I really wanted to do with Peter is go to a pumpkin patch and pick out some pumpkins for Halloween. We did it last year and had a blast, so I was hoping I could find a good place here. The pumpkin patch we ended up going to was fantastic! If we are living here next year, we'll go back for sure. We went to Wise Acres Organic Farm in Indian Trail. Entrance to the patch was free, and pay for the pumpkins and some of the activities. They had lots of different activities. Some of them you had to pay for, but there were lots of things you could enjoy without spending any money. 

Cousins on the barrel train.
Charles and George in the back car, Peter in the front. 

The crew was me, Peter and Ezra, Jim and OdaLisa (Jonathan's parents), Erica, Charles and George (Jonathan's sister and her two boys). Jonathan was down in SC all day doing tree clean-up from Hurricane Matthew. We missed him, but had a great time and was glad we could go on adventures with other Nelsons.

Peter, Ezra, Charles and George. 

The boys are a fun group because they are close in age so they all just go around together and play. They get a little crazy, but mostly they are delightful. It was fun to see Peter and Charles together on this trip because they have gotten old enough that they play together more than fight. There were so many things to do at the farm and we kept busy and stayed much longer than I thought we would because everyone was having a good time.

Ezra likes the wind in his hair.

4 person bike- George, Peter and Charles

Grandpa Jim with his grand-boys- Charles, Peter, Ezra and George

Ezra and Robin in the maze

Peter, Charles and Grandpa Jim coming out of the maze.
Pretty sure they made this shortcut to get out. 

One of my favorite parts of this farm was the back wooded play area. It was a forest area where they had cut down any bushy undergrowth and put toys and climbing structures throughout. So there was tons of play area, and loads of things to do while still having good sight lines and it never felt crowded even though there were lots of kids and parents milling around.

They had a zip line that Peter braved. 

This was the coolest swing! Peter and Charles loved it. 

We played in the forest area for a while, walked through a maze and then took a hay ride. The hay wagon was pulled by a big tractor. When we got off, Peter went and stood by it. It was positive it was my Dad's tractor (same color and brand, different sizes) and he was entranced. After the hay ride, we went to choose pumpkins. The boys were told that if they could pick it up, they could get it. So they looked for the best pumpkins and found some great ones.

Ezra eating chocolate covered pretzels
and enjoying the pumpkin patch.

Peter's pumpkin. He could barely pick it up, but he got it!

Peter, Robin and Ezra...getting a good family picture is getting harder and harder.

After getting pumpkins we headed over to the corn bin. This was one of my favorite parts of the day. They have a HUGE bin filled with dried corn, think sandbox only more awesome. It was covered from the sun, so it wasn't hot. The texture was fantastic. I sat on the edge to watch Ezra and put my feet in the corn and it was weirdly cathartic. I felt so much calmer letting these corn kernels fall through my fingers and burying my feet in them. The boys had a blast. Peter and Charles ran around the place digging and playing. Ezra didn't go too far, but he seemed to love the corn too. Someday when we are a little more settled, I'm going to make a corn box in our backyard.

Corn box baby.

Peter and Charles, digging and burying things. 

After playing here, everyone realized they were hungry. Grandpa Jim bought a pizza that we ate, and then the kids played a little bit more. I'm really surprised at how well everyone did. We ended up being there for about 3 hours (I think, maybe longer), and we had no meltdowns or tantrums. All the kids fell asleep on the way home, and some slept for a decent time once we returned home. It was a great trip. I'd love to go back and visit the farm again sometime. We had a blast and definitely recommend this place!

This is Halloween, This is Halloween

Family of superheros
(Jonathan as Clark Kent holding Ezra as Robin, Peter as Batman, Robin as Supergirl)

A few months back, Peter informed me that he wanted to be Batman for Halloween. It was a cute idea, but I was sure that it would pass in a weeks time and he'd move on to a new costume idea. Buuuuut, he didn't. And I was totally okay with that, because superhero costumes are really easy to pull together, and lots of fun to be for Halloween. It took us a while to decide on which superheros everyone else was going to be (I tried to convince Peter to be Batman and me to be Robin, Jonathan be Spiderman and Ezra a little spider...be he only wanted Ezra to be Robin) but we finally settled on our superhero family for Halloween. 

Superheroes can fly!

We checked out a few Batman books from the library, and once Peter learned about sidekicks and that Batman's sidekick was Robin, he knew that Ezra was going to be his sidekick. Peter initially wanted Jonathan to be the Hulk and me to be Wonder Woman, but with a little convincing, we went with Superman and Supergirl- their costumes are much easier to pull together and less green painting. 

Batman's coming to save the day!

Jonathan's parents were here a few weeks ago, and his mom helped with much of the sewing of capes and my skirt, which was a huge help. The costumes came together great. Jonathan's was by far the easiest. He already had a superman shirt, and he just wore it under a white shirt and borrowed Peter's red tie.

Best Superman Ever. 

We had a ward Trunk-or-Treat and chili cook-off the Saturday before Halloween. Jonathan was gone all day Saturday with a group from our ward cutting trees for people who needed help from Hurricane Matthew. They have been going down the last couple of Saturdays. I'm glad he's been able to go and help other families. The group came back in time to come to the ward party. We had some delicious chili and Peter came home with a huge bucket full of candy, which he shared with Mom and Dad....because he doesn't know that other kids keep all their candy, and I plan on keeping it that way as long as I can.

Batman and Robin
These boys are the cutest. 

We also went trick or treating on Halloween in my brother's neighborhood. His family lives in a development with lots of houses and lots of families. It was fun to go around with them and let the boys go around with their cousins. Lots of homes had fun decorations and there was even a haunted house in the neighborhood. Peter collected more candy and a few glow stick bracelets. Ezra rode around in the stroller and was in a pretty good mood considering he was up way past his normal bedtime. It was a great night!

Happy baby, happy mama.

Halloween was a great success this year. We had a blast and have candy to last us a while. Peter has already decided he wants to be a chameleon next year for Halloween....I'm hoping he changes his mind on that, but if he doesn't I've got a year to figure out a costume! Happy belated Halloween!

Gleaveland

Ezra, Robin and Peter on Gleaves Road

While in Virginia with the Nelsons, I checked the map and found that it would only take us 40 minutes longer to get home if we made a stop in Cripple Creek, Virginia on the way home. What is in Cripple Creek? The land of my people. 

My 6th great grandfather, William Benjamin Gleaves, settled in Cripple Creek with his wife, Elizabeth Turk. They had eleven children, all born in Cripple Creek. I am a descendant of his first son, Thomas Harvey Gleaves, who moved to Tennessee and lived there for the rest of his life. We had a Gleaves Family Reunion back in 2003 and in 2009 here, and I wish that I had a love for family history then. I only remember it being hot and humid and there were lots of old people I didn't know. 

I haven't been back to that area since the reunions and since we were so close I knew we had to make a trip. I passed the idea by Jonathan. "Hey, so it turns out, we can go see the Gleaves land if we add only 40 minutes on to our trip home. What do you think?" I was ready with arguments on why we needed to stop by, but I didn't need to use them. Jonathan just said, "Yeah, sure. Let's go!" So, it was planned. We left the Nelson reunion and headed over to Cripple Creek. We found Gleaves Road and drove along looking for the Gleaves house and Gleaves Knob- yeah, we have a hill...pretty cool. 

I had gotten the address for the house before I lost signal with my mom, so we drove down Gleaves Road, looking for the right number. We found the house, but there was a gate across the driveway. We decided to drive down the road a bit and see if there was a place we could get a good picture of the house from the road (there wasn't). We ended up turning around and going back past the house only to find the gate was now open! So, we drove down the driveway. The house is set a ways back from the road. We came to a bridge that looked partly safe. We started driving across and it was loud driving across the boards, but we made it. Only to come to another bridge that looked even less safe. I made Jonathan get out and inspect it to see if he thought it was meant for vehicles. A bunch of dogs ran out, so I told Jonathan to go to the house and see if anyone was there. No one answered, and Jonathan returned to the car. We drove across the second bridge while holding my breath, and it held! We all got out and took a picture in front of the house. Peter tried to hug and pet all the dogs.

Ezra, Robin and Peter with the house

Peter, Jonathan, Ezra and Robin in front of Gleaves Knob. 

 After we got our house picture, a truck turned off the road to come down the driveway! We went out to the driveway to meet the truck. It was Jimmy Dunkley, the man who lived there. I remembered a bit about him from previous meetings. He got out of his truck and I went to introduce myself only to find he knew exactly who I was. He exclaimed, "You're Bobby's daughter. I remember you!" I was surprised he remembered since it had been so many years. Then he said, "Your mom. She sends cards for Christmas." Nice job mama. We talked with him for a few minutes. He told us a bit about the land, and gave us the phone numbers of his sons so we could contact them. We didn't have enough time to go see them since we needed to get the boys home and we still had about three hours to drive home. It was a fun visit and nice to see some Gleaves ground before heading home.

Ezra, Robin and Jimmy Dunkley in front of Gleaves Knob.

The bridge that held...and beautiful property

Carolina Beach Trip

For Memorial Day weekend, we went on a trip to the beach! The initial plan was to spend three days at the beach with Jonathan's sister and her husband and anyone from my family who wanted to come. But, as we began looking into camp sites, there were no open spots, at least not anywhere close to the beach. Turns out, even though we were planning a month in advance, it wasn't enough in advance for Memorial Day weekend. Everything was booked. So, we went to plan B, which was to drive down to the beach just for Saturday, then drive up to Christina and Big Peter's home, and stay with them and drive home on Monday. 

Ezra napping on the beach 

We left for Carolina beach around 7:30 am, and got there around 11am. We stopped at a store along the way to get rash guards for the boys and sunscreen. White headed kids burn easily- and so does their mama, and we try to prevent that as much as we can. Jonathan and Peter went into the store and I nursed Ezra in the car and we were back on the road quickly.

Jonathan and Peter making moats and castles.

Peter becoming one with the ocean.

We made it to the beach and found parking pretty quick. We parked about a block away- closer than I was expecting we'd find, and it was way cheaper than I was expecting, so win-win. We grabbed our bags and the boys and found ourselves a great spot on the sand. We changed and sunscreened and headed to the waves. Peter loves them. He loved to sit in the shallow waves and get hit with each incoming wave. He also thought it was a neat feeling when the wave was heading back out to sea and pulling the sand from under his feet. At one point, a bigger wave hit him and he went under for a second and he didn't even get sad! Nicely done Peter. Ezra didn't love the water, but he didn't hate it either. He got wet up to his waist before he protested. We tried to get him to sit in the sand and splash in a puddle, but he did not care for that either. He seemed ambivalent about the sand.

Britt's Donuts and the beach- Win!

There is a donut place in Carolina Beach that is loved by many. And, lucky for us, it opens for the season on Memorial Day Weekend! So, when Ezra was napping and Peter was playing with a friend he had made, I sent Jonathan on a donut run. He came back with a dozen delicious donuts that were scarfed down in minutes. Best beach snack. Also, he had perfect timing, it started to sprinkle about a minute after Jonathan left to get the donuts and as soon as the drops started, people started packing and heading for the hills. I started packing in case the heavens decided to open. The wind started to pick up, almost blowing away the umbrella that was shielding Ezra. I called Peter over and had him hold tight to the umbrealla- not an easy task for a three year old- while I tried to gather things into bags. I was starting to get worried trying to get everything together, keep Peter focused on holding the umbrella, Ezra woke up...and then, Jonathan appeared with the donut bag, and the drizzling rain stopped. The potential rain had sent half of the beach goers home, and made the donut line really short! It was beautiful.

Shark Boys

Peter the Scuba Diver

We were a little nervous going into the beach trip due to a potential rain storm. We had been warned that there was a tropical depression heading to the coast and it was possible that it would start raining at noon and keep going all day. We discussed skipping the beach, but decided that even if we were only there for an hour, it would be worth it. We needed the break and knew that the beach would give us a good restart. We lucked out and had great weather all day. We had the one brief drizzle during the donut run, but other than that, no rain came down. The drizzle brought in some cloud cover and cooler weather, but it was still warm enough to play in the water.

Ezra fell asleep as soon as he got in the ring sling!
Nap attack.

Peter and Jonathan...that boy loves his Dad so much. 

Ezra barely in the picture...sleeping baby.
Peter's face. Ha. 

We stayed at the beach until Peter was done. That kid played hard all day. He made friends with anyone who would play with him. At one point, he finished eating his donut, looked at me and said, "Mom, I need to go find a friend." And he ran off to find a kid playing in the sand. Most of Peter's friends were kids about 10-12 years old and were building something in the sand and Peter would just start building alongside them. I tried to check with the kids to make sure they were fine with Peter playing with them. All the kids said it was fine, one of them said, "Yeah, it's fine. He's cute." Peter thinks he's a big kid.

Peter with a new friend.

Peter's face reaction to crab legs for dinner.

After we were done with the sand and sea, we decided we needed some good seafood before we headed back. We headed over to Michael's Seafood Restaurant. My Dad had recommended this place, he said the chowder was excellent and everything else he'd had there was good. So, we figured we'd check it out. We got the chowder, papaya salmon, and some tuna (I think) with grits. Peter got crab legs with corn on the cob. I was in the bathroom when Peter decided what he wanted to eat. When I came out, and Jonathan told me what Peter was getting, I asked Jonathan if Peter knew what crab legs were, he said, "Probably not, but he'll find out!" When they brought Peter his food, he just looked at it for a bit with big, almost nervous eyes.

Jonathan getting the crab meat out for Peter

Jonathan got to work breaking the crab legs and getting the meat out for Peter. Once Peter ate it, he deemed it wonderful. He devoured lots of crab meat, some of the chowder and a bite of salmon and tuna. He ate almost all of the crab meat. Jonathan had to work fast to try to keep up with Peter's fast eating.

Peter tried to use his teeth to get the shell open.

Jonathan and I both liked the food the other person got better than what we had ordered. We both ate a couple bits of the food we ordered and then tried the other fish. Jonathan said, "I like yours better." I was happy because I liked his better, so we switched and both left the restaurant happy and full. The chowder was quite delicious. I'd order that again in a heartbeat. I ended up with the papaya salmon, I wish there had been more papaya, the flavor was too light for me, but the salmon itself was great. Jonathan liked the tuna. Ezra nursed while we ate, so when we were done, we all got back into the car and drove up to Greenville to see the Olsons. The boys slept almost the whole drive to Greenville, so Jonathan and I got some good talking time, which is always needed.

It was a little bit of a crazy day, but it was worth it. We had a fun, Peter got to play at the beach (he's been wanting to go to the beach for months), Ezra met the ocean and sand for the first time, my California beach boy got to get his beach fix, and I had a blast spending the day doing whatever we wanted with no big plans or time limits. And, we learned we can totally do a day trip to the beach....which means there are more beach trips in store.