Our First Christmas

We flew back from our honeymoon on Christmas Eve so that we could be home with our families for Christmas. My parents were kind enough to pick us up from the airport when our plane came in an hour late after being delayed in Chicago. We arrived home at about 1:00 in the morning to a beautifully lit house. . .Even though we had left our apartment a complete disaster, our parents brought over food and made our bed with a homemade quilt so that it would feel more at home. Both of our parents were so kind to make it perfect for us! There were presents from our reception stacked all over the front room. I can't imagine how long it took our families to get them there after the reception! There were also presents waiting on our bed with pajamas to sleep in that night.

The next morning we woke up early to be at Pete's house when his little siblings opened their presents. It was fun to be there in our matching pajamas with my brand new family. Pete and I then got ready for the day and snapped a quick picture to document our first Christmas together.
We had breakfast with some of Pete's extended family and then got to talk to Zach (Pete's little brother on a mission in San Diego) before we headed over to my parents' house to spend the afternoon with my parents, siblings and their little ones.

It is so nice to have our families close to us and close to each other so that we can spend special holidays with both families! We know it won't always be that way, but our first Christmas was wonderful with our two new families!

Christmas in Mexico...well almost

For our honeymoon, Pete and I went on a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico. I had never been to Mexico or on a cruise so I was pretty excited for the new adventure and Pete was excited to show me the ropes about cruisin'. After spending a couple of days in Salt Lake City, we flew to Tampa, Florida and boarded the 'Radiance of the Seas'.
We definitely walked up and down all 11 floors of the ship the moment we got on and surveyed what the next 4 days had in store for us.

Pete would say "I'm hungry, let's go get something to eat" about every 1.5 hours. I knew he couldn't possibly be hungry but since the food was constantly available and that kid could put on a few pounds, I usually agreed to go eat and while he had a full meal I would have my share of pineapple until my sore mouth couldn't take it anymore.

We decided to spend our day in Cozumel at Tulum, a sight of ancient Mayan ruins. The sight was an hour and a half away from our port so we boarded a tour bus with about 40 other people from our ship.

Of course, the tour bus had to stop at a souvenir shop to use the bathrooms before entering Tulum and Pete and I enjoyed the crazy, and sometimes disturbing, nick-nacks mexico had to offer.

The Mayan ruins were incredible! We enjoyed learning about the ancient inhabitants who once lived there.

This is our friend Guapo we met on the beach at Tulum. He ate a Wheat Thin we gave him and followed us around hoping for more.

While playing with Guapo and enjoying the scenery, Pete and I watched the time carefully so we could arrive back at our bus on time. For some reason, however, our only clock (on Pete's phone) was 15 minutes behind. While we thought we began to head back to the bus in plenty of time, we had a hard time finding our bus...

I saw one picking up speed nearby that looked like our bus. I started to run after it trying to find the number on the opposite side to see if it was ours. A very kind woman on the bus who recognized us saw us running and made the bus driver stop. He protested but finally did and we boarded the bus, only to find out he had given our lunch away and fully intended on leaving us latecomers behind. We then were informed of the actual time and realized how lucky we were to be headed back to our temporary home, the Radiance of the Seas, which would (for a lot less money) eventually take us back home.

We were VERY grateful to be headed safely home so that we could spend Christmas with our families and not lost in Mexico (without a passport nonetheless).

12-17-2010 ( Part II )

Our reception was beautiful! So many people put a lot of time and effort into making it wonderful, we are very blessed to have such sweet people surrounding us. The food was delicious, thanks to my mom, and we got to eat a lot of it after our reception, thanks to my thoughtful family.

My Grandma Davis made the cake. Not only was it beautiful but it also tasted awesome!

We felt so loved during the evening and had such a wonderful time! We were able to see so many people who have meant a lot to us throughout our lives and enjoyed getting to visit with all of them. For Peter and I it truly was the beginning of Happily Ever After.

12-17-2010

Peter and I were married in the Draper, Utah LDS temple on December 17th, 2010. After daydreaming about marrying this man for nearly 4 years, I was pretty excited and I think he was too, if you couldn't tell by our faces.

It was a VERY windy day, which we will always remember because in most of the pictures Pete's hair is all over the place...apparently he should have put has much gel and hairspray in his hair as I did. It was also VERY cold, which is why I only posted the first few pictures we took outside the temple, the rest of them tend to find us looking red-nosed and strained to smile while enduring the freezing weather.

Despite the weather, the day was perfect! The temple was beautiful. Peter's Grandpa Stevens sealed us and it was so special to have all our family and loved ones there in the temple and outside to greet us when we came out as a newly married couple.

Thank you to all who were there and those who wanted to be there for making this day such a special and perfect one for Peter and I.

(More pictures of the reception coming soon!)

It's Time

Well folks, I never thought I would say it but it's time. I always thought that I wouldn't get a blog until I had kids. But here I am, 2 months married (TODAY!) and I have so many things I want to document about my new life with the incredible Mr. Peter Michael Sundwall (hence the blog title, poor kid think about the jokes he had to endure growing up with the initials P.M.S.)

Another reason for the beginning of this blog is a particular Valentine's Day gift that Pete and I got for each other:

Yeah, we really splurged.

So look forward to an update of the last 2 months of our lives together as well as a plethora of posts to come concerning what the future holds for Mr. and Mrs. Peter Michael Sundwall.