Monday, June 18, 2012

First Month of Marriage


Dear Family,
Our first family newsletter- how fun!  Well, I guess everything is fun when it’s a first- even the first few batches of dishes were a blast… then reality set in, but it’s all still great!
We’ve had a wonderful month- a very eventful one!  We were lucky to have a short fall semester due to our study abroad, and ended school Nov. 20.  This gave us a good amount of time to get the final wedding preparation in.  Our wedding was Friday, December 11.  The whole day was incredibly amazing and memorable.  We feel so blessed to have supportive families that took time out of their busy lives to be a part of the day’s events- so thank you!  It was extra special to have Wade’s dad be our sealer- what a great day!
We spent the next eight days on our honeymoon.  We stayed in SLC for two nights-enjoying the lights at Temple Square, a Temple session (live!), and the MoTab Christmas Concert- prior to flying out to the Big Apple.  We had a great few days in NYC!  We were lucky enough to stay right on Times Square at the Marriot Marquis.  We enjoyed a lot of NY tourism while there:
Statue of Liberty- hiked to the crown, Canal Street (China Town), Central Park-carriage ride, Shopping 5 avenue (mostly with our eyes), Manhattan Temple Session, Empire State Building, Stardust Café, Shake Shack, Junior’s Cheese Cake, Europa Café, Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, Mary Poppins the musical, In the Heights- ’08 Broadway musical of the year, and the amazing Rockette’s Christmas Music Spectacular! 
After enjoying the hustle and bustle of NYC, we decided to tone things down a bit.  We flew up to Palmyra, where we spent the remainder of our trip.  It surely was the “best for last!”  The city was empty and quite dead, but covered in a beautiful blanket of snow.  We were able to do yet another temple session, which we highly enjoyed!  We also visited the Hill Cumorah and Hill Cumorah Visitor’s Center as well as the E.B. Grandin Print Shop (where the first copies of the Book of Mormon were printed), Smith family farm visitor’s center, log cabin, & home, the Sacred Grove, and the Peter Whitmer farm and visitor’s center.  Being the off-season for Palmyra, we were privileged to have private tours at all the sites.  The Sacred Grove was a neat experience, however, it was freezing cold and snowy so we weren’t able to sit and ponder.   So, we are dying to go back in the summer and do that as well as attend the pageant.  Our favorite stop was the Peter Whitmer farm and Visitor’s Center.  It is about a 30 min. drive from Palmyra, and completely worth it.  The Whitmer Farm is where Joseph & Oliver translated the small plates and where the Church was organized.  The missionary couple at this location was especially great.  They filled us full with amazing stories of church history and bore strong testimony about the work that went on at this special site.  Church history trips are surely a great way to “re-ignite the flame!”
Christmas was wonderful!  We loved all the festivities of the time leading up to Christmas as well as the day of.  On Christmas day we ran between relatives’ homes from 6am- almost midnight!  It was a great day filled with family fun and the Christmas spirit.  We especially enjoyed the entire holiday break.  It gave us plenty of time to get settled into our home and spend lots of time with family!
We are now back in school and doing well! 
Happy New Year!

Love, Kristina & Jake Peterson

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