Happy Holidays from the Collets!
As always, we have had a BUSY year. By the end of the
year, we will have three big trips under our belts.
Our year began with the decision to put our home up for sale
and move closer to our jobs and family.
In February the
Collet Clan grew by one with the addition of our new nephew Camden! He the
cutest thing on the planet (all of our nephews and nieces are of course)!
At the end of February our house went under contract and on
March 1st we put an offer on a house in West Jordan. A month later we were
packed and moving day was April 5th.
In May, we traveled
to North Carolina for Adam’s brother Matt’s wedding which happened to be the
same day as our anniversary, May 31st. Adam acted as a groomsman
which was a great experience despite the combo of humidity, heat and wearing a
tux. We had the pleasure of staying with sister Sara’s in-laws; they were
very gracious hosts and we were grateful for their insight on what sights to
see while there. We particularly enjoyed the North Carolina Zoo, which at
500 (developed) incredible acres is the largest walk-through zoo in the world,
and was the first natural habitat zoo in the US. It was a great experience, and
doing it with awed one-year-old twin nieces made it all the better!
About a month later the Collet Clan came to Utah to celebrate
Adam’s youngest sister Erin’s wedding!
It was so great to
see everyone again so soon, along with other family that hadn’t made it to NC.
We are so excited to have a new bro-in-law in our family and look forward to
getting to know him better! Now all the Collet kids are married!
We followed this with a great trip to Seattle, Washington at
the end of July. The main event here was whale watching in Anacortes with
Adam’s mom and brother Chad. We had a great excursion and although we did
not see any Orcas this time, we did get to watch some Minke whales, a humpback
whale and its baby, and various other wildlife. We spent a brief time in
Canadian waters, so in some sense at least we were international travelers this
year. We stayed with cousins Terry and Michelle while in the Seattle area
and had a great time visiting with them and extended family. Mom left
from Seattle, and we drove back with Chad to stay with his family in Spokane
for a couple days. Adam got to swing off a rope into the Spokane River,
and the following day we spent in beautiful Coeur d'Alene, enjoying the sights
of the lake, a bit of cliff diving, and a stroll through the city capped
off with delicious ice cream.
For this Christmas, we’ll be spending two weeks in Arkansas
with Adam’s family, and we know we’ll have a great time as always. We
especially can’t wait to see all the nieces and nephews! It will also be
a great break from work.
The other big event
for us this year was when we up and lost our sanity – but we’re happy about
it! We decided to get a third dog, and so Axel Akita joined our
furry family. He is, as you might expect, a ball of energy. He
takes after and loves Jett, though he and Nala also play a lot. When all
three are wrestling in the same room as you – or on top of you – it’s quite an
experience, but he, like Nala and Jett, can also be really sweet and
cuddly. Our life is that much crazier now, but we wouldn’t trade it for
anything.
Adam has had an
eventful year at work, spending most of the time commuting every week to
Nevada. Although this has certainly been challenging, Adam still loves
the work he does.
Ashley has continued
her work as a medical assistant and celebrated her 4 year mark at Utah Pain
Specialists in August. Although she enjoys her job she can’t wait to be able to
stay home with “baby C” sometime next year...fingers crossed! She is still
doing photography on the side and loves it so much. This past year she did four
weddings, a few families and some adorable babies and kids. A big part of her
home life is chasing after three adorable pups who keep her hopping! I love
seeing their bond grow stronger by the day!
We are still somewhat-patiently waiting on the adoption
front. October marked our year mark of waiting. We try to get the word
out however we can, and would appreciate your help in this, as always.
You never know who will see if you share our information or the link to our
adoption profile: waitingforbabyc.com. We feel confident that – unless of course something
happens in the next couple of months – 2015 will be our year!
Speaking of 2015. First off, we’d like to wish you all
a happy New Year! In addition to strong hopes for our lives to change
forever by way of adoption, we have something big to look forward to next year:
we are going to Europe! Any advice anyone has on how to best make use of
our time there would be greatly appreciated. We look forward to sharing
the details of this trip with you next year!
We hope you all have family-filled and truly happy holidays.
Love,
Adam, Ashley, Nala, Jett and Axel Collet
