Memories In An Instant..

Sleepy Girl

All Boy

Best Friends Forever

Little One

Riding Shotgun

Bird's Eye View

Love My Na

Mmmmm

Sunset In Manti

Aim..Fire

Bed Time

Target Practice

Napping Queen

Eyelashes For Days

B&W Perfection

Spaghetti Braid

Crazy Face

Breath-taking

Cutest One

Who? What? Where?

Precious

Sweetness

Chill

Gate To Arkansas

All Me

Night Flight

Qwirkle

Hey Jude

Birthday Boy

Moment To Cherish 

Screen Time

Caramel Corn

Utah Mountains

Deer Galore

New Discoveries 

Perched 

OOOPS..

Angelic 

Throwback  

Dinos

Big Mouth

Watch Out

Besties

Stratego

So Funny

Parental Decisions...

When Adam and I decided to add another member to our family I knew that hard decisions would present themselves from time to time. 

We knew that Nala's separation anxiety was bad but at what point do step in and take action. Ever since Nala joined our family she has been left home alone for hours and overtime her anxiety has gotten so severe. Nala is a very stubborn and very bright doggy. She has gotten through every contraption we have ever bought/built for her. She has even injured her self trying to get to where ever she thinks we are. If you have been following our journey you will know that she cut her paws on some metal platting that we had put up in the kennel because she had gotten out of the chain link fence. 

It was at that point where I couldn't do it anymore. When she once again broke through something I just lost it. I was so upset with the fact that she was hurting. I did not know how to figure out what was causing her so much anxiety. I held her and cried. I hate the fact that I am almost fully responsible for her acting this way. I can not ask her what's wrong and I can't understand why she is doing this to herself. Thinking of how panicked she gets when we are not there and I am not around to comfort her just breaks my heart. I could not bare the thought of something happening to her because of her being so upset. I felt such guilt for not being able to do anything for her. We talked and decided to take her to the vet. I told the vet about what she was doing and how she was acting. I told her that I have tried everything and nothing works. She is so determined that no matter what distraction she has it is never enough. I told her that I wanted to try the medicine and see if it works. They drew Nala's blood to see if she was safe to be on it and she was so we started it that night and tomorrow will be one month. The vet told me it would take 30 days to build up in her system and to not get discouraged if I didn't notice a difference right away. I haven't really noticed any difference she still does whatever it takes to get to where she thinks she can find us..including this.

I am planning on taking her back to the vet soon and maybe have her increase the dose. The vet did tell me that it can make some dogs more anxious and I don't feel like it is making her worse since I know she would climb over the fence whether she was on Prozac or not. I just wish she could tell me what she needs and what would make her feel better. 

I have had people tell me to get rid her and Jett since they cause so much drama but I would never just abandon them to someone else just because the road gets rough. The thought of that just makes my stomach turn inside out. Although being a parent to a dog is not easy I would not trade it for the world. They are my world so to get rid of them would be like throwing a piece of myself away. Making decisions that are going to be best for her is not always easy and sometimes the answers are not what I want but I always try and make decisions that will benefit all of us. 

We always knew we wanted two dogs so they would always have each other. Jett joined our family in 2011 and he has definitely made Nala happier!! 

They have the sweetest bond, always there for each other. In the back of our minds we were hoping that giving her a brother she would be too busy playing with him that her anxiety would lessen. I am sad to say that although they are so cute together and love each other more than I probably comprehend it hasn't really helped. I hope that we can increase her dose so that she can get the relief she needs!! I love my Na

A Childhood Dream...

Ever since I can recall I have had this love/fascination with Killer Whales that began with going to Sea World numerous times growing up. I remember in my English class my junior year of high school we had to write a paper on something we wanted to learn more about. I chose Killer Whales and once I learned more about them my love grew. I have a mental bucket list and seeing a Killer Whale in the wild was on that list. Last year I got to check that off my list. When we found out that Adam's cousin Samantha was getting married in Seattle in June we decided to make it an extended trip to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. I asked Adam if we could go on a boat to see Killer Whales in the wild and he said that we could look into and depending on the price we might be able to do it. I found this website and immediately got excited. It was a reasonable price so we jumped on it. I remember after booking our reservation I couldn't believe my dream was coming true. I think we booked it a few months in advance. I had to wait such a long time I could hardly contain my excitement. When Sunday, June 17, 2012 finally arrived we had to be at the dock at 10 A.M. in Anacortes, Washington about 2 hours away from Seattle in order to check in. We walked down to the dock and waited for the captain to come, he showed up a few minutes later to explain the rules and how they locate the whales. We boarded the boat and since I didn't want to miss a thing I was willing to be a little cold and sit on the upper deck. 

{view from the boat before leaving the dock} 

Captain Carl was great about explaining what we were looking at and where we were. We saw a bald eagle and some beautiful scenery. 

  

{love the freedom to fulfill dreams}

It took us about an hour and a half to get to the whales. Once Captain Carl told us to keep our eyes peeled for any whale sightings I could feel the anticipation building. Once we spotted a small black dorsal fin off in the distance that was what really  got everyone excited.

  

  

Captain Carl said that the whale on the far left was a 91 year old female named Granny (J2) from the JPOD. Who looked to be babysitting two younger calfs.

I can't put into words the magic of this moment knowing that my dream had just come true. A moment that I used to daydream about all the time was happening right before my eyes. I never wanted to get off the boat. It got better as the the day went on.

  

One of the whales spy hopping for us.

 The backdrop was stunning and the weather was perfect.

  

 This Whale is named Mike(J26)I believe he was the biggest male in JPOD.

  

Here are a couple of videos I made from the trip.

 They had this book on the boat that had all the whales names, age and what pods they were in. I took a picture of all the whales we had the privilege of seeing that day.

There was a shipmate named Mike that helped out the captain and he also took amazing photos from our trip that are way more professional then mine. I wanted to share the high quality ones that we were able to purchase after the trip. 

After every trip Mike the shipmate blogs about each days journey.

This is what he had to say about the spectacular day we had.

Wow! Today was one of those great days on the water. We saw orcas and humpback! 

Our trip today took us west toward Canada to find whales. We got a great look at a mature bald eagle on Willow Island. We watched as it flew from the rocks up to a tree branch, and perched there majestically for our folks to see. Also on Willow was a raccoon feeding in the exposed tidal zone that a guest found with his sharp eyes. We watched several groups of harbor porpoise and harbor seals as we continued toward the location of the whales. We soon caught up to JPod orcas as they were heading northbound in Haro Strait. We first spent some time with J19 Shachi and her calf J41 Eclipse. Eclipse was having fun playing with a younger calf, and these two were a blast to watch! Next we cruised over toward J16 Slick and her family. Mike was traveling away from the group at first but soon swam close to mom and his sisters, Alki and Echo. The real thrill was next, as we got a call about the lead group of orcas swimming with a humpback whale!

We got some great looks at L87 Onyx with the humpback just in front of him. We watched the humpback whale go down on a deep dive and bring it's tail out of the water! Onyx stole the show as he did a full cartwheel right in front of the Turn Point Lighthouse! We enjoyed some beautiful, sunny conditions as we made our way east through the heart of the San Juan Islands back to the dock.

-Michael Colahan 

The whole experience was truly one magical day! Adam and I will never forget it! I highly recommend this to anyone in or visiting the Seattle area!

Christmas in {Arkansas} 2012

For Christmas 2012 we headed to Arkansas. Since it's been a few weeks since we were there and I can't remember every single detail I will summarize my favorite moments. We arrived on Saturday the 22nd of December and left on the 1st of January. During that time we got to...

Visit a state we have not yet visited.

See Adam's parent's new home and the beauty that surrounds it.

See our little Nephew Jude.

Have all of the siblings and their spouses/girlfriend together.

Eat a lot of yummy meals and goodies.

Have a real Christmas tree..my first.

Wear new Christmas PJ's.

Decorate the Christmas tree.

Read the new Christmas eve book "A Pirates Night Before Christmas."

Eat oranges and chocolate chip muffins for Christmas breakfast.

Learn that two new little ones (twins) will joining our family at the end of June.

Take a long time taking turns opening all our amazing gifts.

Love on Jude while he was sick for a few days

Watch Jude open his huge pile of Christmas gifts.

Watch all the boys fly their new remote control helicopters all over the house.

Play games, games and more games.

Go to the fitness center and play volleyball and racquetball.

Make many trips to the store to buy groceries.

Celebrate Jude's first birthday with him.

Went to the Wild Wilderness Drive-Through Safari for Jude's 1st birthday.

Watch a Liger and a Lion wrestle.

Have a camel, zebra, and a Texas long horn cow stick their heads in our car.

Bottle feed a baby giraffe. 

Went to the Blue Monkey for Jude's birthday dinner.

Watch Jude open yet another huge pile of presents for his birthday. (can you tell he is so loved)

Watch Jude ride his new rocking horse that was Chad's when Chad was little.

Watch Jude eat his birthday Oreo's and his cute messy face that followed.

Watch as Jude learned to climb and go down his little baby slide.

Go to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Eat amazing crepes.

Watch the guys build a huge bonfire.

Have the fire dept. make a stop at the house to make sure we had a burn permit.

Be able to witness as Jude decided to take his first steps hours before leaving.

Watch as everyone slowly packed up their things and said their goodbyes.

Say goodbye to Arkansas and fly back to the very cold Utah.

We all had an amazing time!

Our Thanksgiving

    Thanksgiving was with my family this year. The decision was made that we would do something different this year and go out to eat somewhere for Thanksgiving. We chose Chuck-A-Rama arriving there around noon. Adam and I got there at 11:45 and the line was very long. We got in the back of the line waiting for the rest of the gang to show up. The line moved so slowly that it would have probably taken us an hour or more just to get inside. We talked about whether or not to stay and decided that Adam and I would go over to Golden Corral and check on their line. Golden Corral's line was much smaller, we were seated within about 30 minutes. The food was pretty good..not as good as a home cooked meal but it did the job. After eating we headed home and had to take a nap lol. We headed back to my family's home for turkey sandwiches and other amazing food. We visited and watched football. We wanted to go Black Friday shopping so we left at about 7 and got to Walmart just in time for the 8-o-clock sales to start. Adam got two pairs of pants and we got a couple of games and some xmas gifts and we were out of there by 9:30ish. We needed the luggage that Kohl's had on sale so to kill time we went home and watched the Michael Jackson special on TV once 11-o-clock hit we left and headed to Kohl's and by the time we got there the line was already around the building. We took turns standing in line and warming back up in the car. Midnight hit and the line moved quickly, we spotted the luggage right by the door and grabbed it as soon as we could. I decided we should check out first so that way we wouldn't have to carry the luggage around since it was so awkward and heavy. We got each of them for a screamin' deal thanks to not only the sales but my awesome Grandma who gave us some coupons to make the price even better. Adam put them in the car and I searched for other fun things. I found some clothes I wanted and Adam found a new pillow he wanted, well by the time we wanted to get back in the check out line it was wound around the store so we spent about a another hour and half in line waiting. We left Kohl's at about 1:30AM. 
Friday we were going to go to Manti to visit Adam's Grandpa and other relatives we got up early in the morning and wanted drop off the dogs at the daycare closer to our home but when we called to see if there was room for them they did not answer the phone so we decided to leave them at home instead and to go later in the day so they wouldn't have to be home alone for as long. We left about 11AM picked up Adam's sister Sara and Brother-in-law Clark and were on our way. We arrived at about 2PM and soon after some of the men wanted to go skeet shooting. Me and cousin Emily decided to join them. Adam was looking forward to target shooting with his new gun he bought. I do not have any real experience shooting guns so I just watched but when Grandpa Stewart said the the 22 rifle was pretty easy to shoot I thought why not give it a try. WOW am I horrible at shooting or what I didn't hit one target lol. Adam did great though so that made me happy. We headed back to the house for a little ping pong, boggle and some yummy dinner. We left around 8PM and got home around 10:30PM to some extremely excited puppies!
Saturday we slept in a little and cleaned the house up since Adam's parents were coming for a visit. They arrived and brought Subway for lunch. We had such a fun time chatting, eating snacks and playing games. Having one on one time with them is so special! After their departure we decided to have a ping pong match and since I didn't play much growing up I am easily beat. It's great exercise for us both. On the way upstairs I glanced at the dart board hanging on the wall and since we were in such a gaming mood I decided to give it a try and we spent the next little while in competition with each other on who could get the highest score..Adam won! 
Sunday we slept in and had a lazy morning around 3PM we headed up to Adam's Uncle Bruce and Aunt Ann's home were we met up with Adam's parents and some of his siblings and other close relatives. We enjoyed a yummy meal and each others company. We left around 7 and headed home to our adorable puppies. We enjoyed the rest of night watching our favorite shows and just getting ready for a new week. We had a great Thanksgiving surround by people we care about and love! 

Puppy Update Time...

     I have not written about the puppies in a few weeks so I figured you all were craving an update about them. First they are doing spectacular! They are the light of our lives and make being alive even that much more rewarding.  They both have such different personalities that mesh so well together. Nala keeps Jett in his place and is always rounding him up for us. Jett keeps Nala on her toes and is always willing to play with her.  I wanted to spotlight each puppy so first is Nala since she is eldest. 

Nala is a peacemaker always trying to make things right, always trying to make things better. She is so in tune to Adam’s and my emotions, she knows when we need a extra kiss or loving gesture. She is also such a diva she wants things the way she wants them and won’t settle for anything else; for example when we leave them home we leave the food and water dishes outside but when we come home she always wants to eat but she won’t eat or drink if the food is outside. She will whine and run back and forth from the sliding glass door then to us. Once we figure out that is what she wants and we do it she immediately starts chowing down.  She LOVES food!! She thinks anything we eat she should get to eat too. She has also been labeled the escape artist. She can get out of anything we try and constrain her in. She has gotten out of every contraption we have built and we have spent hundreds of dollars trying to keep her in line.

Funny story about her, Jett loves the outdoors and sometimes he is impossible to get indoors so we call on Nala for help. We will tell her to go get Jett and she will find a toy that he can’t pass up walk over to the back door hold whatever it was she found and as soon as Jett sees her she will drop the toy and then pick it back up and start walking off with it and as soon as she is out of his sight he can hold back and has to see what she is up to and he will come running in the house.  It works every time!!  She is so patient with Jett and puts up with him.  Her favorite place in the world is our laps. Her favorite thing is a tennis ball or food.  She was our first experience with parenthood and the past three years with her in our life has been more than I ever could ever imagined.  

And then there is Jett....oh Jett!!

I think Nala is so adorable don’t get me wrong but Jett is soooo stinking cute it’s ridiculous. I’m constantly telling Adam how cute he is.  Jett is the protector. He will never let anything happen to us! He barks at the door bell and if were in the car and someone comes to close he will bark. He  is so aware of what is happening at any time. Jett has so much energy! He is always up for a game of ball or Frisbee. He LOVES the outdoors and will only come in if he has too.  Jett loves stealing any toy or treat Nala has been given or has at any moment. He has a hard time sharing with his big sister. We have to remind him often.  Jett is getting better at actually catching the ball in the air and has been surprising us lately with his improved skills. When Jett gets excited he will turn his body into a u shape and starting running sideways. It’s hilarious!! When we named Jett we had no clue how he would live up to that name. He is SO SO fast!  He loves wrestling with us or Nala. Jett is so sweet and is such a cuddly boy!

Funny story about him, when he was younger and was left at home while we were at work he would usually find something to destroy. When we would arrive home he would immediately book it outside, roll on his back with his arms and legs waving in the air as if he is saying don’t be mad at me I didn’t do it on purpose.  Jett loves his sister and cannot stand to be away from her for even a second! His favorite place is being outside. His favorite thing is his bone.  He the most amazing addition to the Collet family!

I did not have dogs growing up but Adam did so when we made that decision 3 and half years ago to add a puppy into our family I had no idea what to really expect, people tell you things and you read things but just like in real parenthood nothing can truly prepare yourself for what is about to happen.  I can honestly say that I wouldn't trade that decision for the world! Nala and Jett are a source of happiness and security. I know that if protected well and treated right they will always be there!  I love them as if they were human. I worry about them as if they were human. I treat them as if they were human. I have a really hard time separating that fact they are not human.  I have such a deep love for them that is beyond comprehension. I give everything I have to making their lives amazing!