Nathan's First Birthday

Here is Nathan on his birthday a year ago. It is amazing to think about how much he has grown. We were so worried about him then, but he is now doing amazingly well. We love his happy disposition and are so happy to have him as part of our family.

On our last day in Utah, my grandpa Donaldson invited us over and made us a delicious spaghetti dinner to say good-bye and to celebrate Nathan's birthday.

You can tell Nathan really liked it.

Nathan got spoiled with lots of toys that move around and make noise.

Probably his favorite part was eating cake and ice cream!

The kids with their great-grandpa Donaldson.

We spent Nathan's real birthday in Boise. We went swimming and Nathan had lots of fun.

Later we had a party with all of his Collett cousins.

He got real excited about getting another cake, which he enjoyed eating and rubbing in his hair.

He really liked his presents too.

His favorite was a Buzz light year toy phone from grandma. You can tell it really made him quite popular with his cousins. We were happy to be close to family to celebrate the birth of our cute little man.

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa D

On our first night with my family, my parents watched the kids so Jared and I could go on a long overdue date. The girls had fun with grandma, especially when she put their hair in curlers.

Nathan had fun crawling around and wrestling with his cousin Christian.

Here we are at the cabin with my dad and my Grandpa Donaldson.

We visited the Children's museum in SLC. Nathan loved riding on this little dog.

The girls liked dressing up.

And Jared liked building things.

We hiked the Y with my sister Rachel, her son Christian, and my nephew Jacob. This was Jacob's first time to the Y, and he did a great job.

The girls loved our visit to Hoogle zoo. Here they are putting their hands in the Lion drinking fountain, just like I remember doing when I was a little girl.

Abby pretending to be a turtle.

Our little chicks.

For old times sake we took the kids to the creamery on 9th and let them pick out any ice cream flavor they wanted.

"Do you like it Abby?" "Yes!," she says with her mouth stuffed full of ice cream.

Nathan with his grandpa. Almost everyone we met commented on Nathan's likeness to his grandpa.

We took the kids to the BYU museum and bookstore where the girls got their very own BYU necklaces. Abby liked the statue of the ballet dancer in the sculpture garden. Here she is showing you some of her ballet moves. We know it's probably bad, but by visiting BYU on all our trips to Utah, we are trying to inspire our children to go there someday.

My old mission companions Amanda Wickle and Tu-Anh came to visit. It was great to see them again and meet Tu-Anh's fiance.

After walking around the gardens at Thanksgiving point, the kids were excited to cool off at the Noah's ark play area. Here is Maddy pretending to be a whale.

Nathan loved splashing in the water.

Abby liked getting sprayed by the animals on the ark.

We also had fun visiting the Thanksgiving point farm. Here is Nathan riding a tractor with his cousin Mary.

Abby riding a horse.

Maddy loved riding on a real pony.

She also had fun building things at the dinosaur museum with her dad.

Nathan loved the toy dinosaurs, and started growling as he played with them.

Abby brushing the sand to find dinosaur bones.

We had a great time in Utah with my parents, and can't wait until we can see them again. The girls especially miss cuddling and reading with grandma and helping grandpa build his green house. They also miss Grandma's "bear food" (blueberries and honey on toast) and Grandpa Donaldson's bear hugs.

COLLETT FAMILY REUNION 2010

Sorry we haven't updated our blog in so long! We lost our camera cable on our trip and just barely got a replacement.

Over 24th of July weekend we had a fun reunion with Jared's extended Collett family. We slept in my parents' cabin up Provo canyon and hung out at Timp Lodge the rest of the time. It was an especially fun place for me since I remembered going to there every year for the Donaldson reunions when I was a little girl.

You can see that the kids had a great time hanging out with their cousins.

We had a nice flag ceremony on the 24th. Here are Jared and his brothers standing up with all of the Collett Eagle scouts. Quite an impressive group. A love of scouting was a great legacy passed on by his grandpa Collett.

Most of the older kids and adults hiked to Stewart Falls while the younger children had fun playing games near the cabin. Here are the girls going on a treasure hunt. After lunch we had more activities, volleyball, and a huge water balloon fight.

Abby's favorite activity was making Smores. If you ever go camping with Abby, don't even think of forgetting this important element.

We had a really fun program and a played a game called "Who Done It?" where we learned more about Jared's grandparents and his dad's life growing up.

Cousins!