Happy Holidays!!
We can’t believe that 2011 is coming to an end. What a wonderful, fun filled year. Here’s the quick summary (hopefully we won’t bore you!).
This was the wild year of 4-wheel drive trails and exploring Colorado. We bought our Polaris RZR 4 in March (and in case you don’t know what a RZR 4 is, just Google it, buy one, and join us!) Throughout the summer we put on many miles traversing the incredible mountains of Colorado. We were amazed at the incredible scenery and experiences off-roading offers. In August, we even went to a Colorado RZR Rally with over 60 RZRs attending and driving the trails together.
Our first major excursion in our RZR was in Moab surrounded by the red rocks and brilliant blue skies. We drove all over the Moab trails along with Kevin’s parents. What amazing scenery. We had beautiful 70 degree weather, but wouldn’t you know it that heading back over the pass to Colorado we had a very frightening drive through a blizzard, the highway closed and we had to spend the night only halfway home!
One of the most spectacular places we visited was the Alpine Loop (Lake City/Telluride) where in one weekend we summited five peaks above 12,000ft in our RZR. In four days we went over 300 miles! We discovered wildernesses of wildflowers that took our breath away and magnificent lush green mountains! Jadeyn is in heaven any time we take the RZR out. He shouts (Hit the gas!! T-Rex is coming!!) cheers and has no problem falling completely asleep while bouncing down the trail.
Speaking of Jadeyn, who is now 3.5, Jadeyn’s passions are: cars, sharks, the RZR, mermaids(!), Star Wars, Cheerios, JUICE and tickle / tackle time! (He also just told me to add in licorice!) Nothing brings him more joy than shouting “I’m gunna take you down!” and then every innocent bystander had better be prepared to be tackled! Jadeyn continues to be the light and energy of our lives. He constantly reminds us every day that he has to get his energy out. But when he says it, it sounds more like “I hafta get my injury out!” Kevin usually obliges him by wrestling and chasing his around the house.
Our coaster trip this year took us to Busch Gardens and SeaWorld to enjoy the thrill of the rides and the Florida sun. We met up with some Optometry buddies Brian, Kasi & Payton Miller which was a ton of fun! You can’t go wrong with getting away in the wintertime with friends and going somewhere warm.
We also had a wonderful time going to the Johnson family reunion in June, and were lucky enough to stay in a condo with Rebecca’s parents and Rebecca was able to spend time with her three sisters. Fun memories. In July, Kevin and Shawn of course had to put on a huge fireworks show for the family in Wyoming. This year was the biggest yet: talk about lighting up the Wyoming sky!
Rebecca had a lot of fun with her craft projects this year all except for one REALLY expensive project. She started working on it one morning and a few thousand dollars, surgery, a huge screw, three casts and crutches later, she finally finished the project. She had stepped of the porch onto a rock and did a nice Jones fracture on her foot and had surgery on her birthday! It wasn’t fun, but we didn’t let it stop us for a second: we were out that very weekend on the RZR, camping and fishing. She designed a nice strap system for the RZR to keep her cast suspended and we simply chucked the crutches in the back!
In September we ventured out on our first trip alone without Jadeyn. It was heartbreaking to leave him, but its nice to have two Optometrists in the family. Jadeyn got to stay with his cousins, while Kevin’s brother and wife joined us for an Opt conference in Vegas. We hit the town, the shows and truly enjoyed ourselves.
Anyway, what a year!! We didn’t even talk about work, which is going great; but who wants to hear about work!?! On to having a wonderful 2012! Remember play more, work less!!
Love, Kevin, Rebecca & Jadeyn Cottrell (oh, Dozer & Newt too!)
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