Christmas 2021

Merry Christmas! (a day late)

The Cottings hope you are all doing wonderful. Things are good with us, and boy has it been a busy year.

Cody finished up Kindergarten in May and became a big first grader in August. He enjoys playing with his friends at school. He is doing great in school and seems to be really interested in Math and Science. Hmmm, I wonder where that came from? Cody has been playing soccer in the Soccer Academy part of the Utah Avalanche Soccer Club. He’s enjoying it and does well. It’s fun watching him improve over the year. The age group he is in doesn’t keep score, but is focused on building skills. He also made his first entry into baseball with a season of coach pitch baseball. He enjoyed that, and Jason helped the coach with the games. Cody has also been enjoying riding his bicycle, driving his RC truck, and much to his parent’s displeasure, figured out how to play games on Wendy’s Chromebook.

Mia finished 2nd grade and moved up to 3rd grade. She is doing really well in school and looks forward to going every day. Keeping her voracious reading appetite fed takes some effort on her parent’s part. Who knew that wanting to read all the time was genetic? This summer Mia moved up from the Utah Avalanche Soccer Academy to her first year of girls competitive play with the Avalanche. She has a fantastic coach who normally coaches the competitive 17 and 18 year old girls. The season started off kind of rough for her team. Now that they have learned to play as a team, they are solidly winning all of their games. Her league is 7 vs 7 outdoor. She finishes up her indoor league on New Years Day. It has been fun to watch her grow in her skills and her confidence. When Mia isn’t playing soccer or reading, she’s riding her new mountain bike, roller skates, playing with her stuffies, and the dogs.

Wendy’s job has thankfully gotten more secure lately. We went through a period earlier this year where her company didn’t think there was much value in the urgent care pediatrician role as their numbers had declined during 2020. This was an odd conclusion that the management came to during a pandemic. The number of kids coming to her clinics have steadily gotten back to where it was before. Now they are short on doctors, and Wendy is finding herself working extra shifts to cover some of the openings they have. Wendy is also the primary teacher for the 3 y/o Sunday School class at church every week. She loves her class and enjoys getting to teach little kids about Jesus. Wendy enjoys spending time with our kids on her off days and finds fun activities to do with them. She also enjoys trying new recipes to keep her family fed and happy. Wendy stays busy but still finds time to do things she enjoys such as taking hikes, reading books, and studying her Bible.

Jason is still around. His full time job is helping raise Cody and Mia. He has been very involved with our church. He’s still working part time at our church doing computer work. This year he redesigned the church’s website and is currently expanding the computer network in the building. He’s also involved with helping with the men’s ministry and manages the church safety team. This fall he got to teach a handgun class to some of the men of the church. Jason also did some soccer coaching for a clinic put on by the Avalanche soccer club to the public teaching little kids. He also started a small part time job with the University of Utah doing medical response for the crowds during big events. He’s glad to have found a way to serve the public with his medical training again. Jason’s sticker business has yet to flourish, but he hasn’t given up yet. Jason didn’t get to ride his bike as much this summer because he developed pneumonia during the summer. It was a long recovery, but he was able to get back on the bike before the cold weather set in. Now he’s riding indoors on his bicycle trainer using Zwift. Jason was able to get a lot of dead trees cut down on our property this summer. There is still a long way to go, but he was glad to make some progress in cleaning up the property. Jason has been spending lots of time watching Cody and Mia at their sporting events. He is enjoying being a dad and knows all too well that the kids are growing up fast.
We all flew to San Antonio this summer to visit Wendy’s parents for a week. We had a great time visiting and getting to do fun stuff around town. In July we drove up to Idaho for a week to see what was up there. Once we got up north of Boise, it was beautiful. Jason says he’d move up there if we weren’t so established in UT right now. For fall break we drove down to central Utah and stayed in the town of Ferron, UT. From there we went out exploring the San Rafael Swell where we saw the Little Grand Canyon, ancient native American rock art, and a dinosaur footprint. We also took a muddy and snowy ATV drive up into the Manti-La Sal National Forest. It was a nice little get away without the crowds you find in national parks these days. This summer, we also got to spend some time up at our land enjoying being in the mountains away from everything. Jason says it wasn’t enough.

Looking forward, we plan to continue doing more of the same. The kids are happy at their school and Jason and Wendy plan to continue with their jobs. This coming February, we will be traveling south to St. George, UT for a soccer tournament for Mia. We are looking forward to some warm weather during the winter. This coming summer, Wendy’s parents are planning a 50th wedding anniversary in Breckenridge, CO. We are excited about getting to go to that.

God has blessed us this year. We are excited to see what He has waiting ahead for us.