Since I didnt add it to the Christmas Cards this year, and I feel like if you are on social media, which 90% of our Christmas Card Recipients are, then you already know all of this. But just in case, here goes:
Our family has had a wonderful year, filled with so many
great adventures and fun!
We enjoyed camping this year! We spent 2 weeks at Pettecote
Junction Campground in Cedar Run Pa at the beginning of June. It was wonderful
and relaxing, and we got to spend much of our time with friends who also love
to camp. Jim bought he and I Kayaks for
our 5 year anniversary, so we made good use of them during our time here, as
Pine Creek was right behind our camper.
This was our 3rd camping season and we have continued to
enjoy it as a family. We get to
"get away" but do it close to home, enjoying places like Gettysburg
and Cedar Run.
We also enjoyed a few weekends in Kent , NY where my dad has
his fishing boat and camper. It is along
Lake Ontario, so we enjoyed all of the attractions close-by.
My cousin Amanda and her family went along with us this year
and I checked one thing off my Bucket List: Maid of the Mist. It was
breath-taking and something everyone should experience. It was such a wonderful day spent with some
of my very favorite people.
Audrey and my mom and I then toured the other highlights of
the regions: Rochester and Buffalo zoos, the National Museum of Play, Butterfly
Gardens, and so much more. RELAXING!
Summer was also spent in our small garden and in our back
yard, sliding on our slip-n-slide.
Visits to the park, the zoo,
Hershey Park, Land of Little Horses. Audrey and I also made a trek to
the Dewey Beach Delaware with my friend
Jen and her daughter Alli.
The final adventure was a Halloween Disney Cruise that we
took with my mom at the end of October.
To say it was amazing is an understatement. We loved it, but I do
believe Audrey loved it most of all!
As you can see, we are always on the go! I am happy for that. I love my down time, but
I don't give myself much of it, because in the back of my mind I am reminded
that my kiddo will be headed to Kindergarten soon enough and I will never get
these precious days back.
Audrey continues to grow like a weed in stature and in
spirit. She is now a BUNNY at her Preschool. We are so blessed to have such
amazing teachers in our kiddos life. She loves school! Every day, she comes home and tells me
something new she has learned. To hear
this kiddo sing, "God Bless America" melts my heart. She is so active and has such an
imagination. She loves dress-up and
singing and dancing.
She participated in a Pony Clinic in the spring, where she
rode ponies and learned how to care for them. She took dance class for a few
weeks this summer, and now she wants to learn how to ice-skate. My plan is to
take her skiing for the first time this year.
I look forward to every new experience we can provide for her. She is,
as I have said in every letter for the past 4 years, truly the JOY we so
rightly gave her as a middle name.
As for Jim, this is his 9th year at Equipment Depot, selling
and renting lifts. We are so grateful
for the flexibility his job offers and also for the great benefits. He enjoys working there! He is also always busy, so Audrey and I love
when we have Daddy home for a day with nothing to do. Typically, the fire pager goes off just as we
sit down for dinner, but I think this year I finally settled in to that fact,
not embraced it, but am ok with it! The
Fire Department is still my husband's heart. He continued his tenure as Fire
Chief for Upper Allen Township. After
this long, I really can't imagine life any differently. I never thought 6 years ago, I would have
found a man who could take care of his family so well and allow me the blessing
of being able to stay at home with our daughter. In return, I just try and keep
up with the laundry and vacuuming..lol!
In addition to those duties, my Photography Business has
taken off to new heights. I could be
busy every day, but choose to keep a schedule that allows me to be a mom first.
I will most likely pick up the schedule that is waiting for me once Audrey
starts school. I LOVE what I do. I get
to see amazing moments in people's lives that others miss: marriages, the birth
of children, adoptions, birthdays, milestones.
This has been a VERY busy year, and sometimes, the last thing I do is
want to pick up my camera, but then I get a rush from what I capture behind the
lens. I feel like I get to tell the
story of so many lives, especially since some of my customers have given me 3
full years of their lives.
I also continue to work for W A DeHart as a contractor once
a week. I hold 1 dozen customers that continue to buy their candy, ice cream
and paper gods from me. It keeps the
"sales spark" in me and I enjoy the work!
Just this month, we made an addition to our family by
adopting a German Shepherd/Black Lab Mix puppy named Finn, from a wonderful
local rescue group. I forgot that having
a puppy is sort of like having a newborn baby all over again. Molli( our 9 year old Dachshund) and Jagger (
Our 2 year old Cat) have welcomed him into our home. He completes our little family. By next year's letter he will no longer be
the 12 lb little fur ball he is right now, and instead a potential 75 lb lap
dog...just what we hope for.
We look forward to the new year ahead! We wish your family a
year filled with God's greatest blessings: Health and Prosperity, Love and
Family
Always a Merry Christmas!
Stacy, Jim & Audrey Salter
Christmas 2013
We have adopted. It has been 3 weeks since Audrey and I walked into a Homeward Bound Animal Rescue on November 23rd and chose to adopt a then 7 week old German Shepherd/ Lab Mix puppy. After a few episodes of begging Jim, he finally said yes. We left our house at 10:30 am with Molli in tow in the back, and were set to meet and pick up "Francesca" or "Fletcher" one of Finn's 8 brothers or sisters( 9 puppies) with no intention of coming home with Finn. He came to us, was interested in Audrey and I, shy, but silly, one kiss to Audrey and we picked him out and paid the $300 adoption fee on the spot, after a good meeting with Molli. I felt 10 minutes of crazy buyers remorse. What had I done? A puppy?
