Best Wishes for Christmas 2013 From the Whitings!
Dear friends and family,
We send greetings and love from Connecticut. If you’d like to catch up with our family, here are some 2013 highlights and updates. We’re in our fifth year of doing this annual Christmas blog and have found it to be a fun way to keep a family record.
Know that you are treasured in our thoughts this season.
We send greetings and love from Connecticut. If you’d like to catch up with our family, here are some 2013 highlights and updates. We’re in our fifth year of doing this annual Christmas blog and have found it to be a fun way to keep a family record.
Know that you are treasured in our thoughts this season.
Merry Christmas to you all!
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| Everyone Together for Thanksgiving Top: Bryan, Dave & Kylie, Dan & girlfriend Sonia, Cara Bottom: Kathryn & Mike with West & Quinn, Jeanne & Steve |
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| A freezing New Canaan Turkey Bowl - Go Rams! (The only game they lost all year!) |
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| Mike and Kathryn with West and Quinn in Houston |
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| Grand Central Station celebrates 100 years. Can you find Steve waving in this picture? Can’t believe he’s been commuting to NYC for 30 of those years! |
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| Our family tradition of taking first-day-of-school pictures continues here with Bryan's first day of graduate school -- he discovers it's a long way from kindergarten! |
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| Victorious triathletes |
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| Cara’s adventures (Guess which one she did not tell her parents about!) |
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| Dave & Kylie in New York City - surviving the second year of dental school |
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| Also a long way from Kindergarten! |
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| Fun Houston trips |
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| Biking buddies take on big challenges in Virginia and Pennsylvania |
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| Beautiful Connecticut sights this year: 10,000 daffodil bulbs planted by one family in Litchfield now number in the millions over 15 acres - a spectacular spring display |
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| One man’s 40 years of planting hundreds of varieties of azaleas & rhododendrons in his 3-acre back yard brings glorious color to New Canaan every spring |
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| In our 19th year of viewing the blazing New England fall display outside our back windows we are still awestruck |
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| A summer week on Topsail Island, NC |
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| Special Grandma and Grandpa Moments |
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| We survive both a 3-hour lightning storm and the University of Virginia fans at the BYU game in Charlottesville |
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| Dan and friends climb Mount Bierstadt in Colorado |
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| Catching the sunrise at the summit |
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| Dan's a loving uncle |
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| Music, music, music! |
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| Driving along all those amazing beaches to the tip of Long Island for the first time |
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| The grandeur of the gilded age - Newport mansions |
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| Survivors' photo at our annual Running for Answers in Philly DTRF raises over a million dollars for desmoid tumor research this year |
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| Mom graduates from a wonderful 93 years of life A remarkable 101 of Mom’s 114 descendants attend her funeral |
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| How far does the influence of one person spread? |
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| Gathering in Utah for Grandma’s funeral |
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Fall beauty of Sundance and the Alpine Loop
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Bryan has had an exciting year with many changes. He started the year as a BYU undergrad statistics student, taking entrepreneurship coursework, and coaching a previously perfectly-defeated high school lacrosse team to the playoffs.
In the summer, while enjoying early-morning commutes, he learned to appreciate summer sunrises in Salt Lake and how to analyze investments at Beneficial Life. On the side, as a research assistant in the statistics department, he learned more than enough about health-care research. In his free time, he was mastering the freestyle swim.
In an August triathlon, he enjoyed swimming, biking, and running alongside Cara in the countryside of Virginia. After many humbling moments in September, he realized he was in grad school. He and a few classmates also realized that their entrepreneurship class turned out to be an interesting bargain. Hopefully their prizes in two student innovator competitions will mean something for a budding business for their mobile wireless home security system.
Dave & Kylie enjoyed another great year of married life in New York City. Dave is now halfway through his second year of dental school and putting in countless hours at the library to prove it! Kylie has been busy with freelance photography and graphic design work, mainly keeping busy with projects for Scripps Network and Cooking Channel. They love exploring all that the city has to offer, especially the new Citibike service, which has been well utilized for epic rides across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Dan continues working in Denver with a large international medical equipment company, Baxter. One of their primary products manages multi-ingredient solutions/compounds for neo-natal IVs. Dan gives training in the new systems and handles calls from around the world when issues arise. After work, there are always Colorado mountains to climb and trails to ride.
Cara checked a lot of items off of her bucket list this year. She visited Punxatawney Phil and Falling Water, competed in Tough Mudder, took a White House garden tour, completed a century bike ride with her dad, loved every second of a 200-mile relay through the Blue Ridge Mountains, and raced in her first Olympic triathlon with Bryan. To top it off, she enjoyed a once in a lifetime view of the Shenandoah Valley with a most trusted new friend who was carrying the parachute. She continues to live in Arlington, VA and performs historical research and archival work in DC.
Mike & Kathryn and Quinn & West continue to enjoy the year-round warmth, BBQ, fajitas and urban sprawl of Houston, Texas. Mike writes: Quinn is an endlessly energetic three year old, whose vocabulary and awareness of the world around him expand daily. He began pre-school this year, which has filled our home with all kinds of God-praising children's songs.
West is a curious and sweet-tempered one year old, who takes in stride the challenges the world (and his aggressive older brother) present him. West's successes this year include a four month stint (over the summer! In HOUSTON!) in a head-shaping helmet. If you want to know what that's like, shave your head bald, put on a bike helmet a size too small, and spend a few hours in a sauna. You can then forward your words of praise to westisthebest@gmail.com.
Kathryn continues to excel in her role as CEO of Whiting Family Enterprises. When she isn't managing the physical well-being, fashion sense, spirituality, education and entertainment of 50 lbs of male youth, she can be found battling a constant backlog of professional-quality photography of the abundant life that surrounds her. And if Quinn doesn't interrupt her with a shouting match, you may even find her dusting off her professional-quality piano skills.
Mike continues his work at J.P. Morgan, much of which is spent in the doting care of the good people at United Airlines. Next time you're in such scenic locales as Wichita, KS, Midland, MI, or Kingsport, TN, think to yourself ‘Mike is a LUCKY guy.’ When not in an office or an airport, Mike can be found building professional-quality cushion castles and telling unusually passionate bedtime stories.
Jeanne & Steve Steve is in his last year at KPMG since partners have to retire at age 60. Can’t believe we’re almost there. It will be a strange situation to be back on the job market as of next fall but we definitely want to work several more years. Steve did two major bike rides with Cara this year, including a 100-miler from Williamsburg to Richmond and 60 miles with the wind against them through Amish country. These destination bike rides have made for fun trips (especially for Jeanne who is doing none of that hard 100-mile work).
Jeanne keeps busy with her foundation. It was fun to have Cara, Dave and Kylie join us for the annual race in Philly this year. Jeanne’s sad to no longer be working in the Young Women organization at church, finishing off with a trip to girls camp in Vermont this summer. She is now trying to figure out genealogy research for her new family history calling. She retired from her job of 14 years conducting the Pitchpipers, a women’s close harmony chorus that troupes weekly to surrounding nursing homes and will miss that group. But the music will keep going with teaching Music Together and piano lessons, and conducting the ward choir.
Jeanne lost her mother, Sarah Grow, in September. Sarah lived a wonderful long life of service to family and community. Her funeral was held on what would have been her 93rd birthday. She left posterity of 114 (including spouses), and 101 of them came to the funeral. It was a remarkable family reunion that Sarah would have loved. We will miss her, but know she’s enjoying her own joyous reunion with Stew after 30 years apart. We’ve learned how one person’s influence for good can echo in the lives of literally hundreds through the generations.
We love hearing from you. Your good also echoes in our lives and memories. We send you---
Warmest Wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our home to yours!
Love,
Jeanne & Steve
