2013

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. 

Merry Christmas to you all!

Everyone Together for Thanksgiving
Top: Bryan, Dave & Kylie, Dan & girlfriend Sonia, Cara
Bottom: Kathryn & Mike with West & Quinn, Jeanne & Steve

A freezing New Canaan Turkey Bowl - Go Rams! (The only game they lost all year!)

Mike and Kathryn with West and Quinn in Houston

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!

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!

Victorious triathletes

Cara’s adventures (Guess which one she did not tell her parents about!)

Dave & Kylie in New York City - surviving the second year of dental school

Also a long way from Kindergarten!

Fun Houston trips

Biking buddies take on big challenges in Virginia and Pennsylvania

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

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

In our 19^th year of viewing the blazing New England fall display
 outside our back windows we are still awestruck 

A summer week on Topsail Island, NC

Special Grandma and Grandpa Moments

We survive both a 3-hour lightning storm and the University of Virginia fans 
at the BYU game in Charlottesville

Dan and friends climb Mount Bierstadt in Colorado

Catching the sunrise at the summit

Dan's a loving uncle

Music, music, music!

Driving along all those amazing beaches to the tip of Long Island for the first time

The grandeur of the gilded age - Newport mansions

Survivors' photo at our annual Running for Answers in Philly
DTRF raises over a million dollars for desmoid tumor research this year

Mom graduates from a wonderful 93 years of life 
A remarkable 101 of Mom’s 114 descendants attend her funeral

How far does the influence of one person spread?

Gathering in Utah for Grandma’s funeral

Fall beauty of Sundance and the Alpine Loop

UPDATES

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 93^rd 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

2012

Hello and MERRY CHRISTMAS 2012!

Dave and Kylie's wedding in New York and reception at Waveny House in New Canaan, June 2012

Dan, Mike, Dave, Cara and Bryan

Pictures in Central Park, New York City

 Dave's graduation; White coat ceremony for induction into dental school

 Mike & Kathryn with West and Quinn in Houston

West Philip Whiting, born September 20, 2012

West and Quinn

West's blessing day in Houston

Cara in D.C. and beyond

Dan takes on the mountains

Bryan at BYU and working the summer in New York

Grandma Whiting's 90th birthday with 71 descendants, in Mapleton, Utah

Conducting the "Grow Tabernacle Choir"

Biking on Cape Cod and Nantucket

"Mormon Helping Hands" in The Rockaways, Queens, Thanksgiving weekend

Dear friends and family,

Each year seems to go faster than the one before. But this particular year was so packed with historic family, national and local events, including natural disasters and tragedies, that it felt like a nonstop whirlwind.  If you'd like to catch up with us, here’s the Whiting family news for 2012.   
We have loved getting your cards and always look forward to hearing from you!   

Warm Wishes for a Merry Christmas and 

Happy New Year from our home to yours!

Mike & Kathryn and Quinn & West are our Texans. West’s arrival in September was a wonderful event, and marks the first of the Whiting family born in the Lone Star State. Mike and Kathryn are in that busiest time of life with two little ones who always have something to say or do to delight parents and grandparents alike.

Cara  continues to find fun things to do and fun places to go, and it only took 4 years of living in the DC area for her to get a tour of the Capitol dome. She is one of the lucky ones who actually gets to use her history degree professionally and has started her own business doing research and archival work. She had the opportunity to do research in Utah for six weeks this summer, which conveniently coincided with Dave’s wedding, the largest Grow family reunion ever, and Grandma Whiting’s 90^th birthday celebration. She biked her first "century" this spring and helped organize the third annual 50-mile “Robinhood Ride” through New England's autumn leaves, which attracted 30 riders from up and down the East coast (including Steve).

Dan’s job continues to evolve following a merger with a larger medical equipment company, Baxter.  Baxter is replacing much of its installed equipment with machines built by Dan’s company, so there is a big effort to install and train people across the world on the new equipment.  Dan is in the middle of this, giving training and helping users get acclimated to the new systems. When he isn’t working, he is hiking, biking or snowboarding. Denver is a great place for him, but we’re glad he still enjoys a visit home from time to time. 

Dave & Kylie  Dave had a very eventful year, graduating from BYU and from singlehood, along with getting accepted to Columbia dental school. The wedding was in New York City with a reception in New Canaan, followed by a reception in Utah. Kylie is wonderful and it is great to have them living in the area.  Dave has jumped into dental school with both feet and they found a great apartment just a couple blocks from the main campus and a short subway ride to the medical campus.  Kylie got a job in advertising with Translation (started by JayZ) where she works on social media outreach for the State Farm account, and she also has her own photography and graphic design business.

Bryan, a senior at BYU majoring in statistics,  is working as a research assistant doing statistical research in biology and chemistry and is thinking seriously about going for a Masters degree in statistics.  2012 winter semester was the last that Bryan and Dave would be together as students and they enjoyed being on a basketball team together as well as playing softball together.  Bryan had fun this summer living in New York City and interning at Deloitte.  He spends his free time learning piano and guitar.

Steve & Jeanne are thrilled to be grandparents for the second time with the birth of West in September!  We had fun taking sailing lessons this summer in the Long Island Sound and exploring Cape Cod and Nantucket on bikes.  Jeanne broke her ankle just after Dave’s wedding which put a little damper on our rowing this summer. But she got to live a lifetime dream of conducting in the Salt Lake Tabernacle as she gathered a 220 voice choir for the historic reunion of over 3,000 descendants of her great-great grandfather, Henry Grow-- the Mormon pioneer who designed the Tabernacle.

Grandma Whiting celebrated her 90^th birthday in Mapleton, UT with all but two of her 71 descendants.  What a remarkable reunion it was!  And Grandma Grow celebrated birthday number 92. (Now you can see why Steve thinks he might have to work a while longer.)

Steve was released this summer from the bishopric, after over five years, and was called to the High Council. Adding up all the bishoprics he has served in, we realized it has been ten years since we have had breakfast together on a Sunday morning. Jeanne still works in the Young Women, and conducted Messiah with full orchestra and chorus last week. If you want to catch the real spirit of Christmas, try immersing yourself in that music!

Jeanne’s Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation got a new website, www.dtrf.org, along with some national media attention as fundraising received support of celebrities Meredith Vieira, Dr Oz and Rosie O'Donnell.  The next goal is a big collaborative project combining the best scientists in the field to accelerate the speed and effectiveness of research.  The dream that “two women planned at the kitchen table” is palpably moving toward a discovery of a cure.

We survived Superstorm Sandy that devastated much of the East Coast.  We got off lucky just losing power for 7 days.  Our Stake joined thousands of Mormon Helping Hands bussed in from all along the East Coast to go help “muck out” houses four consecutive weekends in The Rockaways, Queens.  People there got a devastating 6 feet of water in their homes and needed help emptying houses of possessions and tearing out sheetrock and floors.  Working with our children joining a positive force of thousands of others wearing those iconic yellow vests was the most memorable and meaningful Thanksgiving weekend activity ever. 

Our stake was overwhelmed with sadness this past week when a child of members of the Newtown ward was lost in the elementary school shooting that occurred only 35 miles from us in Newtown.  We were so moved by that family's expressions of faith and forgiveness, and we take that ultimate message of hope for "Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men" into our hearts as we approach this Christmas.

This year has left us very grateful for our blessings, and for the purpose we feel in life’s journey. Every year counts as a great blessing!  Thanks to all of you for being part of our journey. 

Love,

Steve & Jeanne

jgwhiting@gmail.com

swhiting@yahoo.com

176 Gerdes Road, New Canaan CT 06840

2011

Greetings!

Thanksgiving in Houston

Cara gets her Master's degree 


Ferry to Shelter Island 


 Bryan returns from Honduras   

                      What would you give to have a picture 

with both of your Great-grandmothers?!! (ages 1, 89 and 91)

Dave and Kylie



"Running for Answers" 5K in PhillyRaising Funds for Desmoid Tumor Research  

Dan in Colorado: Great Dunes National Park, 

Garden of the Gods, Crested Butte bike park

 

 

Mike & Kathryn with Quinn

Hello and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Dear friends and family,

We send greetings and love to you this Christmas.  We’d love it if you'd leave a comment below.

Where did 2011 go?  It certainly came into Connecticut like a lion, and then just continued to roar with once-every-century-type events:  
the snowiest, iciest winter on record (we could not extract the Christmas lights from the ice in the front bushes until March);  a summer earthquake felt in NYC (and in our bedroom at home), followed a week week later by Hurricane Irene that took our power out for six days;  and, a Noreaster in October that dropped 8” of snow and another extended power outage.

We've watched the year's events in the Middle East with great interest as we were living in Cairo when Sadat was assassinated and Mubarak first took power thirty years ago. 

Amid these and other chaotic events in the world this year, here’s an update on what else was going on with the Whitings:

Bryan returned in August from his mission to Honduras.  He is loving being back at BYU where he’s pursuing a major in statistics.  We will miss writing a missionary after all of these years but love seeing our kids launched so well into life.

Dave’s big news is that he is engaged to be married in June to Kylie Nixon from North Ogden, Utah. If that isn’t enough big news, he has also been accepted to the University of Connecticut dental school for next fall, and is on the wait list at Columbia.   Either way, it looks like we’re going to be lucky enough to have them close by for a few years! We love Kylie and are so happy that they found each other.

Dan continues to enjoy his job in the international marketing department of Baxa, a firm in Denver that develops and markets medical technology.  They were recently taken over by Baxter, and Dan has happily survived the merger.  Dan thrives on the healthy Colorado lifestyle and loves the hiking, snowboarding and mountain biking available all around. 

Cara donned a Master’s hood in May as she completed her master’s degree in Applied History from George Mason University in Virginia. After completing an internship at the Smithsonian, she has continued her archival work in DC.   To celebrate her graduation, she did a spring trip to Norway and Denmark with friends. Once again, we've enjoyed biking with her in her historic area: to Mount Vernon and through some civil war battlefields, and  in the New Hampshire White Mountains this fall for part of a 60-miler she had put together with friends. 

Mike & Kathryn and Quinn hosted us all for Thanksgiving in their new home outside of Houston in The Woodlands, Texas.  They moved there in August with Mike’s new job in treasury management with JP Morgan Chase.  Kathryn is a busy, creative stay-at-home mom keeping up with Quinn who is now 15 months and toddling at the speed of light.  Quinn was a big hit with all the family and we loved the time we all had together in sunny Houston. 

Jeanne & Steve continued to explore on bike the sites that we’ve been so close to for years but have never seen, like Shelter Island on Long Island and Block Island in R.I. And then there’s always a lovely seashore to explore within minutes of our house in many directions.  Of all the places we’ve thought about for retirement, we just can’t imagine anywhere we’d rather live more than here.  But Steve figures he has several years left so we’re procrastinating that decision. The credit crisis continues to keep him well employed.  He’s still in the bishopric, and Jeanne is working with the Beehives in Young Women.  We saw our New Canaan ward divided for the first time in the 17 years we’ve lived here.  There has been lots of change, but the important things stay the same.  And you all are so important to us.

We send warmest wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Jeanne & Steve

jgwhiting@gmail.com

swhiting@yahoo.com

176 Gerdes Road, New Canaan CT 06840

2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hello dear friends and family!

We love thinking about all of you at this special time of year.  Here’s an update on our year's events.

2010 brought new and exciting adventures for the Whitings!  At the top of the list is our advancement into a new phase of life with the birth of our first grandchild in September! 

Bryan is in his 17^th month of loving his mission in Honduras.  He shares extraordinary and miraculous experiences in his emails every week.  I can’t imagine a young man more full of light and love.  Don’t we love missions!

Dave is in his junior year working toward a degree in finance at BYU.  He survived Houston heat doing a summer research internship at MD Anderson Cancer Center.  He’ll complete his pre-dental requirements and will take the DAT in the spring with the goal of eventually attending dental school. 

Dan is loving his new job in the international marketing department of Baxa, a firm in Denver that develops and markets medical technology.  After missing a significant part of the last two snowboarding seasons due to wrist injuries, he’s looking forward to this Colorado winter.  And he’s quite a Nuggets/Rockies/Broncos fan and loves attending their games in the arenas just down the street from his downtown Denver apartment.

Cara will graduate in May with a master’s degree in applied History from George Mason University in Virginia. She does archival work part time in Wash. D.C. and will be doing a winter internship at the Smithsonian in the archives of the American History Museum. We especially enjoyed a trip to see Cara in the spring where we all rowed in the Potomac and biked in the spectacular hills of Shenandoah Nat’l Park, on the Mount Vernon trail, and on a Nat’l Parks Service bike tour of DC.  After trying it out with us, Cara got hooked, bought a new bike, and organized a 50-miler with friends through the fall leaves in Vermont.

Mike and Kathryn are thrilled with their new son Quinn, born Sept 16.  The pictures show how the little guy has grown just from Sept. to Dec.!  He’s definitely a city baby as his parents are now in their sixth year in Manhattan.  They live in a one-bedroom apartment on East 80^th (on the top floor with a spectacular city view!), where they’ve walled off a corner of their living room for a just-right nursery. Mike works in Global Transaction Services at Citigroup, and Kathryn is a resourceful stay-at-home mom and avid photographer. We’re the luckiest grandparents--with Kathryn’s passion for photography and blogging, Quinn just might be the most well-documented baby on the planet.

Jeanne is excited to be a grandma!  There’s no feeling to match holding that beautiful newborn in the hospital. How close it brings you to when you had your own babies – where did the decades go?  We celebrated Jeanne’s mother’s 90^th birthday and Quinn’s birth in the same month. Jeanne is loving her new calling as Laurels advisor in Young Women, and is having fun getting the ward choir program ready for Christmas again. Her foundation is still going strong in its sixth year of supporting desmoid tumor research.  Her year started with months of recovery from her surgery last Nov., but she has enjoyed rowing and biking her way back to health.  She feels these hobbies have practically saved her life, and have definitely given new life to life.  We took some road trips to combine rowing and biking, like in Newport, RI, Florida and Philadelphia.  In St. Catherine’s Canada Jeanne got to row in the World’s Masters rowing competition and we biked along Niagara Falls, in Palmyra, along the Eerie Canal and even to the top of Hill Cumorah.  Fun times for empty nesters!

Steve is still a consultant with KPMG and in the Bishopric. He’s most excited that the 1998 gold minivan finally died this year and he doesn’t have to drive it to the train station any more!  On the weekends, he enjoys simple pleasures like driving his lawn tractor (it takes him back to the farming days of his youth) and working in the yard.  He’s a pretty serious road biker now and loves doing 20-30 miles around New Canaan and down by the Sound.  It’s a great stress-buster.  We even braved a weekend biking in NYC and across the Brooklyn Bridge! It gives you a whole new perspective on the big city.  Steve also enjoyed riding mules in Bryce Canyon, and taking that terrifying hike to the top of Angel’s Landing in Zion’s Nat’l Park with the kids this summer.  He hangs in there and can still keep up with the best of them.

We feel so blessed this year, so grateful for each day of life.  And grateful to have friends and family like you!  How joyful is the true meaning of the season – love, and hope through the Savior!

We’d love it if you’d click “comments” below and let us hear from you!

Warm Wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our home to yours!

Love,

Jeanne & Steve

jgwhiting@gmail.com

swhiting@yahoo.com