A Year End Note- 2013

Happy Holidays Everyone!
I'm happy to report that 2013 has been a wonderful year and, in comparison to last year, relatively quiet. We lost my Nana Pat in Feb., which was a sad time, but also a wonderful time to be with family the last week of her life. After Izzy and I spent a week with my dad and his family in Afton we headed to the Lodge for a valentines weekend with some of our close friends, the Flanigin's, and to celebrate the one year anniversary of Travis' successful heart surgeries. This was a welcomed reminder that friends and family should always be close. We carried this reminder with us the whole year. The three of us have spent many weekends, hours, and gallons of gas making sure that we were keeping family and friends close. Many of our travels involved all the love in the air this year: Emily went to NOLA (pic) to celebrate a long-time friend Liz getting engaged, we went to our first black-tie wedding in DC (pic), we went to Quakerstown, PA for a beautiful Warner wedding (pic), then a June wedding at the Lodge, my sister got engaged over our family 4th of July vacation (pic), a fall spectacular wedding in Roanoke, VA (pic), and our last wedding of the year is coming up soon. Other big events to mention-- a wonderful West Point graduation for Nicki Warner (pic)!

Izzy is continuing to become a wonderful little person and has really made this year one to always remember. We marked down a lot of firsts for her this year: first tooth, first steps, first swing (pic), first snow (pic), first foster dogs (pic), first friend- Brooke (pic). Our Halloween ladybug was also a cute addition to this years festivities. I'm sure I'm biased in saying so, but she is really an amazing little girl!

Travis is doing well at his job and loves it! Emily started an internship with the local Pittsburgh PBS station and had a blast- but it was unpaid. So, that led to Emily starting her job in Aug. this year as an executive recruiter and is really enjoying learning new material on medical devices and the healthcare industry. In our free time, we had a few dates this year worth mentioning: Emily's 11th Dave Matthews Concert (pic) with our friends Rob and Jon, and Gogol Bordello with Kole and April.

To mention the last three pictures un-talked about:

• Emily celebrated her birthday this year with her mom coming into town and taking a trip down to the zoo and Church Works Brewery.
• We raised a record breaking amount (for Team Travis) for the Pittsburgh Congenital Heart Walk in June. We are very proud to be raising awareness and funds to help such an important cause that has touch us and our families very closely.
• Many of you may be wondering about the knights helmet...rightly so. Our dear friend Rob Shipley (many of you may remember him from the wedding band) is on his way to becoming a knight and has had his very own helmet made of steel. It's something worth trying on just to see how heavy that thing really is.

We hope this year has been good to all of you and wish that 2014 will be filled with just as many if not more good fortunes.