Greetings,
This year we decided to greet 2013 by embracing the idea of a digital holiday card and save the cost and waste of sending out physical cards that inevitably end up in the wastebasket. 2012 has been an exciting year for the Quinlan family. Evan and Carson are now ages 7 and 4 respectively, and they are best friends (with occasional outbursts declaring each other to be mortal enemies). Carson is destined to be a performer as he constantly solicits the attention of everyone in the room and intentionally crosses his eyes until everyone laughs. Evan is our budding engineer or possibly attorney with his literal interpretations of everything and his ability to identify the loopholes in our house rules for his own advantage. Both boys are endlessly devoted to legos, tablets (both iPad and Android), and unimaginable cuteness. And we are incredibly lucky to have Matt’s parents only 30 minutes away so that the boys consider Nana and Papa’s house their second home.
Matt’s job as the director of sales engineering for VMware has kept him busy travelling all over both north and south america this past year including San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, DC, Las Vegas, Sao Paulo Brazil, Mexico City, and many, many more. Lucky for him, when he is not travelling Matt is able to work from the comfort of his basement office. Matt’s travel schedule has required him to step down as the President of the local Purdue alumni club. We are still very involved with the club, but handing over the day-to-day operations to someone else has been a relief. Matt also checked a couple of items off of his bucket list this year by skydiving over the desert of Las Vegas and taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Paris with Kristen (more on that later).
Kristen is a registered veterinary technician at Crabapple Knoll Veterinary Clinic where she also manages the practice’s inventory. When not working or taking care of the boys Kristen can be found downstairs doing her P90X workouts or running around the track at Evan’s elementary school. Over the past year she has continuously extended her runs from less than one mile to over six miles! Kristen also serves on the Board of Directors for the Purdue Alumni Association as a member of the executive committee. This gives us a great excuse to get up to campus several times each year (as if we need an excuse).
The year has been pretty amazing for the Quinlan family. In April, Matt’s employer sent Matt and Kristen on a spectacular trip to Paris! From Monmartre, to the Opera House, to Versailles, to the Louvre, to the Eiffel Tower, to the Musee D’Orsay...we did absolutely everything worth doing in Paris. Truly an unforgettable experience. We then spent two wonderful weeks at Folly Beach in Charleston, SC over the summer. One week with Matt’s family and one with Kristen’s. At Thanksgiving we drove up to northern Indiana for Matt’s family reunion and the celebration of his grandparents’ 70th wedding anniversary.
As we look forward to 2013 we have a few plans already. This year will be our 15th wedding anniversary and Matt and Kristen are planning an extended weekend in Las Vegas to celebrate (albeit a few months early). I’m sure we will be up to campus several times next year including football games, board meetings, the Boilermaker Ball, and the graduation of our niece, Chelsea. Other than that, we will just have to see what happens and update you all in next year’s holiday newsletter.
Happy Holidays!
The Quinlans