The first day of my 29th year was amazing. Sherah and I went to Washington DC and spent the day at the zoo, shopping, chasing these giant walking gingerbread men for a pic (my idea of course), and then ice skating at the National Gallery. It was SO much fun!

I started working at Whitetail. and LOVED it. PA is so cold in the winter that everyone hibernates, but Whitetail is always full of energy and it made the winter so much better! I loved learning to snowboard and had so much fun meeting new people. It took awhile to get the hang of snowboarding especially getting off the lift. I would tend to grab onto whoever was close by and even took my friend Nic all the way to the ground with me one day! In December one of our friends died when she lost control on a snowy road. It was nice to have Whitetail to keep up my positive energy and work through the fear after her accident.

Brenda had been asking me for years to come to India with her and experience the work she has been doing there with a few orphanages and a business she is starting to support the group homes there. She had told me 3 years ago a story about her recent trip to India and how she had become friends with a begger lady who lived on a street nearby. She would bring food to her and this ladies 3 kids. They were able to bring her daughter to the home, but the next day when she went to bring the woman & the remaining 2 kids food, the woman was dead on the road and when she asked around, she found out that the father had sold the 2 boys for about $200 US dollars. After hearing this story, I knew I had to go! I settled on a date in June and started preparing to go. I flew into New Dehli first and spent a few days with Brenda, Jordan, & Leslie there. It was AMAZING to travel with Jordan and Brenda again after 10 years because we had all grown up so much plus they love to have fun as much as I do so we had a blast! One day we drove to the Taj Mahal and picked up a hare krishnian priest and picked his brain about his beliefs and then he invited us into his ashram. It was like literally 115 degrees at the Taj, but we had so much fun and Brenda even planked in front of it while all the Indian men owwed and awwed and one even exclaimed, "Oh beauty!" Then our tour guide said, "Can I tell you something? I have never seen anything like that. I am SO happy!" It was amazing!! After a few days there, we traveled to Pune where the main orphange Brenda works at is. I feel in LOVE with the kids there! They were amazing. One day I wasn't hungry, but was sitting with the kids as they ate their dinner. I was sitting next to my favorite girl Sarah and she wasn't really eatting. I kept asking her if she wasn't hungry and she kept begging me to eat. I finally realized that she wasn't eatting because she was afraid I was going to go hungry. I went and got some rice then so she would eat, but there wasn't any more eggs and she insisted on giving me half her egg. Never have I been so touched by a gift than I was by this sweet little girl with no food. The thing that struck me most was that though they had little, they had no poverty mentality. I cried the whole walk home that night! Brenda told me that night that Sarah had been the daughter of the begger woman. Brenda had tried to find the little brothers, but they were never seen again. Unfortunately this is so common and a deep passion of mine to find a way to stop this from happening to others.

In September my family all decided to go up to New Hampshire to celebrate Dan & Nova's recent marriage. I drove to Jill's and picked up Martha & Maren. We drove to Boston stopping in CT to visit our old house. We stayed the night in Boston and went into the city the next day, but it was raining like crazy so we headed to the lake. Then we spent the week with the whole family and it was an amazing time! On the way home I stopped in Boston again so I could see the sights then spent the night in New Haven to catch up with friends. The next day I spent time in NY and headed home. When I said goodbye to my fam I cried and cried and decided that if I still cry at 29 when I say goodbye to family, I probably always will and that's ok!

Over Thanksgiving, I flew to Texas to see Mammy & Pappy and meet Jessica's family. It was such a relaxing and wonderful trip and it was funny to see how little Van had changed in the 6 years since I had been there except for the huge Vandal stadium!