Back 2 Da Snow

Tracy & Frisco made it back to Colorado Tuesday night in one piece and no storms.

Wednesday, Brian M. from VA came into town again and we headed out with Tiff, Brian & John to Vail Pass for some backcountry snowmobiling and riding. Brian & Tiff both have a snowmobiles, so they towed me, Brian M. & John into the backcountry. We took turns being towed up the mountain and riding down. Tracy even got to drive one of the snowmobiles...so fun!! There was a bit of a mishap with Tiff's snowmobile... As she was towing John up the steep part of the mountain, the snowmobile lost it's umf and started turning back down the mountain...it almost flipped so Tiff jumped off and the snowmobile glided down the mountain into a tree.

We went out to Vail Pass again on Thursday, but this time with Christian, who has his own snowmobile. So much powder...up to our waist. Thursday night was Ullr Fest, Norse God of Snow celebration in Breckenridge. We watched the Ullr Fest parade then celebrated afterwards. Stan arrived Thursday night and met us in Breck.

Friday, Tracy had to work...well sort of. I didn't end up getting a class so I took a couple clinics. Spent the day practicing riding fakie, 180's, and even hit a box in the terrain park. Actually ended up landing on my head on the 2nd box...no injuries.

Saturday, Beaver Creek reported 16" of new snow, so there we went. Sunday, Tracy had to work again, so Stan came along to Loveland to ride. After riding we played a bit of racquetball. Tracy had to work again on Monday so Stan got to do some house work before he headed to the airport.

Enjoy the pix.

Tiff on her new snowmobile.

Tiff's snowmobile crashed into a tree.

Tracy driving snowmobile.

Christian towing Brian M.

The group taking a rest at Beaver Creek.

Tracy, holding the blue board with her fellow snowboard instructors.

Welcome 2007...

Stan & Tracy flew to Atlanta on Friday, Dec 29th for the Chick-Fil-A Bowl game, VT vs UGA.

We arrived Friday night and had a fantastic tour guide drive us from the airport to our free hotel room (compliments of Ron) in Buckhead. Went to a local bar in Buckhead that night with Ron, Karen, Black, Frampton & Charlotte. Saturday we met up with Sweets, MA & MA's friend Anne who lives in Atlanta. We headed downtown and hung out in the CNN building tailgating. We then met up with Uncle Nick, Nancy, Mark & Mona and a couple of Nancy’s friends at PittyPats in Downtown Atlanta for a delicious Southern dinner. Thanks Uncle Nick & Aunt Nancy. Saturday night was the game. We won't talk too much about the game since the Hokies found a way to lose even after being in the lead at half time.

Sunday we met Sweets, MA & Anne at the Georgia Aquarium. Very cool!! Loved the Beluga Whales. We then walked through Centennial Olympic Park, along Peachtree St and to the Marriot Marquis...so cool!! Sunday night we all went to Anne's to bring in the New Year!! Monday we flew home!

We wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year! Hello 2007!

CNN...

Tailgating...Ron, Karen, MA, Anne, Sweets & Stan

Dinner @ PittyPats...

Go Hokies...

Fish faces at the GA Aquarium

Hanging with the fishies...

Giant Grouper

Beluga Whales are mesmerizing

We found Nemo

Stan, Ron & Black hanging out with some Olympic founder guy.

Looking up from the lobby at the Marriot Marquis.

Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays to Everyone!!

Tracy & Frisco did make it out of Denver despite the storm of 2006. We jumped in the car Wednesday morning and took an alternate route. After a tense drive on the snowy & windy roads in CO, we made it into Nebraska and out of the snow and into the rain for the rest of our trip. We arrived in VA late Thursday night...in one piece.

Friday we hung out at Tracy's Parent's house and welcomed her Uncle Mike, Aunt Jeanne & cousins Alli & Davis to town from KY. Saturday we drove to Roanoke to Stan's mom's house. Sat night was spent playing board games with Stan's Aunt Donnie, Aunt Linda, Stan's mom & cousins Blair & Chad, in from Pittsburgh. Sunday, Stan's sister Lisa, Dave, and our nieces Ashlynne & Morganne arrived. Sun night, Linda & Marvin hosted Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas morning was spent opening presents, but mostly watching Ashlynne & Morganne opening & playing with their toys.

We then headed back to NOVA to spend Christmas dinner with Tracy's fam. So lots of gifts and food later, Christmas was a success. Lots of visiting and eating and gifts and eating...did I mention eating??

We're off to Hotlanta on Friday for the bowl game. Go Hokies!!

Happy New Year to Everyone!

Tracy & Blair showing off their new slippers.

Aunt Tracy reading to Morganne & Uncle Stan reading to Ashlynne.

Family Portrait: Dave, Ashlynne, Lisa, Morganne

G Daddy T watching TV with Lily

Dad got us trendy cowgirl hats for xmas...yeehaw!

Davis trying on some of Lily's dress up clothes...interesting.

Frisco playing...

More playing...

Shrow the Pow

This was a weekend of riding! Stan arrived in Dillon on Thursday night for a long weekend. Friday we went with Mark & Jeff to Beaver Creek Ski Resort for some major POWDER! We were pleasantly surprised to find no one on the mountain and tons of powder to keep us entertained. There were 2 runs where we didn't see a sole the entire way down. The powder was up to our knees. Incredible day! Friday night we were exhausted, but made it into Breck for dinner at Quandary Grill with Tiff, Erica, JB & Carl.

Saturday we met Erica and spent the morning at Copper Mountain. They opened the Alpine lift around 11:00 so we got a couple really nice powder runs. So much powder that Tracy got stuck, waist deep, in a hole, had to take her board off and crawl to a more packed trail in order to get started again. Good times!! Saturday night we drove over to Loveland for a "Season Opening Social." Unfortunately it was pretty lame. Later, we accompanied Mark to Keystone for the final hours of "36 hours of Keystone" celebrated with fireworks and happy hour at Kickapoo.

Sunday we decorated the house for Christmas. Stan put the outdoor lights up, while Tracy put the indoor decorations up. No tree this year, since we'll be in VA for 2-3 weeks, however our house is definitely festive. After decorating, we met up with Erica again and headed to ABasin for a few runs.

Monday was a day to rest the legs...sort of. We did get in 4 games of racquetball...Stan 3, Tracy 1; then hit up Target for a few more Xmas decorations.

Not too many pix, we'll get better as the season progresses.

The cloudiness in the background is steam coming from Lake Dillon.

Overlooking Dillon after the big storm last week.

"How do I look?"

Showing off our racquetball glasses.

Happy Turkey Day

It's been a busy month...Tracy & Frisco got back to Dillon at the beginning of November. Tracy had snowboard instructor training 2 weekends in a row. We got a nice snow storm in the middle of the month which helped the resorts open early.

Tracy, Stan, Mark & Jeff even made it to opening day at Vail. Great snow!

Tracy started working at Loveland on November 22nd. 2 Adult Level 1 (never been on a snowboard) lessons on Tuesday and 1 Adult Level 1 class on Wednesday. They are group lessons with anywhere from 1 - 12 people in the class. Luckily there were only 6 in the first 2 classes and 9 in the 3rd. Got them all up on the mountain and even got them all down the mountain with no major issues. So far, so good.

After dropping Frisco off to spend the holiday weekend with Mark and Chewey, Tracy headed to the airport Thursday morning. After a 2 hour maintenance delay in Denver, Tracy finally made it to VA just in time for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was hosted by Marcy, Stuart & Lily. A big crew from both sides of the family helped chow down on Marcy's delicious turkey dinner. After a few more hours of Lily climbing all over Tracy the jungle gym it was time to head to our house in Falls Church for the last time. Stan had been staying at the house for the month of November...during the selling process. We moved everything out of the house on Friday and settled on the house Monday. Sad but somewhat a relief.

Friday night we drove down to Roanoke to visit with Stan's mom, Lois, and Aunt Linda, Uncle Marvin, cousins Blair & Chad (in from Pittsburgh). Another turkey dinner (and some venizen, Chad had hunted a couple days prior).

Saturday morning we went to the VT/UVA football game at VT. We beat them 17-0...love beating them!! After the game we went downtown for some good ol' fashioned celebrating!

Monday night Tracy flew back to CO and was welcomed with a winter storm. It's been snowing all night and day. Time for me to hit the slopes...

Enjoy the pix. (borrowed from Jay)

Stan, Black, Tracy & Jay at Sharkeys in Blacksburg.

Tracy getting a lift from Jay at Balcony/Top of the Stairs in Blacksburg.

Dayna & Tracy's "model" faces...

We ran into Hokie Alum, Bruce Smith at the Balcony...

The Camera is BACK!!!

So our camera that we lost in Switzerland/Germany has been returned to us. Those crazy honest Germans/Swiss. So here are some photos from our trip which was the first week of October.

We flew into Frankfurt Monday morning. Tuesday we visited Andrew drove us to Schloss Neuschwanstein in Germany in his company's mini.

Wednesday we took the ferry across Lake Constance to Meersburg Island, a small town where Germany's Oldest Castle is located, Castle of Meersburg, built in the 7th century. Stan even got to hang out with his friends.

A dinner party in the Castle of Meersburg...the centerpiece is an elk foot used as a drinking vessel.

After Meersburg, we took another ferry to Mainau Island. This is Mainau Maxi, the flower garden gnome.

Thursday, we took a train into Switzerland to visit Rheinfall. We then walked through the woods and a couple towns back to the train.

After Rhienfall, we made a pit stop in Stein Am Rhein. We had some cake and coffee at an outdoor cafe, then tooled around town a bit.

Friday we took the train to Zurich. This is a view of the city from Grossmunster, a church with 2 towers. We had to climb through a very tight staircase all the way to the top

We ate lunch outside at a little cafe in Zurich.

Enjoying a German tray of beer before a real German dinner in Konstanz.

Oktoberfest in Konstanz

It's been a while since our last post.

Tracy & Frisco have been keeping Stan very busy in VA!! We have been going to all the VT home football games since getting back to VA in mid Sept.

October 1 - 8, while Frisco spent the week with her Grandma & Grandpa Wright, we traveled to Germany to visit Tracy's friend Chrissy and her boyfriend Andrew. They moved to Konstanz, Germany in July. We had a great week visiting castles and small towns in Germany & Switzerland, but unfortunately lost our camera at the train station so no pix for now. However, some honest Germans turned our camera in to lost and found so supposedly it's on its way to Dillon...or at least someone's camera is. For an update of our trip, go to Chrissy & Andrew's blog...http://www.oflanlan.blogspot.com/. If the correct camera is returned to us, we'll post more pix later.

This past Thursday VT played Clemson. Great game AND the Hokies won! We then took a detour through Roanoke for lunch with Lois and then another detour through Richmond to see Stan's sister and the fam.

Tracy & Frisco will be driving back to snow country on Halloween.

Going Back East

Tracy & Frisco, once again, hopped into the Burb and headed East. There are 3 VT home football games and since we still have season tickets, Tracy decided she needed to be there to cheer the Hokies on...and of course tailgate a bit. The first VT game on Labor Day, Stan went to the VT game while Tracy was home in CO listening to it on the radio.

The next weekend was an away game at North Carolina, so Stan flew home and we had fellow Hokies from Breckenridge and Aspen to tailgate and watch the 10 a.m. mountain time football game. After the game we went to Frisco's Oktoberfest on Main Street.

Stan flew back to VA on Monday while Tracy and Frisco followed a few days later. Wednesday night we stayed in the fancy Super 8 in Topeka, KS. Thursday we made it to Louisville, KY and crashed at Tracy's Uncle Mike & Aunt Jeanne's place. Allie was already home from school and Davis got back from football practice a few hours later. We met Tracy's Uncle Chris, Imelda and Sarah out for dinner. We left Friday morning Blacksburg Bound. Got to Sweets and Maryann's late afternoon. We hit the grocery store then the Boston Beanery for dinner. Stan hitched a ride from Jay and arrived Saturday morning. VT played Duke and won 36-0 after a VERY long 1st quarter, the Hokies remain undefeated so far. We stayed in Blacksburg Sat night then headed to Lake Gaston Sunday.

Arrived at Lake Gaston in time to visit with Marcy, Stuart, Lily and Tracy's Dad before they headed back to Burke and Crofton. Tracy's mom stayed the night with us. We got in plenty of wakeboarding, sea dooing and pontooning. Much fun!!

On the way back to Tysons from the Lake we made a pit stop in Richmond to visit Stan's sister Lisa, Dave, Ashlynne & Morganne. Dinner at PF Changs and some quality time with our nieces.

The plan is for Tracy to stay in VA for a couple weeks, then we're off to Germany from Oct 1 - 8 to visit Tracy's friend Chrissy & her boyfriend Andrew who moved to Konstanz, Germany this past July.

Here are some pix from the lake and a few other random ones...Enjoy!!

Stan looking like he knows what he's doing, even though he did lose to Tracy.

Captain Stan in charge on the Pontoon boat on Lake Gaston...

how do you like the view?

ears flapping in the wind...

Looking out our kitchen window we can see our pet fox who hangs out in the wildflowers on the side of our house.

The Ward's at Lake Gaston...pix is from the 4th of July, but figured I'd publish our family portrait now.

The One of Our Other Tenant

Just wanted to give an update on our squirrel that's been living in the roof/wall above our TV...he's gone!!

We caught him on the Friday Tracy's parents left, after having the cage out all week. Tracy's dad took the cage and put it in the garage, out of danger and out of Tracy's site. Luckily Stan came home that night. Saturday morning, Stan drove the little guy to A-Basin Ski Resort...his new home.

We then filled the hole with insulation and covered the hole with wood. Hopefully this will work and we will have no more animals living in our home with us, beside Frisco of course.

It has been pretty quiet around here since...

This weekend VT opens their 2006 Football season with Northeastern. Stan will be there to cheer them onto a victory. Tracy and Frisco will be listening to the radio broadcast...there in spirit. GO HOKIES!!!