Packing & Reno (1st trip)

The packing was not so fun, but our first trip to Reno to drop off a van load of our things was great.  We had lunch at the new BJ's Brewery (best pizza & great beer), had Grandma and Grandpa over for a wonderful dinner, had a great night at Circus Circus and another delicious meal at the Olive Garden.  The days flew by, and I sure missed the 60 degree weather when we got back to blizzardy McCall.  

Still lots of snow out on our property, and this was before the two weeks straight of snowfall that we had after we got back.  More soon about the Koehlingers' visit to Idaho, Hells Canyon trip, packing up and our last days, and our trip to the midwest.  :)

Friends Visit & Tamarack Resort Shuts Down

The END to the Tamarack years:

It came as a shock to everyone friday at 5 pm that Tamarack was going to shut down, lay off its workers, sell everything and lock its doors in less than a week.  I still don't think it has registered entirely for anyone.  Above is our last day of sales at our sales booth in the Sports Dome at the resort.

We were owed payment for advertising pictures we took for Tamarack's Food and Beverage department, for which they wanted to pay us with a free dinner at the restaurant.  We took them up for it and had dinner there with our friends Sara & Art, and Julie & Brian (who came to visit us from Atlanta).  It was an eerie feeling, because I had worked there for so many years.  I had helped to open the restaurant January 11, 2006.  And now I was going to be there for their last day as well.  They greeted us with a princely welcome, and even a welcome sign on the specials board.

It was beyond a three course meal, as we enjoyed two rounds of amazing appetizers, soup & salad, phenomenal entrees, hand crafted desserts, and delicious wines.  Definitely the best food in Idaho!!  And the chefs came out to say hello and thank us.  Chef Gary even served us our dinners.
Since Brian & Julie had two days of skiing on Saturday and Sunday while we worked, we decided to rest our legs and go on an elk feeding sleigh ride followed by a long hot springs soak.  It was Dave & my first time for the sleigh ride as well, and we all had a perfect, enjoyable time.
Basically, the elk come down from the mountains in the winter to eat, but have no place to do so because everything near the mountains is private property: either fenced ranches or residential housing.  Elk are horrified to get close to people because they are hunted, so a family started to feed the elk from a sleigh back in 1983.  They don't think of the people on the sleigh as a danger, unless one gets off and then they all run away.  So they come in and eat and totally interact with everyone on board.  They like to smell people, but quickly get back to the task of eating after they do so.

What else can I say about the elk feeding sleigh ride, other than it was a total wonder!  They were obviously a very wild group of herds that reluctantly approached our sled of hay (it took almost a half hour), but once they felt comfortable they got very close and it felt like we were joining them for breakfast.

After a bit of powder skiing with Brian, we went on an amazing (our first for the winter) snowshoe by our property on tuesday.  We went uphill for the views, and eventually down to the lake for a very snowy and scenic loop.  It was awesome!  And it was both Brian and Julie's first time snowshoeing.
We drove Brian & Julie to the airport, then returned for the Closing day festivities at Tamarack on wednesday. The restaurants and bars had been closed for days for cleanup, but the mountain was open as was the gear shop.  Tamarack actually paid us what it owed in a gift card, so we did a bit of shopping and now have a fabulous camp chair, some camel packs (backpacks with water storage), and some clothes that fit.  We ski'd and snowboarded almost all day, except a couple hours to pack up and move our stuff out of the shop, and were rewarded with the best powder and great friends.  The news channels were there to for some interviews and the employee group shot, and there were plenty of parties afterward.  It's going to be front page news today, and I'll try to send you all a clipping.  Miss & Love you all.

Grandma, Birthday & Olympics

Spending the week with Grandma was wonderful!  We went to the old MGM, the Carson Hot Springs, Scheels (picture above with the animal display) and out for lunches and a dinner at the Olive Garden (below) as well as ice cream & fudge.  
Mom took some days off and so I was luckily able to be with her too, and I spent a bit of time with Dad in the evenings.  Mom went along with Grandma & I, and my last day we celebrated our birthdays at the new BJ's Brewery/Restaurant.  When we were in Vegas, we drove an hour for their pizza, and let me just say, WORTH IT!  Thanks Mom, LOVE you!
And when I got back to McCall, I was greeted by a wonderful man (Dave) with a beautiful birthday cake that he baked.  Also, even though I worked on my B-day, when we got home, I still got to see some fireworks in McCall and pretend that they were for me.  That's the second weekend in a row that McCall has had a firework display, and both times it was great!
Dave and I were able to experience the Special Olympics, which were held in Idaho this year. Most of the events were held in Boise and Sun Valley, but we had the Snowshoe competitions in Ponderosa State Park.  We photographed the events as media volunteers (check out our sexy volunteer garb) and it really was an event of a lifetime.  The competitors and coaches inspire me to no end.  I was especially moved by athletes from countries where it doesn't even snow, and they trained for four years on sand.  They put their absolute all into the competitions, and ran with everything they had to give.  They could teach us all a lot about life.

Winter Carnival & Reno Visit

A quick picture before dinner with Dave's old boss at McCall's Italian restaurant.
Winter Carnival in McCall is always great, but even better this year because we got to see some of the festivities.  The snow sculptures are also a lot more impressive this year, and I'll have more of those when I get back to McCall to see the final, finished versions.

The Carnival fireworks were beautiful in McCall.  We just made it there in time to see them.

Right now I'm in Reno, hanging out with Grandma in these stressful times for her.  We get to go places everyday, and later this week Mom will come with us too, hopefully to the hot springs. 

More Skiing

The view from the top of Brundage Mountain is beautiful in every direction. 
These are Dave's new Rossignol bindings.  Thank you Grandma Koehlinger & Mom & Dad!
Skiing the Lakeview Bowl at Brundage yesterday.  I try to get more pics of Dave, but he's not much for that, so it'll just be pictures of me for this week.  We've been skiing 3 times a week, and even made one of those a trip to Tamarack.  We've also been hitting the gym 5 times a week, so all is good.  In other news, we re-amortized our lot loan.  It's almost like refinancing, but you have to put a lot of money down, and they don't adjust the rate.  This last pic is in our parking lot.  I think it's funny.  They plow the snow into a huge pile, but it looks like this year they don't have enough money to pay to haul the snow away.  So it keeps getting taller, and trickier for the snow plowers to work with.

Skiing

Check out my frosty hair.  We look like a great pair of bandits!
It's been a stormy week, with everything from rain to hail, but the skiing has been fun!  We went on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday to Brundage Mountain, which is just 20 minutes from our place.  Monday was the best powder skiing I've ever experienced, mostly due to the powder ski's I was on.  It's a pair that some really rich friends gave me last spring.  It feels like floating, or like the ski's are taking me on a trip and I just have to stand and enjoy.
These are my new boots.  Aren't they gorgeous?  From Christmas monies from Mom & Dad (thank you!) and Grandma Koehlinger (thank you!).  They're my first real pair, as the ones I was using all these years are Dave's from a secondhand store in Colorado.  They fit perfectly and are as comfortable as snow boots, and they're actually made in Hungary so they were meant to be:)
Dave strapping in and getting ready to go.  He looks great in the powder!

This was the lack of visibility today.  It was fun, albeit scary when you couldn't really see what run we were on.  We'll be taking some runs this weekend at Tamarack at work, and it should be great with sunshine in the forecast.

The Holidays

We worked through the holidays as usual, and still have a few days to go before a welcomed day off.  But we found time to relish the joys of the season.  We had our first Christmas dinner together this year (in the years before I was always working at Morels and Dave was printing pictures).  On the menu was a vegetarian shephard's pie, stuffing and mashed potatoes, accompanied with champagne (Thanks Mom & Dad!)

We loved all our gifts, Thank you very much!!!  Everything was thoughtful and wonderful.
We rang in the New Year in our usual Idaho style: working until 11:55pm and then running to the Seven Devils Pub for the countdown (with the name tag and work shirts still on).  This year we made it 30 seconds before midnight, hugged our friends and were off to sleep.  

Everything looks pretty here blanketed by snow.  We're planning to ski at Brundage on our days off, and of course to sleep and eat like rock stars.  Happy New Years everyone!  Love you!!!