The Nutcracker

The Moscow Ballet came to Virginia Tech this year and of course we couldn't miss it.  All of the dancers were very talented but the Arabian dancers stole the show with their acrobatics.

Lets go...Hokies!!!

Georgie came into town this weekend for the Hokie game.  Friday night the boys took the Hooptie ride out downtown   Then on Saturday we met up with my family and tailgated in the frigid cold, then headed over to Lane Stadium to see Virginia Tech beat The University of Virginia.  After the game Jarod came down from Covington and went with Alan, Georgie, and Luke to the river for a winter bonfire.  It was the weekend before my first test at Georgetown so I went but didn't stay long.

Happy Thanksgiving

Alan and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year.  Everyone came over including Zoey's good friends Regan and Bantella.

My masterpiece!!!

We set up the bar for crantinins and then got distracted and completely forgot.

The Thanksgiving table

Trick or Treat!!

I love everything about Halloween, the scary decorations, the kids running through the streets all dressed up, and of course the candy!!!  This year decorated the house with giant spiders, it was a hit!

Our carved jack-o-lanturns

Happy Halloween!!!  Zoey was a little bumblebee again this year but she won't fit in it next year.

Guess who's a Hoya???

Big news in the Schano household...

I am going back to school at Georgetown University to get my masters and become a Family Nurse Practioner!!! This was not exactly part of the plan of an amazing opportunity presented itself and we jumped on it.

On top of the fact that it's an accelerated masters program it's one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the country, needless to say I'm not planning on doing much else other than studying for the next year and a half of my life.

Fun fact: After I had decided on Georgetown I learned it is a Catholic University!

Pumpkin Patch

It's just not fall if we don't hit the pumpkin patch.  We went to Sinkland farms to pick up a few pumpkins for Halloween.  We scored big with a tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch but Alan had the worst batch of cornbread and beans we have ever tasted, seriously it was horrible.  

The weather was beautiful, we honestly couldn't have asked for a better day!

White Water Rafting

For Alan's birthday we went white water rafting on the upper gauley in West Virginia.  Ladies and Gentlemen this was no joke.  I was legitimately terrified 90% of the time.  Fall is gauley season and the water levels are high.  There are five class five rapids insignificant, pillow rock, lost paddle, iron ring, and sweets falls.  I had watched tons of youtube videos before going so that I knew what I was getting into, in hindsight not the best idea.  I was dreading sweets falls all day, and as luck would have it it was the last big rapid of the day.  Sweets falls is a fourteen foot waterfall that is basically a straight shot down into a swirling bowl of white water.  After doing it I have to say it wasn't as bad as I thought and was less intimidating than some of the other rapids before it.  We totally wiped out on pillow rock, everyone fell out of the raft except for the guide and Alan, typical.  We got out for the morning at sweets falls where the rafting company has their outdoor kitchen.  They grilled us up some hamburgers and we ate lunch on the boulders overlooking the rapid.  It was fun to watch everyone come down the waterfall, there were some major wipeouts.  The afternoon segment of the trip was a little more low key but still lots of fun, we jumped off a big boulder, and went down a "swimmers rapid".  Looking back on it I can't believe I acutally did it, but I had a blast and would totally do it again!

The epic wipeout...