Banggattie

On December 14th our baby Banggattie passed away. Banggattie and I were inseperable. We miss her more than any words or picture could say, but she will always be in our hearts.

Every morning and every night - this is what you would see. I never slept alone, she was always in my arms. Always.

Beautiful.

She loved to lie under the blankets with me. Did I mention we were inseperable?

My baby.





I've always said she talked. One day I got it on tape.

Crested Butte COLORADO

Below you see the town of Crested Butte in Colorado. We took a weeks vacation to the ski resort this December.

Jacques heading down the "single" diamond slope.

Here's Jacques ready to ski down the mountain.

This was our car on day one...

Believe it or not...but that's our car.... on day 3

This was 2 day's worth of snowfall.

This is the view from our room window on day 1.

Same view on day 2.

Day 3....

Day 4..... yep you guessed it....we had some snow!!!

Just outside our hotel on the way to the slopes.

I couldn't believe when the car said it was 17degr Fahrenheit and I didn't think of taking a photo then, but here's one at 19 degr (top right). It was blimmen cold.

On our way home we stopped at the Sunset Crator (volcano crator) in Arizona.

Las Vegas Half Marathon December 2nd 2007

We decided to run the Las Vegas Half Marathon this year. It was a spectacular race. You run along the Vegas strip and they were shooting fireworks for a good 15 minutes at the beginning. The Blue Man group was also at one of the waterpoints.
As Vegas goes, there were many many Elvi (plural of Elvis) running the race in their wigs, glasses and outfits. It was hillarious. Next time I'm running with the camera to take some photos.

Thanksgiving weekend in Phoenix Arizona

For Thanksgiving weekend we went to visit our buddy Wolfgang in Phoenix. He took us to the Botanical Gardens, which were spectacular to see.

These cacti look alive.

Here we are with Wolfgang and his girlfriend Marinda.

It was Wolfgang's Birthday and Marinda made this cake. She made the whole thing! I was amazed as the hawaaian scene just unfolded infront of me. She is really talented!

Julian October 2007

And we were off to Julian again. This time for a double-trouble race. On Saturday we had a Road Race and on Saturday a Mountainbike race. What a challenge - we were lucky to have gale-force winds on our road race and absolutely freezing temperatures on the Mountainbike race! What more could we ask for???? Just my luck!

We went for a walk through Julian and found some real good South African wine. So we bought everything on the shelf and decided it would make an excellent carbo-loader!

This is how we love a room to look. Mountain bikes on one side and Road bikes on the right! (And the wine of course)

We stayed in this really cute place in Julian. Our room was the one of the right of the white door. Really cozy.

Getting ready for the Mountainbike race.... I managed to be able to ride the new Specialized Stumpjumper. It was loaned to me for the weekend by the Bike shop as a "test bike". To all my cycling buddies : AMAZING! It has the new "brain-shock" at the back. It was stiff when it needed to be and took the bumps when it had to. The race was a breeze on that bike.

halloween 2007

This year Halloween they decided to let us dress up at work. The best costume won a price.

It was kind of weird driving the car to work like this. I almost caused a few accidents - talk about "rubber-necking".

And yes - I did win the price.

The rest of us at work. I managed to freak out a few customers too - that was the fun part!!!

Yosemite October 2007

We had the oppertunity to make a quick getaway to Yosemite National Park this October - so we took the chance.

Squeezed in a couple of hikes - as many as we could.

Being October, the trees were just beautiful. I'm having a break at the "Awanhee" Hotel gardens.

The Awahnee Hotel - Absolutely must see if you come to Yosemite!

Hiking up to the waterfalls.

The view from one of peaks.

El Capitan is in the background - this is a very famous rock climbing face.

Santa Barbara Half Marathon

Not having had enough of the previous cycling challenge we did the Santa Barbara "Pier to Peak" challenge Half Marathon. We've NEVER run anything like it. 13 miles with a 5249 feet climb! Wowie - I couldn't feel my legs afterwards, but the view was spectacular.

We took this photo from the pier where the race started and that mountain in the distance - the peak thereof - that was our final destination! The longest Half marathon either of us ever ran, but with good reason.

Check the name of the shop behind me - It's in the main Street of Santa Barbara.

We again camped in our favourite place in Buelton.

Palomar Cycling Challenge

In August we decided to try the Palomar Cycling Challenge. We stayed a camping site close to the beginning (below).




Here's Jacques with our road bikes.

The race started at the bottom of the road leading up to the Palomar Observatory. Up is the key word. We climbed 6298 feet over 32.89 miles! That's insane. By the way - that specific Planatorium was the one in the movie "Rebel without a cause" with James Dean in 1955.

Brian's Head - even more pics

We cycled through some old 'lava' rocks too. It was really stunning.

Hello down there!

What stunning views! Here we are at the top of one of our rides.