The snow had fallen, and with it an inch of ice, making treacherous the roads leading from Falls Church to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Feb. 14. The conditions had closed the schools that morning and persuaded most motorists to stay indoors after the sun had set. The Baumgartner family, on the other hand, was not about to be deterred from their downtown destination. They were bound for a performance of Disney on Ice at the Verizon Center and with their five-year-old daughter, Ava, draped in a pink princess gown in the back seat, it was going to take more than a winter storm to keep them away.
