Austria

We had a FUN couple of days in Austria. We left Saturday morning, and come back Tuesday night. Steve had worked 2 weekends in a row, and his work owed him some time, so he didn't even have to take vacation days.
{After Brandon had eaten about 100 crackers, we gave him this bag to play with which worked for a good 15 minutes. Not bad.}

In Europe they often rent out apartments for people coming on vacation, and that is what we found right in the Austrian Alps. It had a full kitchen, a room where the 3 boys slept with a TV, and a separate room for me, Steve and Brandon. I love that they do that here, especially with our size family. It makes it much easier for us to stay and the prices are usually lower than at a hotel.
{This is Steve and I's bed. This is how Austria and Germany and some other countries do their beds. The are actually two separate beds pushed together. The pillows are huge square pillows, they have no top sheet, and each person gets this duvet blanket for a cover. It is so cozy in the winter, but is always too much for the rest of the year. }
{We are standing on the balcony in front of our apartment}

We got there Saturday just after dark, walked around the little village and found a place to eat. Then went back and went to bed. The next day we asked around for a place to go sledding and found THE PERFECT place. The lady who owned the apartment had a couple of sleds we could borrow, and sent us up the hill 10 minutes to this nice hotel, that has a sledding hill behind it. What was perfect was that it had a playground right next to the sled hill, the hill was perfect for the boys although it was pretty steep, and the restaurant of the hotel had wooden tables right outside where you could face the hill and playground while you had something to eat. When the sun was up it shined right there on the tables and kept us nice and warm. It was wonderful.



{Sorry about the weird sound our camera makes}

{Here is the view from the bottom of the hill looking up. The sun was behind a cloud.}

{This is the view from the top of the hill looking down to the hotel}

{Here are some of the boys sitting at the tables eating some nice hot soup}

Since we found such a nice spot we went back to the same sled hill all three days we were there. The boys were getting pretty gutsy by the time we left. We also went out to eat a few times, and one day we went for a drive around the mountains which was very nice.
{Here is Nathan and Jacob rolling down the hill}
{A good view of the mountain straight across from where we were. Notice that it had no snow on it. Interesting huh? You don't know the people in this picture by the way}

{Relaxing in the basket swing. It is Jacob}

After the first day of sledding Steve and I decided that our Dr. Martens were not going to keep us alive for the weekend, because there was lots of ice in the parking lot and those shoes are HORRIBLE on ice. So not only to save our own necks, but the neck and limbs of the baby we were carrying, we decided to buy us some Austrian boots. OK, the aren't really Austrian, they are just normal boots, but boy did they make a huge difference. I don't think I slipped once after I got the boots. At first I was cringing that I spent 50Euro on a pair of boots, but after some thought I realized that we spend 50Euros everytime we go out to eat, which is often at times. And......I don't think I have bought a new pair of shoes in over a year. So after this realization I stopped worrying about it and enjoyed my new boots.

We all had a marvelous time, and we plan on going back to Salzburg to go camping in April or May. If anyone would like to come, we would LOVE to have you.