For the annual Stucki Family Reunion, we first all met in St. Louis to attend the sealing of my sister and her family to their 2 newly adopted boys, Reagan and Chase. It was a very nice experience for us. We spent the night in St. Louis, went to church the next morning, and then all caravanned to Wisconsin Dells for part 2 of the reunion.
We went to Paul Blackwell's birthday party at the Blackwell barn. Lisa had the barn all made up for both a birthday party and Halloween. The kids all wore their Halloween costumes. This year Katie was Cleopatra, Ashley was Cinderella, and Ryan went as a cute Yoda. Ryan had a blast playing with the "bobbing for apples" tub. It was a fun evening with great food and great friends.
For three years the kids have had to forego any visit to a pumpkin patch since we were lucky to have a pumpkin at all in Budapest. And admittedly, this visit was not much better than no visit at all. We arrived too late in the season to find a decent pumpkin and we arrived too late in the morning to truly enjoy the experience (we only had a few minutes before we had to be at the girls' soccer games). But they had fun climbing the hay stacks and roaming the patch for a few minutes. (Is it me, or is Ryan seriously looking like an old man in a little body?)
After this move and realizing that I have gained 20 pounds in the last six months, I figured it was time to start exercising and taking care of myself a little more. I started running just a few weeks before the Susan G. Koman "Race for the Cure" 5K in downtown Louisville. I figured that would be a good place to start. Heather and I ran it together, with Heather pushing Ryan in the jog stroller (who just sat there and enjoyed the ride). It was a lot harder than I thought, but it was fun to run it with Heather (at least for five or six minutes until I had to slow down a little and she took off).
Ryan LOVES to go to the cereal cupboard and help himself. He has even learned to pick out just the marshmallows from the Lucky Charms. Tired of always finding him traipsing around the house with a bag of cereal in his arms, we finally decided to put the child latch on. Now he has moved to the cupboard next door with the pots and pans. But at least that is not as messy, just louder.
Katie played a year of soccer in Budapest but did not enjoy it too much (sort of like Ashley this year). So we hesitated to let her play once she expressed interest after seeing Ashley start her season. But fortunately there was a team made up of a number of neighborhood kids that needed an additional player, so Katie joined that team. And we are very glad because this year Katie loved it. She had a great time and played pretty well, especially being one of only two girls on the team. She played aggressive and looked forward to each practice and game, unlike a couple of years ago. Lets hope Ashley feels the same way when she is a little older.
After a couple of weeks in her Pre-K class at St. John's, they decided that she needed to be moved up to the five year old class. So this is yet another picture of Ashley's "first day of Pre-K". She will do better in this class and will be challenged more, which is good.
After almost SIXTEEN weeks of waiting, the movers FINALLY arrived with our stuff. We have moved now five times in 9 years so we have gotten pretty good at it, but this move was by far the worst and overall, an absolute disaster. The company supporting the move was the most inept and incompetent supplier I have ever had to deal with and then the actual unpackers were almost as bad. Not only did we have to WAIT forever for our goods to arrive, the unpackers seemed to damage more pieces of furniture than I could have thought possible. One would think that crossing a continent, an ocean, and then half of another continent, that damage COULD occur in the process. In this case, however, it SEEMS that the actual transit of the goods was relatively fine (minus the time it TOOK). But the unpackers provided many cuts and slices in our furniture just while unpacking. To top it all off, this was just the one truck. It turned out that the OTHER truck was STILL in transit. We did not receive that one for another two weeks (18 weeks overall...3 1/2 month...almost 25% of the year without our belongings!). I think if any of the other four moves had been this bad we would not have been inclined to make them. But we are glad that we are finally getting settle in our new home.
Ashley decided she wanted to play soccer this year when our neighbor, who is coaching the team, invited her to play. The good news is that she looked really cute in her uniform and shin guards. The bad news is that she didn't seem to enjoy it at all. Most of the games she would prefer to sit on the sidelines and play with Ryan. Once, even when she was SUPPOSED to be on the field playing, we found her off the field playing with Ryan (not sure how long it took us to notice that!). But her team was fantastic and it was good exercise and fun to go out to the field as a family (most of the time!).
Even thought Ashley was in Pre-Kindergarten in Budapest, she missed the cut off for Kindergarten, so she had to repeat the "grade". So, this is the 2nd year in a row that she has a first day of Pre-K. It's unfortunate, but Heather is glad to have her home more often. She attends St. John's Pre-school and goes 1/2 day for four days a week. She is doing very well and is basically reading already.
We spent the weekend in St. Louis to visit my parents and to see the American Idol concert. It is about a 4 1/2 hour drive. We arrived late Friday night and then went to the Magic House the next morning with my parents. This is an incredible place, with room after room of different hands on experiences. The girls spent a little while in fairy tale land then proceeded to pretend to be President Obama (according to Katie) and President Monson (according to Ashley) in the Oval Office and Congress replicas. After that they had a mock trial in the Supreme Court room and then climbed the beanstalk. From there they proceeded to put on their detective gear and solve a mystery after which all of us took a turn electrocuting ourselves, or at least our hair. We ended the visit with a stop for a 19th century tea party and to construct a building. And I don't think we saw everything! It was a great visit with my parents and we are glad that we are so much closer than we have been for the past five years.
Heather canned peaches for the first time. Actually, this is the first time I think she has canned anything. The reality is that canning, in my opinion, costs more than it is worth. Considering I don't like canned peaches and the nutrients only last a year in a canned bottle of peaches, it seems like a lot of effort and cost to go through. But she did have a good time with some members of the ward, so I think that compensates for this.
Katie's first day of 2nd grade went great. Her teacher at Goshen Elementary School is Mrs. Turnage and it is a combined 1st grade/2nd grade class. Personally, I think this combined class structure is idiotic, especially since Katie didn't get to take advantage of being in the 1st grade class, but a lot about U.S. public schools is lame (WAY too many rules). But Heather says that the actual classroom education piece is better than Budapest AISB, so I guess it makes it worth it. It is crazy that school has already started.
Even though we had not moved in yet, we celebrated Katie's birthday at our house with the Delle Foglie's. We went to Chuck E Cheese earlier in the day. I think Katie enjoyed her special day (which had already been celebrated twice before!).
We're back! Did you miss us??
After we spent a couple of days in Chicago, we drove down to Champaign, Illinois, where I grew up and visited for the rest of the weekend with my parents. My sister Trisha and her family were also visiting, so it was good to see everyone and good for the kids to play with their cousins.
We made a trip up to my dad's office and lab and he showed all of the kids how to freeze things with liquid nitrogen. We also visited the Curtis Apple Orchard where the kids got to play for a little while. We drove back Sunday afternoon to Louisville.
The plane ride back to the US. This will be the first time Ryan and Ashley have lived in the US. I still remember a couple of years ago when I showed Ashley (she was probably just 3 years old and we had been studying the planets) a picture of the United States. I asked her what it was. She looked at me for a second and then said, "Mercury?". I think it is time that the girls learned what a state is and started to learn a few of them. Today they do pretty good playing the ABC game with countries (A=Austria, B=Belgium, C=Croatia, D=Denmark, E=England, etc.), now we need to teach them US geography a little bit.
The flight was actually quite nice and uneventful (and the kids enjoyed the red socks!). It was a direct flight from Budapest to New York, so no layovers required since we were going to spend a few days with Heather's dad there. The hardest part was we were traveling with 14 suitcases, so trying to deal with the logistics of that was a little difficult, but we actually managed well.
So, this is the last of the Budapest posts...at least for a little while.
We went to the house the morning of our flight home to hand over the keys (we had returned the rental furniture a couple of days before). I've included a picture of Andras, our handyman/gardener for the last 3 years. He originally was a little scary, but was a very nice man and Heather said he even shed a tear as we were locking up the gate for the last time.
We loved our house and the yard and really this is all the kids know and really remember (for now). Ryan was born here and Ashley was only 18 months when we moved here. Katie remembers a little about our time in Toronto, but hopefully will remember a lot more of Budapest. I've said it before, but we will really miss this place.
The Terror Museum sits on Andrassy st. 60, the previous headquarters for the secret police of both the Nazis and the Communists. It was in this building hundreds of people were tortured and murdered for their political affiliations. Note the carved out "TERROR" on the re-designed roof...when the sun projects through these letters, it depicts the "terror" that projected down on Hungary during the Nazi/Communist regimes.
And if she wasn't at Szamos...she was at Arriba, the only good Mexican place in Budapest. We used to go to Arriba together for lunch on Saturdays...now we will have to go to Taco Bell instead, I guess (if there was a "sarcasm" font, I would have written that last line using that font).
Doroty has been a great friend and great help around the house and with the kids ove rthe past year. We'll miss her! Plus, she makes a GREAT Hungarian Goulash!
Heather and Ashley walked across the chain bridge together. This is a wonderful structure where in the Summers they close it off on the weekends for pedestrians and vendors only. It starts at the bottom of Castle Hill and ends just across from the Four Seasons Hotel.
I visited the Jewish Synagogue, which is the largest in the world next to the Temple Emanu-El in New York City. It was completed in 1859 but severely damaged by bombings by the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party in 1939 (this is the organization that murdered thousands of Jews...see the Shoe Memorial previous post). It was used as a German radio base as well as a stable during the war with the restoration occurring in 1991. The complex was part of the Jewish Ghetto established during the war, so a large number of Jews took refuge here. There is a graveyard in the back (separate from the house of prayer, per Jewish laws) where over 2,000 Jews who perished in the Ghetto from hunger and cold in 1944 are buried there.
Next to the Synagogue is the Raul Wallenberg Holocaust Memorial Park, remembering the 400,000 Hungarian Jews murdered by the Nazis (the monument represents a Weeping Willow Tree, with the names of the perished engraved on the "leaves"). It still amazes me how a group of people could be so dark as to administer such horrific acts as the Nazis did.
That being said, the Synagogue has been rebuilt, as has the Jewish community in Budapest, but not without severe pain and suffering.
For three years we met at this building, the Budapest English Speaking Branch. Each year it seemed like the number of families declined, as more families moved away than moved in. But we enjoyed getting to know many of these people over the last few years.
During our time, primary had a maximum of twelve kids and as little as 5 kids at one point. Church was always only two hours (Sacrament Meeting and Priesthood/RS...Sunday School was substituted for Priesthood/RS on the 5th Sunday). The branch had for most of our time only a couple of youth. Life will be much different in our new ward in Kentucky, where the primary has >125 kids and church is three hours again. Our kids really only know the last three years when it comes to church, since they were barely in primary when we moved to Budapest, so this will be an interesting transition.
After we spent the afternoon at the bath, we headed over to the Chapman's house for a 4th of July barbecue. It was great, as usual, and was fantastic to have yet ANOTHER "last good-byes" opportunity. We learned that Ryan LOVES the sandbox and will just sit in there and play for as long as we will let him. He, Dylan, and Reese had a great time playing in there together and we enjoyed the company of our friends one more time (oh, and Ryan walked in shoes for the first time...he looked a little inebriated at first, but got the hang of it).
Gellert spa/bath is world famous, and is yet another of the attractions we never took advantage of until we were ready to move home. The original Gellert Bath was builty between 1913 and 1918 and rebuilt/renovated after being damaged during World War II. The site had different baths over the years, the first known built during the 13th century.
We enjoyed the wave pool for the afternoon on a perfect, sunny, very hot day. We may have waited 3 years to visit, but the day we visited was perfect!
We checked out of our hotel and drove directly to Lipica, Slovenia, about 45 minutes from Postojna. Lipica is where the Lipizzaner horses orginated from, with the Archduke of Inner Austria, Charles II, establishing the stud farm in 1580. The first horses were brought in from Spain, because this part of the continent's climate is similar to that of Spain. The Lipizzaner breed was developed around the 18th century. Throughout the years the farm has had to adjust to the different wars. In 1947, the farm transfered ownership to the Republic of Yugoslavia, but at that point, only 11 horses remained, as the Germans had confiscated the majority of the horses. Lipica originally provided horses to the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, although I think that school now has their own breeding farms. The Yugoslav war in 1991 significantly reduced the herd, but since 1996, as part of Slovenia, the farm has returned to normalcy and houses a large number of horses.
We took a guided tour of the grounds and wandered through the different stables. We learned how the horses are branded with a large "L" on their cheek, indicating they come from Lipica and their number is branded on their side. We learned how the horses are named (sort of like Spaniards, taking the names of both their father and mother). Katie and Ashley took a pony ride around the grounds, all geared up. We learned that this breed is born brown and as they mature, they turn white. We also watched the training of these brilliant horses for as long as Heather could manage her allergies (which was not very long).
Just ten kilometers from the caves is the Predjama Castle, which is built into the side of the mountain. This castle has had many different versions and addendums over the years, with the first known reference of it in the 13th century. Around the 15th century, the original castle was destroyed after Erazam Lueger, the original owner of the castle, decided that he was going to pillage the Habsburg empire, and was subsequently attacked by their establishment and killed. The castle was rebuilt and added onto over the next couple of centuries, passing a few different owners, with the Windischgraetz family taking ownership until the end of WWII. After that, the Yugoslav communist authorities nationalized the castle and turned it into a museum. It is very well preserved and one can pass through the different rooms that still maintain a semblence of the functions of their past. There is also a secret passage that Erazam had enlarged that leads into the Postrojna caves, so strategically it has served the different owners of the castle very well.
We left early Friday morning and drove through Austria and into Slovenia, arriving at Postojna in the early afternoon. Postojna is in the southwest corner of the country, less than 50 KM from the Italian border. Here they have the longest cave system of the country, created by the Privka river. They have built a "tourist train" that takes you deep into the cave a couple of kilometers, then we were guided on foot for another couple of kilometers. It was quite fascinating and perfect for the kids. We even got to wear the "cloak of invisibility" to keep us warm, considering the temperatures were in the 50's in many places in the cave.
We stayed at the hotel just outside the entrance to the cave, so it was very convenient for us.
I took a day off to make one more longer distance trip back to Slovenia. But FIRST, we had to go and visit Vienna ONE more time before moving. We took off Thursday afternoon to make it to Vienna late afternoon. After we made it through the pouring rain during our drive, the sun came out as we pulled into the city (as usual) for our final Vienna Nostalgia tour. We walked to St. Stephens and around the city for a little while, found a painting of Vienna that we liked, and then had dinner at Cafe Diglas just a couple of blocks from the Cathedral. When Heather and I came here the Christmas after we were married, an old professor of mine, from when I studied in Vienna in college, took us there. We have gone back a number of times sinse, and it seemed fitting and nostalgic to go there again. They have good schnitzel.
After dinner we had gelato at Zanoni's before going back to our hotel for the night. I seriously am going to miss this city. But we'll be back.
Ashley had a great year at A to Z and will miss Miss Dani and Miss Klari, her teachers.
Depeche Mode came to Budapest at the soccer stadium, so we figured we couldn't miss that! We had decent seats, for seats, but the main area in front of the stage was all standing only, so we didn't want to deal with that. That meant we were further back than we wanted to be.
The concert was just ok. Partly because the song list wasn't that great, in my opinion. Too much new stuff, not enough classics. PLUS, we missed our friends from the last time we went and saw Depeche Mode (Voorhies' and the Rollins...well, at least Kim!).
And to top it all off, it started to rain HEAVILY towards the end of the concert...but we survived and it was worth it all overall.
We celebrated Caden, Maren, and Carter's birthdays (it was a combined birthday party for each, from a different family) at the Zoo Playhouse. The kids played, ate lunch, cupcakes, and then got to feed the elephants. Ryan was scared to death of them. The zoo is right across from Szecsenyi Baths, so we had to walk past that beautiful building on our way to and from the zoo. We will seriously miss this place.
Ashley had a good year at A to Z pre-school. Her teachers were great and she made some great friends.
