November 30, 2007
Katie's class put on a performance of "The Little Red Hen". Katie was the narrator (since she is one fo the few that knows how to read...we are proud!) and did a fantastic job!
Vienna Christmas Markets
November 24, 2007
This was the first weekend that the Christmas Markets opened up for business across many cities in Europe, including Vienna. Since Kym, Mark, Wendy, and Steve were driving back to Munich to catch a Sunday morning flight, we decided to all spend the day in Vienna before they headed to their final destination.
We arrived around 10AM, parked the cars, and made our way to Stephansdom cathedral and the center of town which is already decorated for Christmas. It's a spectatcular time of year to visit these cities during this holiday period.
We made the walk from the cathedral down the walking the street to the Ring and the Opera House. We walked around the ring, passed through the Burggarten, past the Hofburg to the Museums quarter where we stopped to look at the first Christmas Market (and got a pretzel and scone). We made our way further down the ring to the Rathaus, where the largest of the Vienna Christmas markets occurs. Here we got bratwursts and also found our Vienna Nutcracker (actually two, as after settling on one we found a MUCH more AUSTRIAN Nutcracker, complete with boiled wool coat and hat).
We walked back through the Hofburg gardens, past the Spanish Riding School (where the Lipizzaner Horses train and perform). It was in front of this (in the covered passage) that we past by a street artist performing on an electric violin Sting's "Fields of Gold". It was so enchanting and the acoustics were so wonderful we couldn't help but purchase his CD...here's a link to the Electric Violin version of the song....
We continued back to Stephansdom, ate ice cream at Zanoni's (of course, and despite that it was probably too cold for ice cream), and then headed back to the cars.
We drove over to Schoenbrunn Palace to check out the Christmas Market there. Last year we tried to visit right after Christmas but learned that it had already closed for the season. Just as we were leaving we realized that they were doing the Christmas Lighting Ceremony (as this was the first night of the market), so we enjoyed that for a few minutes as the lights were turned on the large tree in the center of the Palace Plaza.
We said goodbye to Kym, Mark, Steve, and Wendy who were all driving back to Munich, and then we made out way back to Budapest. It was a wonderful day and reminded us of how wonderful this season is. Vienna by itself is my favorite city in Europe and a day like today solidifies this opinion in my mind.
November 24, 2007
This was the first weekend that the Christmas Markets opened up for business across many cities in Europe, including Vienna. Since Kym, Mark, Wendy, and Steve were driving back to Munich to catch a Sunday morning flight, we decided to all spend the day in Vienna before they headed to their final destination.
We arrived around 10AM, parked the cars, and made our way to Stephansdom cathedral and the center of town which is already decorated for Christmas. It's a spectatcular time of year to visit these cities during this holiday period.
We made the walk from the cathedral down the walking the street to the Ring and the Opera House. We walked around the ring, passed through the Burggarten, past the Hofburg to the Museums quarter where we stopped to look at the first Christmas Market (and got a pretzel and scone). We made our way further down the ring to the Rathaus, where the largest of the Vienna Christmas markets occurs. Here we got bratwursts and also found our Vienna Nutcracker (actually two, as after settling on one we found a MUCH more AUSTRIAN Nutcracker, complete with boiled wool coat and hat).
We walked back through the Hofburg gardens, past the Spanish Riding School (where the Lipizzaner Horses train and perform). It was in front of this (in the covered passage) that we past by a street artist performing on an electric violin Sting's "Fields of Gold". It was so enchanting and the acoustics were so wonderful we couldn't help but purchase his CD...here's a link to the Electric Violin version of the song....We continued back to Stephansdom, ate ice cream at Zanoni's (of course, and despite that it was probably too cold for ice cream), and then headed back to the cars.
We drove over to Schoenbrunn Palace to check out the Christmas Market there. Last year we tried to visit right after Christmas but learned that it had already closed for the season. Just as we were leaving we realized that they were doing the Christmas Lighting Ceremony (as this was the first night of the market), so we enjoyed that for a few minutes as the lights were turned on the large tree in the center of the Palace Plaza.
We said goodbye to Kym, Mark, Steve, and Wendy who were all driving back to Munich, and then we made out way back to Budapest. It was a wonderful day and reminded us of how wonderful this season is. Vienna by itself is my favorite city in Europe and a day like today solidifies this opinion in my mind.
Thanksgiving
November 22, 2007
Heather's sister and her husband, Kym and Mark plus friends from Salt Lake, Steve and Wendy Sorenson, all came to visit for the Thanksgiving holiday. They all flew into Munich and spent a little time there and in Prague before driving down to Budapest Tuesday night.
I spent most of the day in a meeting, but came home early to celebrate the holiday and enjoy a wonderful meal of the usual turkey (thanks to a friend who found one for us), 3 types of potatoes to satisfy everyone's tastes, stuffing, cranberry sauce (to satisfy some people's tastes, not mine), vegetables, and a number of different kinds of pies. Heather did a great job and the dinner was, as always, fabulous!
November 22, 2007
Heather's sister and her husband, Kym and Mark plus friends from Salt Lake, Steve and Wendy Sorenson, all came to visit for the Thanksgiving holiday. They all flew into Munich and spent a little time there and in Prague before driving down to Budapest Tuesday night.
I spent most of the day in a meeting, but came home early to celebrate the holiday and enjoy a wonderful meal of the usual turkey (thanks to a friend who found one for us), 3 types of potatoes to satisfy everyone's tastes, stuffing, cranberry sauce (to satisfy some people's tastes, not mine), vegetables, and a number of different kinds of pies. Heather did a great job and the dinner was, as always, fabulous!
First Snowfall of the year in Budapest!
November 10, 2007
Last year we barely had a chance to make a snowman. This year the fun has started early (too soon to tell if we will get another chance at this, but looking more and more likely). The girls had a great time and although the snowman had melted away by the next morning, at least these pictures will remind us that we really did experience this.
November 10, 2007
Last year we barely had a chance to make a snowman. This year the fun has started early (too soon to tell if we will get another chance at this, but looking more and more likely). The girls had a great time and although the snowman had melted away by the next morning, at least these pictures will remind us that we really did experience this.
Halloween 2007
Katie chose to dress up as Cinderella this year, since she is her favorite princess. Ashley was a ballerina because she is always doing ballet all over the house (and everywhere we go)...not to mention, we already had the costume, so it was easy that way. Like last year, since Hungarians do not celebrate Halloween, we did a trunk or treat at the American school on Halloween night, in lieu of the door to door.
Katie chose to dress up as Cinderella this year, since she is her favorite princess. Ashley was a ballerina because she is always doing ballet all over the house (and everywhere we go)...not to mention, we already had the costume, so it was easy that way. Like last year, since Hungarians do not celebrate Halloween, we did a trunk or treat at the American school on Halloween night, in lieu of the door to door.
Trip to the United States of America!
October 19-28, 2007
We took a trip back to the U.S. as a family for the first time since we moved over here (not counting the trip back for Kara's wedding 3 weeks after our initial move 17 months ago). I'd been back once by myself, and Heather once by herself, but after that last horrendous plane ride, we vowed we would never travel with the girls unless we were moving home and were forced to. We finally decided to go back to visit family, so we planned a trip, albeit with much trepidation. To our great surprise and delight, the girls were FABULOUS on the trip there, throughout our visit (despite the jetlag), and great on the return flight as well.
We flew to Chicago and immediately drove to St. Louis to attend the sealing of Heather's sister Dawn and her husband Gianni. That allowed us to spend time with all of her family, as everyone flew out for this occasion. It was really fun to have all of Heather's siblings in the temple together for the first time. Katie and Ashley enjoyed spending time with two of their Larsen cousins, Stephen and Hayden.
We then drove to Wisconsin (with a quick stop over in Champaign) to spend a few days with my family in Wisconsin Dells. The girls had a great time with all of their Stucki cousins at the Kalahari resort and indoor water park (Katie started swimming by herself), which was part of the hotel where we stayed, so it was very fun and convenient at the same time. We also took a brief tour of the DUCKS, a WWII military land/water vehicle that randomly has become a tourist attraction in Wisonsin Dells. Katie and 
Ashley even got a chance to "drive" it.
From Wisconsin Dells we drove back to Champaign through Chicago, stopping in to visit the Buttons, good friends of ours from my mission (Kevin) and from when we lived in Louisville (both Kevin and Kim and their 3 kids). It was great to see them after a few years since we both moved from Kentucky three years ago.
From the Button's we drove back to Champaign and spent the last three days of our break with my parents, eating and shopping. I think we had Jimmy Johns sandwiches four times on the trip. We brought two suitcases from Europe and returned with eight!We flew home from Chicago, but not before stopping off at the American Girl store (and as it happens another Jimmy Johns that we passed on the walk from the car to the store!) to buy the dolls that the girls want Santa to bring them for Christmas. I am not exactly sure why we bought Ashley one, considering how she treats her things, but hopefully she matures quickly over the next couple of months!
Before we left for the airport we stopped off at Grant Park. Heather and I got engaged there a little over seven years ago and had not been back since, so we spent a few minutes showing Katie and Ashley. It brought back very good memories. It seems like forever ago, considering everything we have done over the last seven years, but at the same time seems like just yesterday. Strange how that works.We flew home through Brussels where we had a 14 hour layover (yeah, we knew that going into it, but probably should have spent a little more time trying to work around this and find an alternative!). We arrived even an hour earlier (5:30 AM) since it was daylight savings time for 
Europe (what a WASTE of an extra hour of sleep!). Heather was miserable and neither of us could fathom spending even 14 hours around Brussels on the little sleep we had gotten on the plane (despite the fact that the girls did travel well again), so we went into the city, found a hotel room for the day, and went to sleep. Probably not the wisest thing to do to get over jetlag (I had to be at work the next morning), but we were exhausted and it was a valid way to pass the time at that point. We slept for six hours then woke up and walked around Brussels (which has a wonderful city center, so we need to go back and enjoy it appropriately). We visited the most famous statue in Brussels, of a little boy urinating into a fountain, appropriately called Manneken Pis. Legend has it that this two year old was the lord of some group of people and in 1142 the troops of this lord put him in a basket and hung it from a tree, to encourage them. From there he urinated on the opposing forces, who eventually lost the battle.After spending a few hours touring the city we headed back to the Airport for a relatively easy flight back to Budapest. We BARELY fit the eight pieces of luggage plus carry-ons and a new booster seat we bought in the US into the Volvo wagon, but we did it and made it home just before midnight.It was a good trip and our fears of the worst part being the travel were, fortunately, not that justified.
October 19-28, 2007
We took a trip back to the U.S. as a family for the first time since we moved over here (not counting the trip back for Kara's wedding 3 weeks after our initial move 17 months ago). I'd been back once by myself, and Heather once by herself, but after that last horrendous plane ride, we vowed we would never travel with the girls unless we were moving home and were forced to. We finally decided to go back to visit family, so we planned a trip, albeit with much trepidation. To our great surprise and delight, the girls were FABULOUS on the trip there, throughout our visit (despite the jetlag), and great on the return flight as well.We flew to Chicago and immediately drove to St. Louis to attend the sealing of Heather's sister Dawn and her husband Gianni. That allowed us to spend time with all of her family, as everyone flew out for this occasion. It was really fun to have all of Heather's siblings in the temple together for the first time. Katie and Ashley enjoyed spending time with two of their Larsen cousins, Stephen and Hayden.
We then drove to Wisconsin (with a quick stop over in Champaign) to spend a few days with my family in Wisconsin Dells. The girls had a great time with all of their Stucki cousins at the Kalahari resort and indoor water park (Katie started swimming by herself), which was part of the hotel where we stayed, so it was very fun and convenient at the same time. We also took a brief tour of the DUCKS, a WWII military land/water vehicle that randomly has become a tourist attraction in Wisonsin Dells. Katie and 
Ashley even got a chance to "drive" it.From Wisconsin Dells we drove back to Champaign through Chicago, stopping in to visit the Buttons, good friends of ours from my mission (Kevin) and from when we lived in Louisville (both Kevin and Kim and their 3 kids). It was great to see them after a few years since we both moved from Kentucky three years ago.
From the Button's we drove back to Champaign and spent the last three days of our break with my parents, eating and shopping. I think we had Jimmy Johns sandwiches four times on the trip. We brought two suitcases from Europe and returned with eight!We flew home from Chicago, but not before stopping off at the American Girl store (and as it happens another Jimmy Johns that we passed on the walk from the car to the store!) to buy the dolls that the girls want Santa to bring them for Christmas. I am not exactly sure why we bought Ashley one, considering how she treats her things, but hopefully she matures quickly over the next couple of months!
Before we left for the airport we stopped off at Grant Park. Heather and I got engaged there a little over seven years ago and had not been back since, so we spent a few minutes showing Katie and Ashley. It brought back very good memories. It seems like forever ago, considering everything we have done over the last seven years, but at the same time seems like just yesterday. Strange how that works.We flew home through Brussels where we had a 14 hour layover (yeah, we knew that going into it, but probably should have spent a little more time trying to work around this and find an alternative!). We arrived even an hour earlier (5:30 AM) since it was daylight savings time for 
Europe (what a WASTE of an extra hour of sleep!). Heather was miserable and neither of us could fathom spending even 14 hours around Brussels on the little sleep we had gotten on the plane (despite the fact that the girls did travel well again), so we went into the city, found a hotel room for the day, and went to sleep. Probably not the wisest thing to do to get over jetlag (I had to be at work the next morning), but we were exhausted and it was a valid way to pass the time at that point. We slept for six hours then woke up and walked around Brussels (which has a wonderful city center, so we need to go back and enjoy it appropriately). We visited the most famous statue in Brussels, of a little boy urinating into a fountain, appropriately called Manneken Pis. Legend has it that this two year old was the lord of some group of people and in 1142 the troops of this lord put him in a basket and hung it from a tree, to encourage them. From there he urinated on the opposing forces, who eventually lost the battle.After spending a few hours touring the city we headed back to the Airport for a relatively easy flight back to Budapest. We BARELY fit the eight pieces of luggage plus carry-ons and a new booster seat we bought in the US into the Volvo wagon, but we did it and made it home just before midnight.It was a good trip and our fears of the worst part being the travel were, fortunately, not that justified.
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