Ryan's First Steps ... May 23, 2009

Happy Birthday...he took his first steps! And while it may have just been a nice, graceful, fall forward, it looked pretty good to me (I technically missed the first steps as I was trying to find an ATM when he did it the first time, but Heather told me to video as soon as we got situated outside the Volksgarten for our picnic to record the event).

Ryan's 1st Birthday ... May 23, 2009

We celebrated Ryan's birthday by waking him up to "Happy Birthday to you", eating the traditional breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, and spending a day in our favorite city of Vienna (what child WOULDN'T want to go to Vienna for their birthday!). We will have a small party for him with some of his friends on Monday night. We can not believe that he is one! And he took his first three steps (see next post!).

Danube Dinner Cruise ... May 22, 2009

Since a number of our group of friends are leaving this Summer, a large group of the "leavers" and the "stayers" got together to say good-bye. We took a Danube Dinner Cruise, which was quite fun. Actually, the food was terrible, but the view and the company was wonderful.
Julie Hall, one of Heather's roommates after college, is visiting us for a little while, so she joined us. And we sat with Dan and Colleen Browne (Colleen is Katie's 1st grade teacher and PERFECT for her!) who told us of their exciting adventures in Saudi Arabia, among other things. It was a fun cruise, despite the food. It is our wonderful friends and the beauty that is Budapest that we will miss the most!


Afterward we went back to the Intercontinental Hotel terrace and saw a fabulous slide show of the last few years together that Meredith put together (VERY well done Meredith!). And the "stayers" put on a little "So Long, Farewell" performance as well (we are only one country away from the Von Trapp's homeland of Austria).
Both the slideshow and performance were so good that those strolling the Danube Riverwalk stopped to enjoy it as well!

After the slide show we had a juggling contest (I won, of course) and then we played a remedial version of a game called "Stookich" (I used to play years ago in my office with my friends back in Louisville), which was basically take whatever you can find that is round (in this case it was lemons) and create a hoop of some sort (a public trash can right on the Danube) and have some sort of tournament (as I said this was a REMEDIAL version, so effectively it was whoever can get it in the trash first wins, while "Stookich" was MUCH more complex than that!...ok, maybe this was more like a remedial version of basketball or "knockout"??) Anyway, it was a great night (and by the way, while I thought Monique was SURE to win the lemon toss because of her great shooting form, I think Terry took home the pot). We will miss our friends here.

Katie's Play ... "Cinderella" ... May 22, 2009

A group of Katie's friends put on a small mini-play during the Friday assembly. Katie played the part of the Fairy God Mother and did a wonderful job. All the kids did very well and all knew their parts perfectly (by the way, it also happened to be "crazy hair day" at their school, so their hair styles were designed for that, not for the play).

Budapest Zoo Field Trip ... May 21, 2009

Heather was able to accompany Katie to the Budapest Zoo for her class field trip. She made it in time from Ashley's school presentation to the Zoo with Katie. They had great time together.

Ashley's school presentation ... May 21, 2009

Ashley performed with her class at A to Z. She did fabulously and is cuter than ever.

Ryan at Cracker Barrel ... May 16, 2009

Heather, Ryan, and I traveled back to Louisville, Kentucky for a couple of days to look for a house. The girls stayed in Budapest with Niki.
Anytime we get back to the US we take the opportunity to eat breakfast at Cracker Barrel to enjoy their sourdough French Toast. Ryan got his first opportunity to eat there while we were in Louisville, although he just had pancakes and orange juice.

Moving from Budapest ... May 13, 2009

So it is official ... After over three years here, we are moving from Budapest, Hungary to Louisville, Kentucky. We will SERIOUSLY miss this place but we are glad to go back to something very familiar (this will be our THIRD time in Louisville!). We are already making good progress in getting ready, finding a house, etc. Our last day here in this fantastic part of the world is July 9. It's been a great ride.

Esztergom, Hungary ... May 10, 2009

Sunday afternoon we took a drive to the city of Esztergom, Hungary, which is about 50 KM from Budapest and sits right on the "Danube Bend" right across the river from Slovakia. It used to be the capital of "Hungary" from the 10th to about the 13th century before it was moved to Visegrad (see our posts from a few years ago to that fabulous little castle town) and then Buda. St. Stephen of Hungary was born here and it has had its share of rulers, from the Czechs to the Turks.
We brought a picnic lunch and ate it in the park in front of the Basilica before wandering around the site and taking in the spectacular view of the Danube.
We drove across the bridge to Slovakia where we got a great view of the "castle hill" before driving back to Budapest.


Inside this fresco inside the basilica you can see the Basilica of Esztergom in the distance.