five men and a lady: The Austria Trip

Ok, I know this is a little late in coming, but I wanted to make sure that I did it before Christmas came around and I had a new blog to do. So this is our trip to Austria. We had a wonderful time! Before the trip the kids and I had prayed for snow, and lots of it. We really wanted to be able to play in the snow and to sled. It doesn't snow much in our area of Germany, so we were heading to the Alps to get some snow before heading to Korea. When we drove into Austria there was no snow to be seen. It was dark but you could tell that everything was still green. When we checked into our apartment the landowner mentioned that they were supposed to get snow that night. When we woke up the next morning sure enough, everything was covered in snow. It was so pretty.

But the bonus to the first snow fall was that it continued snowing for the next 24 hours!! It was so pretty and so much fun to play in.

Conner

Sean
We had a wonderful landlord who plowed a sledding run for us down the big field that was right out our back door. Everytime it snowed he would plow a fresh run and pack the snow down for us so that our toboggans would run smoothly down the hill.

The snow the first day was very packable and so we were able to make a snow man and a snow fort! The boys (big and little) had a blast playing snow ball fights and just building. The field we played in was so big that you were exhausted by the time you go to the top of the sled hill or to where the boys built the snow fort, but it was great the boys could all go off in different directions and not bother each other for a while. If they were crying or screaming, it was so big that no one could hear them. It really was ideal for us as a family with four boys. The trip was a time of relaxation and family time.

We enjoyed our children and each other.

Doug and I played numerous games of skipbo and Bryce even learned how to play. We drank hot chocolate and gluhwein and just enjoyed the down time.

These are the cloths that had to dry after we were done playing out in the snow!! Amazing!

The feild we played in all week, it was so wonderful!!

This is the rest of our feild! You can see a little bit of the sled run that the farmer plowed for us.

The view of the Alps from our apartment. This is from behind the house. So BEAUTIFUL!

This was behind the house, a road that ran up the hill to other houses up the mountian.

This is part of the farm we stayed at. The bell on top of the house was used to call farmers in for lunch, they are so cute!

The sun setting on the mountians! It is just amazing how majestic they are!

We took one day and went to Salzburg and took the Sound of Music tour.

The boys in front of the "Sound of Music" bull. Doug and I kept calling it a cow, but the boys kept correcting us and telling us that it was a BULL!!

This is the boys and I in front of the house that they filled when they showed the lake scene where the kids and Maria fall out of the boat. The house was not filmed, just the back yard. This was also the original location of the gazebo from the song, "Sixteen going on Seventeen". They moved the gazebo to a different location b/c this house is now used for conferences and not a tourist sight.

This is the house that they shot the front of the house shots. This is also where they have moved the gazebo b/c it is much better suited to visitors. It is actually a palace or something. It was closed when we were there, you could just tour the gardens.

There was a Christmas Market at the location, and these were the ornaments hanging from all the trees there. It was really pretty!

This is the actual Von-Trap family home. It is massive!! Seeing this house is not usually part of the tour, but our tour guide asked if we wanted to see it and of course we did! It is in a small residential neighborhood and the streets are really narrow, so we didn't stop long to take pictures, I was only able to snap two before we had to go. They are trying to turn it into a museum or hotel but are having trouble with the neighborhood not wanting them too. It's totally understandable b/c the neighborhood is NOT equipped to have a large number of people there as tourist.

We were walking around Salzburg and decided to stop at a little shop and have hot chocolate. The hot chocolate turned out to be more like hot pudding, it was so thick, and it was as rich as eating a piece of cake, all in a cup. The kids had adorable chocolate mustaches and we just had to take pictures.

Conner

Sean
The funniest part though was when we walked out of the shop and realized that we had just had hot chocolate in the house that Mozart grew up in! What an experience, to be where he lived! Ok, really it wasn't that cool, but it's cool to say that we've done it! :) :)

This is the house, the shop is on the bottom floor.

The boys spent a lot of time being boys, they ran around and played cars as well as just sitting and reading books after the long days of playing in the snow. Conner is sitting up against the wood burning stove in the apartment. I loved stoking that thing up!!

One afternoon, Doug was a little stir crazy, so we decided to go out to a park and have a picnic! Yes, we had a picnic in a park full of snow. We ate in this little "house" b/c it was the least covered with snow. What a fun time! The park had a sign that it was closed during the winter, or at least that is what we think it said, but thankfully no one called the cops on us! :)

This is the day that we left, the moon had been at the closest point to the earth that night and so it was supposed to appear really large. I don't know about that, but it was really cool looking between the mountains.