Two Days in the Mountains

One of Nathanael's best friends from school invites him frequently to join his family in the mountains of Styria. They recently built a home there, and understandably, they spend almost every weekend and every school break in the mountains. This season, we gifted Nathanael with a seasonal lift pass for their area, and he has taken full advantage of every opportunity to join his friend skiing. During our February semester break, this family invited Eva, Gregory and me to come spend a few days with them as well. They are incredible hosts and were generous ski teachers to us as well, as Eva had only been skiing once before, and Gregory and I are quite rusty. It was an amazing couple days. My muscles were not so happy with me, but the mountain air, the beautiful scenes, the pleasant exercise, and the special company made for an amazing few days. I wish I had more pictures.

 

January 2024 Happenings

Gregory turned 43 in January! We enjoyed cupcakes a few days early and then a dinner out together.

We had a weekend retreat with our colleagues in Austria.

A highlight this time was taking the kids ice skating.

 

Christmas 2023 with Opa and Oma

It was super special to have Opa and Oma visit from Michigan! We made special memories together, baking, playing games, eating, oh, and getting sick together. Yikes!

Christmas Market down the street from our home!

Eva was in a Christmas musical at church. She did a splendid job!

For Christmas, Eva and I were gifted with a mother-daughter two-night hotel trip, and we had so much fun together!

Nath even came to swim with us at the hotel a couple times. We liked sharing the fun with him!

Random November Pictures

Worship Evening at church

View of Schneeberg from one of Nath's away games

Pancakes for breakfast after a sleepover

Hard at studying

Our first snow

 

Random October pictures

new glasses!

Gregory and I unexpectedly had an evening when both kids were away, so we made fajitas and pico de gallo!

Nath started playing for a different team on loan. It is fun watching him play in games!

Eva took advantage of our grass on a warmer day.

Nath finally got an actual computer for school and leisure. The hand-me-down laptops just weren't cutting it anymore.

Gregory found some great spots in our forest for pictures.

Our church shares facilities with another church, and the other church bought a new keyboard. It is quite fancy, and for a few weeks in a row, a group of guys would gather around it after the service and play around with all of the settings!

 

Family Pictures

 We had pictures taken in our local forest this year! Our photographer was really nice. Tanja Heissenberger-Münster.

Forests and Vineyards

We live on the side of hill which has either forests or vineyards. It is ideal. We take daily walks in the forest together. And last weekend we were able to have a date in the vineyards, stopping by three local stands to try their seasonal ''new wine''. It was such a gorgeous evening, and the atmosphere at each stand was special. We enjoyed the walking and sitting and talking and admiring the beauty in nature and the community around us.

A rainy morning walk

A date to visit three vineyard stands in Brunn am Gebirge

2023 Summer Staycation

With our move to Maria Enzersdorf in July, we decided to use our week-long vacation in August to explore the area and do fun outings every day.  We ate a lot of delicious food.  We discovered a great local lake for swimming and an awesome pool complex in Baden.  We overdid it at Jumpin Warrior. We took a day at Family Park (it was soooo hot).  The kids taught us Minecraft. We went to a couple look-out towers in the woods nearby.  And did I mention a lot of great food?  It was definitely a FULL week, and I am not sure I would do it that way again, but we had a blast and loved getting to know our area better.