Spring Break Adventures

Our spring break started right at Easter. We did baskets the Saturday before as usual and watched General Conference sessions on Sunday. Then Monday we got in the car and drove four hours into Austria. Our first stop was the city of Melk where the Abbey is known for their Baroque chapel.

The complex is huge. It's a working monastery, plus the tourist side to it, and a working day school with about 800 students. 

 

 

 

I love ceilings

 

The art on the outside was modern and interesting - everything else was pretty much Baroque. We actually learned at the Schönbrunn Palace that the reason so many buildings from the time period are painted yellow is because it represents and is close to gold.

 

View from the top!

There is an absolutely beautiful library inside (no pictures allowed). But the coolest part of it was that the windows were even covered by bookshelves but there were hidden doors set in so that you could open them and there was a table and chair set by the window where you could sit and have good light for your reading. We all thought that was cool! The church was pretty magnificent. I can see why it's considered one of the finest - all dark wood and gold and the tour guide informed us that one of the monks counted over 700 angels in the church.  

 

 

In German it's called Stift Melk because the Abbey was a gift from the ruling family of Austria to the Benedictines. In the front of the Abbey they had a small museum of it's history and treasures and as you walked through the word "höre" was emphasized - "listen."  I like it when religious sites (despite the tourism) emphasis the tenants of their religion and in this case how we need to listen to God.

 

We took a brief detour into the city afterwards on the hunt for ice cream and discovered there is a brand of beer in Austria that is spelled the way my name should be spelled . . . 

After Melk Abbey we had about an hour to our apartment in Vienna which turned out to be beautiful and spacious and in a quiet, residential neighborhood.  We were set up to start our Vienna adventures!

Abby Turns EIGHT!!

Abby has been waiting and waiting for this birthday.  It's such a milestone!  In addition to being baptized (very soon), she also started Activity Days (on her birthday!) and she'll be going to women's sessions with me and Megan!  All things that she has really been looking forward to.

This was the birthday of the snail - she's obsessed!  And she requested a snail cake but I knew I couldn't pull that off.  Fortunately we found a toy snail and made it into a garden cake and it turned out great!

Yes, that's a pink edible glitter slime trail.  The snail was kind've gross looking but she loved it.

That's her birthday crown from school.

It's probably even grosser that she licked the frosting off the snail.  She did at one point bring me a real one and ask me if we could put that on the cake too.  NO!!!

She got a lot of snails for presents too - a snail night light, two stuffed snails (one real looking and one not), some snail teabag holders. She did get some other toys and garden tools from Grandma that were immediately put to use.

I have video as well but it it never uploads well.  So let's just say that she is a joy to watch open presents because she gets excited and gushes over pretty much every single one.

At eight years old Abby is still very dramatic, generous and kind, and generally happy.  She is excited about starting the violin, she loves to be outside helping in the yard and yes, LOVES snails. Abby is wonderful in school. She is a good student and a great helper to her teacher. She has a vivid imagination and infuses her personality into her stories. She is a sweet and sensitive soul and likes to be liked and have friends and she has some sweet ones at school. Her favorite color is purple, her favorite flavor is chocolate and she loves watching tv or playing on the tablet.  Her reading has gotten really good over this past year and she likes The Magic Treehouse series and Henry and Mudge.

Testing Testing . . .

Yeah it's been almost two months since I posted.  Part of it is because I've been pretty busy - school, German classes, subbing, and regular life. But then my blog decided not to let me in and since the email address I created it with is no longer in existence, I gave it up for lost and decided to start a new one. But since my computer says "hey you're in Germany!" it's being a pain and I'm wondering if I should even bother. I don't blog for followers and I'm not sure that people actually read it. It used to be an easy way to journal and then turn it into a hardcopy book but the last two years I've done more work getting the book ready and so the blog becomes an extra thing. Then, surprise surprise, it let me in today!  So I'm writing this and posting about life the last six weeks but I'm not sure I'll continue . . . thoughts?

I've been taking Masters classes in history online and am enjoying the subject matter - not the format. That's another story. I feel compelled to do that now but I don't want to cut back on travel to pay for it!  So I've finally been approved and am subbing at the kids' elementary school three days a week. My days off are either homework or working on my church calling or at the school for special events. I'm at the school a lot. For Valentine's day, William's teacher did a "we love to read" lunch and invited the parents. We read, had lunch together, and the kids all gave us roses.  It was so sweet!

This boy struggles with his letters still.  He wants to get it right the first time but is fairly lazy and doesn't put the effort in. I feel like 1st grade is where the reading is hit hard so I'm not too worried yet but it is frustrating!

He's also starting to not want to take pictures unless they're silly.

But this is a sweet one.

When the weather is cold and you don't have Christmas markets to go to, you improvise!  Actually we were shopping for pants for the girls and it was right after Fasching so we had a little fun.

 

Abby is fun!

When I'm subbing, I take the kids home from school with me and sometimes we have to stay a little bit while I finish paperwork, etc. William was excited there were legos in this particular classroom and wanted me to take a picture of him and his creation.

Every Friday is spirit day and I asked William if he wanted to match with me.  He said yes so I got out his school shirt but then he looked at me and ran upstairs to change his pants to jeans as well and then wanted a picture taken. You know, I don't think the girls have ever done this with me?  He loves his momma!

Then of course we had the 100th day of school and he had to dress like an old man.  He specifically asked for the the mustache, hat and glasses.  He was super cute. 

Now he's acting like an old man.

Gelato season has begun!  I could fill a whole album with ice cream pictures!

We dyed easter eggs this year and I blew out about a dozen for painting. We had planned to go to Garmisch for a weekend with Chopper for a scout training but had sick kids instead so he went down and I stayed behind. We had a great staycation though with the eggs, new movies, and lots of laziness.

Abby's eggs seriously look like Mexican wrestling masks though. 

On another weekend we did a day in Nuremberg because Abby is now taking violin lessons and we found a place that rents them (hooray!) We wandered a bit (their Easter market was terrible!) and popped into some churches -- included our favorite, St. Sebold. The one with the casket on snails.

We also tracked down a cat cafe - literally they have rescued cats running around. It was a vegan cafe (out of respect for the animals) but their cakes were actually quite good.

But cake didn't fill us up so we went to Bra for doners -- best place!

That is a tiny violin for a tiny girl!