Skiing in Austria - Winter Break

When we move back to the states, our family is going to really miss all of these breaks!

The car was busting at the seams with all our winter skiing attire as we headed on a 9 hour drive to Austria. Not really meaning to caravan, we bumped into our whole clan and ended up eating lunch together at McDonald's. We later stopped for our dinner reservation with everyone in our group at this German restaurant in Munich. These kids dancing provided entertainment for this hopping restaurant.

There were 4 families vacationing together with the kids in ski school all week. The adults had lessons or just skied on their own. We were the ones needing the lessons which resulted in us successfully skiing down a blue run later in the week. Who knew skiing could be so much fun? I hadn't enjoyed it until Thursday when our dear friend (who is an awesome skier) took time out of her own ski day to set the pace for us on the blue. We loved it and have definitely improved since last year. Here we are on our first ski run we have ever completed in its entirety.

Naturally, the kids picked up the sport much faster than we did. Friday they were skiing red runs which is a step above blues. Most days we could barely find them since their instructors took them up the sides of the mountains we dared not go. This day, early in the week, J just happened to be on the bunny slopes with us and you can see how the class just follows the instructor back and forth, slowly making it down the mountain like ducklings following their momma. She's the first ducking in purple behind Momma.
We were so proud of their progression. They even held races down the hill on the last day and R came in 3rd for his group! He raced down the hill in 38 seconds weaving in and out of the poles just like in the Olympics.

Here the kids are making their way up to the start line with the lifts.

This one was more concerned with waving to her cheering fans as she skied down instead of her winning form.

Here she's only half the way down.
Here goes R:



You can see the determination on his face. No waving from this guy!

When the kids weren't swimming in the hotel pool after skiing, they could be found sledding.

So could the adults! This one is my 6'7" tall husband.

Here the dads are racing:

Now a turn with Daddy:

Ladies' turn:

J's friend, who recently moved to Prague, came Tuesday night to eat dinner with us which was a great reunion for the girls.

As part of Fat Tuesday the kids' faces were painted in the Kids' Club (the after dinner babysitting area).
Surprisingly the kids never tired of one another since just 20 minutes from home J asked to have a playdate with one of the other girls. Hadn't we just seen them not even 24 hours ago?

What Are You Going to Do?

All I can do is laugh. We're expecting some important tax documents to arrive via DHL through the mail which apparently I have to sign to receive. The note in our mailbox required me to call and see when they can drop them by the house. "Oh, we can drop them by on Monday anywhere between 8 AM and 5 PM," stated the lady on the other end of the phone. Oh, okay. Well, these documents are important enough for me to be homebound for a whole day. So, I guess I'll stick around and not do too much on Monday!

Egypt for 2 Days (Cruise)

Waiting for us right off the ship was a convoy of buses and other vehicles including our tour van to take us 3 hours to Cairo and Giza. Our tour guide claimed we'd find the scenery pretty impressive. I beg to differ. I was rather shocked. I hesitated to document the pollution with my camera because I didn't want to come across as a crazy American. Now, I wish I would have taken pictures of the horrific scenery of trash along the drive. It really surprised me to the point that I couldn't talk in the van. Some areas seemed so poorly maintained and had such horrible living conditions.

Nevertheless, it didn't stop us from having an incredible 2 days in Egypt! I do have one suggestion if you ever travel to Egypt or Israel and that would be to bring a roll of toilet paper. After chatting with some friends here, I learned to come prepared, and I left almost empty handed as a result of the nonstocked restrooms.

Our tour started in Memphis at the ruins of the temple of Ptah.
Here we found the Alabaster Sphinx of King Amenhopis II (above) and the fallen statue of King Ramses II (below).

A view of the River Nile with Cairo in the background:

Alabaster Mosque of Mohamed Ali in Cairo:

Inside the mosque the kids thought it was funny to wear these blue slippers over their shoes.

We made it to the pyramids! This one is the step pyramid of Sakkara. It was for King Zoser, and is one of the first pyramids ever built.

The kids are with our tour guide below.

These are the famous pyramids at Giza:

Looking up along the side of the pyramid:

Another angle:

Someone (our photographer) had a little too much time on his hands since he opted not to go inside the pyramid. After the warning about the space being cramped, he decided to stay outside and snap a few more pictures than we actually needed. It's a good thing too. His 6'7" frame would have been miserable in the tight quarters of the pyramid. Descending along the ramp to the interior, my 5 year old was the only one walking upright. The rest of us were hunched like 90 year olds with osteoporosis. After making it through the sloped hallway, we ended up in a large room with a rock type of tomb. That's all we saw, but we've been inside a pyramid now and I can cross that off my bucket list.

It doesn't get any better than this in Egypt! Can you just tell by the look on her face that this was our most memorable experience?

R and J with the Great Pyramid of Giza in the background. This is one of the 7 Wonders of the World.

Our travelling buddies: Amy, Lauren, and Aaron

Our photographer:

The whole gang from Belgium:

The Mighty Sphinx:

The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities housed the treasures of King Tut where we also visited the mummy room. Sorry, no cameras inside. Otherwise, I would have snapped a shot of the hair on some of those mummies - kinda creepy!

Before heading back on the ship, we visited the Papyrus Institute where they still make papyrus today. This Egyptian lady demonstrated the task.