Ski Trip to Austria

Ben had a four day weekend over Martin Luther King…  woohoo!  Got to love the Army four day weekends.  So, we went on a ski trip with his work in Tirol, Austria.  It was awesome, except there was no snow... but that's just a minor detail when it comes to skiing, right? What little snow there was was generated by snow machines or what ever they are.  Not exactly what you imagine in the Alps in January, right?  Nonetheless we made the best of it!

I always have to show the fam loaded in the car at the start of a road trip.  Our Kia Rondo is proving to be too small.  Look how crammed it is!  Trying to convince Benny Boy we need to buy a minivan.  So far, unsuccessful.  Anyone have any pointers?

We had one awesome day where Em got to go to ski school, C and J went to a nursery, and Ben and I got to ski together.  How often do the stars align like that?  Em had a great time…. even though she was stumbling and tripping and doubled over.  We thought she was hating it, but she wasn't!  Afterwards she said, "I liked it! My teacher said as long as I make my skis like a pizza I'll go slow."

So Benny Boy, who is an impressive snowboarder by the way, was sweet enough to stick with me on the bunny slopes.  In fact, the resort we chose was right next to the nursery and it had ONE slope.  So, we went down that slope about 25 times.  The good news is we had the whole mountain (or hill, whatever) to ourselves!  Not exactly the most popular slope around.  But by the end I had that thing beat!  And Ben got the whole next day all to himself to snowboard down some monster runs while I watched the kids, just in case you were starting to feel sorry for him... DON'T!

Master of the snowplow!

 I hadn't skied since high school so this was super awesome for me.  I can see how people really get hooked on skiing.

Em, after a long day

This pic says it all:  ski "vacation" with three kids.  Yeah. 

Sunday we went to Salzburg for church.  This pic was taken in the church parking lot, you can see the famous Fortress Hohensalzburg.  Not a bad view from the church. Love how you can find the church almost anywhere. Loved how the older gentleman blessing the sacrament was decked out in a Tyrollean suit.  

And we briefly checked out Berchtesgaden (Hitler's old stomping grounds) we'll definitely have to return and we went on a boat ride on Lake Konigsee, part of Berchtesgaden National Park

The captain played a tune on his trumpet so we could hear the echo

You can't exactly see it in the picture, but if you look on the right hand side of the v in the valley, that is where Hitler's Eagle's Nest is located.  I swear it's there.  

And in typical German fashion, there is always a Biergarten to greet you, no matter where you are visiting.

So, I guess winter isn't such a horrible season after all.  Now if only we can get some snow in Stuttgart!  Our base has an amazing sledding hill.