Spring has really sprung this week as the leaves, tulips, daffodils, and all kinds of things are starting to pop out all over town. We especially liked the new bread that popped up in the kitchen this week. The kids have decided to affectionately call it, "Booty Bread". Plumbers everywhere are flocking to buy it up. We are thinking of starting an export business targeting US plumbers unions. Aside from the occasionally questionable bread, it really is a beautiful city. The side-walk cafes are filling up, the number of tour buses all over town seemed to have quadrupled this week (the kids were 15 minutes late coming home from school because traffic was so bad on the first nice day). River cruises on the Danube have started. Ice cream and gelatto shops are now open. People are coming out of their hibernation. 
Dan spent his week in Turkey, for the third time in a month. He really enjoys the Turkish people and his meetings were okay. He has some work to do there, though, as he had to stay an extra day (he assures me it wasn't for the Turkish bath). Because he stayed an extra day, that left me to take care of his youth activity at the church for the week. The youth were making tissue paper flowers for Mother's Day. I had to buy the supplies and drop them off at someone's house along with the directions. It sounded easy enough. I had to go all the way across town. When I got to my stop, I got off the subway and had to get onto the trolley from there. I could not find the trolley stop. I looked everywhere for it. I finally decided to walk the rest of the way. There was construction going on, and I had to meander through several streets. Danyon and I probably walked about 2 miles--okay, I walked, Danyon rode. We finally got there!! On the way home, I asked how to get to the trolley stop. It turns out that the trolley stops can also be underground like the subway. I did not realize this, as they are all above ground over by where we live. So, with that problem fixed, getting home was much faster!
I went with a friend this week to a Mexican Specialty store. I found refried beans, salsa, home-made chips and tortillas, guacamole, pancake mix, AND . . . Vanilla!!!!! I paid a lot for it, but it is nice to know that I have some in my drawer. I'm glad that my friend, Krista, took me there. On the way home, Krista helped me with my bags, as I had a stroller and diaper bag with me as well. We were walking through a very busy subway station, when all of a sudden, I heard a huge smash of glass on the floor. Krista's bag had torn through (the bag was wet from the rain) and all of her groceries went smashing down on the ground. There are no offices or people that work in the subway station so we didn't know what to do with all the broken glass. An older lady came up to us, and told us to use the newspapers to scoop it up and then throw them away. I was very excited because she was speaking German and I actually understood what she said! We got the mess cleaned up and then we were back on our way. I felt bad that Krista lost all of her groceries, so the next day I had Dan drive over to the store again and we bought a few of the items that she had purchased and we took them over to her house.
We took the kids to Demel on Saturday. They have glass walls so you can see them working in the kitchen. It was fun to watch them. One baker was decorating some chocolates, and one was peeling rhubarb, while another was stacking cakes and making sure they were perfectly round and the same size. We stopped for a little snack. The kids all wanted ice cream, but we also tried their chocolate torte and a black forest something (you know, chocolate and cherries and whipping cream). My favorite was a lemon tart. It tasted like a really good lemon meringue pie with an almost shortbread type crust. Danyon is finally learning that when we sit down to eat, we are getting different food than he gets. He is starting to enjoy our food more than his own--at least when we are eating treats. He loved the ice cream, whipping cream, cake, and lemon tart. He was yelling for more. We enjoyed our little stop there and Dan and I will be back. I don't know if the kids appreciate it as much as they should for how much it costs.
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Demel is located right downtown in "the ring". The ring is the old city wall. The wall is not there any more, but several of the sight-seeing places are located within the ring. It was our first time going into the ring, at least on purpose--there was that one time with the GPS that we entered the ring on accident). People are allowed to go there, and taxis and tourist buses. Normal cars are not allowed to go. There are even some streets made only for pedestrians. It is fun to go out walking and looking at all the things there are to see. We went by the Sisi museum, the Hofburg palace, and the Spanish Riding school. While we were out, we noticed a couple who were walking the streets. The husband looked very Polynesian. As in true Hedquist style, Dan walked up to them and started the small talk. It turns out they live in Riverside, California, and he is from American Samoa. It was fun to chat with them for a few minutes. We exchanged emails and Dan invited them over for dinner. They decided that they had too many other fun sight-seeing things on their list, but wanted to stay in touch via email. We had a regional church conference this weekend. We wanted to attend the Saturday evening adult session but have been unable to get a babysitter for anything yet. We have had a couple of suggestions, but they have all fallen through. So, realizing that Dane is 11 and pretty responsible, we decided to leave him at home with Dyllan and Deagan. It was our first time letting Dane babysit. We took Danyon with us, as we figured this would be too much for Dane to handle. We went to the conference and it was great! They talked a lot about families and how it is the parents' responsibility to teach their children all about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Afterwards, we went out to dessert with two other couples from our congregation. It was our first time going out without kids since we moved here (although we still had Danyon). It was so much fun getting out together and the other couples were so much fun, too. We laughed so hard that we cried. It was very refreshing, as Austrians tend to be more serious, somber and stick to themselves, in general. And, when we returned home, we found the house in-tact, and children in bed. Actually, Dane was asleep in the entry waiting for us. We didn't have a house key with us. We knocked on the door to wake him. Then we banged on the door. Then we rang the doorbell about 600 times. Then we called my phone that was sitting on the desk in the entry way--over and over. Then we called the house phone, over and over. All of this intermixed with more door banging and doorbell ringing. Then we went out to the street and rang the other buzzer (to let someone in the gate), over and over. Dane did not budge through any of this. Neither did Dyllan or Deagan. No one came to the door. After about 25 minutes of trying everything we could think of to wake people up, Dan opened the garage back up and told me to start preparing to sleep in the car over night. Just as I slumped into the trunk of the car, good ol' Marco came to the rescue. He had been in the entry way this whole time as well and was getting tired of all the racket. So, as a last resort for him, Marco pounced on Dane's head with all four feet. This roused Dane enough that when Dan kept ringing the door bell, Dane was able to get up and open the door. Finally! Dan never thought he would say it, but, he was grateful to Marco that night and even said we should give him an extra treat. I learned never to leave the house without a key, and in case of any emergency, I'm gonna have to be the one to get everyone out of the house. They would sleep through ANYTHING.
Autasia could sure enjoy some deeper sleep - if only the kids could give her some of their pixie dust! Glad to learn that Marco does have some valuable contributions to make :)
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