Life with Dakota has been tons of fun. We don't really do anything out of the ordinary, but it is just fun to have someone here to do it all with. We stick to the normal chores of house cleaning and laundry, but it only takes half the time. The rest of the day until kids get home, we spend exercising and trying to get back into shape. We realize that summer is almost here which means bathing suit weather, and we would rather be a little more prepared.
The kids have been keeping busy with their end of the year projects and field trips. They only had 3 days of school last week. Since it was a long weekend for the kids and for Dan, we took the kids out to Ebi to eat sushi to celebrate. That was a perfect way to start the holiday weekend. From there, Dan and I took full advantage of having Dakota here.
Dan booked a little hotel for us in Loipersdorf. It is south in Styria. We had a nice room with a balcony that overlooked the green valley. As we sat outside, we were able to hear the cuckoo birds in the trees. I have heard them on clocks, but have never heard them in real life until then. We were able to get the sauna booked for a private session for a couple of hours. I have never enjoyed the sauna, as it seems very claustrophobic to me, having to breathe in all that hot air--nevermind having to sit on a place where people sweat and sweat and sweat. But, I got passed all that and we did the sauna. Dan took me through the traditional Russian way of doing the sauna (sit in sauna for 15-20 min. take a lukewarm shower, repeat, then sauna again for 15 min. then freezing cold shower getting your head wet, then sauna one more time and finishing with lukewarm shower with soap). I have to admit, that I didn't enjoy the sauna, but the way I felt afterwards was incredible. I would, for sure, sit through the sauna again, to have the end result. After the sauna, we had massages booked. It was such a relaxing evening--all without a single child interruption!
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| View from our balcony |
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Here was a first:
White Wine on tap |
We slept in the next day and enjoyed breakfast at the hotel. As part of the package, we were also given a day pass to the local hot springs pool. We spent the day lounging on lounge chairs, and sitting in hot pools. They had several pools all at different temperatures. Since it was an overcast day, we spent most of the day in the warmer pools. They also had water slides that had warm water flowing through them. We had fun just spending the day together!
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| The roads |
Late that afternoon, we went back to the hotel, where they had a chocolate fondue all laid out for us. We enjoyed our fondue and decided to get a pizza for dinner. We just relaxed at the hotel and watched movies (not animated!)
Sunday we slept in again, and then headed back home after breakfast. During our trip, we were able to see deer, pheasants, and lots of pumpkin patches. The roads in this area are very small. They feel like you are traveling on someone's private driveway, but they are really two-way roads through the villages. It was a fun trip and so nice and relaxing to get away! We were able to make it home just in time to get everyone to church.
But when I got home, I found a HUGE surprise. There in the dining room, was a piano!!! Dan bought me a piano and had it set up for me while we were gone. It is so fun to have piano music in the house again. I didn't realize how much I had missed it, until we have it again. I love it. Of course, I didn't pack any of our music, so now I am frantically searching the internet for some new sheet music. I am excited to get to play around with it some more this summer.
While we were gone, Dakota held down the fort here very nicely. The kids loved spending time with her and she even took them to the park. It was a little muddy, but they all had a great time! Even Danyon didn't have any trouble with us going--it was a miracle!!
Monday was back to school and chores. The kids are really winding down in school. They don't have too many more to go! The sports seem to winding down as well. Dyllan is finished with soccer for this season. Dane only has one more week (we think). We're not sure about Deagan, but it can't be too much longer!
I sent Dakota to the grocery store on her own this week. It was a major accomplishment for her to go somewhere on her own and only speak (or try to understand) German. She found everything on my list and even found her way home! That really is an accomplishment to come home with everything on the list. I remember our first days of grocery shopping and having to look at all the labels and pictures, trying to figure out what we were buying. She did a great job! Her lessons must be paying off!
Dan bought me a new camera this week. I didn't need a new one, but my old one is starting to get a little quirky. The flash sticks and some other little things happen on occasion. For our cruise, we booked an excursion that takes us with a photographer to learn how to take better architecture and landscape photos. I am very excited for this excursion, and Dan didn't want to be the only one in the group without an SLR camera, so decided to buy me a new camera, then he could use the old one for the class. It worked out very nicely for me!!
Danyon had some fun this week. He must be growing again because he is eating a ton. One day, I found him hiding behind the kitchen cupboards scarfing down a yogurt. I don't know how much he got in his mouth, but he sure enjoyed the fact that he was "sneaking" a yogurt.
Friday night we had a special fireside. The Primary General President came and spoke to us, along with one of her counselors. There was also an area authority who came to speak to us. The talks were all very good. It does kind of take away from the meeting to have simultaneous translation. The speakers all spoke in English, then the translaters would translate sentence by sentence into German for the Austrians. It is a good way to learn German, but not so good to keep the attention of children. The kids were listening though. I asked them to tell me about the meeting, and they could tell me several of the stories that they had heard. Dan didn't get to hear any of it, as he was in the hallway with Danyon. They had a room set up with a movie for kids who couldn't sit quietly through the meeting. Dan took Danyon in there. He was surprised to find that the movie playing was about Michel (a male version of Pippy-Longstockings.) He chuckled to find that at the church meeting, the movie was about the mom finishing making the cherry wine for the season and sending Michel to take the cherries out to the pigs. Well, to make a long story short, the chickens got drunk and passed out, the pigs got drunk and passed out, and Michel got drunk and passed out. Then the parents finally found him in the barn and had to help him as he puked up all the cherries. Interesting choice of films for such a meeting, we thought.
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| Deagan in goal |
Saturday, we had one of those days where nothing seems to go right. We woke up, with not a lot planned. It was going to be just grocery shopping and a little yard work. Then we would have the rest of the day to enjoy. While we were out running our first errand, my phone rang. Dan answered it, and discovered that it was Deagan's soccer team manager. He asked us where Deagan was. He was supposed to be at the soccer field at 9:00. (this was at 9:20). We had, indeed, been given a piece of paper inviting Deagan to this soccer tournament, but the date on it said July 6. We figured we had lots of time. It turns out the date was really June 7, and we were late. We dropped all our plans for grocery shopping and sped home. We gathered up the family and headed out the door to the soccer field. We got Deagan there, but even after one, possible more speeding tickets, it took 1/2 an hour to get there, and another 20 minutes to find the team amongst all the teams playing at the fields that day. Deagan played in 3 games. He played on the field for the first one, and then played goalie for the second two. They won one, tied one, and lost one. It was a good showing for his first soccer games.
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| Between games getting our hair done |
After not planning to spend the whole day at the soccer field, we hurried after his last game and headed to the grocery store. We were able to pick up the groceries we needed, then we had to speed home to get ready for the ward activity (where we were teaching dance lessons and providing music for a family dance.) Dan was so thirsty from sitting outside all morning and most of the afternoon, that he bought a bottle of carbonated flavored water. He took a big drink, then another and filled his mouth. Then, because he had an air bubble in his throat from the first swig, he couldn't swallow his second mouthful in time before a huge sneeze came. He sprayed carbonated flavored sugar water all over the entire inside of our car. The windshield was covered, the dashboard was covered, and even the gear shift was covered. There was not a spot in the whole front of the car that did not feel the effects of the sneeze. We didn't have time to stop and wash it properly, so we just had to use napkins leftover from McDonalds the night before. He could barely see through the streaky swipes on the windshield. But not to worry, we were running low on time to get to our next event.
As luck would have it, we happened to drop the remote to the garage down in the garage (2 stories down). Since we were on a time crunch, this would be the day to have this happen. Dan had to go down on the elevator in the garage to fish it out. When we arrived at the church, it turns out that it wasn't ever cleaned from the fireside the night before. We had to hurry to get the floor clean and the church set up for the dance. As it turned out, only 10 people showed up for our activity (6 were our friends). It was a very small turnout, but we still had some fun. We taught some Salsa, then played all kinds of music that people could dance all kinds of styles.
That night we just wanted to sit, relax, and eat a pizza. Dane ordered the pizza for us in German. He did a great job, but forgot to tell them not to put the anchovies on the pizza. We called them back, and told them. However, just as luck would have it for this day, an hour later, our pizza arrived, with anchovies. I have never had fish on a pizza before and I can tell you, fish is a flavor that does not belong on a pizza--ever. After all that, I decided to just hit the hay and hope for a better day tomorrow.
We had a very fun first week of no school. Soccer is finished up, school work is complete, we are free!!! We have spent some time relaxing at the pool, and doing some much needed shopping, cleaning and laundry. Danyon has discovered that most things, remarkably, are phones. He loves shooting the breeze with grandma while talking on his "phone". We also discovered that we had a hedgehog living in our backyard. He made a little nest underneath our weedeater. Sadly, the day after discovering that he was there, some workers found him drown in the pool. 
We hope Dan had a good Father's day. We made him a special dinner, complete with a chocolate pie and strawberry pie. (Pies do not exist here in Austria. You can get strudels and tarts, but no pies.)We made a piñata for him. The kids had fun whacking it up. Deagan missed the first couple of times. Dyllan got a good hit on it and a few pieces of candy flew out, but Dakota got it to break and fall down. Dan hadn't gotten a hit in yet, so we made everyone wait until Dan had gotten a turn to hit at it and try to break it completely open. Then we dove for the candy!! That was Danyon's favorite part of the whole thing. He had his mouth stuffed full, his pockets stuffed full, and was still trying to pick up more candy. Dan enjoyed collecting all the love notes and fun treats inside, placed especially for him. We moved the party indoors pretty quick as the mosquitos were relentless.
There was another big surprise for Dakota that day. Her birthday is on the 19th of June, and we had planned a surprise trip to Paris for her birthday. She found out Sunday night, so that she would have some time to pack before we left. All talk, after that, was centered on Paris and all the fun we had planned, and naturally, how awesome Auntie Al and Uncle Danny are.
Wednesday afternoon, we headed for the airport. We had a smooth flight and had a driver pick us up at the airport. Being in Paris was exciting. We were staying with some people we hadn't ever met. We were acquainted with them through some friends from church. They wanted to do a house swap. They planned to come to Vienna during Spring Break. We told them that they could stay in the house, but we already had plans to go to Turkey that week. They took us up on the offer, but then invited us to come and stay with them another time. We took them up on their offer, and found ourselves staying at their house for the weekend. They were so nice and we were very grateful to have a place to stay and some insider tips on our trip.
Someone must have wished upon the right star, because we found ourselves in Disneyland Paris on Thursday for Dakota's birthday. None of the kids had been, and neither had Dakota. We had so much fun riding on the rides. It was interesting to see the Haunted Mansion in French. They had a lot of the same rides as we had seen at Disneyland Anaheim, and we got to do most of them. Space Mountain was my favorite back then, and it was closed both times I have been in my adult years. The only other disappointing thing was that Pirates of the Caribbean was also closed. I did subject the kids to It's a Small World --but only once. We hit most of the other main stuff. They also have a Disney Studios Park right next door. We were able to do some fun rides there, too. We loved it and the kids had a great time, I think. We stayed until the closing show, complete with fireworks! We did spend a lot of time in line, in the hot sun. Danyon has been going around the house lately saying "BeeDoh, BeeDoh, BeeDoh" (the fire engine minion from Despicable Me 2). We noticed that at the Disney park, he distinctly changed it to "B-O, B-O, B-O," just a slight commentary on the way Europeans smell when scrunched together in switchback lines with the hot sun beating down.
Although a day at Disneyland is hard to top, since we were in Paris, we had to give it a try. We went to Notre Dame and saw the cool church. We headed to a park where we had a picnic lunch (Picnics are very Parisian.) Then we headed to the Louvre, where we tried to get some culture into our kids. We had a new tactic for this museum. We told the kids that whoever found the "Mona Lisa" first got a prize. This is the first art museum that we made it through all floors--even if it was at a run. We saw the whole museum--at least blurred. And partly, because there were bonus points for finding Venus de Milo, as well. As it turned out, Dan was the first to find the "Mona Lisa" and Dyllan and Dane found Venus. Actually, with the stroller, we found the museum very hard to navigate and found ourselves getting lost in the arts quite often--even with the maps. Finding elevators that got us to the floors we were trying to reach proved to be harder than it looks. After eating croissants, baguettes, cream puff type pastries and even Escargot (it was escargot pistachio chocolate pastry. The escargot part was just the shape of the pastry, but I ate it none the less), we found a Chipotle and ate a very American, Mexican meal and loved every bite!!
The next day, we headed out to the Eiffel Tower. We were able to go all the way to the top. The day was a gorgeous day and we could see for miles!! This was THE THING that the kids had been waiting for. We were there, we saw it, we touched it, we took pictures, then we left. They have several carousels nearby and we stopped to ride the carousel and eat crepes. (We loved the crepes, but Deagan opted for cotton candy instead). After our lunch, we headed to the Arc d'Triumph. We shopped and meandered down the Champs d'Elysee. (Only bought postcards, but we still shopped!!) Then we stood in awe of the stained glass at Sainte Chappelle (although they were working on the rose window and we were unable to see it). We were all pretty worn out after all our walking, so we headed back to the house. Dan stopped to change Danyon's diaper just outside the Saint Chappelle. He laid the stroller seat back, took off his diaper, and then felt the sprinkle down his leg. Danyon was so excited he peed like a geyser, leaving his mark in Paris. All of us thought it was pretty funny, with the exception of Dan, who had a puddle at his feet. Once we got back to the house, we left the kids with Dakota and we headed out to a Parisian dinner. (The kids got Domino's Pizza at the house). 
We went to Le Relais De l'Entrecote. This is a fun little restaurant serving the famous steak et frites! There is no menu at this restaurant. You start with a salad, then they bring you a steak (cooked to your liking as long as it is--Rare, Medium, or Well done) and French fries. The steak is covered in this yummy garlicy, buttery, sauce with something green in it. It was really good. Then they bring you more steak and more fries. It is so good. We finished our meal with a good Crème Brulee. After that meal, we walked down the Champs d'Elysee again and found the macaroon store--Laduree. This is THE macaroon store of all macaroon stores. We bought a small treat and loved every bite!
Sunday we spent the day in Versailles. We toured the chateau, where Danyon found his fascination with the audio guide. We walked amongst the musical fountains. We picnicked in the grass. We spent a nice day enjoying the sunshine, warm weather, and beautiful surroundings. You could rent golf carts, but we were too big a group. You could rent boats, but again, we were too big a group. We could rent bikes, but they were out of baby seats, so we just walked. And walked. And walked. Ate ice cream, and walked more. Dyllan's one request was to eat ratitoulle, but after finding out it has no meat in it and it is just zuchinni and tomatoes and other vegetables, she decided that wasn't something she needed to try. So, since we can't get American style pizza here in Austria, we went to Pizza Hut for dinner that night. You could hear audible MMMmmms, Ooooohhhhhs, and Ahhhhhs at our table--even if it wasn't cooked by Remy the rat. Overall, we loved Paris. We had so much fun together. It is fun having Dakota along. We're so glad she came. With all we were able to do and see, I think we conquered the city well enough. We covered the major sites, we not only experienced, but mastered the metro (and even found a mouse in one), and we ate more mouth watering baguettes and croissants than is polite to mention. With that being said, the number one lesson we came away with was, "Anyone can cook"--French accent added!
