Austria: Kevin Snowboards the Alps

Austria: "Well then, Good-day mate!" (Dumb and Dumber reference) Sorry I had too. Kev's here, and I wanted to start off what a genius idea it was to start learning to snow board at 39. Can you tell my sarcasm?

So lets start off with why I didn't try skiing when it's "easier to learn, harder to master." Well I have this frustration with my feet being able to go in independent directions, and having wakeboarded a time or two I thought this would be a better option.

So this trip required an intense amount of gear. Luckily for us we prepared for it when we had the chance to buy snow boards, boots, bindings, skis, ski snows and polls in Korea when Camp Humphrey's outdoor rec sold their old ones. $20 bucks for a board, $10 for boots, ya!

Once we did our typical clampit style loading of the highlander, we set off for Austria. Our airBnB room was a lucky find because this was a last minute planned trip, and come to find out this is a tradition for literally everyone there. We even had dinner with families that have made this a trip every year for 20+ years.

We still had a rent a few things for the kiddos, and we made the best decision by going up the night before in order to get the kids rentals for the week, like for little A and Monster, when the ski shop was slow. It was a mad house the day before.

The next day one we parked at the base of the Alpendorf ski slope, arriving an hour early before our lessons, and then we hit our first road block: the dang ski lift! Maybe this a norm for ski slopes, because I have been to a ton right (meaning only 1), and it was here that I discovered that at least here, there are no lines to get to the ski lift up the mountain, but rather its just the standard to be literal be squished like cattle, and every minute or so there is a penguin like shuffle forward an inch, eventually reaching the entrance. It was miserable, and after an hour and a half, we finally made it onto the ski lift, feeling violated and victorious, knowing that all my plans for early arrival were gone.

 The lift up was amazing though! We were in the top of the mountains literally. We kept counting the cars to see how high the numbers went, which we eventually figured out their were 133 cars. When we arrived to the top though, we had to quickly figure out where to put each child. After finally getting Monster into his class, and dealing with the first of a hundred meltdowns he would have for the week, Heather, M&M and I started with our first snow board lesson!

The teacher was Mia, a native of Denmark, who was applying to medical school and works here during the winter. She was awesome, but man what a rough start. We learned from a prior friend who went with us in Korea and crashed horribly breaking her sacrum, to pad your rear end, and boy was that true! I feel over and over again and again.

As the lesson continued during the afternoon and after a massively expensive lunch, we again dropped Monster off, endured another meltdown, and we started again. That didn't last long as he continued to scream the entire time we were gone, and so we eventually had to split our time up the rest of the week in order to keep him from being a terror there. What a monster.

That afternoon I successfully made it down the bunny hill without falling but then biffed it royally at the end, hitting my head. I was so grateful for safety equipment, and a butt pad, because I sure was beat up by the end of the day. We got back to the house the night and man I was so sore. We luckily had a drying rack in the house, and we placed all the lugs on the radiator heaters to dry off, but unfortunately that didn't prove to effective, and by weeks end my gloves were rank! I threw them promptly away after my last run with happiness.

Day 2 was New Years eve, and the mountain was insanely packed! Today presented a new challenge, the lift up the hill. So Alpendorf is an amazing mountain, and today were were stretched to go up higher, but we had to get up the lift. Picture a ski rope that a little seat on it which if you were a skier would super easy because it can stay in the middle of your legs. Not for us though: we had to keeps our legs sideways on the board but keep the rope straight! That was so frustrating! So when you do that your board will suddenly trail off in different directions when you edge one way or the left, and that was very hard to control. Team that with a drop off on one side and watch your board going that way and you do what I did like 100 times: Bail! Then you have to the do the walk of shame up the rest of the way up, knowing that you are silently being mocked by every little 4 year old that seems to understand this process better than you do and coast right by you and stare you down! I wish I could say the day was better, but I failed this so many times.

Day 3 was New Years day, and we showed up at our original time we had been to beat the rush, only to find there was no rush, there was no line, there was no one on the mountain, and why: Yep, every one was hungover from the night before. We did the mountain again, and today I finally made it up the slope! I was able this afternoon to finally get down the mountain with minimal biffs. We learned to turn today and that was so hard, finally learning that let my front foot guide me. Heather did even better today, and Mia suggested we should go with Hans from the Netherlands to the next advanced class. Showed up again. Heather went with that class and I stayed with M&M. I learned something about M&M today. She progressed faster than any of us, but every time she fell she squealed like a little pig. It was super funny!

Day 4 Today, I was moved up to Hans class, and M&M decided to stay with Mia. Today was the big hills, and learning to do the normal lifts which as a 4 day amateur was a feat to pull off, and I pulled a residency mentality and simply just faked it until I made it. The mountain slopes were insanely scary, but our teacher Hans so was so chill. He helped me get over the massive anxiety of the slope of the mountain, and take it step by step and stage by stage. I would putter out early on some inclines, go too fast on others and fall backward, but there were multiple moments where I conquered my fears and success, made it down! It was today that I began to really enjoy it.

Day 5 was our last day, and today was a continuation of the mountain, and we did a red course which was super steep. That scared me at first, but it taught me to get past the psych of it and show myself that I could. Now having 5 days of brusing, falling more time than I can ever count, but luckily not having a major injury, I did our speed test and competition, and completed the week. That evening we went to the lodge for the "awards" ceremony which was super fun. We got a change to celebrate our instructors, and I ordered a table worth of hot chocolate which was delicious!

Here we celebrated each kids success for the week, and Heather and I even won some ridiculous things, but it was awesome! We then faced an incoming snow storm, and so packed up the night before and left early Saturday morning in order to not get trapped there!

So yes, I want to snow board again, I want to come back to Alpendorf, and enjoy this great but very expensive place!

Our First Christmas in Germany

Hey, Kev's here. Christmas is something I keep in my heart all the year. I can listen to Christmas music at anytime and love it (unlike Heather). Christmas is Germany though is an all time new level, and as you can see from the festive Christmas Markets, the joy of this season truly prevails. This year was going to be something special in that we had a surprise for the kids, making sure that instead of doing lots of presents we simplify and invest in a memory!

So our Christmas always starts the night before with the nativity and ornaments. As we try to keep Christ central in our Christmas season, and after studying the miracle of the Master's birth, we dove into our ornaments, which was super fun given the variety of options available here. The kids reluctantly were sent to bed in order to dream of sugar plums, and we finished setting it all up. One of these days we won't be up until midnight doing this.

Christmas day began early as always - with laughter and happiness. It is probably the only day where the kids won't fight with each other. With giggles and pitter patter of feet (from Big sis even) the kids know we can't be disturbed until 7am. They all woke up at a ghastly hours, some of which were awake all night so excited for it (Big Sis!) they tackled their stockings.

Of course you can't start the day without rocking this years Christmas jammies!

We tackled the rest of the stockings and moved on to the little gifts.  The kids didn't get any gifts from us this year, but were blessed to get gifts from their grandparents, Krista Deguelle and their Aunt Adrienne and Uncle Paris Cluff.   The Cluffs got the kids some super awesome coloring stuff.  Monster and Little A were so excited about them.

So shopping for Zac now is so much fun because I simply just ask myself: would I want to play with this? If the answer is yes, then its good enough for him! Cue the trucks and car carriers! We didn't get the kids gifts, but they for sure still had a visit from Santa.  All their Santa Bags were filled and ready for opening in the morning. Monster had trucks and cars, of course. and Little A got some fairy garden creatures.  She has a cement well that is filled with soil in the backyard that she has cleaned as her garden, so it was fun seeing how excited she was about the fairy garden possibilities.

Big Sis got a Sunday outfit, with shoes and tights and all.  She was so happy to have an awesome church outfit.  M&M got some amazing art supplies which included brushes, paints and canvases.

Now came the time where the kids got a curve ball. The kids found a small box on the tree and inside as a small slip of paper.  We had planned out a scavenger hunt that intentionally made them go and up down the stairs every other clue (messed up right?) which was so funny. They had to listen to the clue and go to the room and try to find the next clue!

The clues all had to do objects that they would need or see on our trip.  It included finding the hot chocolate, a snow flake in the living room, gloves, helmets, and scarves to name a few.  By the fourth clue, Big Sis was guessing we were going someplace cold.

Finally they made it to the last clue, which told them to go back to the beginning, which was the Christmas Tree.  Under the Christmas Tree they found a big box wrapped up, and opened it to see where our First Christmas Adventure Memory would be. This year we had a trip to Austria planned and we were leaving in a couple of days to go and make the memory. We not only had never been skiing or snowboarding as a family, but we had never been Austria, so this was going to be a super fun adventure to have.  All the kids were super excited about the trip and wanted to start packing for it right away.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and this season reflects everyone that was perfectly embodied by Him: Love, civility, happiness, joy, peace, and I carry in my heart his sacred name that brings me the same!

The Many Adventures of our Christmas Elf, Angelina

Hello! This is M&M and I want to tell you about the adventures of our Christmas Elf, Angelina. Even though we all know now the secret of Santa and his elf, Monster doesn't. So it was still fun being able to help move her every night and have somebody/Monster have a blast trying to find her. 

We always try to never hide her in the same place twice. We had a fun time making her have a snowball fight with the avengers and DC characters, hide in the tree, get her tooth pulled under IV sedation with a real IV bag (Dad you are such a nerd!) bungle jumping, riding the animals, zip lining, and so much more! It is always fun getting Angelina out on November 30th and hiding her for the start of December. We always do some kind of "I'm Back" thing for the 1st of December. We drew on the windows for the first saying " I'm back!" with her on it. 

We always got our heads together to find the next place. Mom and Dad sometimes forget so us kids have to remind them, just do it ourselves, or ask them to help (which they do). One of our most favorite spot that we did for our elf was the snowball fight. We set them all up and when Zac woke up the next morning, he was so excited to see it! He was saying " Their having snowball fight! WOW! Look at Spiderman, he is upside down!" It was so cute! We hid her in different places all through out December 1 - 24. When Christmas Eve came, we did the goodbye thing. We wrote stuff like " I was so happy to see you again! I can't wait to come back next year!" It was sad putting her back in her box but we will be able to get her out again next year and find yet another 25 days worth of hiding places. 

Mosel-Wein Nachts Christmas Markt

Hi there. This is Big sis and I'm going to tell you all about me and my families adventure to the Mosel-Weinhachts Markt. In German, Frohe Weihnachten means Merry Christmas. And so if you put the two and two together, the Mosel-weihnacht market is the Mosel Christmas Market. 

So in school, my German teacher gives us the project of having to go out and do individual field trips to German locations to practice our German. Last quarter, I had to go to a fall festival, and that was a total flop. But, this quarter, we had to go to a Christmas market to practice our German in different types of conversation. I hated it at the time, but now that I look back, these field trips were super helpful. 

Anyways, mom was in the states, and dad really wanted to help me with this project, so we drove an hour to this super awesome Christmas market that had a whole bunch of really good reviews. So we went to the market for my project plus to go Christmas shopping for mom and just for fun. 

When we got to the city, we parked the car and walked across this big bridge to the other side of the river. The market was in an underground cellar, and was split into 4 different sections. We went to section 1-3. 

Inside there were shoppers selling all kinds of super cute German trinkets and another section had all kinds of fun foods. We stopped at this wood stand that had a very large variety of nativity scenes and cute German decorations. 

I did my little project at this stand and spoke in German to ask how much certain items were, and also bought a cute little creche for mom. As we walked around a little more, we came by an ornament store. The old lady that ran the stand was super nice and I talked with her and we bought 6 small ornaments and an old man painted our names onto the ornaments. This was another one of the gifts that we were going to give to mom. 

After walking around that particular part of the market, we walked out of the cellar and went into another one. We got kinder punch. The cup was super cute and is one of the very few mugs that we have that we actually really enjoy. 

We walk around a bit longer to explore around the city square and see all the cute and tiny German houses. I don't know if I've already said this, but German houses always look like they're from a fairy tale. I love Germany so much. 

It started to get a little late, so we headed back over the bridge, up to the car, and headed back home. This Christmas market was so much fun and it was a triple win because I finished my project, we got mom Christmas presents, and we had lots of fun in a new and amazing Christmas market.