Long Weekend

Above you see Cole's latest toys...kitchen stuff! He has figured out how to open the small drawer underneath the oven that houses cookie sheets, wire racks, and cutting boards. Fun and loud! He also spends time rocking back and forth on his hands and knees...crawling is coming I think.

Last week was a crazy long weekend for the Franks! The VCS staff moms came over for brunch, Gary & Shelley Brumbaugh visited from China, and we hosted a small Thanksgiving dinner. Cole held a basketball on his own on Thanksgiving Day with our neighbor, Lauren, too. Then, Gammy Nancy and her friend Eileen arrived on Saturday for this week. Chris took them to a mass to hear the Vienna Boys Choir yesterday morning, and in the afternoon we all went to the Schoenbrunn Palace Christmas Market. More adventures coming, I'm sure!

Cole also turned 8 months old yesterday. 21.5 pounds and 29.5 inches long. What a growing boy!

WANTED: Packages

Cole's entertainment can be greatly improved by a simple box sent to him in the mail. Contents not necessary. Be sure to stress with the USPS that the package is going to Austria in Europe, not Australia.
See video below for benefits.



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Ikea Bags and More

So here are some highlights from our weekend...

1. Cole enjoyed hours (well...minutes) of playtime with a paper IKEA bag. He even loved hiding underneath it!

2. Chris used tin foil to get our Christmas lights to work. Then he called our maintenance savvy friend and decided that wasn't such a great plan.

3. Cole saw a picture of me on the picture slideshow on our computer and said, "mamamamamamamamamam." Very Cool for me!

4. Cole's favorite snack lately is book edges. No wonder the make board books for little kids who eat as much as goats do.

5. Chris played in a volleyball tournament with some guys from school on Saturday and had a lot of fun.

6. I decided to give Cole a few bites of fish and a few bites of cheese to eat with his fingers. He liked them both! He's WAY into eating by himself, and almost all of the food makes it in the mouth, even tiny peas and edamame.

7. My mom sent us a box with goodies like Cheerios, but it was sent to AUSTRALIA. Yep, Sydney. Postal workers! The box supposedly left Sydney on October 26, but we have yet to see this mystery box.

Video Crazy

Cole makes this noise so often that we had to capture it on video.

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Yay for dinner! We love clapping hands!

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Friends & Family

Our friends Mike and Becky had twin boys in August. They live in Flagstaff, AZ, and used to work with us here in Vienna. Here are the McTwins...Jason and Trenton McDonald. Rebecca Morrissey came over to trick or treat the day before Halloween. She dressed up, as you can see, and Cole loved laughing at her. He really does laugh at everything. And check out the drool patch on Cole's shirt! It's a daily occurrance.
Carrington, Misi, Bubba, and Leighton at Leighton's ballet.

Dinner Last Night

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Feeling Better

We've been sick since Thursday. Yuck. All of us BUT Cole, that is. Today, though, we're back to almost 100%. Chris is at work, and Cole and I went to the Naschmarkt for sweet potatoes. Since today we're all feeling better, I decided to give Cole a few lumps of cottage cheese, like my Super Baby Food book suggests. We had a great time! More mess than in the mouth, but full of discovery. I think the next time the cottage cheese will go in the mouth with a spoon!

Cole the Cat

He's already a drumming machine. A special shout out to Grandbob!



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Joke O. Heute

Been wondering who or what "Heute" is? Maybe so. It means "today" in German.

Onward...

What does a pig put on his cut?




Oinkment.

Aaaarrrrgggggghhhhh

That's frustrating.
I was trying to be all sneaky and clever with the 15 different things I just posted. But I was thwarted. If you're willing to humor me, scroll down two thirds of the page to the post titled "Austria and more". Read that post, and then go up one post at a time.
If you read from top to bottom like normal, it won't be nearly as much fun.

enjoy :)

Unbelievable!

"That's impossible, Chris and Anne! You couldn't have made it to all of those places in 4 days. Plus, aren't you on support? I'm not so sure you should be blowing all of that money on those travels."
You're right - it is impossible. We didn't do it.
But we we did do was go to Minimundus. It's in Klagenfurt, which is in Carinthia.

Hope you enjoyed the "trip"

Last stop...

New York! We were running out of time, and we were feeling pretty wiped out by this time. So we hit up the Statue of Liberty and then flew back to Vienna. What a trip!!!

Launch!

The space shuttle launch was also pretty impressive up close!

Going east

At this point, we couldn't back track to the amazing West coast, so we had to hit up the East coast. How about Cape Canaveral, FL? Cole was mesmerized by the Space Shuttle.

Literally around the world

Since we were halfway around the world, we figured we could swing by the United States.
First stop, Colorado - where the Native American cliff dwellers used to live.

G'Day Mate!

We made it to Sydney! Maybe it was the jetlag, but I thought that the harbor around the Sydney Opera House was a little bigger.

a quick stop

So on our way to Sydney, we had a layover in India. We figured we should take the opportunity and see the Taj Mahal. When else would we be in India?

Who are you kiddin?

At this point, we had only spent 2 days of our 4 day break. The beauty of modern technology and transportation. On the way back to Vienna on the Autobahn, we came upon Munich. For some reason, it occured to us that Lufthansa has cheap flights out of Munich - in particular to the land down under...

Back home to Vienna

After all of this craziness, we decided to head home. But on the way home, we realized we could just take a short trip off of the Autobahn in Germany and see Neuschwanstein Castle.

Vive le France!

Once you're in Pisa and Rome, how can you not swing by Paris? We wouldn't know. The good 'ol Eifel Tower and the Arch of Triumph.

Italia!

So, I've never been to the leaning tower of Pisa, so we had to make it there. I mean, Cole needs to experience the world right?

Back to Europe

The unrest in the Middle East made Anne a little uncomfortable (although it was nice and warm), so we headed back to Italy. Last time Anne was there, she tried to get in to the Vatican in Rome with shorts on. No dice, little one. But this time, we were properly clothed.

More travels

But then, it's not so hard to rationalize and just take another short flight over to Jordan. Carpe diem! Remember that scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? I was anxious to go there to the Rock of Petra.

and more

we thought - we're only a couple hours away by plane from Greece, why not go? So we did and the Acropolis was amazing!

Austria and more

So VCS has a fall break each year, which works out to be a 4 day weekend. Anne and I wanted to go to a nice calm relaxing place by a lake in a beautiful part of Austria called Carinthia. So we did. It was beautiful and this picture doesn't do it justice - not included in this picture is the Wörther See (a huge lake) and tons of mountains in the distance.