Coming at Christmas Time!

Blank Frank the Second! Yippee!

Sort These!

Cole found a box today as I was getting lunch ready. Lately he has been fascinated by things that open and close, and especially containers with goodies inside! So we used the box to hold his lunch today, and he had so much fun moving cheese, grapes, and raisins back and forth and back and forth between the box parts. Who knew?

Picnic at the Park

We had a nice picnic at the park for lunch on Saturday...trying to stay in the shade! It's been blazing hot here recently, and with no air conditioning, we're doing our best to keep a breeze going through our apartment.

As you can see, Cole would much rather walk next to dad than ride in the stroller. Much easier access to rocks and sticks!

Listen up!

Thanks to my friends Ken and Laura, I found this thing called finetune. Maybe this is old news, but it's pretty cool - create your own (free) playlist on their website. Then you follow the simple directions and you can have your own personal playlist available for everyone on your blog/website. You can also use other people's playlists, or even choose a few songs and let finetune do the rest. I'm sure there are tons of other options, but this is all I know for now.

And guess what? My playlist is just over there ------> on the right. I think it plays randomly. Bubba, you might be in for a shock. enjoy :)

Funny Guy @ Dinner

So this is my last post for today...I'm blogging crazy today. We went out for pizza on Katie's last night in Vienna tonight. Cole does not have a bib on...he refuses to keep one on. It's drool. When will the madness stop?

Schoenbrunn Palace

This morning Katie, Cole, and I visited the Schoenbrunn Palace. This palace was the summer residence for the Hapsburg family, specifically while Maria Theresa was empress. The grounds are very well preserved, and include a labyrinth, the oldest zoo in the world, a rose garden, Roman ruins, and lots of strolling paths. The building you see behind Cole and me is the Gloriette, which is now a cafe with a beautiful view of Vienna. It used to be Maria Theresa's private location for the most elite parties. Cole had a great time playing in the rocks, and I actually got him to keep his hat on for once! One more great thing about today is we showed up in time to hear the Vienna Philharmonic practicing live outdoors on a huge stage. They perform an annual free concert at the summer palace every year, and this year's concert is tomorrow. What a great surprise!

Katie's Visit

Our friend Katie is visiting us for a couple days on her way to spend 2 years in Mumbai, India. Today we visited the Hofburg Rose Garden...beautiful!


Cole fell asleep in the stroller...too many roses, I guess! It was a hot day here, too. Welcome, summer!
Katie & Cole playing in the kitchen!

Packin' It Up

We spent some time last weekend packing up our apartment. School is over in about 3 weeks, and then we load our shipping container with boxes and furniture on June 18. We have about 10 days after that to take in as much of Vienna as we can before we fly to Indiana on June 29. Time is surely flying!

Italia!

We just returned from a great trip to Italy with Tom, Karen, Scott, and Laura Luginbill. We spent some time in Venice and Florence before returning back to Vienna last night. Cole experienced his first overnight train, we ate gelato every day, and enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather!

Build a RAFT

One strategy when you move away from a place is to build a RAFT. It's a way to think about leaving in a healthy way. The letters stand for...
1. Reconcile
2. Affirm
3. Farewell
4. Think Destination

The picture above is of all the departing staff from VCS this year. Chris, Cole, and I are on the left. We're all on our raft! Thanks to our school's graphic designer, we have a great reminder that we need to do our best to leave this place well. The sign says Auf Wiedersehen, meaning goodbye, and Gute Fahrt, meaning have a safe trip.

Just for Fun!

Our Little Recorder Player

For some time now Cole has been mastering his recorder playing skills. Watch...and be amazed! In other news, we've been spending the last week or so packing up boxes of our stuff to ship back to the USA. Some of our furniture is gone, now, too, which makes this move all the more real. We have lots of visitors coming in the next two weeks, and we're even going to Italy! Cole + Pizza = BIG FUN had by all! Stay tuned...



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Happy May Day!

Today is May Day! That translates to Labor Day for Austrians, so everyone is off school and work. We spent the morning downtown. We first stopped at Starbuck's, then walked to the only garden in Vienna where there are peony bushes. I love peony flowers! We found yellow, pink, and white ones, but the yellow ones were the only ones that smelled sweet! We blew bubbles there, too. The peony bushes are right next to the memorial to Mozart, who is the only major composer NOT buried in Vienna. We then walked around some more and found a huge demonstration composed of many different groups demonstrating for and against lots of things including communism, the USA, and more. It was quite a sight! We made it home in time for lunch and a nap.