New Experiences...

We had a fabulous weekend! Friday night we set aside as Evan's celebration night. We continue to be so proud of how he has handled himself during all of the trials and tribulations of fussball (soccer) here and celebrated him being on the U11 team. He decided he wanted to go up to the school to see the High School musical/play and eat at the Boosters booth - hotdogs, hamburgers and chips. Even though it was a 'taste of America' it wasn't that great! I do look forward to a good hamburger when we get back though! :)

The play/musical was The Drowsy Chaperone and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It had quite a bit of adult humor and we laughed a lot. It also had some Rated R lines that I was glad Evan wasn't really paying attention to and they went over Julia's head. We were amazed at the quality of the production for the small size of the school - excellent talent.

Saturday brought Evan playing a soccer game and having loads of fun. Julia and I missed the game as we headed downtown to go to her friend's birthday party at the Spanish Riding School (Spanisch Hofreitschule) to see the Lipizzaner Stallions. This was an amazing party that I will have trouble describing. First of all, the parents had invited siblings and parents if anyone wanted... so nice. I couldn't pass this one up! So we all went to the show for an hour and then got a tour into the stable area (you can't usually go into the stables. The history of the riding school is over 430 years old and royaly used to sit in this same arena. Not easy for these 7 year olds to understand how cool this all was, but it wasn't lost on me :)!

We then headed into the palace for a luncheon. The kids were served smoothies (as many as they wanted) and 3 course meal. Parents were served wine, mimosas, etc.. and a 3 course meal. Can you honestly believe this? So amazing! We left and Julia says "That was awesome! I am SO having my party there next year!" Obviously she doesn't think in Euros like Mom and Dad have to!

After the party, Julia went to play at a friends house for a few hours. This is a great family that just moved here from Colorado in January. They are so nice and the kids all get along. Hopefully we will see more of them. Julia got to eat dinner with them and had a great day all together!

Evan had a good friend spend the night on Saturday night and they had so much fun. So great to see Evan having a good time! we took the boys out to Sushi - the 3 boys (Eric included) love Sushi. They played a ton of soccer and WII, watched a movie, ate junk food and didn't sleep much.

Sunday we went to one of the Easter markets at Schonbrunn Palace. There are about 3 Easter markets in Vienna. It was a beautiful day and it was fun to browse the market and then we walked about the beautiful grounds. There are painted eggs everywhere here. They blow out the eggs and then paint them and have ribbons hanging from them. The Austrians put pussy willows in a vase and then hang the eggs from the branches. I plan to come back with at least enough to carry on this tradition when we return home. So pretty and fun!

We had to head back to meet our Ski group at a restaurant for our Ski Week Family Reunion. One of the Dad's put together an incredible movie picture slide show of our week and we watched it and had shared desserts at their house. What a blessing that Scott put that together for us - talk about a memory keeper!

Eric heads in tomorrow for another new experience -- surgery at an Austrian hospital. He has to have a hernia repaired tomorrow. He will spend at least one night - a requirement in Austria no matter what surgery you are having. It is a routine surgery and we are hoping for a quick recovery for him. All prayers are welcome! :)

Another new experience... I will do my first 1/2 marathon on Sunday. Ida and I have been training and we are really excited. Over 35,000 runners are registered for the marathon, marathon relay and 1/2 marathon... Wow!

I am really really enjoying learning more about different cultures as I meet people here. Last week a friend of mine from Pakistan had me over for lunch. She cooked traditional foods, which I LOVED and I so enjoy asking her questions and learning more. I have also been able to begin nice conversations with a young girl from Iran in my German course. She just moved to Vienna a few months ago and is a newlywed -- has lived all her life in Iran until now. I was asking her about women in Iran, 'dating', marriage etc.. and she started by saying "In America you meet, have a baby then get married - this is right?" I was like in America Hollywood!! :) She was surprised to hear that isn't the "Norm" and it is still not necessarily looked upon very nicely to not follow the "traditional" pattern. I look foward to coffee meetings with her - I think it would be fascinating.

Hope all is good with those reading this!