Ski Week 2012: Austria

A proper Austrian lunch - hillside.

The family on top of the world.

Skiing at Hochjoch. 

More Hochjoch.

Ready for some fun.

Hard to get tired of this.

Taking a break. 

Local restaurant in Tschagguns - traditional Austria cooking.

We tried snowshoeing.

Ann tries it too.

Appetizer at dinner - the food was fantastic.

Kid table - Anna and Kate with friends Daisy and Hamish Evans.

Adult table with Kylie and Mark Evans.

Tschagguns church - we welcomed the bells each morning.

Our home in Austria - we loved this place and its people.

One of the many things we like about Switzerland is ski week - the time off from schools for families to go skiing. This year we headed to the Montafon area in nearby Austria. Maria found us a nice (very nice!!) hotel nestled in the small village of Tschagguns - Montafoner Hof. From our hotel, we had access to the ski areas of Golm, Hochjoch, Grasjoch, Nova, Versettla and Valisera. Except Golm, all these areas were connected. Montafon is a family friendly area offering many groomed runs for beginners and intermediates, and some off-piste fun for more advance skiers. We had snow early in the week and sun at the end - we couldn't ask for better conditions. In addition to the skiing, we met really nice people. The hotel staff went out of their way to make us feel welcome. We think they purposefully put us next to the Evans family, the only other English speakers in the place. Aussie's now living in Luxembourg, we quickly made friends with them and Daisy, their 11 year old, became friends with the girls. We plan to visit them in Luxembourg. In addition, Kate and Steve took the snow bus home from Hochjoch and met Karin Sander, a lovely local woman, who helped them navigate the buses back to Tschagguns. The next day we ran into her and her husband Hubert on the slopes. Steve joined them for wine Friday night and the families will stay in touch. We love Austria, the people, the skiing and the food and look forward to coming back.

Kate Turns Eight

The cake - homemade with red hots and other yummies.

Freshwater pearls.

And DS games.

Of course another stuffed animal.

Making Cub Cakes.

The grass project at the kid party.

Finishing up the grass projects - looking good.

Now on to decoupage.

Kate at work.

Anna and Camilla.

Time for presents.

Happy friend and happy birthday girl.

Let the arranging begin. Maria with Jenny Brown.

Kate and her buddy Anne Marie.

Finished!!

Birthdays for kids are a big deal, and for the right reasons. In Woolley/Vittone family tradition, we spread the joy over multiple days to accommodate for family birthday and kids birthday. For family birthday, we went to a water park in France. It was during our unusually cold snap (we had temps of -14 c), which made swimming in the outdoors pool interesting as the mist came off the warm water. Because Kate's actual birthday fell on a weekday, we had family present opening in the morning before school. For her kid birthday we had a florist theme. Activities included planing grass in a design (like your name, a shape, or just any old way), followed by decoupage on a glass vase, and then actual floral arrangements. Cake eating happened while the decoupage dried. Maria did a fantastic pulling it all off. And as an additional treat, Dubai buddy Crosby Brown joined the party after driving up from her new home in Genoa, Italy. Amazingly, only one grass project dumped over in the house.  Maria was absolutely the super mom making this all happen and leaving Kate with warm memories of another birthday surrounded by happy people big and small wishing her well. 

New Addition to the Family

What fish doesn't come home in a bag?

The girls anxiously awaiting time for Bubbleiscious' water to reach room temperature.

The release.

Welcome home Bulbbleiscious!

Getting used to each other.

One downside to our travels is that we haven't had the stability and lifestyle conducive to getting a dog - the pet we all want. Next best would be a cat, but Maria is allergic to cats (and many more things, we recently discovered). She is currently getting weekly shots to help with the cat allergy in hopes of brining home a Suisse rescue kitty, but in the meantime we decided to try fish again. Together with our third daughter Camilla Trentini, we adapted Beta fish in early February. She was quickly named Bubbleiscious and has adjusted to life at our home. We hope she will be with us for a long time, but the girls still remember are troubles keeping fish alive in Minnesota and have prepared themselves for the worst. But in the meantime, Bubbleiscious is a happy, fin-waving fish.

New Years Ski Holiday: La Tzoumaz, Switzerland

View from our balcony as Tzoumaz wakes-up - I mean really.... 

Evening activity - Canasta was a favorite

As if the snow on the hill wasn't enough!

Swiss Miss in our Suisse kitchen - small but had everything we needed

9 people around this table - no problem. 

Toblerone fondue anyone?

New Years Eve - Monica was in a party mood

Happy New Year Camilla, Lorenzo and Anna

Anna and Camilla with Paulo - they adored him

Our very Suisse chalet called Petit Pont

Kate and Santi graduate to Blue Queen/King

Steve and Kate geared-up and ready

We had good snow and great views

Part of Team Petit Pont

We have wonderful neighbors. Not only do they have a nice little girl named Camilla who plays with Anna and Kate for hours, but Monica and Nico are nice, nice people. And we enjoy spending time with them. Since we love to ski, we decided to rent a chalet in La Tzoumaz, a small alpine village that is part of the "Four Valleys" ski area consisting of Verbier, Veysonnaz and Nendaz. It was perfect for us - small, low key and quiet. Our 4 bedroom chalet absorbed our 4 adults and 5 kids. We celebrated New Years with a turkey feast followed by indoor pyrotechnics. Unlike last year, we have been getting tons of snow in the mountains. The kids entered ski school and each did really well, advancing to the next level according to L'ecole Suisse de Ski structure. The ski instructors were great. The skiing was great. The company was great.....the trip was great. 

Christmas 2011

Decorating the tree with our favorite Christmas mice

Maria's tradition of gingerbread house making

Santa comes to our house every year; we our gracious hosts

Santa came - let's see what he brought!

The reindeer were messy this year; Santa was hungry!

We love our new robes - thank you Grandma Jan

Christmas dinner of surf and turf

White Christmas for a bit - snowman building with neighbor Camilla Trentini.

Gandpa Gordy and Grandma Jan came to Switzerland to spend Christmas with us. It is always nice to have family come visit and especially nice to be with family during the holidays. We ushered in the holiday season in early December with Christmas carols on the stereo, It's a Wonderful Life, The Grinch and Miracle on 34th Street on the the TV, and decorating our tree early. We honored Woolley family traditions of eggs Benedict for breakfast and surf and turf for dinner, though we could not find a channel playing 24 hours of A Christmas Story - next year. We had a lovely carol service at church, followed by watching the NORAD Santa Tracker over the internet, and laying out milk, cookies and carrots for Santa and his team. Santa Claus comes to our house every year, and this year was no different. We had a really nice Christmas and are truly blessed.