Hot, hot, hot!

So many long overdue posts...so I'll work my way backwards and start with a look from the past weekend (a 4 day weekend at that!).   The forecast was 99+ degrees F in Zagreb, so we were happy to get out of the city.  The forecast wasn't any cooler for the coast, but hey, we were going to the coast!  

We reserved a spot at a resort complex near Sibenik, Croatia, which was about a 3 hour drive from Zagreb.

We arrived a few hours ahead of check-in time, so we stopped in Sibenik proper to check out its cathedral and have some lunch.

We always have lots of art supplies on the ready to pass the time in restaurants...

Then it was on to the resort!  We stayed at a very family friendly place, which offered a fair amount of free food, entertainment and activities.  We alternated our swim time between the pools and the beaches.  Scot and I treated ourselves to massages on Saturday and we played tennis on Sunday morning with a beer chaser on the beach (thanks to the free babysitting!).

The beaches on the Adriatic are quite rocky for the most part.

But we did find this spot that had a small berth of sand.

 The girls had a blast and were entirely exhausted every day.

Busy place.  And this was just one of many sections of beach area.

There was lots of dancing and entertainment for kids at our hotel.  Scot and I were able to sit on outdoor couches, drink alcohol and watch them.  Truly a win win.

Ava got her groove on after we bribed her with ice cream.

Reese still preferred to just watch.

On Sunday, Scot and I took turns with Ava on this inflatable monstrosity.  And by turn, I mean hour.  Because you paid by the hour.  I'm still sore!

Ava also developed her first big time crush on a 17 year old boy named Mislav, who was one of the babysitters at the Kid's Club. She fell hard.  :-)

Overall, we had a great time.  There were a few hiccups along the way (what vacation with kids doesn't have any?)...but it was a pretty fun place to be.  A few parting shots...

Love this one of Ava.

And my attempt to get an equally great shot of Reese was well, tempered by her four year oldness.

A for Effort

Ava competed in the final spelling bee this past Tuesday and did awesome!  Unfortunately, I didn't get to see her in person, as my girlfriends and I were flying home from Dubrovnik (I know, I really need to update the blog), but Scot was a champ and recorded all of the action for me.

She whizzed through all of the regular rounds against 3 other first graders and 4 second graders.  Her words to spell were:

• after
• edge
• pair
• wrap
• spare
• scorn
• lifetime
• fasting

After that, they introduced "challenge" words which weren't on the study list.  Her first word was "polling" and sadly she missed, spelling it "poling".  We are so proud of her - she really studied hard and it paid off - Yay Ava!

Top F-O-U-R

The first graders at Ava's school had their Spelling Bee qualifying round on Friday.  The top 4 spellers advance to the all school Spelling Bee on May 28th.  1st and 2nd graders will compete against each other then.

Of the 24 first graders in the school, there are only 3 native English speakers (including Ava), which seems a bit like an unfair advantage for them...but, those are the breaks, I guess.  We have been practicing at home for a few months and Ava did end up advancing, and the other 3 kids are all Croatian.  From left to right:  Luna, Ema, Evan, & Ava

Congratulations, Ava!

Field trip for Reese

In mid April I volunteered to go on a field trip with Reese's class to see a princess, a castle, and a stable/cottage with show horses.  We had a really nice time!

Here she is with her best buddy Elena, who is Italian and speaks very little English.  The language barrier doesn't seem to matter, they adore each other.

The cottage attic was filled with dress up clothes.  The kids got to try out all sorts of outfits and they also learned how to dance a minuet!  :-)

Pretty horses...with a photobomb by little Lumia from Finland.  :-)

Then it was time for a fancy lunch.

The best surprise was that they had a separate room set up for the parents' lunch, with a shot of cherry brandy to start things off...Oh, Croatia, you can be so delightful.

Rollerblading Reese

Last week, Reese and her cohorts took a rollerblading class at a local sport center.  On Friday, parents were invited to watch them show off their skills and receive a diploma.  Reese did a great job, given that she had no skating or skiing experience prior to this class, which many of the other kids did have.  I was very proud of how hard she worked her little legs!  It was no wonder she was so tired that week!

All suited up and ready to go!

And going...(sort of!)

Spring in Zagreb

Apologies to my Midwestern US friends.  Spring has sprung in Zagreb and it has been absolutely gorgeous.  Warm temps, sunshine and blossoms...

And new haircuts too!

Destination Deutschland

Over Easter, we spent 5 days in and out of the southern tip of Germany.  The city of Garmisch is about 6 hours from Zagreb by car and is home to a US Military R&R lodging facility, Edelweiss Lodge and Resort.  When we went to Hawaii 5 years ago, we stayed at a similar facility on Waikiki Beach.

This proved to be a good home base for the sightseeing we wanted to do.  Our wishlist was partly weather dependent (and of course kid friendly dependent), so we took each day as it came.  When we got to the hotel, we were pretty wiped out from the long drive, so we took advantage of one of the restaurants in the hotel.  An American restaurant.  Where everyone spoke English.  I had my first cheeseburger in 6 months, and even though it wasn't that great, it was delicious.  In fact, I was so happy, Scot took a picture.

After ingesting the greasy goodness we called dinner, we got our suits on and took a swim in the pool and the outdoor hot tub.  It was actually snowing while were in the outdoor hot tub, which we all thought was awesome.

The next morning, the sky was clear and the view looked like this.

So we decided to go up to Zugspitz, or what they call "The Top of Germany".

The girls got a bit goofy while we were waiting for the lift.

So up and up and up we went and then we saw this.  Incredible.

You can see from the sign we were at 2950 meters, which is almost 10,000 feet.

Believe it or not, it was quite cold at 10,000 feet.  Reese was completely miserable in the beginning, crying because of the wind.  At one point Ava and Reese were huddled by the building, when Ava decided to throw snow at Reese.  Much more crying ensued.  Despite the magical scenery, travelling with young children is not always magical.  They eventually found this snow pile to play on, which made them much happier.  And Mom and Dad got a momentary break from the choruses of complaining.

After a while, we rode the car back down, just to where people can actually go skiing.  We had some delicious German cheesy noodles at this chalet.

Then we rode the train the rest of the way down through the mountain.

The kids were definitely in need of a nap after this adventure - we went back to the hotel where they did just that.  And I made a BX run...stocking up with the good stuff. Cheddar cheese, maple syrup, bacon, brats, cooking spray, chocolate chips, chicken broth, applesauce, Tide, etc, etc.  We should be set again for a few months.  :-)

Day 2 - Easter Morning!
Boy, was I delighted to see upon our arrival that the Easter bunny was coming to the hotel.  Mom really didn't prepare well for Easter on the move :-)  So, there was an egg hunt at the hotel at 9:30, and it was inside due to the sheets of rain pouring outside.  The girls each picked up 6 candy-filled eggs in a few different conference rooms and we were back on our way.  Because the weather stunk in Garmisch, we decided to go to Innsbruck, Austria, which was about 40 minutes south.  I had read about Swarovski Crystal World being a good attraction for kids (well, and I thought I'd like it well enough myself!)...and better yet, it was inside.

Here's the entrance to the museum, which is just past the city of Innsbruck...everything in the museum is under that mound.

And inside it was more or less a big maze of weird European shiny stuff.

Afterwards, the girls and Scot waited patiently while I shopped for some souvenirs.

We stopped for some lunch before heading back into Innsbruck.  We drove around for awhile and eventually parked just outside of their city center. 

Just inside was the cathedral. Amazing.

And the rest of the square, decorated for Easter.

After an ice cream/coffee stop, we headed back to the hotel.  And went out for a fancy Easter dinner at a local Italian joint for some pizza and beer.  :-)

Day 3 -  This time we drove about an hour west to see the famous Neuschwanstein Castle.  With the fresh snow and sunshine, it was absolutely beautiful!

It was a bit a lot of hike to get up there (once again, enter the complaining chorus).  The buses weren't running that day and we didn't time it right to get a carriage ride.  It was a bit confusing - you neeed to buy a ticket for a scheduled tour (which is not transferable to any other time), but the carriages aren't on a set schedule, so you run the risk of not getting to your tour on time.  When we saw the carriage line was about 60 people deep, we didn't think we'd make it.  So...it didn't start off great, but we all "reset" once the hike was over with.  :-)

No pictures were allowed inside, but we all really enjoyed the tour.

That night, we went out to an authentic German restaurant for dinner (mmm...schnitzel) and gave the pool and hot tub one last twirl.

One more country checked off the list!