Higgins Family Adventures

We are enjoying our visit from the Higgins despite the rain that started 12 hours after they arrived and is causing us to change some of our plans. We did end up with a sunny Sunday and spent it in a couple towns along the Danube. We visited the Stift (monastery) in Melk and then drove along the river to stop for lunch, ice cream and a hike up to the ruins where Richard the Lion heart was held prisoner at a point. It was a really enjoyable day, with sun at the right times, good company and some new sights.

Too many pictures to put up individually…back to the gallery with captions, click here to check out our Sunday:

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Haley has become quite the soccer fan…at this point there isn’t much else to watch sportswise! On Tuesday night she had a bath and then got to watch Daddy play some soccer while standing on a lawn chair on our balcony, enjoying some whole milk. What else could you ask for right? It usually depends on the student group that we have at the Haus but most sessions there are students who are interested in getting a game of soccer going in the open lot next to us. Justin likes to join in when he can and get to know the guys better.

trying to watch and drink...

waving to dad

Justin going for the goal...and he scores

the full view from our balcony

she's starting to get the hang of the smile!

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Our 2nd day in Venice was more boats, more sights. We rode out to Murano, a small island next to the bigger island (what you think of as Venice) where they have a rich history of glass making. We went to a glass museum there that had glass dating back to 100BC and a section on the processes they’ve used to make glass on this island over the years, a really great stop. We ended up doing 2 museums and going through St. Mark’s basilica this second day…due to the prohibiting of cameras, our pictures are few. Later in the afternoon when the sun wasn’t so strong, Justin went up the bell tower on St. Mark’s square to take some pictures of the view. We took the night train back to Vienna and actually didn’t pick up Haley until about 2pm on the 3rd day, we were pretty excited to see her again! She was excited too, not to see us but to show us the new dog friend she had made at the house she was at! We had a great trip and can’t thank our friends here in Austria enough for watching Haley to make it possible!

On the boat-bus headed to Murano

There were so many things that came with having an entire city on water. We saw this garbage “truck”, a Fedex “van” and an ambulance…obviously all boats. We did wonder how comfortable a boat ride to the hospital could be?

more ice cream the 2nd day, so many flavors to try

Justin took more pics the 2nd day

The following are all views from the top of the Bell Tower in St. Mark’s square:

Toward St. Mark's and the Doge Palace with the tower shadow

The Grand Canal going out into open water

View down the coastline farther from St. Mark's

St Mark's Square, Beth is about 1/3 the way up in the middle of the picture

Happy 4th Anniversary, I love you!

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This month we celebrated our 4th anniversary a few weeks early by going to Venice – WITHOUT Haley!  We had 3 friends willing to trade off watching her for 3 days while we enjoyed time as a couple.   Since this is a picturesque place,  we will have a few more pictures than normal.  Hopefully you won’t mind.

We took the train down and slept in a sleeper cabin for 2.  We got to order breakfast as well.

We got a water bus ticket for 36 hours and used them to travel around the islands and down the grand canel.  These were very convenient and we definitely got our money worth, sometimes just staying on to see the views.

The streets were bit confusing, but with a good map we eventually found our way.

To ice cream

San Marco Plaza

and our hotel.

Beth took most of the pictures.

We also found the Rialto bridge

And the Gondolas

They were a bit pricey for us, so we decided to take pictures of other people instead.

We really enjoyed the grand canal.

Smaller Canals

And of course, more of St. Marks square…
(More to come on our second day)

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When we first moved to Austria it was the best thing that could have happened to my scrapbook. I was finishing pages like crazy (if you know my style, this was very uncommon for me in the US). After our break to the US this past winter I had come to an almost halt in the scrapbook department, mainly due to my frustration in getting my hands on prints here in Austria. Things are slowly coming around…I found out through my photography class that www.scrapbookphotos.com offers 2$ shipping anywhere in the world so I’m waiting for my order to come in! In the mean time, I’ve finished a few pages this year with some pictures I already had, here are a few of my favorites of 2009 so far:

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We had a “double find” at the grocery store the other day…a bit of “home” in Austria!

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One of the best things about winter is that it makes you appreciate Spring so much more! I tell people that this year I experienced the first winter of my life. I have always loved to do the California “winter visit” where you go to the mountains to play in the snow for a few days, then leave it for the warmer weather. This year has been much different; we really felt “trapped” by winter at times and were SO glad to have Spring arrive!  Austria in bloom is just beautiful and I feel blessed to experience it!

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We had a great Easter Sunday, enjoying a baptism service at church, Haley’s first Easter basket, a walk through the woods to lunch and then an Easter egg hunt! We are between two school sessions this week and enjoyed Easter dessert with the 8 students who are staying over and the other staff last night. (I tried my hand at Carrot Cake and it got rave reviews) It was a great day of fellowship with so many people around us here in Austria!

doing the re-check of the items in her easter basket

Mom & Haley with her new Dora doll

Dad & Haley

The back entrance to the restaurant we walked to, some patrons rode their horses to lunch

The garden where our table was, we enjoyed the special:Easter lamb

Swinging on the playground at the restaurant

Our walk home, Haley took a nap

Our family April 2009

We pray that all our friends and family were just as blessed this Easter!

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I feel like there are so many things right now that I should be concentrating on studying. The bible, the German language, all things toddler, cooking, Vienna….I’m trying my best at balancing all these things, getting a bit in here and there for each of them. This last Monday i threw another subject into the mix: Photography. I started a nine week on-line photography class just covering the basics again by a woman who’s photographs I really love. She mentioned in one of the first lessons this week that our pictures will probably get worse (as we try and learn all the different elements of a photograph) before they get better but I’m excited to start putting some great pictures out there for people to see!

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It hasn’t exactly been warm the last couple days/weeks but it’s been starting to at least look like spring outside. The grass is turning green and the most exciting thing for me is that there are flower sprouts coming out of the ground! (Is that what they’re called?) Haley and I even visited the Zoo two mornings ago, she’s been wanting to be outside all the time!

Taking her snack outside

spring coming up

an outdoor baby

Well, this morning as I got up and looked out the window, I couldn’t figure out why the house next to us had a white roof. Hello, it was snowing! There are blue skies this evening but by lunch time we had about 5 inches of snow on the ground! I wasn’t expecting that! Haley and I headed out again for some snow fun!

the front yard

making and throwing snowballs

splashing in the spring slush

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