Where do we begin?

Oh, for the time to tell you of ice caves, neighbors and visitors, pumpkin cream soup, Kiev, washing dishes in a one-sided sink, palaces and more. We had lots of fun with our seven year old friend, Alan, who came to visit from Texas while Steve went with Alan's daddy and another staff member from Denton Bible Church to the Ukraine (a post from Steve about his trip will follow). The picture below shows what the boys did when it rained for an entire day and we were stuck in 640 square feet.


While everyone was here, we all headed into Vienna. We lost Alan's daddy on the U-Bahn, were turned away from an Austrian restaurant, repeated a visit to Stefansdom and walked the grounds of Schoenbrunn Palace (where the picture below was taken ... with Vienna in the background).

That night, the guys decided to give Steve and I a surprise date. They returned home with five boys, and Steve and I stayed in Vienna. Our date was a lot like our honeymoon. [Honeymoon Flashback: rain, broken camera, everything closed, speeding ticket in Montana and ran out of gas]

As we walked through Vienna, we came upon a very special discovery of which you should NEVER take advantage should you make it to Vienna. It is called, in English, "Long Night of the Museums". In theory, it's amazing. For 13 euros, you can visit any museum in Austria until 1 in the morning. We excitedly found a quiet, out-of-the-way museum in which to purchase tickets and began our journey. Later news reports would tell us that 400,000 people turned out for the event. And that is exactly what it felt like. After declining to stand in line at museum after museum, we squished our way into the Albertina to see the art exhibits. We made it through part of Van Gogh before we decided to cut our losses and go get dinner. We have never been in anything so crowded. It wouldn't have been legal in the U.S.

But dinner was much better. Steve accidentally talked me into a long skinny hot dog. Yummmmmmmmmm. The photo below was taken that night. It was a beautiful night and we really did have a nice time together. We should have just walked around Vienna, because we found some beautiful spots.

Below are our friends, Chris and Alan, from Denton, Texas. Thank you, Antonia, for sending your wonderful boy and equally great husband to spend time with us. We enjoyed them so much!

Next, you see our unpaid German tutor, Adam. He just joined us from Denton Bible Church in Texas. The boys hang all over him and he is especially gifted at locating playgrounds.