undefeated and unknowns

Hypo Tirol Volleyball swept their finals series against AICH/DOB and ended the (league) season undefeated at 26-0. While being undefeated is not a super duper major accomplishment in most of the regular season, not dropping a match and only dropping a single set in four matches to a worthy opponent most definitely is.

monday musings

It's been awhile since I've graced this little corner of the inter webs with my inner most musings. So much has happened in the last few weeks and even more will happen in the coming ones. I'm hoping "get warm and stay sunny" is Mother Nature's to-do list as we head into our last month in Innsbruck. Within hours of the above photo being taken, we were hit with dark skies and snow flakes. I can't keep up with this valley weather...

volleyball lately

Until very recently - as in, the last 5 days recently - Hypo volleyball hasn't been the most thrilling. The team easily swept the Quarterfinals in 3 of 5 matches, and had another long break until the start of the Semis.

vineman monte rio

So, I might be crazy... Our month of May is absolutely bananas already. We fly back to San Francisco on May 6th, head up to Healdsburg May 7th - 10th. Fly to Minnesota on May 12th. Fly out for our honeymoon on May 16th. Fly from our honeymoon to Chicago on May 24th. Fly back to the Bay Area on May 27th. And finally, considering I just submitted my registration (there's no going back now)... Head up to wine country again on May 30th for the VineMan Monte Rio Triathlon.

the jump

There is currently a British reality TV show being filmed here in Tirol - The Jump. The show features celebrities of all sorts - from Pussycat Doll to Olympic Athlete, and everything in between - and pits them against each other in alpine sports including skeleton, bobsled, snow crash, and more.

on top of the world

Kiley and Cody visited us - twice - as part of their Tour de Europe. After 4 straight days of snow, the skies cleared, the sun shone, and we trekked up Nordkette to Hafelekar. It literally could not have been a more picture perfect day.

ice princess-ing

In their trip planning, Kiley and Cody created a Winter Wonderland Bucket List full of fun and festive to-dos while in the snowy and much more wintery land of Europe. Much to Cody's dismay, Kiley and I spied an ice skating rink in the center of town and beelined for the rental office.

schönes neues jahr

krampus

For those of our American friends who think we've made up the concept of crazy, devilish creatures who terrorize children around the holidays in Austria...

there is a castle on a cloud

With almost a full day off, the Heins Four piled into the car and headed toward Neuschwanstein. It was cloudy and foggy most of the day. In fact, our first attempt at the castle view was laughable. You could hardly see your own hand in front of your face.

wordless wednesday

timbersports world championships 2014

When we were younger and on vacation in Mexico, my sister and I would often stumble across poorly-dubbed Lumberjack competitions on the local version of ESPN (The Ocho, perhaps). We would sit, mesmerized by the burly, plaid clad men, as they dangerously swung their axes and chainsaws at unassuming logs and trees.

wordless wednesday

thirsty thursday

A few weeks ago, after seeing the recipe on a fellow volleyball wife's blog, I decided I needed to try this super simple recipe. It tastes like autumn in a glass and makes for a wonderful post-dinner treat. I pretty much followed the recipe in the video with a few small changes, noted below.

internationales heimturner meister

This weekend marked Hypo's final pre-season contest as Berlin, Milano, and Lugano traveled to Innsbruck for a tournament on our home turf - or court... whatever. It was great to welcome fellow American friends from Berlin, especially Erik, and enjoy some non-broken-English-conversation throughout the weekend.

Ultimately, Hypo fought their way to number one and took home the tournament trophy. Regular season officially kicks off next Saturday - and so it begins…

a (last) year in review

I've been back in Innsbruck for almost a month already - crazy! - and I realized I never shared last year's "highlights reel" on die Blog. Without further adieu…

happy fall y'all!

It's really pretty here this time of year. The cold weather, however, I could do without. Here's hoping for an Indian Summer!

farewell spazieren gehen

Emilie, Stefan, Schatten, Hairball and I took one final hike up to Arzler Alm today. Harry had his last few sips of Austrian alpine wasser, chased his best buddy, and got sufficiently dirty enough to need (another) bath before the big trip home. Noticeably missing was The Large One, who headed home earlier that day.

so this happened last night...

We will return to America with a Championship medal and a little extra pocket change. Congrats Hypo, it was an awesome finals series and you absolutely deserved to take back the title!

happy friday