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...
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.
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.
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.
When a pair of friends from Toulouse invited us to England
for a proper British Christmas, we jumped at the opportunity. We are so
grateful to have been around friends and family for the holidays.
After a crazy day of travel – Innsbruck to Munich by car, flights
from Munich to Frankfurt then Frankfurt to Heathrow, a coach from the airport
to Basingstoke, and finally a quick drive to our destination – we arrived to
The Old Post Office (our friends’ parent’s home) in the quaint village of
Sherborne St. John.
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.
End of August 2014:
My dad has had a wide variety of visits to California in his time: Bootcamp at Camp Pendleton, a family vacation to Disneyland with two young daughters, his convertible rode trip across the country, helping me settle in after my move from San Francisco to Orange County, and possibly most importantly, Andy and my wedding. And although I had the pleasure of seeing my dad more times than usual this summer, his trip to California in August was one my heart will cherish forever.
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…
When I studied abroad, my college girlfriends and I all traveled from our respective cities to Munich for Oktoberfest. After that weekend, I swore up and down that while it was an enjoyable experience, it was one I never - EVER - needed to have again. Love will make you do crazy things…
After nearly five years, I was finally able to drag Andy to Iowa for a long weekend to visit my dad and step-mom. Iowa City and the University of Iowa is a super special place in my family. My sister and three step-brothers attended college there, my dad and step mom reconnected there after nearly 30 years apart, we've celebrated birthdays, bridal showers,football wins (and loses), weddings, and much more there. This visit was long overdue.
The men in my life have now reached a combined age of 36. I don't know what's crazier - the fact that Andy is 30 or that my little boyfriend, Harry Winston, is 6. Time flies, that's for sure. We were lucky enough to be in the Chicagoland area for Andy's 30th birthday, meaning he got to celebrate (early) with some of his first and oldest friends, and a slew of our favorite family members.
One of our first to-dos on this summer of travel was to head east for a very special birthday celebration. Our beloved Ellie "Bucket" turned three in June, so naturally her Godparents and all three sets of grandparents had to fly out for the occasion. It's a funny thing having only one grandchild in the family. At any given point, there were upwards of 10 adults following around a teetering little lady. It was actually ridiculous…
Another day, another Hein/Dranka/Kleinschrodt/Diers cross-country trip for a very Bucket birthday party. Looking at the above, it's hard to believe homegirl will just be turning three. Time has gone both too fast and just fast enough. She could be the head camp counselor for a group of junior high kids…
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 it's been a minute since I've mused the blogosphere on a Monday. A series of visitors, playoffs, and the like have held me up but prepare yourselves… I'm back.
1. The weather here is confusing. Last week I was bronzing on the sun deck at the gym. Today it's half rain, half sunshine. And rainbows per the above. How wonderful? Oh, and it's supposed to snow tomorrow.
2. Whilst grocery shopping this afternoon, Amy Grant's "Baby, Baby" was playing as I meandered through the aisles. It was probably the best throwback I've had in awhile. Enjoy this…
3. The Hypo guys dropped a devastating match (it was almost 3 hours long and one of the sets went 39-37) on Saturday meaning Aich/Dob tied the series at 1-1. We're back home Wednesday night and hoping for a better result. If there's a sketchy FromSport of FirstRowSports link to share, I'll be sure to do so.
4. The "home countdown" is at 25 days. That's just silly. Considering we have a final visitor, an entire apartment to pack up, and some travel left to do, it just doesn't feel like nearly enough time. I could really use Hermione's "Time-Turner" right now…
5. Our little Bucket's birthday is coming up so soon - how can she be almost three already?! Knowing we wanted to order something for the upcoming celebration, imagine my delight when I saw a coupon code for Naptime Diaries' spring sale. There are so many wonderful prints and gifts to be seen on their site - check it out!
Still pink from our day in the Salzburg sunshine on Friday, we woke up Sunday morning to a whole new world. A snow covered one. I guess there is truth to the Austria saying, "Spring, Spring, it does what it wants." Unwilling to fall victim to the sudden change in weather, we gobbled up some of Andy's from-scratch cinnamon rolls and headed for Neuschwanstein.
