Ramblings...

Today has me feeling all kinds of emotional, and everyone's posts on social media for "National Siblings Day" have really gotten to me. I apologize in advance if this is a super sappy and emotional post, but...well..that's me. I'm a pretty emotional person. I know, #poorchris.

Allie and I have kept a notebook that we write notes into one another for a few years and recently I purchased this book for us. (Side note, there's also a one for Mothers and Son's that Michael and  I write to each other in you that can find here. I love doing this with my kids.) It has different writing prompts and I thought it would be better than the little spiral notebook we had and possibly allow her to write about things she may be thinking about or concerned with but not really know how to ask...Anyways, the other day her prompt was to write about your friends, who. your best friends are, challenges you face in your friendships, etc...MY prompts asked who my friends were when I was growing up and how my friendships have changed as well as what I've learned about friendship...and you know what?? All I could think about was my sisters. THEY were my best friends growing up and I'm so lucky to have them both in my life today. Mary and Erin are my best friends...I do not think of myself without them. Ask Chris, we are a package deal! Heck, we bought a house 5 doors down from Mary and her family! And if Erin wasn't the only smart one out of the three of us to move to a warmer climate she'd be in the neighborhood too, I'm certain of it.

Families are all different. Some of us are called to have one child and others more...Chris and I have always said that the best gift we can give our kids is eachother..and that has never been truer to me than watching our children live this experience abroad. I know I share our vacations and amazing places we get to discover together, but it's not always easy...and it's not always fun. There are devastatingly sad days where we're frustrated and yearn for "home" and our families...and I am brought to my knees in gratitude that Allie, Michael, Mary, and Emily have each other. They are never alone. When they're at school and totally immersed in a new language they are able to connect with each other on the playground and have a few minutes of "normal". I have seen these kids lean on each other and support one another so many times. I don't think I'll ever be able to express how thankful I am that they have each other. I pray they continue to stay close as they grow up and eventually welcome each others spouses into their lives,  the same way I've been welcomed and loved by Chris' sisters...I sure do love those ladies, too. Family really is everything.

Always stop to make a wish in a fountain : )

You can blame this post on post-vacation blues or the fact that Chris is in China until Saturday. He's been traveling for work our entire relationship...we flew home from our honeymoon on a Sunday and he flew out of for work the following morning...but 12 years later I still miss him like crazy when he's gone. I'm such a sensitive Sally!!

Spring Break 2018

We got home last night from such a fun Spring Break road trip!! We drove last Saturday to Vienna (about 6 hours) and stayed until Wednesday, then drove 4 hours to Ljubljana, Slovenia before driving another 6 hours home yesterday. We rolled into town just before 8:00pm last night and JUST in time to make a super fast run through the grocery store before they closed for the night...seriously we pulled into the parking lot at 7:56pm (they close at 8:00pm and grocery stores aren't open here on Sundays). It was straight up Supermarket Sweep style. Today we're doing all the laundry and just hanging out enjoying a sunny Sunday!

I thought I'd do a quick blog post on our trip to share some pics with everyone while I'm waiting for laundry to be finished.

We arrived in Vienna a little after 3:00pm Saturday and after checking into our BEAUTIFUL hotel we unpacked and headed out to explore! We stayed at the Bristol Hotel. Before we left I had the chance to chat with a high school friend of mine who had been to Vienna in the fall to get tons of advice and tips and as it turns out, she stayed at the same hotel during her visit! She had told me it was beautiful, but we were blown away. We all felt very spoiled!

Michael cracked me up by making himself right at home as soon as we arrived! I always unpack when we travel...I can't leave everything in a suitcase, and it looks like Michael is the same way! ha!

We had dinner reservations that night at Griechenbeisl for a traditional Viennese dinner. Chris's uncles visited Vienna back in 2011 during their annual Europe trip and had dinner here as well so we thought we'd do the same. It's one of the oldest restaurants in Vienna and our meal was fantastic! There's a book guests can sign when they visit so after dinner Chris signed it. We had hoped to look for his uncles' signatures but they don't have stacks of books by the year or anything so it was kind of a lost cause.

The next morning was Easter Sunday and we got to enjoy mass at St. Augustine Church which was breathtaking. As you can imagine, the music was phenomenal...it was such a treat! After mass, we headed to brunch then back to the hotel to see if the Easter Bunny had visited!

After the kids found their Easter bags (no baskets this year, the Easter bunny has to make do when traveling) and the eggs he hid we changed our clothes and headed out again. Vienna has "Easter markets" similar to Christmas Markets you find around Europe during the Christmas season. It didn't take us long to find a few to explore! We ended the day with a carriage ride around the city center and then a pizza dinner at a local restaurant.

Monday morning we headed to the Spanish Riding School to watch morning exercises (thanks again for the rec, Kelly!!!) then a quick stop at the Albertina museum. They had bunnies all throughout the various exhibitions for the kids to count which made for a fun game, and we totally lucked out because Allie's class just started a unit on the artist Keith Haring and they have his work on display so it was really fun! I'll be honest that some of his stuff is pretty provocative for this conservative mama, but Chris and I were able to keep our little people moving through the exhibit and their eyes averted from some of his more (ahem) mature paintings.

After we left the Albertina we headed to the Vienna Zoo for the rest of the afternoon!

We got back to our hotel with just enough time for Allie and me to freshen up and change before dashing across the street to the Vienna State Opera to see the ballet Raymonda. Chris got us tickets the day before we left and it was the most memorable evening for me...I hope Allie remembers it forever. I had this "is this really my life" moment as I sat there next to my beautiful daughter in this historic and spectacular building in VIENNA!! I mean, never did I EVER think this would be my life and I just feel so, so grateful.

We had a tour scheduled for Tuesday morning with the sweetest woman named Susanne. Our first stop was St. Stephen's Cathedral to climb the steps and get the best views of Vienna! We weren't sure if Emily would be able to make the climb but she shocked us all by marching up all 343 steps! I want to stop for a minute and give a HUGE shout out to this chick. She gets the biggest freaking gold star for this trip because we forgot to bring our stroller and she walked everywhere with us...that's a lot of walking and just keeping up for a 3-year-old!! I was so darn impressed with her.

After St. Stephen's she took us a little restaurant to try THE BEST Wiener Schnitzel! We've had a lot of Schnitzel since living in Germany bit this really was THE best.  The piece was massive and she asked them to cut it into pizza slices for us all to share! It was perfect. Well, for most of us...Michael wasn't a fan of Schnitzel that day. Our kids are the pickiest eaters!!

We ended our stay in Vienna with dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe...I mean, could we be more touristy?!? haha! We knew the kids would get a kick out if it though!

Wednesday morning we drove to Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia. We had heard from others how beautiful it was there and had been wanting to make a visit so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

We explored the town on Wednesday afternoon for a bit after we arrived and had plans to visit Lake Bled the following day but the weather forecast was pretty dreary for Thursday so we switched around our plans last minute and ended up exploring more of Ljubljana Thursday. We visited the Ljubljana Castle and Dragon Bridge. Some friends of ours had visited Ljubljana in the fall and left a lock on the bridge and our kids managed to find it...they were so excited to find a little piece of their friends abroad!

Friday morning we left early to spend the morning exploring Lake Bled. It was honestly the reason we came to Slovenia and we were not disappointed. It was spectacular. The entire place was just magical and felt straight out of a fairytale! We took a little boat called a Pletna boat across the lake to the island and then back to explore the castle and the adorable town itself. It was amazing.

Someone was NOT feeling a picture! ha!

Learning about a letter press

Chris had some work he had to do (yup, even on vacation) so we headed back to Ljubljana where the kids and I entertained ourselves around town. Ljubljana isn't a huge city and a lot of the area is pedestrian only so the kids were free to just run around and explore. We had lunch outside and found a spot to get ice cream before discovering a large park. Chris met up with us after a few hours and we grabbed a table at a restaurant along the river for drinks and to just relax. On our walk back to our hotel we ended up jumping on a small boat to cruise up and down the river which the kids loved! We met a group of American students who are studying in Prague and all I could do was hope our kids have the same opportunity someday.

We made reservations that night for a traditional Slovenian dinner. There is a group that hosts these dinners at various restaurants around town with music and dancing and we thought it would be fun. We ended up having the best time! We all laughed so hard the entire night...Chris and I ended up playing some traditional Slovenian games and the kids were dancing with all of the performers.  It was a great way to end our last night of vacation.

Saturday morning we had planned to just get up and drive home but since our plans to visit Lake Bled had shifted due to the weather we still wanted to visit the Postojna Cave, so we made the small detour to check it out before heading home. It was SO worth it!!

Tomorrow it's back to real life...the kids head back to school and Chris flies to China. I'm always so grateful for this family time...