Welcome 2012

Happy New Years!

We spent New Year's Eve with a visit to the park. Mom and I went and got mani/pedi's since Chris had the day off. It was a pretty uneventful New Year's Eve and day. We had a few glasses of wine at home and watched fireworks from the balcony.

I look forward to seeing how our adventures continue to grow in 2012!

Savannah is 16 Months Old

Savannah is 16 months old...well really 16 1/2 but close enough. Between travel and Christmas I am a little behind!

This is such a fun age! I can't believe how much she understands and tries to communicate although with a limited vocabulary. She can say words like hot, mama, dada, mum (we did not teach her this), nana, cat, ball, balloon (although ball and balloon both sound like ba). We have also been teaching Savannah the baby sign language for "more" and "all done" to help communicate at meal time. Just after she turned 15 months, she is finally starting to do both signs herself and using them correctly. She loves to swim, read books and play with stickers! Everyday it seems like she adds a new word to her vocabulary and understands a little more. I can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings!

Granddad Has To Head Home

Unfortunately, since Christmas in over that means that it is time to say good-bye. We have spent the last two days playing with new Christmas toys but now it is time for my dad to head back to St. Louis.

Since my shoulder is still broken and in a sling, I need help taking care of Savannah (Chris had to go back to work on the 26th.) so my mom has graciously agreed to extend her trip! We are so lucky that as of right now she is staying indefinitely and her boss agreed to this! I have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon here in a few days so we will try to figure out how long her stay will be after that.

Not only has my mom agreed to stay but Chris' mom is on standby, in case we need help after my mom leaves. We are again reminded how blessed we are to have such a wonderful and understanding family.

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!

We started the day monkey bread for breakfast. Then a few presents, a nap and the last of the presents. We also took lots of "breaks" to skype with family back home. (With the time difference our Christmas morning, was their Christmas Eve so it was perfect). Savannah loves to skype so she enjoyed opening presents in front of an even bigger audience.

I am not sure who was more excited about Savannah opening her gifts...me or her. She seemed to like all her toys (and is still playing with them as I write this a few weeks later!). Her favorites seem to be the baby doll stroller (although she doesn't seem quite sure about the new baby doll), puzzles, jumbo Legos, a purse and a small table and chair set. She also got books, a fun piano you walk to play music and some new sticker books! It will be lots of fun to play with her new toys in the coming weeks.

We made turkey dinner at home. My original intentions were to learn how to make this myself, but since my shoulder is still in the sling, my mom and dad took over in the kitchen...which is always a good thing!

Santa was very generous this year and it is so fun having a true little kid around to spread the Christmas joy!

Home At Last & Christmas Eve

Chris and I got home from Austria early this morning. I was so antsy on the plane, I couldn't wait to get home, which of course meant we were delayed leaving Berlin. We finally made it home, exhausted after flying overnight but worth every minute. It is great to be back home with Savannah Mae! My parents also enjoyed their week with Savannah and she enjoyed going to the beach almost every day!

We went to the Atlantis for Christmas Eve dinner. Santa visited the tables, but as she (yes, you read that correctly!) detoured our table as Savannah started getting upset from a few feet away. Savannah feasted on watermelon, Arabic bread and hummus while the rest of us enjoyed lobster and international cuisines. (Not quite a traditional Christmas Eve dinner but delicious anyway.)

It is always hard to be away from family, especially on the holidays. This year we were truly blessed by getting to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with at least some of our family.

A huge thank you to my parents as well. Chris and I's first trip "away" would not have been possible without them!

Ski and Shop

Today Chris went and hit the slopes, while I stayed behind. I went to some of the little shops in town and met Chris at the bottom of the mountain for lunch. It snowed most of the day. Chris had a great time skiing, although between the snow and very heavy fog, it was white conditions most of the day. This made it difficult to see the contours of the snow, which resulted in difficult skiing, him ending up in some deep snow and off of the groomed path at times...but all in all he was glad to get out and finally have some real snow.

Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal World), Innsbruck

While in Innsbruck we went to the Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal World). We expected a museum type of environment filled with beautiful crystal displays. We were definitely in for a surprise. The best way to describe Crystal World is an abstract art museum with a few crystals. It was certainly very different than we expected. One of my favorite things that we saw (and was more in line with our expectations) was a Christmas tree made completely of crystals and designed by Alexander McQueen. It was stunning (the picture does not do it justice). The stairs and walls were also stunning filled with crystals. Another favorite (and again more of what we thought we would see) was a collection of landmarks made completely of Swarovski crystals. There was a replica of the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower and pyramids in Egypt. The rest of the sights were very abstract and odd.

Innsbruck, Austria

Today we continued our sight seeing adventures and hopped on the train to Innsbruck. This was about a three hour train ride. From the Innsbruck train station we walked to Altstadt t(he old part of downtown), visited a few more Christmas markets, did a little shopping, visited the Swarovski Flagship store and had lunch in a little cafe. We also took a tour of Swarovski Crystal World. Innsbruck is beautiful and literally looks like a scene from one of those Christmas villages, although it was really snowy and foggy so hard to get the full effect of the mountains. After a full day of sight seeing we caught the last train back and then went to a wine bar right near our hotel. It was a perfect winter day!

Bad Hofgastein

Tonight we took the bus to Bad Hofgastein. Bad Hofgastein is Bad Gastein's sister town. It is very similar; a small, quaint, ski town, built into the mountains. It was a short bus ride away. We had originally decided to go to Bad Hofgastein because we heard their was a Christmas concert in town. But once we saw how quiet the town was and that the concert was being held at a nursing home, we opted for dinner and walking around instead. It started snowing on our way back to the bus, which was fun...although I am thankful for my one week of winter this year.

Stubnerkogel Bridge

The Stubnerkogel Suspension Bridge is 140 meters long and breaks two records at once: It is the first hanging bridge at an altitude of 2,300 meters and can be walked on year around. The bridge is only one meter wide. It was built as swinging rope construction and leads directly from the terrace of the mountain restaurant into the other side of the mountain. Again, the views were amazing but once on the bridge I think we were both focused on just getting to the other side.