Fairy Marigold-8 years old

props to Bill

Yesterday Bill ran his first (yes, I do expect another one in the future) marathon. 26 miles without stopping to walk was his goal and he did it. Started running about 9 months ago and made it to marathon already. See how he does things with the making a descision and then going at it full force, purchasing lots of gear that goes with current interest, sticking with it (that's the bit that throws me off track, I can get with the motivation for a day or two...), AND then going until we reach super-human expert levels.
We are all so in awe of him and proud of him. I mean, do you know how far 26 miles is?!!!
Yes, I am inspired and as I'm getting older (but not as old as all my friends with March birthdays-happy birthday) I should really make excercise part of my life, today my girlfriend and I did a stair workout in our stairwell, which felt like it might have been 26 miles and I'm going to yoga tonight so, that's impressive.


We don't have pictures of him at the finish line (yet) so here's a random assortment of kids sledding in our 'backyard'. This is after most of the kids went inside and just the die-hard (all homeschooled) kids are left as it's getting dark. The other day we had a round of flashlight tag for all the neighborhood kids and it turned into a wicked huge snowball fight.

Billie's hair before her haircut.

Billie representing Japan for her Girl Scout world thinking-day and eating Onigiri, our favorite Japanese snack.
Thank you, Yukari-San, for sending us the flavoring mixes!!!

Billie and Sloane making muffins.

never, ever again for at least 2 years

Austria was just as Sound of Music as possible. Our trip, however, involved more than beautiful scenery and that is where the hands-down-worst-road-trip-ever bit comes in.
You know how it is with us- travel isn't always romantic candelight dinners and sipping umbrella drinks on the beach. When we're going somewhere sometimes people ask me "Are you bringing the kids?" and I'm like "Yes, they belong to us...they are ours, so yes, we're bringing them. Duh."
First the flight- when I found it was three hours...well, that's like a whole vacation in itself right there. Is there anything easier than three hours, with no plane changes, no need to de-board and re-board? There is not. It's like going to a movie, easier than church because you don't have to talk in hushed voices or keep reminding everyone that they will have to live without snacks for 50 whole minutes. We made the whole trip with no electronic devices at all. Lovely.
Skiing, I found out, is not so easy.
Here's what you absolutely must be sure that your rental car has when driving from Munich to Austria: snow tires. Here's what you REALLY don't want to hear from the rental car place "We have only one car with snow tires- a two door VW Golf".
And if you do happen to find yourself driving from Munich to the small town of St. Veit, Austria with one toddler in carseat and 3 other people squished in next to that (and that's just in the backseat) well, it's essential to have a GPS system, which we did. It's also essential to have a barf bag, change of clothes and clothespins to hold your nose plugged for the remainer of the puke-smelling trip but we did NOT have those.

Here's what's fun; having tons of snow/Here's what's not fun; having tons of snow gear to put on so that you're not miserable when you go out in tons of snow. It's nice to be warm and bundled up in hats, fleeces, snowpants with suspenders, mittens cinched, thick wool socks but it is heartbreaking to hear that someone has to use the bathroom once they are finally zippered in to their bundling accessories.

It was really fun to hang out with George and Mari, to learn to ski and to watch the kids going down the mountain like pros and we had a good time overall....but here is what you must know about going skiing for 5 days straight with four little kids- Do not go skiing for 5 days straight with four little kids.