Blessed Firsts

Sometimes I cannot believe that my life is my own.  It is hard to swallow all the great blessing that Caleb and I experience as Husband and Wife, Parents and Children of God.  Over the last two weeks we attempted what many people have called the impossible - we took 4 small children to Easter Europe for a conference and family vacation.  Now, please don't get me wrong, we did not do this by ourselves or without major planning first.  We brought our Nanny, Rachel, who works with our family full time and we also brought Caleb's sister Esther who has cared for our children before as well.  We have LOVED having them both on this trip and treasure not only their helpfulness and ability to know right when to step in but we have also had great time of getting to know them both better and live life together, a great blessing in itself.

So Wednesday the 11th of January we took off on what became 30 hours of travel across the US, the Atlantic Ocean and then much of Europe to land in Budapest, Hungary.  The city was marvelous and filled with so much history and beautiful architecture.  We went to the baths at Chenchene, pronounced  Say-chan-eee which was so fun and the kids really loved going from pool to pool experiencing the different water temperatures as well as minerals.  EthnieMay described one of the baths as smelling like really yucky old potatoes.

We went up into the mountains of Hungary for SuperWeek, a conference that Caleb had the privelidge of Keynoting.  He really enjoyed his 2 sessions he taught at as well as being on 2 panels with good friends and colleges Justin Cutroni and Nick from the Google office.

After Hungary we jumped on a plane to land in Zurich Switzerland.  Switzerland is my favorite country.  We flew into Zurich and got to go to the Google office which was one of our cooler experiences.  There office is completely unique and gave us much inspiration for the office we are working to build in Bend.

Then we took a train to Berne, and then onto Wengen where we have been experiencing a Swiss ski vacation complete in a lovely Chalet in the Alps.  The town is car-less and has many cute shops and restaurants, the Chalet is Ski In/Out.  Jonny, Caleb's brother also came to visit us and we all played in the snow.

Today we skied the alps including EthnieMay and Zeb going to their first ski school.  The Swiss except 2 year olds unlike the US where we can't start until they are 4!  Both were getting on and off the magic carpet by the end of the day and skiing independently down the hill.  Emmy learned to stop as well, a huge accomplishment.  We all took a ride up the gondola at the end of the day which Zeb thought was amazing.

Firsts:

1. 30 hours of travel with 4 under 4
2. Budapest
3. Baths
4. SuperWeek
5. Zurich
6. Swiss Train Travel
7. Wengen
8. Swiss Alps
9. Ski School
10. Staying in a Chalet