Austria

The girls had school break last week and we headed to Saalbach, Austria for a week of skiing with friends, Kelly and Michal and their two girls, Vivi and Michelle.  The trip started out as most trips.....mommy, my ear hurts...but this time it came from Ali instead of Sofia.  We debated taking Ali to to the doctor but in the end we decided that it wouldn't be worth it to go to the doctor since her ear hadn't been hurting long enough for the doctors to do anything about it if it was in fact becoming a true ear infection.  Once we mentioned the doctor, Ali decided that her ear was fine as well so we packed up the car and headed to Austria.  The drive was suppose to be five and a half hours but since it is school break week for the Germans, Dutch and Austrians the trip took us nine hours.  Luckily the kids travel well in the car so the journey wasn't too painful.  Once we reached Saalbach we stopped in quickly to the ski shop to pick up the kids rentals for the week and make sure their ski school was in order and then headed to our apartment. 

The first day of skiing started out questionable as the kids ski school seemed very disorganized and we couldn't figure out which group they should be in and none of the instructors seem to know either.  Once we got them situated, Jason and I headed for the slopes.  We came back early to check on the girls only to find that they really hadn't been doing any skiing and that the group they were in was really a kindergarten where they don't do much of anything.  This was incredibly frustrating so we tracked down someone from the ski school and finally figured out that the school really didn't have any group to brindge the gap between the kindergarten and already knowing how to ski.  They did give us our moeny back and only charged us half price for the rentals for the week so at least it wasn't a total waste.  We left that ski school and headed over to the ski school at our apartment.  The apartments we stayed at are owned by a dutch company.  Separate from the apartments, behind the reception building, the same company runs a ski school on a bunny slope.  We checked with them to see if they had any space and luckily they did so we signed the girls up.  This turned out to be a great decision.  On the bunny slope there were three classes.  The girls both started in the beginner group.  By noon, Sofia was pushed up to the next group and by the next day she was in the next group taking the rope tow up the entire hill and skiing down.  Her instructor, Lisa, was Dutch but spoke English well and Sofia loved her.  Ali missed her first day at this ski school since that initial ear pain turned into a fever.  She was fine the next day though and was eager to go to ski school.  Ali enjoyed school and really warmed to her instructors, Neils and Jan.  Jan was a super nice guy and really engaged Ali to the point that the next day when we arrived at ski school she asked. "Where's Jan?".  Ali didn't progress the way Sofia did though.  She just couldn't turn left.  On Thursday, the last day of ski school, the ski school holds races for each group where they award medals.  Everyone gets a medal but the top three get special medals and get to stand on a podium.  Ali, not being able to turn left, skiied her race with Neils holding her.  She came in eigth place out of eight but was still happy to get her medal.  Sofia was very excited about the race and as Lisa told me, "She is fast.".  She did a great job and placed second.  She was excited to stand on the podium and was quite proud of herself.  On Friday, Jason and I took to the girls to the big mountain and went up the bigger slope.  This was much bigger and steeper than the bunny hill near our apartment but they were ready for it.  Jason skiied with Sofia and they played follow the leader.  I took Ali and we tried many different ways to help her figure out skiing.  We eventually settled on me skiing backwards and Ali continually skiing to me.  This seemed to work and she actually started to get it and was making turns in both directions.  Sofia asked to switch so I headed down the hill with her and Jason worked with Ali.  By lunch time Ali was playing follow the leader as well and was very excited.  She was getting so frustrated when she wasn't putting it all together because basically she just wanted to ski fast and so was very happy to have finally put it all together.  After lunch we had a few more runs of follow the leader with the Sofia leading the way and then we headed back to the bunny hill near our apartment so the kids could ski with their friends, Vivi and Michelle.  Ali had progressed so much with her skiing that we let her lead the way in follow the leader.  The kids really had a great time skiing and made such amazing strides in the skiing abilities.  Here are videos of the girls skiing.  The video of Ali shows her race at the end of ski school.  Unfortunately I didn't take any videos the last day of Ali skiing so well.  The video of Sofia is from the middle of ski school.  She eventually mastered that hill and moved to the big slope on the mountain.

As I mentioned we went to Austria with our friends which made the trip even better.  We didn't really ski together (except I skiied with Michal the afternoon that Ali had a fever since Jason skiied the morning) but we spent our evening together.  This was perfect.  We would take turns making dinner and the kids would eat and then play in the bedroom leaving the adults to watch the Olympics, hang out and chat.  We ate at the restaurant one night but it was better to eat in as it gave the kids more space to play and we didn't have to worry about bothering others in the restaurant.  We went to the pool together one day after skiing but since the kids were always so wiped out after skiing they were happy to just play in the bath.  By the time we would head home from Kelly and Michal's after dinner, Ali would usually be asleep in my arms which was a true test of strength given there were 108 steps and a hill between our apartment and Kelly and Michal's apartment.  On days we had dinner at our apartment, Ali would be asleep by the time Kelly and Michal and the kids went home. By Friday night even Sofia was exhausted and she fell asleep in Jason's arms on the climb back up the hill.  We had very fun filled days and nights

Jason and I took one day off from skiing and went to Zell am See, a village close to Saalbach.  The village was very cute and the ski lifts were right in the center of town.  The views of the mountains from the lake were beautiful as well.  It was a nice relaxing day off from skiing.  Other than that one day, Jason and I did get to ski quite a bit on this vacation.  The thing that I found so interesting is that the skiing was so different here compared to in the States.  Not only are there a lot of gondolas or lifts with heated seats but there are not many black trails and it is mostly long groomed trails.  The day I skiied with Michal I was amazed at the difference.  I saw the opportunity to hit a couple little jumps but I seemed to be the only one on the trail doing so.  There wasn't even a smoothed line between the jumps which there would most assuredly be in the States.  I commented on this to Michal and he simpy said, "we just don't do that here.".  I was shocked.  The differences really stood out to me.  There were a couple mogul trails but noone was on them so I would hit the moguls and meet Michal at the bottom of the moguls section which wasn't very long.  The next day however I went across the road to the opposite mountain where there was a mogul trail that runs about 600 meters (2000ft) vertical.  Jason and I hit that mogul trail a few times and it was great.  The bumps were nice and again there was noone on the trail.  This felt like American skiing to me.  I could hit the lip at the edge of the trail between the groomed and moguls and get little jumps going and then head back into the bumps.  It was perfect!  My thighs, however, were burning.  Fortunately, there is a nice mid mountain restaurant. (the 2000ft vertical mogul trail ends at the midmountain restaurant).  We stopped and had lunch in glorious sunshine.  It was sunny and warm everyday that we skiied.  So warm in fact that by the end there were quite a few grassy patchs showing on the mountain.

Overall, despite Ali's fever, it was a fantastic vacation. The days were filled with excellent skiing and glorious sunshine and the evenings were spent having fun with friends.  It doesn't get mcuh better than that! You can view all the pictures from our trip HERE.