Ski Trip to Kaprun, Austria

Sometimes I think I am living a dream by getting to live here in Italy!  This past weekend  we took a squadron ski trip to Austria.  It was like spending a few days in a Winter Wonderland!  The beauty of the area was indescribable.  We arrived there on Friday evening after a four hour drive through a beautiful pass in the mountains.  We had dinner with friends and then headed to bed because we knew it would be a busy couple of days.  Saturday morning we headed up to Kitzsteinhorn to try out our ski legs.  It was a 15 minute bus ride up followed by two gondola ride just to get up to where you could ski.  It was breathtaking!  The kids really enjoyed riding in the gondola and were looking out the windows trying to identify all the animal tracks in the snow. 

Austin had  a great first day on the slopes and made it down a long run with Chad two times.  Chad got some practice skiing backwards while letting Austin ski towards him and Chad said that Austin did really well!  Austin really seemed to enjoy skiing and was looking forward to ski school on Sunday.  We had Madison along with us that day, so I didn't get to do much skiing, but I did make one long run with Chad's help.  I was a little nervous on my first day and fell a couple times, but I did make it down.  We were really looking forward to Sunday when the kids would be in ski school and we could get a lot of practice in. 

For dinner Saturday night we got all dressed up in our traditional Austrian clothes.  Chad wore his lederhosen and I wore my dirndil.  The kids didn't have any outfits, but they did enjoy seeing all us silly grown-ups all dressed up.  We dined with the kids and then they went upstairs with the older kids while the adults stayed up for awhile.  They had a great time hanging out with all the kids! 

We had a wonderful and busy day on Sunday.  We had a rough time getting up and going in the morning beause we were all pretty tired, but we made it!  We dropped the kdis off at ski school first and then we headed off to get some skiing in.  Austin was really excited, but Maddie wasn't quite so thrilled.  She wasn't skiing because she's not quite old enough for that.  She settled down after a little while and I think she had a really nice day playing in the snow and having lunch with Austin.  Chad and I had a nice day skiing and I feel like I am getting a little better.  I keep telling Austin how lucky he is to be learning to ski when he is 5 and not 30!  It is a lot easier to learn when you have no fear!  We made some really good runs together and Chad did a few on his own when I needed a break.  We arrived back to the ski school just in time to see Austin make his last run and he looked great going all by himeself! 

Sunday night we went for a horse drawn sleigh ride with a big group of friends.  It was so pretty and the kids loved it.  We rode through the snow for about an hour.  It was a beautiful view of the mountains and the town at night.  Austin thought it was really cool and wanted to sing jingle bells the whole time.  What  a great experience to share with the kids. 

Monday we took it easy and didn't rush out to do anything in the morning.  We took a little walk around town to take some pictures and buy a few souveniers before heading out. We had lunch at a really nice little place near the hotel and then got in the van and headed home.  We had a wonderful time and can't wait to hit the slopes again!