We spent a week of our Spring Break, the week before Easter, at a kinderhotel in the Zillertal Arena ski area in Tirol, Austria. This was our second kinderhotel stay in Austria, and it was incredible! The Almhof hotel was in the small town of Gerlos and it was amazing.
Dave ended up having to work on Monday and Tuesday, so I drove with the kids on Sunday afternoon to the hotel (luckily it was just a 4-hour drive). The kinderhotel idea is absolutely amazing - the hotel caters to families, with wonderful family suites (we had adjoining rooms this time, which gave us lots of space), a baby club, kids club, horseriding, a playground, ski lessons for kids right outside the hotel, and an amazing pool, indoor waterslide and family spa area. The major Zillertal Arena ski resort was a short shuttle bus ride away, and of course the hotel had ski and boot storage rooms on the ground floor to make it all easier. And I almost forgot, all the food is included, in a wonderful restaurant where you have your own table reserved for the week. There's a kids' buffet and adults order from a very nice daily menu. The food is amazing! So, I don't think I'd endeavor to take a vacation with 4 kids on my own - but at a kinderhotel it's definitely possible. And I met lots of new friends as people saw me on my own with the 4 kids and started up a conversation about how amazed they were that I was there on my own with the kids!
Our kids really are great, and they did a good job of helping out. Getting both boys to their ski lessons in the morning was a bit of a challenge (William's first day was not so easy - he spent the first hour crying, and I was almost ready to cry out of frustration!). But, he cheered up when his teacher Mannu pulled out lollipops during the break. Nathan had taken lessons before, so he was comfortable and jumped right in! Elise and I skied together on Monday and Tuesday and had a great time (she can ski backwards and turn in a circle while skiing!). She is really comfortable on skis and learned a lot in the lessons she took through ICS at Hoch Ybrig this winter. And, best of all, Meredith went to the baby club. She was looked after by a couple of very nice women, and always seemed to be happy!
Dave took the train to Innsbruck and joined us on Tuesday night. Together as a family we did a lot of skiing and even played some tennis. We loved using the pool and spa, and the indoor waterslide was a huge hit (even for me and Dave)! There was an indoor and outdoor pool, and you could swim back and forth (with steam coming off the water outside - so fun. The boys had fun wearing the water wings and practicing their swimming.
Both William and Nathan were in ski races with their class on Thursday, and they were great! They even got medals (Will was in a bad mood the night of the awards, so he didn't go up on stage - but he got 3rd place in his race!).
Nathan skied with me, Dave and Elise on Friday and did a really nice job - it's amazing to see him skiing so well. He is still little though, and was really tired by the end of the day (we skied all the way down the hill at the end of the day instead of taking the cablecar down, and Nathan stopped mid-way and said he was finished! That was a little tricky... But it was an absoulely great vacation! We feel very lucky!
