Elise's Photography Class

Elise has been taking a photography class at school this term and has loved it!  In fact, after school one day she told me I had to come meet her outside the building because her photography teacher wanted to tell me in person what an outstanding photographer she is!  She has an eye for good composition!  Here are some of her favorite photos:

I must also say how awesome the enrichment clubs and classes at the kids' school are.  Having coordinated the after school program at our school in Moraga, I really appreciate this.  First of all, the classes and clubs are all free (and there aren't a million forms to fill out)!  Some are offered during lunch (they have a long lunch break) and others are offered after school.  It is awesome!  Teachers or parents offer the classes, and they include things like knitting, film editing, photography, scrapbooking, and of course all the different sports (Elise did swim team in the winter and volleyball in the spring).  Nathan just finished Early Years (ages 4-5) football (soccer).  The coaches for this club are two 10th grade boys who happen to have a little brother in Nathan's class.  They are doing this for their community service, which is required for all kids in the secondary school.  What a great idea!

Osterlager! (Easter Camp)

On the way home from Austria on Saturday, the day before Easter, we went to our church congregation's Easter Camp.  It's a tradition in Europe for wards to have an annual camp where they rent a lodge and the entire ward is invited to stay for the weekend.  We joined a bit late, as we had already scheduled our ski trip to Austria, but we were there from Saturday until Monday morning.  It was in a small town called Sarn in the Graubunden region of Switzerland.  The lodge was amazing!  Each family had their own room - we had a nice big room with 5 beds plus Mer's crib.  There must have been 24 rooms!  There was a big living / activity room where we had all of the games and activities, and a beautiful big dining room with a wall of windows looking out over the valley and the mountains.  Downstairs was a full gourmet kitchen with a "dumb waiter" to bring all the food up.  Talk about a nice ward party!

It was fun for the kids and all of us to spend more time with and get to know some of the other ward members better.  There were activities every day, and games / stories, etc. in the evening.  We all took turns helping with meals, cleaning up, etc.  The kids decorated Easter baskets on Saturday, and they found them filled with treats on Sunday morning (the Easter Bunny really did a good job hiding some of the baskets - Elise's was on a ceiling beam in the dining room!)  On Sunday we had a sacrament meeting and watched the General Conference broadcast.  That afternoon our project was making rockets, which we then launched from a big field in the valley on Monday morning.  It was incredible!  The rockets were not easy to make - we made them from scratch - shaving the wood and making the engines and parachutes, etc.  It took a very long time to make 3 (Dave and I were busy for hours), but the next day when the kids were able to push the launch button for their own rocket, it was all worth it!

Spring Break in Austria

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!

5 Senses Morning in Nathan's Class

We had a chance to go to "5 Senses Morning" in Nathan's EY2 class.  Dave and I both went and had a great time as Nathan showed us all the things he has been learning!