We're Moving

We will be moving to the Las Vegas area on Dec 7th. We have really enjoyed living in Overland Park and will miss all the wonderful friends that we have made. I'm sad to leave all of you, but at the same time I'm excited to begin a new chapter in our lives. (I'm really excited because Weston will no longer be traveling every week, back and forth from Las Vegas to Kansas) If you are in the Las Vegas area, please give us a call.

I know this is late but. . .

I wanted to share some Halloween pictures
Hunter wanted to be an airplane is year. SO this is what we ended up with, it was cute, but if I were to do it again I would make the wings smaller. And then Walter loves his toy cars, so we made him a road. The boys had a great time, I just wish I had taken more pictures.

After we were done with the ward trunk or treat, Walter took all the cars off and started to play.

So Long Farwell

I know that these posts about our trip to Austria are super long and it has been a while since my last post, but I really want to finish blogging about it. Also I'm trying to limit the pictures that I post, believe it or not we took over four hundred pictures during this vacation. So I'm sorry but this is going to be a really long post, but it will be the last one about our trip to Austria.

So on Wednesday we decided to visit a small town named Murau. It's a town that many tourists probably don't stop in, but it has some hidden treasures. We spent the afternoon walking and hiking up to see the town's small church and taking in the beauty of the country side. Though it was not a busy day for us, it was still very special. I think that often when we vacation we are so busy seeing the famous sites that we forget the beauties that every day has to offer.



In front of the small church

Little town of Murau

On Thursday we went to Vienna. Vienna is a more modern town then Salzburg and so much bigger. I think it would have taken us a couple of days to explore all of Vienna, but we only had one day. It was a four hour drive to Vienna and from the moment we got there we were on the go. We went to two palaces and one church.

The Imperial Palace-Hofburg, it was huge. I think that one whole day could have been spent just at the Imperial Palace, that is if your three and one year old allow it. There were tons of museums that you could see and a butterfly house and the Spanish riding school. We did get to see the Crown Jewels.

The roof of St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Schonbrunn Palace- This is a picture that we took of the outside, I don't even think that you can see Sharman and me standing in the middle of the staircase. This was the palace that the royal family used as their summer residence.

Can you imagine this as your summer home?

On Friday we went to Castle Hohenwerfen. It a 900 year old castle. We took a tour through the castle and we saw the weapons collection and a birds of prey demonstration.

Our tour guide ringing the bell

Hunter in the weapon collection room, with my listening device (for the tour). Somehow on every tour that we went on Hunter ended up with my listening device. So I think he knows more about Austria then I do.

Sharman and Mac guiding Walter. (I just think that this picture is super cute)

Castle Hohenwerfen

On the last day of our trip we drove into Germany and went to the Eagle's Nest. Weston has read a lot of books about World War II and really wanted to see it. And I must admit that once we got to the top it was beautiful.





I just love this picture of Hunter.

Well that is the end of our trip. I hope you enjoyed all the pictures.

Do-Re-Mi

On Monday we headed south to Klagenfurt to see Minimundus, literally "miniature world" which has more then 175 scale models of structures from around the world.

The boys loved the trains. I think they could have watched them for hours.

Both Grandpa Mac and Weston have seen the Great Wall in person so we thought it was only fitting that we take a picture of them by the miniature version.

It was raining that day and we were a little concerned about keeping the boys dry. So we wrapped their legs in towels and then put a plastic bag around them. These two bags also served as our shopping bags. When you go food shopping in Austria you have to provide you own bag to take the food home in. So these bags were well used on our trip.

I hope to one day see this in person. I have already told Weston that I would love to go to Italy.

Well after we saw Minimundus we(Grandpa Mac and Weston) decided that since we were so close to the Slovenia border that we should go visit Slovenia for a while

Here is a picture of a Slovenia country side. We didn't stay in Slovenia very long, but we did decided to take the highway on the way home and not the scenic route. Well as we were about to pass the border we got pulled over by a border patrol agent and issued a 150 Euro ticket ($225) for not having a Slovenia highway pass. So our little side trip turned out to be rather expensive. So if you ever decid to go to Slovenia and you want to drive on the highway, make sure you buy a pass. We explained to the officer that we had no way of knowing that we needed the pass, but the law is the law.

On Tuesday we headed back into Salzburg. Our first stop was the Children's Museum.

The entrance into the Old City of Salzburg

Once again the boys loved the trains.

Then we went shopping!!! We went down Getreidegasse street. This is the main shopping street in the Old City. It had a bit of everything: elegant clothes stores, international shoe chains and even a McDonalds. It is also the street that has Mozart's birthplace-Getreidegasse No. 9. It was so fun at least for me to go into all the shops and I could have spent more time, but all the shops close at noon until two for lunch.

Mozart Birthplace

Not everyone goes home during their two hour lunch break, some stop to play Chess. Weston could have watched the whole game.

Then we went to the Fortress Hohensalzburg- one the largest preserved medieval fortress in Central Europe. Our tour guide looking at his map :)

By this time all the boys wanted to do was play.

Walter riding the bull. Walter must have looked really cute this day because two different tourists asked if they could take a picture of him and one asked if she could have her picture taken with him.

Last thing for the day was the Marionette puppet show of what else but "The Sound of Music" We weren't allowed to take pictures but everyone had a great time.

The Sound of Music

We just got back from a ten day adventure to AUSTRIA. It was my first time going to Europe and I already can't wait until the next time. The flights there were great. We were lucky enough to have an empty seat next to us on the longest of the three flights so Hunter and Walter were both able to have their own seat. We landed in Germany on Saturday morning and then started our drive to our hotel in Austria. Everyone but Grandpa Mac (since he was the one driving) fell asleep during the car ride. Our hotel was wonderful it was a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom partial kitchen room. This was the view from our window.

On Sunday we went to Salzburg- I loved Salzburg and I think I could live there. It was a beautiful blend of old and new. I loved the look of town. We first went to the Dome to attend mass- I didn't understand a single word. It was some kind of celebration that had to do with wheat. Many of the patrons were dressed in the their traditional clothes. The service was really short and then they had a parade and a wheat crown and bread that they gave out. I wish I understood the reason behind the celebration. The kids loved watching the parade.

Then we went to the Nonnberg Abbey- the nunnery that they used in The Sound of Music. It was a bit of a climb to get up to it.

This was the view from the Abbey

Do you recognize those gates?


Then we went to St. Peter's Abbey-now some tours say this is where they shot the scenes in the movie where the Nazi's are chasing the Von Trapp family, but I have read that all these scenes were done in a studio in California

We also saw the fountains and the festival halls where the Von Trapp family sings "Edelweiss" -unfortunately the festival halls which they still use were closed when we got there. Then we drove to the castle they used for the back shots of the house facing the lake in the movie.- it has been turned into a school and was not open for the public.

So our last site was Hellbruun Caslte-my friend Mette recommended this site and it is also where they house the pavilion from the Sound of Music. We took the tour of the gardens with their trick fountains and toured the palace as well. They had a wonderful playground that the kids got to play on and then we hiked up to the small castle on the hill.

The pavilion from The Sound of Music

The view from the small castle

By the end of the day we were all tired and ready to get back to the hotel.

Hey there Delilah (I'm at the MTC)

I saw this and thought it was super cute, that I had to share:

Fourth of July

We had a busy and super fun Fourth of July. It started off with a neighbor breakfast. We invited all the neighbors on our street over for breakfast. It was potluck style so we had so much fun and everyone left with a full stomach.

Weston was in charge of making the pancakes and he had a little helper- Walter.

Here are a couple pictures of the neighbors that came

We then went off to the ward BBQ. You may notice in the pictures that Walter and Hunter are wearing the T-shirts that we made earlier in the week. The Primary had planned some games like a potato sack race, three-legged race and water word search.

Then in the evening we got together with our neighbors the Hempy's and went to Stillwell to see the fireworks. We both made make-shift beds in the back of our vans. Hunter and Walter just love spending time with Thomas, Elle and Caroline.

Happy Fourth of July!!