Weekend in Innsbruck

January 29-January 30, 2011

Our January travels took us to Innsbruck, Austria. We started out driving to Hall first, which is a stone's throw from Innsbruck and a much smaller, salt-mining town and less touristy. We arrived just in time for lunch. It was cold and cloudy but that did not overshadow the Gothic church steeples.
Looking down the street as we walked through the little town squares.
We found a great spot for lunch. It was a combination of Chinese food and Austrian fare. Sounds a little weird but it was so good. We're sure the waitress was confused when we ordered Chinese family style and a pork cutlet with paprika sauce (below). You can hardly see the pork for the sauce it's covered in. We had more than enough food for us and we nearly finished it all off.
I am enjoying my beef stir fry with veggies. We were served a huge plate of rice along with it. Porter and Eli had their first real rice instead of just rice cereal. We found rice in their stroller all throughout the weekend.
Winter is a great time for traveling because of some lower prices and most places are not as crowded. Well, the good comes with the not-so-good right? Some places are closed. The salt museum being one of them. This is a reconstructed salt mine.
Porter and Eli in front of the salt museum. I am in heaven with my take-away coffee and cinnamon roll. Evan's large donut oozing with chocolate is not in the picture because he had already finished it off!
The Hall Mint in Hasegg Castle was also closed starting just this week! It's okay though because the sun was making an appearance and we could still walk around and see a lot of the window displays and weave around the grounds. In the 15th century, Hall started minting coins. One in particular, the Taler, later became the 'dollar' in English.
What we missed: a 16th century minting press powered by water and made of wood. We were told by the Smiths that it was a stroller friendly place and the boys would probably be entertained by the different mint workings' displays, and there is a place to mint your own coin.
Surrounded by beautiful snow-capped mountains. Porter and Eli are snoozing.
As we walked to the main street, we came through an archway to see this. We had perfect weather.
Busy townspeople out and about for the afternoon with the mountains in the background.
On our way back to our car, after a little shopping, this view popped up just on the other side of the store we were in.
After our afternoon in Hall, we drove to Innsbruck to spend the night and the next day. I am continually grateful for the places we have stayed with the boys. They are very helpful to find a room large enough for us (and all our gear). Below is our improvised high chair. Our room was spacious and had two baby cots for the boys. We propped them up with pillows and hoped our set-up would work.
Porter and that thumb after each bite! They did so good eating right next to each other.
Porter and Eli with the map. They were our tour guides for the evening.
On our walk to dinner, we passed an Italian pizzeria just for our boys.
We walked around the square looking for a place for dinner. We were able to see the Golden Roof lit up at night and see how quiet the town truly is without all the tourists. We picked a quaint little restaurant where we sat next to an Austrian family with twin toddler girls. Oh man, how life will change when the boys are no longer satisfied with the stroller during dinner!

Overnight, as the boys slept in baby cots without bumpers, they were right next to each other and could see each other. They talked and talked and played for at least 30 minutes before drifting off to sleep. It was really cute to watch them turn towards each other and babble and reach through the slats towards each other.

As we stepped out to a chilly but beautiful day in Innsbruck, this was our view from the front door. The picture just cannot pick up the sunlight glittering off the snow-capped mountain.
Our breakfast companions are getting sleepier and sleepier with every passing minute.
Evan was watching Porter and seeing how long it took for him to blink!
When Eli is in the stroller, he always has "one last stand" before shutting his eyes. Today it was swinging his pacifier back and forth multiple times.
Done. Out for the count.
Porter woke up as we were bundling up to leave.
Ohmygoodness. That face. I love this little man.
On our way to the main square. It was a great day to walk about.
Man! If only we were returning to Innsbruck on Feb. 24th, we could see David Hasselhoff--they love him over here.
Beautiful background.
The airport was just in the distance. As we walked to the center, we could hear the plane and all of a sudden there it was just over us.
The only reason the tourist buses stop here: The Golden Roof. When Stephanie (who just posted about her news) and I traveled here a few years ago, our bus stopped in Innsbruck just long enough for us to get off, snap a picture, go to the bathroom, and get back on the bus. We were early enough this morning to snap some pictures before the tourist buses arrived.

Emperor Maximilian I (1494) built this palace, including the balcony covered in 2,657 gilded copper tiles.
Evan's favorite place: the Speckeria.
View of the 18th century Baroque Hofburg Palace, built by Maria Theresa.
The tram ride up to the Alpenzoo (Alpine Zoo) and the ski lifts.
It was quite a view from the top. We walked around for a bit and then rode the tram back downtown. There were teens on mountainbikes who rode the train just to bike down on the ice/snow.
The steep ride up and down alongside the mountain.
Innsbruck was home to the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. Somewhere out there, unable to see because of the glare, is a view of the Ski Jump used in the Olympics, that has since been re-done.
Looking up towards the skiers from the tram.
A ski lift super packed with eager skiiers.
Our little bears on the tram on the way down.
A church around the corner from the palace. I love the architecture and the clocks on both sides of the towers. The bells rang out a few times while we walking around--large, loud, beautiful bells.
The city tower which used to be the town watchtower. The prison used to be on the second floor.
Innsbruck and Hall were a great, not-too-far weekend getaway for us to get used to having our small travelers with us on overnights, and they did such a great job being out and about! We look forward to our next family getaway.

7 months

December 28, 2010--January 25, 2011

I have a lot of miscellaneous pictures taken daily or weekly which do not belong to a particular outing or event, just life in general. I'll start with the few days Evan had off before New Years 2010. We had a couple days of gorgeous weather--this was taken from our roof.
This was still in our jet lag stage after our return from the states. We started the boys on a new sleep schedule--no swaddling, sleeping in the same room, in 2 cribs, and no rocking them to sleep. Eli has always been our one to go to sleep on his own or without us rocking him to sleep. Porter took a few weeks to get used to being put down without all the coddling but we all made it.
Porter is getting a lot better at rolling over both ways--back to tummy and tummy to back. And his head control is so good now. One of his favorite times is eating.
New Year's Day we gave them vegetables for the first time. Peas I think was first. They liked them after a couple of bites. Look at the eager boy ready for his turn!
Eli says, "Me next, me next!"
On New Year's Eve day we went to the Pordenone Mall during the day and walked over to Decathalon (like Academy) to get our yearly fleeces for 7 Euro--I wear them all the time. That night we left the boys safe in their cribs and watched the NYE fireworks display from our roof. This year it was not drizzling so we stayed out a long time and enjoyed the shows on the street, surrounding towns, and the mountainside.
Porter is a do-it-yourself type person. Around the same time the sleep started kicking in, Porter's thumb became a favorite. He can soothe himself if he's left alone on the mat, soothe himself in his crib, and "test" his food. We can tell if Porter likes/dislikes a food if he sticks, or does not stick, his thumb in his mouth after we feed him a bite. Sometimes we don't have enough time to move the spoon out of the way, like when they eat squash.
Of course I let him have the spoon. How could I say 'no' to that face? When we play peek-a-boo, they both have started looking for me on the other side of the blanket or crib too.
As much as we thought Eli had a tooth sprouting--we were wrong. NO teeth for Eli. But Porter all of a sudden had a tooth emerge, and then a second tooth came in right next to it on the bottom. They are sharp too! P was a trooper though because if those teeth bothered him when they came in, we never knew, they were just there one day.
Our friends the Robinsons had us over for dinner at the beginning of the New Year. It was nice to see friends and get out of the house too. Here are the boys playing.
Porter is getting better and better at being up on his arms and using some of his upper body. No scooching yet for him though.
Eli is our mover! He scooches and is starting to use his arms to pull things towards him or hoist his body wherever he wants to go. We also got an American fridge this week. HOW nice it is to have a shelf on the door specifically for bottles, space for baby food, and an entire ice drawer full of milk!
LOVE it! Cutie-patootie playing on his tummy. Excitement=kicking our feet! We have been regulars at the playgroup on base this month. It's great for the boys to get out and see other babies and for me to talk to adults.
The first week of the year we took walks everyday to the Sacile Christmas markets. Evan joined us on the weekends. That bench behind me is where I would sit. There is a kiddie train in the square and everyday we strolled down to the train and watched it go around and wave to all the Italian kids (who looked at me strangely). There was also a life-size Santa playing a saxaphone who danced near the train. So when no one was on the train, I would stand next to the Santa and dance along with him and the boys just looked at me funny and sometimes they smiled. There was also a carousel we would watch go 'round and 'round. Next year should be fun, if they return, because the boys will be old enough to participate.
This is just a picture of a delicious dinner we made one night. My mom's tenderloin recipe and our Christmas present--the knife. It cut through the meat like it was soft butter.
Now that the boys are sleeping better at night and taking some pretty solid naps during the day, my favorite pictures are of them sleeping unswaddled. Eli always takes his blanket and completely covers his face. Even when we sneak in and move it, it always finds it's way back over his whole body.
Porter and his buddy the Sleep Sheep. Love that thumb.
Where's Porter? His sleeper blends in with the sheets. And look at that little rear up in the air!
I have found that some days are better than most at Mommyhood. This was not one of my best days. After I made it through clipping Eli's nails and toes, I moved onto Porter. I was on nail #10, the thumb, when I snipped off more than the nail! Ohmygoodness, Porter's teeny tiny little thumb bled like it was the aorta! I did fine for the first 10-15 minutes of holding pressure, but after that I started to get worried that it had been too long. By the way, I notice this is the thumb that he used in place of his pacifier. WHY oh why was it that thumb? Eli was a major help during this hour long ordeal of getting the thumb to stop bleeding--he was occupied and happy to play with some toys in the bouncer and entertain himself while I attended to Porter. Porter, on the other hand, was only upset when I would take the gauze off to check the wound and notice it was still bleeding so I would put more pressure on his little thumb. We made it through and lived to tell the tale. I wrapped his thumb in gauze and tape and put a sock over his entire hand.
Eli has been army crawling for a while now and this was one the first times he propped himself up on all 4s. Life is changing and so is our decor! Eli has also been sitting up on his rear and reaching for toys. He is pretty good at balancing. When he does get off balance he either falls straight back and conks his head or falls to the side with ease--his strong ab muscles kick in and he doesn't hit his head.
Porter has been 'kissing' us lately. Open mouth slobber=the sweetest kisses from our happy boy. Porter and Eli have added fruit: bananas, pears, and apples to their food options. Evan and Porter have some one-on-one time as I sneak a picture.
I was soon spotted and got some more pics up close.
After their dinner they usually get some time in their bouncy seats. They love them and it is great for me to get dinner started or finish up dishes or just sit and watch them play with each other.
It has been really fun to watch them from around the corner or behind the scenes. Porter puts his hands in front of him and talks to them and moves them around as if his hands are the most interesting objects he has ever encountered. Eli must see what is in front of him and beyond. He is slowly becoming more and more curious about the "beyond", especially in our bowling alley hallway.