Sunday after church, Andy and I met up with the Remo family in Freinsheim, Germany for a wine walk. Freinsheim is about 40 minutes from our house - a town we've never been to before. We didn't really go out to many Christmas markets this year so it was nice getting out in the fest scene again. :)
Andy and I packed up our bags once again for another ski trip on Jan 11th. This time we headed to Solden, Austria with our friends John and Candice Jaco. The Jaco's were kind enough to drive us, which saved us the worry of possibly having to drive through snow/ice with our dinky little corolla. Really put our minds at ease! - Thanks again guys! We stayed in a nice apartment near one of the ski lifts which was convenient to get to by car or shuttle called the 'A Casa Saphir'. Most of our dinners were cooked inside of our apartment, saving us $ or I should say €. Our evenings were mainly capped off by a movie or a game of 'Cards Against Humanity' or 'Taboo'. (Highly recommend Cards Against Humanity for anyone who hasn't played before. It's stinkin' hilarious!) I don't know how Andy does it but he somehow managed to ski all 6 days we were there while everyone at least took a day off! I guess I wouldn't expect anything less from the hubby. Andy is always patient with me on the mountain as I'm much slower than he is but I really put his patience and teaching abilities to the test when I decided to try on a pair of skis the 2nd day in Solden. A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law sent us photos and videos of them skiing with their 2 little boys (3 & 5 years-old). I started to worry about how Andy and I would help teach our future kids how to ski if Mom was on a snowboard. Yep. So that is why I decided to try out skiing. Ha. It actually went pretty well with a few soft falls and lots of belly laughing. Andy was an awesome teacher and I can tell he's going to be so good with our kids one day. Doubt it's something I'd switch over to but it made me feel good to know that I could at least do enough to play around with our future kids! :) The last 2 nights we enjoyed spending time with additional friends who drove into Solden for the weekend but couldn't make it out for the entire week. Great seeing you guys out there - Caitlin, Nate, Carol, and Danie Here are some photos from our trip to Solden! A GoPro video clip of Andy skiing down the fresh powder A live view of Andy cheering me on. - GoPro To ring in the new year, Andy planned a special trip out to Meribel, France for us. We left on Dec. 30th and returned home on Jan. 4th with an amazing 4 days of skiing/snowboarding in-between. The 7-hour drive (which is really about a 9 hour drive) was made easier by having plenty of audio books to listen to. Highly recommend Mitch Albom's "One More Day" audio book if you haven't read it before. We were lucky enough to have 2 full blue-bird days on the alps but realized how much we took them for granted as the following days were cloudy, snowing, and foggy. Personally, I didn't mind so much as I was aching all over from the first two days so it was even that much easier to call it a day by early afternoon. (hehe.) On our 2nd day in Meribel, I had a private snowboarding lesson for a couple hours. It was my first time ever receiving a professional lesson. What did I get out of it? Well, I realized that I didn't have some of the very basic techniques down correctly. My instructor caught it immediately after only watching me for less than a minute. Which is probably why I get fatigued easily. I don't think I've ever fallen as much in one day as I did during the lesson because I was trying to correct what I've been doing for years! I'm back to feeling like a beginner having to re-learn how to carve the big "S" slowly down the mountain. It's tough! Anyway, here are some photos of our time on the mountain - "Les 3 Vallees". Not so many photos of Andy because he was wearing the GoPro but I tried to snap a few with the point & shoot I had in my pocket. I will do better on our next trip to take more pictures of Andy skiing. :) After spending the day skiing/snowboarding, Andy and I spent our evenings exploring the tiny town of Meribel. We were staying in the center of the town so it was really convenient for us to get to everywhere we needed by foot. SO important when you have a front-wheel drive car that drives terribly in snow! This town is known for the way they built it around the mountain and it couldn't have been done any better. Everything was so convenient - restaurants, lifts, etc. It's also a VERY trendy place. Lots of money. Downside of staying at a place like Meribel is the atmosphere isn't as warm. There are definitely some really nice people (mainly the Brits) but most of them were uptight. It's so funny being in another country and missing the comforts of Germany - a place where people don't really consider locals 'warm' or a place of convenience. ha! Here are some pictures of our evenings out on the town. That's it!
That's our first trip of 2014. We are both so grateful for all of the opportunities we have and had out here in Europe. Throughout our travels, we remind each other to keep ourselves grounded and to be thankful for everything - small and big. Not to forget how blessed we are. Andy and I always talk about how awesome it would be to have family and friends out here with us to experience it all together. By sharing posts like these, I hope that you feel like you were a part of it too because you were in our thoughts. I hope that everyone had a safe and fun-filled NYE and wish you a happy and healthy New Year. 1.5 years in Germany down. 2.5 more years to go!! Lots of love - Eunice |
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