We're back from the Achensee, with tears in our eyes. I never wanted to leave the paradise that was our week over Christmas! Since mom was delayed a day, we picked her up from the airport with bags-a-loaded and headed straight for Austria. Chance helped keep Mimi awake for most of the day despite jet lag and little sleep. I looked back a couple times on our 5 hour drive to see her head bob once or twice, but that didn't last long sitting next to Chance! Ryan was excited cause the car rental place gave us an Audi....I was expecting the usual jalopy but somehow luck was in our favor, or should I say Ryan's. For those of you that don't know, the boy dreams of his S5, and while the station wagon was not quite that, at least he was able to start wooing me in to believing that an Audi was the car of our future.
The night before our departure, the snow storms came and made driving for us a little difficult. I was so glad Ryan was driving through the maze of windy roads in the pouring snow. We did alright on the manicured highways until we reached the final town, in which we were supposed to ascend over a mountain to our resort. We had seen signs all over for "Ketten" but not knowing what it meant we pressed on....soon to be sliding backwards with no traction. We we're going to make it. We turned around, rather we drove backwards down the hill until we could turn around without sliding off the road to as gas station to ask about snow tires, otherwise known as "Ketten". Luckily the man didn't have any to sell us but knew of away to the resort via main roads that would be flatter and without snow. So we made it, and stepped out of the car to a week of paradise at the Sport Hotel Achensee. The hotel was amazing. My friends all rant and rave about the Kinderhotels but I didn't know what to expect. It was beyond 5 star to me. We had a nice suite with a bunkbed room for mimi and Chance and our room looked out on to the ski lift.....it was so close to us that we shined Ryan's new flashlight from Christmas on the lift from our bedroom window. This place thought of everything for the kids..from stools and small potty seats in the rooms to early dinner "Kids" buffet and a kids club that Chance begged to go to every night. Most every evening Chance would eat with the kids at 5:30 supervised by the kids club teachers and then would be escorted down to the kids club to play and have fun while we ate our 2 hour dinner of amazing food. I've never been to a hotel like this before! Sunday and Monday Chance tried out ski school. Not sure if it's age, personality or mothers-side genetics but that didn't last long before he called it quits to the skiing and opted for swimming in the indoor pool or sledding with mom. Chance woke up the morning of his birthday saying "I'm 5, I'm 5, I'm really really 5!" It was so cute, I wish I had caught it on video. The birthday morning started with opening presents and then we headed down to breakfast, my favorite meal of the day....to overindulge as usual. The table was done up with streamers and balloons and the hotel brought out a cake for breakfast with a firework on top! Later in the day we celebrated again with a cake I had made and then in the evening at the kids club they had a party for him there. I hope he felt celebrated!Christmas Eve we took a day trip to Austria to see the town and the last day of the Christmas markets. Mimi went wild at the markets going from stand to stand to see what was on offer. All the streets were decorated so nicely and it really helped us get in to the spirit of things! That evening we returned back to the hotel lobby to await Santa's arrival. It was magical. We could see the snow falling outside the large lobby doors. The kids were all gathered around the front of the lobby singing silent night and other songs in German. The lights were dim....and then he appeared. A horse drawn sleigh pulled up with Santa on the back, like out of a book. The hotel had all the parents leave a gift at the front desk with your kids name on it....and Santa passed one out to each kid. Chance was up front the whole time right near Santa patiently waiting for his name to be called. It really was like out of a book. And then he drove off on the sleigh!
Christmas morning we opened all the gifts Santa had brought throughout the night in our hotel room. The hotel was so nice to give us our very own decorated full size REAL Christmas tree for our room, it was fantastic! The rest of the days were great for all....Chance and I sledded, Mimi swam and Ryan skied. Mornings Ryan took some ski classes so he could improve his lightening fast speeds in his new boots, and in the afternoons he joined me for some cross country ski lessons in the mountain valley. I have to say, I really took to it.....well took to liking it. I wouldn't call it good skiing but still it was fun. I took a lesson the first day without Ryan thinking I'd get a little ahead of him, but on my second day Ryan smoked me from the get go! He got some pretty good footage of me falling down the hill but I am still contemplating posting that video! Ryan talked me in to the Sauna one night for my first time. Thought I was going to melt or dye of heat inhalation, but after a couple minutes it was kinda fun. There was an ice grotto room which was so neat.....very cold inside but after the sauna we could sit there in bathing suits without feeling cold! All week at the kids club, the kids were working on a performance which we went to go see on Friday night in the theater at the hotel. Chance had a couple great roles. We're working on the video but it should be posted HERE soon. The last day we wiped our tears and daydreamed about how quickly we could get ourselves back to this place. We stopped over in Innsbruck for some lunch and a quick look around. We thought it to be even more charming that Salzburg!
And this past week we've been laying low with colds and coughs, but enjoying Mimi being here with us and relaxing. Mimi flies off Sunday back to Austin. We'll see her soon in May for the big Drandrea shindig.
