Family Visit - part 2

The second week of their trip we took a mutual vacation to the Austrian Alps to an area called Schladming.  It was one of the best vacation trips I've had - great company, perfect accommodations and lots of adventure at our fingertips.

no doctoring on this pic - it really was THAT beautiful

We took chair lifts up to the top of the mountain.

Worthy on the really high swing with a great view

There was a great playground up top  All the kids were having a blast on it - including the cousins.  Chris & Charlotte were remarking how it has been ages since their kids played at a playground.  In Austria, playgrounds aren't necessarily for little kids.  They usually have a risky element to them - zip lines, swings you could jump off and break a leg, really fast slides, etc.  So it was fun to see the kids have a blast together.

 One of the reasons we went up, apart from the view, was to do a ropes course.  Our kids especially the younger two haven't had much exposure to ropes.  There were a few different levels of courses and the training course was also a ropes course that little kids could do.  Since Christian was on my back, I was just a watcher, but everyone else got suited up.

The instructor was great and spoke English too.

And off they went to learn the ropes (pun totally intended!)

 Our kiddos were content on the low ropes.  Worthy tried the intermediate ones, but quickly decided to turn around.

Our older nephews really embraced the adventure.  Henry did fantastic.  He got a little afraid at one point and Chris talked him through it.  He finished the course and even did it again.  

Sam on the difficult course

This is a quick video of Sam on one of the elements...you may want to turn your volume down.

yep, we saw these too... can't make this stuff up

So we really tried to get some pictures of the kids together.  This is not easy.  Usually someone is not having a good moment.  This time it was the Baby.

Notice Dan's arms holding up Christian...

a lovely, lovely day!