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10/9/2002 11:15:00 AM
Boulder Creek, CA
In the Santa Cruz mountains and the redwood forrest

June/July 2002

Sebastian, Benjamin and I went for 4 weeks to Austria, we started on June 4th were in Munich for 4 days to see my sisters and nephews. Unfortunately the whether was a bit disappointing

Hallo here are the Schmids again!

A few months behind again, but at least you get to know what has happened at all. It is quite a while back but many of you know or even might have seen us on our trip to Vienna. Sebastian, Benjamin and I went for 4 weeks to Austria, we started on June 4th were in Munich for 4 days to see my sisters and nephews. Unfortunately the whether was a bit disappointing there (lots of summer rain!) but we still had good fun, and in-between rain showers the big cousins took the little cousins out to the soccer field, which mine two LOVED! I have to say Alexander and Dominik were really sweet with them, and it was nice to see their interaction. Due to our Jetlag we went to bed really late every day and slept in (10 - 10.30 - that's vacation!) all mornings, luckily otherwise the boys would have woken up Alexander and Dominik at 7am to go out already.... The days certainly were way too short, but I still managed to see my oldest sister Christiane, she lives an hour out of Munich, and some dear friends.

The weeks in Vienna were pretty busy and we had a full program. We had a marvelous summer weather, every day sun, hot and nice warm nights! This time the traveling was pretty easy with the boys, Benjamin is outgrowing his naps, he understands everything much better and we don't have to stick to a "routine" as much. We went swimming a lot, either at the public pools - which are wonderful! - or at friend's places, I took the boys a lot to downtown - they love to go on the underground and streetcars - ate lots of Italian ice-cream, and visited a lot of friends and family. One weekend I stayed with Roberts father and his wife Katharina, we went to the zoo (I think it is the oldest one in Europe) with them and their little summer house, where I haven't been in years due to our winter visits the last couple of years. Everything was so much easier, specially since Benjamin "dropped" his diapers the second week and I did not have to worry about that anymore. In-between the boys spent 6 days at my mother in laws, she lives in the Danube valley about 1,5 hour out of Vienna, and I joined them for 4 days - I had 2 days off for my birthday!!! On the weekend our friends Nina and Ritchie from Villach came with their son Philip. Some more friends came for a day visit and we always had full house. We all soaked in the little creek right behind the house, to escape the heat, and saw 2 nights in a row wonderful fireworks along the Danube river - to celebrate summer. It was so nice to have many friends around and have all our kids play together!

I also tried to do some cultural things, went to a beautiful piano concert at the Musikverein, the Concordia Summer Ball at the Town Hall, a Elton John concert in front of the Schoenbrunn castle, many museum visits with the kids (the Technical museum, the Museum of Natural History and the newly opened children's museum - wow!) We also went out to the Heurigen (informal wine taverns were you can sit outside and also have dinner) a lot, since it was way too hot to cook at home and the boys enjoyed running around there (most of them also have playgrounds!). One time I went by myself with them, but learned my lesson....It was the only evening I had nothing planned and since my mom (where I stayed most of the time) was also busy I thought it would be easy to take the boys out for dinner, here is my "Horror story":

Right in the beginning Sebastian falls off the bench and hits his head on the chair, I tried to take his mind off and sent them off to the playground, which did not last very long, since a girl pushed him down the slide and he scratched his knee and forehead - again loud screaming! Please keep in mind that Austria is not as child friendly in restaurants as they are in the US, and on top of that I was surrounded only by elderly couples and groups with no children! Anyways I try again to change the scenery and take the boys to the self serve buffet, which went without any complications. Once back at our table I get caught on the wooden bench with a 2 inch splinter in my upper thigh, luckily I was able to take it out without a problem, but while I am doing that Benjamin knocks over his full glass of juice directly on Sebastian, who is soaked from head to tow... Sebastian is screaming again that he wants to get undressed and before I can even say anything he pulls down his pants and underwear standing naked  in front of me - by now all the other guests eyes are on us! Only 1/2 hours has passed since we got there but I was ready to pack up the food and leave, I  expected one of the older gentlemen to come and pity me or tell me to go home - neither one happened. So we tried to eat nice and quietly, I thought we had everything under control when Sebastian all of a sudden slips (half sitting half standing on the bench) on the pebbles and scratches his spine and hit the back of his head! I just took him, played my drinks and tried to leave as quietly as possible. What 45 minutes! Now I can laugh about the whole thing, but right then I was almost in tears - never again will I go out with them alone!

Overall we had a wonderful time and I think the best trip ever - the perfect weather, lots of laughter and fun and many memorable activities. It was sad that Robert could not join us, that would have made our visit even more special. We tried to talk every day and also the boys missed him a lot, as well as friends and family. He in the meanwhile took good care of the house, enjoyed playing hours and hours on the X-box, went a weekend to Seattle to finish his tandem paragliding course and was busy with work, being gone during the week anyway.

Well it is time to pick up the boys from school so I guess I will continue with my July report a little later - so long

Niki and Co.

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