My friend Jisoo

I recently read that it is an innate part of the female brain to surround herself with friends for survival.  This becomes even more necessary when we don't live in family groups.  Interestingly we do this for more than someone to chat with.  We do it also to support each other with our own families.

Allow me to introduce my friend Jisoo. . .

Jisoo and her family (husban Sung Yoo and daughter Jiyeon) moved here from Korea the same time we did a year ago.  Jiyeon (9) and Henry learn French together at school and play chess together in their free time.
Jisoo LOVES children and knows how to be silly.  My children LOVE to be with her.  Ansel especially adores her and even cries when she leaves!
We love to share recipes from our different cultures.  Her recipes are typically spicy and mine are typically sweet.  The first time she came for lunch she brought chopsticks and taught my kids how to use them.  They do.

She has been such a wonderful friend and support to me this past year.  

A Paci

What to do when a paci becomes more than just a comforter?

Hungary

Greg served his mission in Budapest, Hungary. Like moi, he loved his mission and loved the people he served. Unlike moi, he has maintained close relationships with many, many people. In fact it was humbling to hear how grateful they were that he still had made such an effort to maintain their friendship. They'd always mention the many missionaries that promised they would, but didn't. I probably fall into that category.

Since we've been married, he has wanted to take me there and introduce me to his beloved city and friends. Finally we made the trek. As previously mentioned our family loves road trips. Even if a six hour drive takes eight or nine.

We drove into Budapest in the evening through the brightest rainbow in my memory. The kids were thrilled and begged us to divert to search for the pot of gold. It was a sweet entry for my dear husband who really misses the country and the people.

We rented an apartment from a member who has numerous apartments for rent. We were hoping that it was actually the apartment he'd lived in and rented from her years ago. However, his apartment was a couple houses away.

This is the Orszaghaz - the national parliament building as seen from a cruise on the Danube River.

This is the royal palace (now an art museum) in the castle district.
Eating gelato on Vaci Street - Budapest's version of 5th Avenue or the Magnificent Mile.
This is part of the Vajdahunyad Castle - something that was built for the World Fair in the early part of the century.
When the Soviets left Hungary in 1989, the Hungarians immediately started tearing down all the communist propaganda and statues that had dotted their city for the last 50 years. Now, all of those crazy communist statues stand in a park outside the city limits.
This is Aquaworld - a water park built a few years ago. A Hungarian in Greg's office recommended it. We're glad we went, although the night we returned home, the lead story on the news was how a kid drowned there the week before and it's been under scrutiny for very lax life guards. Glad we heard about that after a fun day.
This is a huge cathedral in a city called Esztergom. It's an hour north of Budapest on the Danube bend. If you walk around the back of this cathedral, you can see Slovakia across the river.
Here's Ansel wondering why the pews in our church don't have arm rests.
Greg made us drive through Slovakia on the way home, because when else are we ever going to drive through Slovakia? On the map, it looked like it would be the same distance driving to Vienna. But what we didn't realize were that the highways in Hungary are modern, and the main highways in Slovakia are, well...like this.

Austria

We're three days back from our summer trip to Austria and Hungary.  Oh!  and a drive through Slovakia.  Because, why not.

We started our journey with a six hour drive to Innsbruck, Austria.  Our family actually enjoys car rides.  When the drive is so beautiful and the music so good the time passes quickly.  We arrived in time for dinner, and while exploring the city found a nice little pizzeria.  While enjoying the outdoor pizzeria we got caught in a huge rainstorm.  We didn't even suspect it would come.  We came back to the apartment drenched and ready for baths and bed.

The next morning on our way to Hungary we decided to stop at the Swarovski crystal "museum."  This crazy head is outside and you enter the museum through its shoulders.  They had fascinating Euro-modern-artsy ways of displaying their crystals.  We were all very fascinated and entertained.  The grounds were beautiful and included, a view tower, hedge maze, two parks and flower gardens.  Definitely a worth the time stop.

On the way back from Hungary we stayed in Salzburg for a couple of nights.  The swimming pool at the hotel was the main attraction.  Not outdone however, by the historic old-town.  We loved seeing Mozarts old stomps and trying to follow the journey of the VonTrapps while singing "Doe a deer a female deer. . ."
Not my favorite picture, but here we are outside of the gazeebo that Rolf and Liesl danced around.  Ahh.
Henry couldn't resist the gigantic pretzels.  He ate the whole thing.  
Can't you just see Maria dancing through this street?

Ideklic

The weather this summer has been perfect.  Most of the days have been in the high 70's to low 80's.  Because air-conditioning is rare here, when it gets into the 80's it just isn't very comfortable.  A few weeks ago on a day too hot to be comfortable, we decided to venture into the Jura mountains and visit a children's festival in France.

The ride was beautiful.  Up and down around and around.  Two hours later expecting to find county fair crowds, I'd wondered if we were in the right spot.   Instead we found a great parking spot and a lovely French village lined with banners ready to celebrate children.  At the end of the street we found a "Charlie Chaplinesque" man playing a piano that moved like a bike.  We only got to enjoy a few of his songs, but I'm pretty sure we got the best of the show.  He invited people to dance while he played.  It was great.  Couples in the street dancing while this barefoot piano man played.  The children were delighted.

We began looking for the other events-face painting and crafts, but were apparantly too late.  We did happen upon this. . .

An open trailer filled with paper-mache people playing really awful band music.  The children were allowed to stand in front and conduct the group.  Henry spent nearly half an hour pretending he was the conductor.  Yikes.

We ended our evening like you might expect at a French festival, eating crepes filled with nutella.

A wonderful way to spend a hot evening.