Christmas Eve Gondola Ride

From our chalet in Austria, we were able to see the mountain, and it was a short walk (well, a long walk in ski boots) to the chair lift. But, my dad told me that we could only see about a 1/4 of the mountain, so I was determined to take a gondola up to see the views. Jake, Rachel and I went on the gondola on Christmas Eve. It was a short walk there, but of course, Jake fell asleep, and was crabby when we woke him up. But he recovered fast and liked his gondola ride, he kept going from Rachel to me.
It was really pretty going up, and the views were great. We bought a couple diet cokes and sat outside for about an hour. Jake had fun walking around and playing in the snow..or the ski racks!

We came home and had a really yummy Christmas dinner. Jake loves turkey and mashed potatoes!

Salzburg:Part 2

I originally wanted to write only one post for Salzburg, but it was taking too long to load the pictures. When we first got to Salzburg, we went to Hellbrunn Schloss: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellbrunn_Palace. There was a great Christmas market, plus a little petting zoo next to it.

Jake had fallen asleep in the car, so he was VERY crabby when we woke him up, then put him in his snow pants. He didn't appreciate it at all. We finally managed to get him to the animals and he was a little tentative at first, hence the side-eye in the first picture! The pigs scared him, they were getting pretty rowdy, then one of them ran to the fence! Jake DID NOT like that. He finally settled down and liked the donkey's and the lambs the best.

Then we walked around the Christmas Market a little bit, these are all over Germany, Austria and several other countries. It's like a big outdoor craft fair.

After the Palace, we went to Salzburg. We had lunch in a fantastic Indian Food restaurant. Jake is easy to feed there since he loves rice. And then we headed out to skate, which I talked about yesterday!

Salzburg: Part 1

I was only able to update part of my pictures tonight, the internet is just too slow! We had a rocky start to our vacation in Austria. Jake was really fussy from not sleeping well the night before, didn't really want to eat, went to bed early, then I woke him up going to bed and it was a disaster.
Luckily, he bounced back the rest of the week and was in a good mood. On Monday, the gang went skiing/snowboarding and my mom and I brought Jake for a long walk to check out the town. We were staying at a chalet in Flachau and the town is a long street that wraps around a small part of the alps. It's just gorgeous.
The chalet was really nice. You walked into a common area with benches and a television. Then there were two small stairs on each side that led to pods, there were four pods, which were our sleeping areas. Each pod slept four and had their own bathrooms. Jake and I shared one to ourselves. Then, each side had another flight of stairs going to the top floor. It was a big open space, with a kitchen that had a huge island, then two dining room tables, each had a really comfortable bench. We spent most of our indoor time upstairs.
On Tuesday we went to Salzburg. I was only able to upload part of the pictures. We went on a train ride at a Christmas Market, then we went skating, I didn't have my skates, but Jake absolutely loved being on the ice with my dad and his boots. He had no fear! He'll be ready for skates next winter for sure.

In Austria!

We are at the chalet! It's a really nice place, I'll add pictures later this week.
Jake is extremely fussy, he's probably very overtired, he hasn't eaten much at all, nor taken a bottle, but he's in bed early. I hope it doesn't take long for him to settle down!

Can't wait to relax and enjoy the vacation. I'm already well into a bottle of wine!

Jake is not a good hotel guest!

It is almost 8am, and we are hagning out in the reception area to give Dad and Andrew time to sleep in a little.
It took Jake almost two hours to fall asleep last night. Then he woke up at 439am. I brought him in bed with me and he did sleep anouther couple hours .Thank God!
He was a little monster at breakfast. He did not eat much, then spit out his food. It was charming.

I hope he will sleep better in Austria.

Oh, and even with fingers crossed, Rachel flight was cancelled.

Oh, and it is really weird to type on a German keyboard, the letters are not all at the same place. The y and z are switched.
Weird.

First Day on the road!

Hi!

Just a quick update from the road. We are in Nuremburg right now at a hotel. We drove about 5 hours today. We did get stuck for an hour in bumper to bumper traffic which set us back a little.

Jake was really good, he slept a lot in the morning, then played with his teddy bears for the rest of the trip, we only had to stop once for lunch.

Hopefully tonight goes well, we are all sharing a hotel room, I hope Jake sleeps. we are picking up Rachel in Munich tomorrow afternoon, right now Heathrow in London is closed, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that her flight doesn't get cancelled or delayed!

Jacob's daycare Christmas Party

Jake had his last party of the season (he's had three in the past week!) This one was at daycare, it was a pajama party. (At first, I thought the parents had to wear pajamas too, but at the last minute, I decided not to..and that's a good thing because none of the other parents were in pjs!)

He actually had a pretty busy day. He went to daycare this morning like usual, I skipped the gym today since I had too much to do around the house. It's a lot easier to get things done without Jake under my feet! (I had to clean, get my room ready for my aunt and uncle, and pack).

I went to pick him up, we spent a few hours at home, then we went back for the party. It was fun, Jake did much better with Santa. (Third time is the charm!)


Messing around with Dad and Andrew before the party.
His snowman pj's.
Shaking a homemade raddle while signing jingle bells. (It was rice, and it took Jake less than two minutes to unwrap and break it and get rice all over the place. LOL)
Santa is here! And Jake couldn't care less.
On the rocking horse!
He sure likes the rocking horse.
Santa came to see Jake while he was playing with his bus.
"Ummm...mommy...Santa took my bus."
Thanks Santa for the new toy!

We are leaving for Austria tomorrow. I'm not too sure about the internet situation. I might be blogging, but I might not. I'll definitely take a lot of pictures!

18 month appointment

Jake had his 18 month appointment today. He did pretty well, he doesn't particularly like being examined, but he didn't scream. So that's a bonus.
Jake is 24lbs!! (Can you believe it! To think that he used to be small.) He probably gained a pound in blueberries since living here.
He's 78.5cm. Roughly, he didn't like being measured against the wall.
His head circumference is 47cm..that's also a rough guesstimate, my mom did that during supper and he didn't appreciate being interrupted while eating his blueberries.

He loved running around the clinic with his grandma while I was getting my checkup. Good thing he's a cutie because he broke a Xmas ornament.





Playing peek-a-boo!

Cardboard boxes

Sometimes, I wonder why we buy toys for Jake. He played with a cardboard box for hours this morning. Then I remembered why we buy the toys...so he can put them in the box of course!

We spent the morning playing, he had a great nap, then my mom picked us up to get our haircut. (Jake didn't get his haircut). My dad and Andrew picked him up after their haircuts and brought him home. My dad put Jake to bed tonight, he was really good.

Here's Jake playing with his "toy box".

Jacob meets Santa again!

Today was Jake's second Christmas party of the holiday season. We went to the TAPS (our playgroup) Christmas Party. Jake had a great time!
Then he went to daycare for the afternoon since I had an appointment, he did great even though he didn't have a nap.


Jake getting his coat ready to go out! But wait, we haven't gotten dressed yet.
Playing with the toy kitchen and toy food.
Let's have some tea!
Eating his first sugar cookie and he also walked around with a teddy bear ornament for awhile. He kept bringing it up to his neck and giving it a hug.
Mommy, you are taking too many pictures!
I love this outfit! His shirt is flannel too, I think he looks like such a big boy!
Ringing Santa's bells!
Giving them back to Santa!
NO! MOMMY! NO! I don't want to sit on Santa!
Playing with Nikola.
Jake kept trying to take the barrette out of her hair.
Getting a present from Santa.
Opening his present. Jake got a book about a snowman, he was really happy!

All in all, a really fun party!

Monday

It was a regular Monday in our house today. We left early for daycare today since my mom is back and we left at the same time she leaves for work. Then I went to the gym for my workout. The daycare and the gym are close, and from the gym, I can see Jake playing through the windows. It's so cute to see him toddle everywhere and in everything.

He was an angel and just played with his toys after nap time since I made some Christmas cookies for a party tomorrow morning and then supper. He was playing with his stuffed animals on the couch and with his train set.