The Vienna Wilsons

Business As Usual

2010-09-04T17:25:00.003+02:00

Today is the first University of Tennessee football game of the season, so we had to get Eli all decked out in his Vol gear. :o)

I’m happy to report that things are getting back to normal in the Wilson household. Jeremy came home from the lung specialist on Thursday, and we have been SO happy to have him back. He’s doing really well, and he has even started practicing again. Eli and Daddy have been laughing and playing catch-up on playing, which is even more music to my ears!

We are all three on the mend and have been taking it really easy lately. Eli has gone to the doctor twice this week because he also has an ear infection, but it is getting better. I am not so bad…this cold is just more annoying than anything. Let’s all hope and pray that it will be on its best behavior tomorrow when I’m trying to lead the music at church!

Eli is talking up a storm, and it is scary how much this 19-month-old knows. He has learned the alphabet, numbers 1-10, all the primary colors, and a whole slew of animals. Can I just tell you how ridiculously cute it is to hear his little voice say “peacock” and “zebra?” :o) The boy is a proverbial sponge!

So that’s about it for now…time for more relaxing! Go Vols!

From the ICU to the Mountains!

2010-08-31T22:34:00.003+02:00

Ok, maybe it’s not exactly a vacation to Rome (yes, we were supposed to leave for Rome today), but Jeremy has a beautiful view from the lung specialist in Grimmenstein. Today he got to do what most ICU patients don’t get to do…he got dressed and walked out! The doctors sent him to a hospital waaaaay up in the mountains that is particularly good at getting those lungs back to top notch. Maybe because of the high altitude they have to have a good lung specialty wing! Eli and I spent several hours with daddy, and it was so nice not having him hooked up to an IV!

They are running lots of tests to make sure Jeremy is back to 100%. This will be a great place to recuperate. Right now they are really give him a lot of cortisone to counteract the allergic reaction, and he is supposed to take oxygen as much as possible. One of the things that sent him spiraling down was the oxygen in his blood was ridiculously low. So a sure fire way to help him is just getting that good ol’ O back in his system. He has been sleeping a lot better now that he can actually lay flat and not be coughing all night long. I think he will be there a couple of days, and we should know more about what the resident doctor thinks after he sees Jeremy in the morning.

Eli and I are still sick, but we have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning. Hopefully everything will check out ok for us too! Alright, it's time to give in to the Nyquil…. :o)

Another Update

2010-08-30T21:22:00.003+02:00

I was able to visit Jeremy between 3 and 5 pm today in intensive care. He is leaps and bounds better than the last time I saw him. The entire two hours I was with him, he didn’t cough once. He was talking well, and he is even eating! The last week he has barely touched food because the antibiotic was making him nauseous. The doctor told me that Jeremy would definitely be in intensive care tonight, but tomorrow he will probably be moved to a regular room. If his lungs don’t clear up more, they may move him to an upper respiratory specialty area. But when I talked to Jeremy tonight, he said the doctors were pretty confident he would be in a regular room tomorrow. We are praying he’ll be sent home on Wednesday. Jeremy is antsy to get out now because he says he feels great. I think he’s been sick so long he doesn’t remember what normal feels like! :o)

I am also doing better, though I’m quite tired. I called the hospital 3 times through the night checking on Jeremy, and sleep did not come. Now that I know he is improving (and I’ve seen it with my own eyes), I’m hoping tonight will bring much needed rest and healing for me too.

Since I’ve made several posts without a picture of Eli, I think it’s time to add one for a bit of comic relief. Today I had to wake him up early from his nap, so I could make it to visiting hours on time. When I came in his room, things looked a bit odd…

How does a person sleep like this?! Talk about the wedgie of the century. I had to run downstairs to get the camera because I could not believe it. Luckily, I have an amazing flash, so I didn’t have to turn on the light and risk waking him up. Of course, when the flash went off, he woke up and started crying because he was stuck. I hope this doesn’t ever happen in the middle of the night! Crazy contortionist boy… :o)

Update - God is Good!

2010-08-30T13:10:00.003+02:00

Thankfully, Jeremy is doing MUCH better. He is breathing on his own out of the helmet now. I even got to talk to him...he sounded much improved. Better than he's sounded in weeks! (and already asking for his Ipod) :o) He wanted me to tell him what happened because he couldn't remember anything after we called the ambulance. The doctor said they will probably keep him in intensive care one more night, but that he is doing well. I asked if he would be moved to a regular room then or if he would come home. She said it is possible he could come home. He is on a new antibiotic to clear up the infection, so please pray that it will do its job without negative reaction. My best friend just happened to send me the same verse I was quoting to myself last night:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

I really relied on Phil 4:6-7 last night, and I'm so thankful we have a God who grants us peace and listens to His children's prayers. Thank you so much for all of yours as well! I will update again after I visit with him this afternoon.

Prayer for Jeremy

2010-08-29T21:47:00.002+02:00

Today was not a good day. As most of you know from my previous posts, Jeremy has had really bad case of bronchitis. Today he was having a difficult time breathing. I tried to get him to go to the hospital this morning, but he did not want to go. I think he was hoping to get into a lung specialist tomorrow morning that one of his colleagues uses. I laid down with Eli to take a nap because I am also sick, so I told Jeremy to wake me if he needed me for anything or decided he wanted to go. I woke up to him yelping downstairs. He was passing out and could get no air, so we called an ambulance. Luckily they sent an emergency chopper because he needed to be airlifted to the closest hospital.

I had to come by car after I packed up stuff for Eli, and it was a very unpleasant experience. First of all, it took me 30 minutes to find where he was in the hospital. Then when I got there, I couldn’t get a direct answer about what was going on. They kept asking me if I wanted to go back home and call. What?! I finally asked them to let me see him, and they said I couldn’t go back with Eli because Jeremy was in ICU. I begged them to find a nurse to watch him, so I could see my husband, to which they complied. I went back, and he was in a bubble! They are trying to prevent further infection, so it is the best way. They also have him on a machine forcing air in and out of the bubble to get enough oxygen into his lungs. It looks really violent and unnatural. The doctor said it was what they attempt before they intubate. Obivously, they want to avoid that. Jeremy was sedated, so he wouldn’t fight it. He kept saying the same sentences before he would pass out: "I love you so much. You’re so pretty. Where is Eli? I’ve never been in a hospital before; this is weird...” And when he woke up, he would say the same them again! The most disturbing part was I never could understand the full diagnosis. I started crying, and I even called our pastor’s wife for help, but it was during church. The doctors respectfully asked me to leave after 10 minutes and said I could return tomorrow at 3 pm. They gave me a number I could call for updates. I was beyond frustrated!

On my way home, my pastor’s wife (who is German), got in touch with me, and I gave her the number to call. She called and was able to speak to them in their native tongue and get the full diagnosis. Apparently, when Jeremy went to the doctor in Salzburg and got antibiotics for the bronchitis, he was allergic to them. He’s been taking them for a week! So combine that with the bronchitis, and it’s pretty understandable why his lungs refused to work. My pastor’s wife said the doctors were pleased with how he was progressing. When he is out of ICU and stronger, they will run a full series of tests to determine what he’s allergic to.

I will try to keep everyone updated through the blog. As I mentioned earlier, I am also sick, and I have no voice left. It’s easier to communicate this way. I can’t believe this has all happened, and that I can’t see him until tomorrow afternoon! I already have people lined up to watch Eli tomorrow while I visit, so that should be no problem. Specific prayer requests for now would be:

- Jeremy (obviously) can get stronger and can fight this allergic reaction and bronchitis

- Jeremy can begin breathing without any assistance

- I can find people easily to watch Eli everyday he is in the hospital

- Peace and clarity on my end…it is really hard to communicate in a foreign language and remain calm in situations like this

- That I can get over my sickness too, so I can be completely focused on Jeremy

Thank you!

The Last Days in Salzburg

2010-08-24T20:48:00.009+02:00

Salzburg has gone a bit differently than we saw it going this year. We expected to be out and about a lot with Eli since he is older. That changed when Jeremy got sick right before Croatia. We found out yesterday that he has a pretty nasty case of bronchitis, and that can be bad anyway…but it’s especially bad if you make your job by exhaling air! We decided that Jeremy shouldn’t play the last block of concerts in the Festspiele, but we should head home asap. So that is what we are doing as soon as he finishes playing Orfeo tonight. Hopefully it will be an easy trip with Eli asleep the whole way.

So instead of going all around Salzburg, we’ve stayed close to the apartment. I’ve mentioned before that this apartment had a really nice enclosed garden area where Eli could just roam free.

This was how the typical hour was spent…picking up and examining rocks, leaves, and sticks! This is where he’s in his element; he’s so happy to be outside.

We even discovered a few butterflies that Eli loved watching take off. I’m so glad he didn’t catch them like he did the frog!

Bubbles were also a big hit. We went through two containers of bubbles…I may need to start buying them in bulk!

But more than anything, Eli was just content being out of the apartment. He gets cabin fever so easily! I know he’ll be pleased to be back home tonight…in his bed…with his own slide and swing so close. :o)

Eli and I did go to Hellbrunn Castle yesterday to check out that awesome playground we spied when we went with the Fosters. Eli spent the entire time in the sandbox much to my dismay. I just sat there imagining how many animals had peed in there…it’s an issue of mine, I know. But he loved it. There were other kids there filling balloons with sand, then blowing them up a bit. It provided endless entertainment watching the balloons go haywire with something inside of them. I’ll have to try that sometime! I got pictures, but they are still on my camera packed away in the van.

The picture above shows what Jeremy has been doing the past week and a half. Since he doesn’t feel like getting out and moving too much, he has been working on our home movies. He does such a good job putting together montages! Eli loved helping daddy and shouting out the words “little Eli” couldn’t say in the video. :o)

Ok, let me explain this picture. For some reason, after every bath here in Salzburg, I pick up Eli and he immediately starts making faces in the mirror. So I join in with him! Last night I decided to have a camera handy to catch this magnificence. You got to train them early to be cool, folks.

So that’s been it the past week or so. It’s been pretty bland, but it was what Jeremy needed. I’ll be so happy to get home in a few hours…though the cleaning that awaits me after the house has sat empty for 2 months is kind of scary! (almost as much as my face above)

Croatian Vacation

2010-08-19T16:00:00.016+02:00

Last Friday, the Wilson family packed up and went from Salzburg to Umag, Croatia. Jeremy had several days off from playing in the Festspiele, so we thought we would add another country to our travels. (In case you’re wondering, Jeremy is up to 34) Unfortunately, a few days before we left Jeremy got sick, so we weren’t even sure if we were going to go. The morning we were supposed to leave, he felt a bit better, so we traveled on so as not to lose our deposit. We got a later start, so we made it around sunset the first day. It was beautiful out on the Adriatic Sea.

We were at a semi-inclusive resort, so our breakfast and dinner were included. This was nice with a toddler! We could just go down and eat our to stomachs' content. Eli enjoyed the French toast and pastas especially. The resort also had a really fun kids swimming area that was only about a foot deep. Eli finally got a turn on the boat, and he loved spinning the wheels! The water was pretty cold, so I think he really just liked being out of the water! :o)

Later on that day was really rainy, so we stayed at the indoor pool. Eli liked this even better! We had him in a flotation swimsuit, so he just splashed and dipped like crazy. He was even jumping off the side of the pool! We had an early night, and we were hoping for the weather to clear up for a day in Umag. Despite the gloomy forecast, we woke up to sunny skies! We had a rock star parking place at the hotel, so we opted for the train into town.

The first thing we saw was the port with all the ships docked. I attempted a family photo, but I think I need to get better at hiding the remote. :o)

Eli had fun picking out Mommy a pretty necklace at the dock. I got to get him trained early for all my future Mother’s Days!

The “feature” sight of Umag is the Church of St. Mary with its bell tower. They're kind of the town's symbols. It was a very small church (and a Sunday), so I unfortunately couldn’t get past the crowd to go inside.

Eli liked the anchor in front of the Bell Tower best...only because it could be climbed on!

We enjoyed just walking through the alleys and seeing all the quaint abodes. You can definitely see the Roman influence…it was like another world.

After a nice lunch right on the water, we went walking out on the tip of the peninsula.

We got wet frequently because it was a windy day, so the waves were coming up pretty big on the rocks. Eli just enjoyed watching the waves break. He’s such a water baby!

He's kind of fond of Daddy :o)

Another family photo attempt...

After a good, long nap, we tried to go swimming again, but the water was so cold Eli’s lips turned blue! I may not be smart, but I know that means it’s time to exit the swimming area. But Eli was just content roaming around outside finding pinecones and sticks!

The next day we had to head back to Salzburg because Jeremy had a concert that night. Wouldn’t you know it, but our van broke down about 15 minutes into our trip! We thought we were ok though because it was only 10 am. Jeremy called ÖAMTC, which is an Austrian auto club. They contacted a Croatian company to come out to us. We ended up having to wait 2 hours in the heat. We couldn’t even let Eli out of the car because we were right on a busy road. He was pretty good though and watched the traffic fly by us.

I also went across the street to the interesting restaurant with a whole pig on a skewer to get water. You can’t make this stuff up, folks.

When the auto company dude finally got to us, we were ready to get out of there. He started the car right up. That was pretty frustrating…and he deemed it to be seemingly working ok. We followed him to the Slovenian border about 10 miles away just to be sure. It was fine!

…Until we crossed the border after he left us. Sigh. Since our van was in “safe mode,” it would only go 30 miles an hour and all "non-vitals" would shut off (this includes AC). So we became “those people” backing up traffic with our flashers on. We traveled to the Slovenian town, Koper, to an Opel dealership because it was obvious we could not travel back at that rate. We rented a car and left our van in Slovenia. So the race began to make it back in time for the concert. We made it with a whole 15 minutes to spare and a whole lot of stress! Jeremy drove back to Slovenia yesterday to pick up our now-fixed van. Turns out it was just a defective sensor on the engine. What a mess! It definitely put a damper on things between Jeremy being sick and the way the trip ended, but it was still a fairly good short vacation. Eli loved swimming, and Croatia was beautiful!

All About Eli

2010-08-18T21:40:00.007+02:00

I haven’t done any “updates” on Eli in a while, so I thought I would do so today now that the Foster Trip blogs are completed. We’ve been taking it fairly easy since returning back from Croatia (never fear, another blog for that is on the way), and it’s been pretty rainy. Thus, Eli is getting a bit of cabin fever and is missing his sticks outside. It’s been pretty shocking to me how much he seems to be growing up lately. I kind of have this frame of mind that he is still a baby and shouldn’t know stuff. But he does!

The biggest thing of late is his letters and numbers. He knows all of the alphabet. He can actually say 23 of them, but even the ones he can’t pronounce yet, he can find them for you. “W,” “J,” and “Z” are the ones eluding him from having the complete alphabet down. We also recently started on numbers and he can count and recognize the numbers to 5, then he skips to 9 and 10. :o) This is his new favorite game. When we’re out walking or have the TV on, he is always searching for letters or numbers to shout out…and I do mean shout. It’s ridiculously cute!

Eli resisted coloring to the very fiber of his being before we went to the States in July. I tried almost every day to pull out paper and crayons to see if he would doodle. The crayons just ended up being thrown and the paper ripped, so I gave up. When the Fosters were visiting, Grayson pulled out this Magna Doodle I had bought at a flea market for really cheap. Eli just went to town scribbling on it! So I pulled out the crayons again, and I finally got my very first Eli original. It’s displayed proudly on our fridge!

He has also been dabbling in feeding himself. Becca, an occupational therapist, helped me out on this while she was visiting. Eli was pretty adamant about staying a mama’s boy and letting me feed him and give him all his drinks. I think it stemmed from when he was a baby and was drinking so little; I just took over the bottle to make sure he got more fluids. It was most certainly a dependency issue though because he is quite capable in the fine motor skills department. Well we’ve had several breakthroughs lately, and he has been holding his own cup and started feeding himself with utensils. Score! He’s still a bit uncoordinated with the spoon (and I’m trying to overlook all the messes), but it’s getting there. Thank the Lord for Ikea’s awesome bibs!

And this is completely random, but I kind of skipped over it a few weeks ago. The day the Fosters left, Jeremy came back into Vienna for just a day and a half before we left for Salzburg again. We took some time and went to Family Fun again (but a first time for Jeremy). Of course it was a ton of fun. I didn’t take a lot of pictures because I took so many the first time. But I did capture Eli’s first taste of Dippin Dots. He made the funniest face when he first got a mouthful, but he loved it!

Instead of pictures, I took a lot of video of him crawling around on everything and jumping in the ball pit. I also got some footage of him and daddy going down the giant slide…it was interesting!

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Fosters' Trip - Part 5 & Final!

2010-08-17T21:52:00.008+02:00

On Wednesday, we all kind of split up and went in different directions. Jeremy went to work, Adam went to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, and me and Becca took the boys to Hellbrunn. Hellbrunn is famous for its trick water fountains (that we visited last year), the Sound of Music gazebo, and the Salzburg Zoo. The fountains are for children a bit older, so we opted for the zoo. It was a different sort of zoo that was kind of carved into a mountain. I think since they were a bit short on space, they put together the oddest combinations of animals in a pen. Like monkeys and stingrays, goats and otters, alpacas and guinea pigs…you get the picture. But they made good use of their space! They had a cute little petting zoo where we were able to let the boys roam. Eli had just learned the word “turkey,” so he enjoyed this exhibit!

And Eli and Grayson were always fighting over this hatched egg thing. Can you tell he feels victorious?

We attempted to get this cute little picture. Becca was manning the camera, so do you know where I am? That’s right…words can’t describe how difficult it was to hold two wiggly toddler boys up in these positions. If only you could see through the board to the pain in my face!

There were two animal exhibits that really fascinated me. One was the red panda. I had watched a documentary on them before, but never seen one in person. They are so beautiful!

The other was the lemurs. They had them running loose! I just turned the corner, and there was one trotting (do lemurs trot?) down the sidewalk.

I kept singing “I Like to Move It, Move It” but Becca had never seen Madagascar, so she was confused. :o) Right when we tried to get pictures of them behind us, a dog came up and scared them away. It took a while to coax them back out…

Before we left the zoo, I stopped and got Eli a stuffed tree frog. It was so colorful, I couldn’t resist. We decided to give them both a little running time before left, since they had been so good at the zoo. We have such cute boys!

Becca and I were sitting in the grass watching them both pick up sticks and rocks and pinecones, when something caught my eye. “Becca, is Eli’s rock moving?!” Yes, indeed it was because it was a FROG!

My ALL boy found his first frog to harass just moments after I had bought him a stuffed one. Poor amphibian was probably scared out of its slimy skin. He picked it up three different times, and Becca had to hold him back while I ushered it to a toddler-free area. And I got photographic proof that it lived. :o) Ah, the things to look forward to with a boy! (insert girly shudder here)

The last day in Salzburg was nice and rainy, so we stayed indoors all day. We left good and early (you know, lunchtime) Friday morning to head back to Vienna for a few days before the Fosters went back home. Unfortunately, Jeremy had to stay behind to continue working. Adam and I had fun teaching Becca how to play Bananagrams, and I duly whipped them both. :o) Never enter into a duel of wits with Kristina Wilson…

We were planning on going back to Family Fun again on Saturday, but after sitting in traffic for an hour, our plans changed. We turned around and headed in the opposite direction to Bratislava and had a nice evening at Tesco! We ate at Pizza Hut, which was Eli’s first time enjoying its American goodness!

The boys got balloons and enjoyed smacking the snot out of each other. At least we knew they couldn’t hurt each other with these!

We spent all evening shopping and had a great time. I think Becca bought so much, they almost had to get another suitcase to bring it home! The next day was Sunday, so it was mainly filled up with church. And sadly, Monday morning was when their plane left. They had an uneventful trip home, thankfully. We had a great time with the Fosters, and I can’t wait for their next trip! :o)

Fosters' Trip - Part 4

2010-08-16T22:02:00.008+02:00

(Side Note: I received a few emails letting me know pictures were not showing up on the blog. Hopefully, they are up and running now, so please scan back through the old blogs!)

We traveled to Salzburg on Friday with Jeremy to see some of the sights in that area. And maybe to see him a little more too. :o) The traveling day was pretty grueling, so we decided to just lay back and watch a movie…on the computer. And yes, that is our natural movie watching faces.

Since it is a furnished apartment, we didn’t bring anything with us in the way of dishes or cookware. We didn’t expect for the bowls to not be deep enough for cereal. Never fear, the answer lies in a ginormous serving bowl. Who says classical musicians can’t improvise? :o)

Eli woke up the next morning with a fever, so we stayed behind while the Fosters did a little Salzburg sight-seeing of their own. Salzburg is so small and quaint, you don’t really need a tour guide…just a map. When they got back we went down into the apartment’s garden area to play a rousing game of paddleball while the boys got some fresh air. I got kicked out of the game, so the men could compete alone. Paddleball is serious business, folks. For some reason, I could see this picture being inspiration for a new Vince Vaughn or Will Ferrell movie.

Sunday was supposed to be one of the few really nice days during their stay, so we traveled outside Salzburg to St. Gilgen. On the way there, we ate at the Mühlradl Restaurant, which has a great view of the lake. Eli used the dessert menu to play peekaboo…and I used it to salivate on the pictures.

Once in St. Gilgen, we took a cable car up to the Zwölferhorn. Jeremy and I did this last year, so I knew it would be a fantastic view. The cars were too small for all of us plus the strollers to fit, so Eli and I rode alone. He stayed glued to the window the entire time saying “up!”

Once up top, we had amazing views of Wolfgangsee. I have to admit it made me nervous having two little ones at the top of a mountain, but they did well staying close to us. We hiked a bit to a small rest area where we got some dessert and took these beautiful pictures.

On the way back, it was a tad too uphill for my taste. I don’t like to be able to stand diagonally and not fall!

The next day was Jeremy’s birthday, but we didn’t get to celebrate very much with him because of work. We just had to try to have a fun day without him! We walked more around Salzburg and visited the Mirabell garden area. This is one of the best views in Salzburg with the flowers and fortress in the background.

They also have a playground called the “Zauberflöte Spielplatz” which means the “Magic Flute Playground.” They play arias from the opera on speakers mounted on a brick wall…pretty interesting. The boys played for a while in order to kill time till Jeremy got out of rehearsal.

After which we ate at a great outdoor restaurant, Sternbräu, to give Jeremy a proper birthday meal. During the meal, the serving staff kept bringing these fluffy desserts out to people. We inquired about them, and they are called Salzburger Nockerl.

Becca and I decided to split one because the waiter said it was filled with éclair cream. Sign me up! Well, he was wrong. Maybe Austrians have a different definition of éclair cream than I do. The entire thing was just a big glob of meringue! We were pretty disappointed. I mean, it was good for meringue, but not for a dessert in itself!

Wednesday was really rainy, so we spent most of the day indoors. The boys got some quality Baby Einstein time, which they loved.

Later on, we did venture downtown to get some grub at the local Italian place. Best lasagna I’ve ever had! The manly picture afterwards cracked me up. Eli is so over it.

We got soaked on the way home, and Eli soaked himself even more by opening up the water bottle under his rain cover. So much for trying to keep him dry!

Fosters' Trip - Part 3

2010-08-15T15:00:00.001+02:00

We decided it was time for the boys to have a fun day. So, we tried to think of several things we could do where they could run and play. First we went to Ikea. Ok, so maybe that was mainly for us. BUT…they do have a play area! :o) After we did that we went to the Prater, which is an old amusement park in Vienna. Kind of like the Coney Island of Wien. We let the boys ride a few small rides, but Eli wasn’t too impressed. Yes, he’s smiling here, but the ride was stopped!

Adam and I decided to be brave and ride this:

Yes, it’s super tall. Yes, I got a bit nervous. But it was tons of fun! And the view was incredible!

And I wasn’t scared at all…nope, not me.

I think Eli needs to be a tad older before we make more trips to the Prater. All the fun stuff is for 3 and older. He had fun running around in the rain though!

After Prater, we went to a HUGE inflatables place called Family Fun. It is so cheap too. It’s wonderful for small kids too because they have a 4 and under area. The highlight for the boys was the inflatable slide going into the ball pit.

They also had a huge gym/maze thing that we all crawled through.

Inside of it is a balance beam. I learned that Eli rocks at balancing! He didn’t even hold on to the sides! And to top it off, he was bending over to touch and say his alphabet letters on the beam. That’s my boy!

But of all the things, the ball pit was the favorite. He kept going back to that over and over again. What can I say? He likes balls. :o)

Over in the “big kid” section is a ginormous slide. We decided it would be a great idea to take the boys down. Eli loved it. I was once again the scaredy cat! He must be my little thrill seeker.

The next morning Jeremy came home, so we all went to Schönbrunn. The day started out absolutely beautiful. This was when we got our new blog banner photo! We also got one of all six of us with most of us happy. :o)

We had a nice meal at the Tiroler Haus, but the boys fell asleep. So Becca and Adam went and toured the palace, while we pushed around the boys…in the rain. Once they came out, the rain paused for a while, so we thought we could make it to the zoo. You can see the ominous clouds brewing behind the Fosters…

Eli really enjoyed the zoo this time. He knew what a lot of the animals were, so it made it more interesting for him. Oh, and quality time with daddy didn’t hurt things either. :o)

We tried so hard to get a good photo of the boys in their matching outfits, but this was the best we got! At least the lizard is photogenic!

It was about then that the sky opened up. So we took refuge in a rainforest exhibit featuring several animals. This was probably the most eventful moment of the trip. We were walking through when we heard squealing coming from a doorway covered in plastic. So, we decided to go through. Becca went first…or I should say Grayson went first because he was being pushed in the stroller. That’s when Becca pushed him in and jumped back out and yelled, “it’s a BAT cave!” And the Mother of the Year Award goes to…

That’s right. Good ol’ Europe has a bat cave where you go in and they are flying all around you. In your face, in your hair, on your clothes….and Adam was screaming the whole time! Ha! I actually went back in, so I could get a picture. It was pretty unnerving having those flying rats hit me, but I figured they wouldn’t hurt me or they wouldn’t be loose! I wasn’t sure how they would respond to flash though! But I survived, and we have an interesting story to tell for the rest of our lives. :o)

Fosters' Trip - Part 2

2010-08-14T15:00:00.000+02:00

On Tuesday we tried to finish up seeing the sights in the 1^st district. We visited the Anker clock at noon to see the procession, and we made a fortuitous stop at Pizza Bizi and Zanoni & Zanoni Gelateria! (Isn’t it funny how that worked out?) :o)

We also visited the catacombs in St. Stephan’s cathedral. It was pretty cool, but our tour guide had a really thick accent, which made it difficult to follow. Not to mention, strollers were not allowed, so we carried our big boys the whole 20 minutes…lest they touch dead things!! Eli went crazy over chasing the birds in Stephansplatz though. He would yell “BIR!” at the top of his lungs, then take off after them. This was the best picture Becca got of the occurrence, but you can still see the feathers flying!

That night we had reservations at the Danube Tower, so we got there a little early to let the boys roam a bit. And we actually got a picture of them both smiling!

Yes, Eli is holding a pinwheel. That’s the best Euro I’ve ever spent in my life. It spins therefore it is good.

I love this picture I got of Becca and Grayson. I think they look a smidge alike, don’t you?

We also sat both the boys down to try to get a good one of them, but I think I was lucky to get them still sitting. That is a feat in and of itself!

After dinner in the revolving restaurant (yes, the view is fantastic!), we went out on the observation deck where we were blown to bits. I wasn’t sure how Eli would like it, but he kept gasping and smiling! Of course, his pinwheel was going nuts, so that helped.

I also had a mishap where when I was bending over to snap that picture my top flew up over my head! Oh well, we’re in Europe right?? :o) We got a blustery shot of us before we left…windblown is NOT my look!

Fosters' Trip - Part 1

2010-08-13T15:00:00.000+02:00

Right after we got back from the States, I had to start preparing for our new set of visitors, the Fosters! Becca was my college roommate and maid of honor in my wedding, so I was excited, to say the least. Not only that, but our sons are only 5 months apart! They were arriving just 2 days after we did, so I had to get busy…especially since Jeremy left for Salzburg the day we got back to Vienna. I was alone to clean house and deal with a jetlagged baby…fun! :o) Eli actually did very well with jetlag, and he only woke up one night for an hour. MUCH better than any of our previous trips. The newest trick at home was climbing on all our furniture. He’s always had such short legs that he couldn’t get up on any couches or chiars. Well that all changed while we were in the States. Not only can he climb on everything now, but he’s right proud of himself when he does!

He was also extremely happy to have his toys back…and to make a mess…

Our friends had an awful time getting here, and they missed all three of their flights. Luckily, they ended up only being about 3 hours later than they originally planned, which I think is incredible! Their luggage didn’t arrive with them though, but I had most everything they needed. The boys were semi-good around each other but not very impressed. I think they are too young to realize we have already declared them BFF’s. We definitely need to work on the sharing thing too…

The first full day with us was Sunday, so we were pretty busy with church stuff. It was also a good time for them to get over jetlag. During church, their luggage arrived in Wien, so we were able to pick up on the way home. I think the jetlag really hit the boys then!

That night they both had their first bath with a friend. I’ll be nice and post some conservative pictures on the internet, so my son won’t be mortally embarrassed one day.

Monday was our first real sight-seeing day! We just really walked all around Vienna’s 1st district and tried to take advantage of the lack of rain. Adam took this picture of me and Becca being the classy moms we are changing our sons in a royal garden. Not your typical picture, huh?

We also ate lunch at the best Schnitzel place around, Figlmüller. Becca and Adam shared a Schnitzel (and Grayson and Eli), while I had a filet…yum!

And of course, no very long walking trip would be complete without some dozing boys. And yes, it was really cool that day!

Once we got back home, Eli was in a playful mood, and I snapped this picture. Isn’t this face and body pose the funniest? I swear, I don’t know where he learns this stuff!

The Last Few Days in America

2010-08-12T10:26:00.008+02:00

Alright, time to finish up the America Trip blog series! I have to say, I’m completing these in record time, though it’s still a few weeks behind. :o)

On the way back to Tennessee from Sardis, we have to pass through Nashville. I always try to stop and see my ol’ pal, Emily from college. You may remember Emily from the terrifying “Ants in the Bed” story. We decided to meet at a Mickey D’s with an indoor playground, so Eli could stretch his legs after 4 hours in the car. He didn’t object at all with the accommodations…especially when a balloon was entered into the equation!

However, when we got off I-24 to go to McDonald’s, we passed by a Chipotle. Now, I’m frequently deprived of Mexican food in Wien, so my mouth was watering. Once Emily arrived at McDonald’s (and Eli had sufficient roaming time), I begged her to let us relocate to the burrito haven. Ahh, Chipotle did not let me down. Mmmmm…..

Ahem, where was I? Oh yeah, my pal, Emily. :o) We had a good time catching up, coming up with awesome names for Jeremy’s new music blog, and of course, doting on my little one. I’m so glad that we can pick up where we left off, no matter the time in between. Love you, Emi!

When we got back to Tennessee, our last days were spent at Mimi’s house. She has a kiddy pool that Eli adores. And despite the 100 degree temperature, Mimi was happy to oblige. :o)

His face cracks me up in this picture!

She also has a swing that will twist and turn. It’s sure to get a smile out of him…especially if he has a stick to keep him company!

Our good friends, John and Lee Ann, came down for a visit too. We had a great time hanging out at my mom's, talking about music, and eating at Red Robin (YUM!). I had a birthday burger coupon that was burning a hole in my pocket. I was on a serious burger kick this trip. I had one almost every day! But luckily, I have friends that are willing to sacrifice and eat there as well. Though they didn’t put up much of a fight. :o) Even though it was a short time to spend with our friends, we were happy to have what we could get!

The last day we were there, we finally got to see our high school friend, Lynesa, and her two children. I think we had to cancel and reschedule about 5 times with her. We had so many things go wrong! We finally met up at her school during lunchtime after another near cancellation. It was also too brief of a time to spend with her, but we’ll get more at Christmas! We also decided to go ahead and give Eli a buzz cut the last night. Now, I really thought we were going to have Child Services called on us. We cut it outside, so hair wouldn’t get everywhere, and we could just dunk him in the pool to clean him off. That was all fine and dandy till we had to hold his head in order cut around his ears. All you-know-what broke loose, and he screamed so loud that neighbors came out across the street. Note to self…don’t do that again!

The trip back home was fairly uneventful. Nashville has ingenious playgrounds in almost every terminal, so Eli was able to run off some steam. We had to leave at 5:30 am, so I don’t know where the steam came from!

The worst part of the trip was getting Eli comfortable enough to sleep. He’s so long now, that he can’t really fit on just one of us. And the arm rest in the bulk head seats won’t rise in order for him to lay across me and Jeremy. He kept waking up every 30 minutes or so fussy because he wanted to roll over and get comfy. One time he even yelled out “Why?!” in between cries. Ha! Bulk head seats are great for the extra room when he’s awake, but not so much during the sleeping time. But on the bright side, I got Chipotle again during our layover in Washington! :o)

Jeremy and I have said many times it was our best trip yet to the States. And we’ll be coming back TWO more times THIS year! Speaking of trips, I’m going to try to get some more blogs done of our past two weeks with the Fosters and set them to post the next couple of days. We are packing up and heading to Croatia for a little Wilson family time. Do viđenja! (I’m hoping that means “goodbye” in Croatian)

A New Look

2010-08-10T23:50:00.004+02:00

Well, it finally happened...we changed our blog banner photo! Eli was around 4 months old when we took the last picture, so it was definitely time for an update. I can't believe how big he looks in this new picture! A big thanks to our friends Becca and Adam (and Grayson) for helping us get this picture during their trip. I'll be blogging more about our fun times with the Fosters later. Be sure to visit our actual website (theviennawilsons.net) if you subscribe via email to see the new look!

The Christians Invade Morrison

2010-07-31T11:04:00.007+02:00

(Yes, I know it’s been a while since my last post, but once I get caught up, it will make sense why I’ve been absent)

I just realized what the title suggests, but it’s a bit different than what it seems. We have some great friends, Joe and Megan Christian, that went to school with Jeremy at UT. They decided to come over to Morrison and spent a few days with us at Jeremy’s parent’s house because we rarely get quality time with them! We had a blast. We hung out, cooked shish kebabs, played ridiculous games, and even took a windy ride in the convertible to Wal-mart!

Eli was really taking it easy while they were here. Does this say “relaxed” or what?

The boys had a “geek night” and watched the Drum Corps (DCI) Championships, while the girls went downstairs to watch lovey-dovey movies on the big screen TV. I don’t know why they called it a “geek night” when these guys are obviously ridiculously cool.

The last day they were there, we went and had brunch over at Jacob and Dani’s. This also happened to be Eli’s 18-month mark, so we attempted to have a photo shoot of him and the family. I was able to capture a few cute ones.

We also tried to get a family shot, but Eli wasn’t having it. I think I’ve finally gotten to the point where I’m happy if he’s just looking at the camera and not crying. Forget smiling! I still feel like overall, this is a good picture….and we’ll just say that Eli is laughing, definitely not screaming in frustration.

The best photo by far was the one of brotherly love. Nothing says “happy family” like a good mirror picture.

Dani fixed us an amazing brunch with blueberry cornbread, French toast casserole, and hash brown quiche. Yes, my mouth is drooling again just typing it! Megan and I thanked her by falling asleep on the couch. We knew how to be good guests!

That night we drove to Cookeville to have one last dinner with the Christians. I think we made ourselves miserable between the Creole seafood and the ice cream. What’s dinner in America if your pants don’t bust open, right? We were sad to see them off from there, but we had a great weekend! Thanks, guys!

Sittin' Pretty in Sardis

2010-07-24T18:47:00.007+02:00

Sorry…I’ve been into the alliteration lately. :o) After Holly Springs we headed a bit south to my mom’s family in Sardis, MS. It was sweltering hot, so I was SO glad my mom already had the pool set up for us. Especially since when we got there, Eli peed all over himself when I was changing him. I just held him out at arm’s length and took him right outside to be dunked! Luckily, he strategically covered his…ahem…special areas.

He looks pretty happy to be in his birthday suit, huh? He is such a water boy! I think he would spend most of the day in the water if we’d let him. This pool had a blow-up slide built in, which Eli adored. I had to put his suit on to go down it because he kept sticking to the plastic and wouldn’t slide! Ha!

We had some lazy days in Sardis. I love those. :o) Just enjoying family and enjoying life! Eli had fun with Mimi learning his letters. I can’t believe he already knows so many letters. Is that normal for an 18-month-old? I won’t complain! My mom got him some magnetic letters to help him learn, and the ones he didn’t put down the AC vent, he did well with them! He also loves to read books. His favorites lately are the Eric Carle books, so I got him the “Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?” book on this trip. Mimi was happy to read it to him many times!

Eli had fun at Granddaddy Wayne’s and Grandmamma Joyce’s taking all their magnets off the fridge. Don’t ask me what the novelty is in magnets, but he loves them. They had one with crossing guitars from Branson, MO, and they taught him to say “guitar!” It’s really country sounding though…it’s more like “GEE-tar.” I love it. They gave him the magnet, so we can have many more GEE-tar moments. :o) He also loved playing with granddaddy’s exercise bike. There was this giant screw on top that Eli would just go hysterical over when it came off. Must be a guy thing!

Of course, Grandmamma Joyce kept him in touch with his feminine side though and taught him to stop and smell the flowers. :o)

We celebrated my birthday while in Sardis too. I only asked to go to Chili’s (sad, I know) and for one of Grandmamma Joyce’s famous lemon icebox pies. I absolutely gorged myself at Chili’s. Seriously, could their bottomless tostada chips and salsa be any better?! I tried to get a photo of me and my son when we got home but he would not look at the camera. I had to use special tactics…

He did give me a sweet birthday kiss though, which I much preferred.

And my lemon icebox pie was perfect! And no, I’m not giving up how many candles should be on that pie…

We did a photo session the next day because it cooled off a bit, so we could go outside. I think we got some good ones!

Eli wanted to take off to go chase down Fluff, the cat. Poor kitty didn’t even know what he was in for.

And he kept going back to the flowers and pointing while saying “hour.” He was close!! :o)

I won’t go into details the sheer amount of food we ate while in Mississippi, but it was a LOT. Especially when I found out the cafe within walking distance had hot fudge cake…oh man. Hey, I did walk once! Jeremy and I definitely gained a few pounds in need of shedding now that we’re back home. And no, I’m not giving up that number either! :o)

Hittin' Holly Springs

2010-07-21T15:00:00.001+02:00

I feel like we’re pretty fortunate that even though I have family that doesn’t live in Tennessee, at least they’re relatively close together. My dad’s family lives in the Holly Springs area, and my mom’s family lives in Sardis. It works out pretty well to just pack up and head down to Mississippi for a few days! First stop was Holly Springs where great-grandmamma and great-granddaddy were a little happy to see Eli.

We always have my brother and sister over while we’re there, and Eli had a great time playing with his uncle and his cars. Luckily, Wesley is good about sharing!

And Eli, of course, had to show off a little bit. He has started trying to do front flips. He’s only succeeded once though. My dad commented that this picture looks like an animal peering out of cave…I have to agree!

We also realized that Wesley, Eli, and me were triplets, so that was definitely photo worthy. And no, we didn’t plan this…though I may have changed Eli when I saw what Wes was wearing!

Jeremy and Tiffany decided to have a “we’re too cool for green” photo as well. :o)

The humidity in MS is almost unbearable. It’s really hard to even take in a full breath. Eli still loves to be outside, but I think he was happy when he found my grandmother’s fountain.

He just splashed and splashed until he was completely soaked! I have to admit, that I wanted to join in the fun to cool down myself…

We tried to get him to ride the “tractor” with granddaddy, but he lasted only about 20 seconds. I think the loudness scared him because I only caught this one picture before the screaming began!

My sister is only 13 years old, but on this trip, she completely shocked me by gaining about 3 inches on me. I can’t believe she is already taller than me! I’m so proud of her though because she is doing really well in school and is a great volleyball player. We must have good genes or something. :o)

Wesley still looks like a boy version of me at that age. I’m sure he wouldn’t want to hear that though! I think him and Eli will be close when they get older because they are only 5 years apart…how many uncles and nephews can say that? :o)

My grandmother really outdid herself with all the cooking. She made her famous roast for me, and I even got chocolate pie and banana pudding! Yes, I’m definitely going to have to workout diligently after this trip. It was so worth it though! I even got Eli to eat her corn, which was an amazing compliment to her culinary skills. And have I mentioned that Eli is a ham fanatic? He won’t eat chicken, but the ham is a hit. Guess I’ll be buying Schinken in bulk back in Vienna!

We learned that the secret to a happy Eli during a photo shoot is a toy in hand. No crying! Now, if he’ll just look forward…but I guess you can’t get everything you wish for. Maybe I should put some of Grandmamma’s ham on top of the camera? Hmmm… :o)

I have set for this blog to automatically post on its own while we are flying high above the sea back to Vienna. I’m sure jetlag will be a making an early visit this trip, since we have to get up at 4 am to make our first flight out of Nashville. As soon as we land, Jer will also have to head on to Salzburg, while I await our next set of visitors, my old college roommate, Becca, and her husband and son, Adam and Grayson. We’ll all be jetlagged together! :o) When you read this, I’d appreciate it if you please say a quick prayer for an easy, uneventful flight and a happy baby along the trip! Thanks!

Bahamas & Key West Cruise 2010

2010-07-20T12:00:00.001+02:00

Jeremy and I made a little time for us this summer and took a cruise as kind of a late anniversary present to each other. We sailed on the Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas from Miami to Key West, Nassau, and Coco Cay, Bahamas. It was only a 4-day cruise, but I was afraid that I wouldn’t even make it through that away from my baby! :o) I knew he was in good hands though. Half the time would be spent with Pa Daddy and NaNa and the other with Mimi. He was thoroughly spoiled, I’m sure!

I have to admit, I took a small amount of pictures (in comparison to other trips) because all Jeremy and I wanted to do was eat, sleep, and go to the beach. There were no adventurous excursions, so there was little to photograph except for beach! Our ship was very nice though (as all Royal Caribbean ships are).

The first stop was Key West. We didn’t book any of our outings through RC…we just looked up where nice beaches were on the internet and took a taxi. In Key West, we went to Fort Zachary Taylor, which is the southern-most state park in the United States. When I saw the name, I said, “Zachary Taylor, like in Home Improvement!” And my husband gently reminded me that this was probably named after our past president, not a television star from the 90’s. Or so he thinks…

That night we had formal night, so we got all spiffed up. A big thanks to my sis-in-law, Dani, for the beautiful dress! Since it was hard to find someone willing to work my monster camera, we splurged for the “professional” photo done by the cruise photographer. (Splurged = paid way to much for)

And of course, no cruise would be complete without the famous towel elephant in your cabin when you get back from eating dinner!

The next port-of-call was Nassau, Bahamas. I think most everyone has seen the Atlantis resort in movies or TV shows.

We really wanted to see it, so we just took a taxi over there in hopes of getting inside. The hotel is absolutely amazing. Jeremy and I would love to come back to just the resort itself. It has everything you could possibly want! The place is ginormous…I felt like we walked forever through it in order to get to the beach! Note to self: bring walking shoes if we ever do stay there. Here are some of my favorite shots from the inside…

A huge dome entrance with various mosaics of sea gods

Massive glass coral

A collage of glass jellyfish in the casino

Beautiful, perfect white sand beach!

I’m so glad we didn’t pay 70 bucks a piece to go there through RC. I think we spent $8 on the taxi and 30 for renting the umbrella and chairs. Much better priced! We were constantly being solicited to buy various goods from the locals, but such is the trade for a public beach. It was nothing that earphones and a good book couldn’t fend off.

Luckily we packed up to leave just in time because the sky opened up right as we were walking away from our umbrella. We ran to a taxi where we were packed in like a can of biscuits! I think there are two girls sitting in each other’s laps in the front seat too.

Apparently Nassau doesn’t have very good drainage systems because there were puddles almost completely covering our tires. Our flip-flops were still sandy from leaving the beach in such a hurry, and they were becoming very uncomfortable. As soon as we got off the taxi, Jeremy saw a really deep puddle to dip his feet in to get off the irritating grains imbedding in his foot. I told him the puddle smelled funny, and we looked up to see that the water was streaming down an alley from where horse poop was being washed off! I don’t think I’ve ever seen my husband so disturbed! “I’ve washed my feet in horse poop! I’ve got poop on me!!” I’m so glad that I hesitated before I dunked my own!

The food was awesome on the ship. That night instead of going to “formal” dining, we decided to gorge ourselves at the buffet. I think Jeremy just needed to console himself after he desecrated his feet! There was even a Johnny Rocket’s on the ship where we stuffed ourselves on hamburgers and chilidogs. It’s kind of an unfortunate twist of irony that they allow you to consume so much food, then they send you out in your bathing suit for all to see your buffet belly! :o)

The last day we went to Coco Cay, Bahamas, which is Royal Caribbean’s own island. Only RC ships are allowed to dock there, so it’s a nice place to relax!

We spent most of the day lying on floats in the ocean, which was perfect. Unfortunately my SPF 30 ran out, so I finally got burned. At least it was the last day though! In this picture you can see our ship in the background.

They had a straw market on the island where I was able to get Eli some genuine Bahamian maracas. They should bring many hours of musical enjoyment to the Wilson household...ha. Seriously though, I felt something like that would be the best souvenior for an 17-month-old, since he’ll outgrow a t-shirt, like tomorrow!

Speaking of Eli, he was all smiles when we finally arrived home. He danced around and played peek-a-boo with us until way past his bedtime. I missed the little rascal, but I’m proud of us for taking some couple time away from him. I think it was good for Eli and us!

Da Lake!

2010-07-19T13:00:00.001+02:00

Usually every summer we spend several days on Jeremy’s family’s houseboat. We love relaxing on the lake, and we hoped Eli feels the same way! It’s an impressive boat with 4 bedrooms and 2 full baths, so we are quite cozy with the whole family on there. Eli even gets his own room! Since Eli was almost 18 months old, we felt like it was time for him to pull his own weight and drive the boat this year.

He was a natural! :o) He was fascinated with the water (or “wa-wa”), and he used every opportunity to try to throw things overboard. Luckily, the only thing he got by us was a toy life preserver from his Little People Houseboat….so it floated, and we saved it.

I like starting out our trips to the U.S. on the houseboat because it gives us some quality time to get over jetlag. Plus, we have built-in babysitters, so Jeremy and I can have some downtime as well.

Eli LOVES the water. He just splashes his little heart’s content. NaNa got him an outfit with a built in life preserver in it, which Eli likes much better than the vests. I got plenty wet with him floating with me!

Jeremy and Jacob used the time to…umm…watch TV…

Other “awake” family members used the time to snuggle up with Eli!

Later on, we all got pretty to go eat at the local marina. For the first time in a long time, Jeremy and I got a picture with our son where he was smiling!

Eli drove us on to the marina, and he was honking the horn the whole way. “Get out of our way!”

Dani and I had awesome boat hair.

Of course, the boys always look fabulous.

After Eli stuffed himself with grilled cheese and French fries, he was too tired to drive back and was almost asleep on Uncle Jake.

The next day Dani made an awesome 4^th of July cake that completely blew us away.

Not only does it look fabulously patriotic on the outside, but when you cut into it…

It’s an American flag!! She is quite the baker...and it tasted as good as it looked! We decided to not see fireworks Saturday night because of the little one. Maybe when he’s a bit older, we’ll go and see the 'bright and sparklies'. The next day was the 4^th, so I took some pictures of my adorable All-American boy in his cute outfit!

That night we left Eli with the grandparents to go on a romantical cruise for the week! I’ll post more about that in the next post!

The Beginning of U.S.-dom

2010-07-19T00:46:00.007+02:00

Obviously all the grandparental units were ecstatic to finally have Eli home…

The delay getting there only pumped them up more! Jeremy and I were absolutely exhausted from the previous day’s events, but we still had to go to Wally World to fill up on all the goodies. :o) Pa Daddy and NaNa used the time we were gone to have a little photo shoot with Eli. Some of them were really cute!

I love the contemplative look…

Happy Eli!

My baby is ridiculously cute…

He was really interested in NaNa’s flowers. It gave him the opportunity to use his new word!

We also spent a good amount of time with Eli’s great-grandmothers. Granny has had a rough time lately and was recently put in a nursing home. After a bout with pneumonia, a broken hip and replacement surgery, then a stroke, she is lucky to still be with us! We had lots of people praying for her, and we were so glad she is doing better. I think seeing Eli put her in good spirits too!

Nanny is doing well, and she happily made Jeremy his usual sausage balls. (No one makes them better than Nanny) Eli had a good time stealing her grapes!

On Tuesday, Jeremy and I left Eli with his grandparents to take a shopping trip to Murfreesboro. I think we stocked up for the year! We also went and had a great dinner with our good friends John and Lee Ann, which we get to see later on in the trip. Time always passes too fast when we’re hanging with them! All in all, it was a good first few days. And it made us really excited to head to the lake.

Oh Canada!

2010-07-17T18:03:00.006+02:00

I thought I might get a head start on doing the America trip blogging this time. Which means, I will blog earlier than 3 months after the visit! We’re having a good time so far even though it’s coming to a quick close. But before I get to the cream filling of the trip, we have to start at the beginning…or voyage overseas.

This was NOT a good journey over. It started out with getting bumped from our bulkhead seats for some reason that we were promised when we booked. We understood it was a possibility if smaller children were on the plane, so they could have a bassinet. However, this was not the case! So instead of having all this space to let a toddler sit and play, we were scrunched in a middle row with an old Austrian lady on one side of us. This was so frustrating because if we had known beforehand, we would have booked in a side row where we would have been sitting by ourselves…not where Eli would be stealing someone else’s food. :o) Well, that was strike one.

Strike two came before we even took off when Eli kicked the seat in front of us, and knocked out our entire row of televisions. That meant we (and the little old lady next to us) would have nothing to watch or distract a toddler with on the entire 8-hour flight. Sigh.

Luckily, Eli was really ready for his nap, so when we were taking off he just slumped over on Daddy’s arm and went to sleep. This was the only nap he took the entire flight, so we treasured that hour!

Strike three came at mealtime. We had called the airline to specifically request a child meal for Eli. Since he eats solids, this seemed logical to me. They said it was no problem, and it would be available to us on the flight. Nope! The stewardess told us he was too young, and all she could give me was pureed baby food. Nothing like taking a step back a whole year, right? Thanks to my preparedness, Eli had a solid meal packed up in our carry-on though.

Strike numbers four through infinity occurred in Toronto. Oh, Cananda. Our layover was supposed to be a few hours long before we finished our last leg to Nashville. The departure screens said we were delayed for 90 minutes. Oh well, more time to zombie-walk through an airport. One thing became apparent: the Toronto airport is sorely prepared for multiple overseas flights to land at once. The baggage reclaim area before customs was an absolute madhouse. I have never seen such chaos. This area was SO small:

We were standing on top of everyone, and we were there for around an hour before we could get our boarding pass to Nashville. I think 3 people were available to help passengers…crazy!!

I’m also becoming convinced that Obama is following us around attempting to mess up any travel plans we have. Remember my last trip to Prague? Well, one of the reasons we were delayed this time was because Mr. President and Airforce One were ready to exit the G20 Summit being held in Toronto. And no other flights are allowed to take off at the same time. Yes, I know we have great timing.

Well right about the time we should start boarding, an absolute gully-washer hit Canada…complete with lightning to boot. So everyone on the tarmac was vacated, and we waited. And waited. And finally the obvious happened: our flight was cancelled. Norts!!

This is where is gets a bit complicated. We have to go BACK through customs because now we will be entering Canadian soil. Reclaim our bags, book a hotel, and get back here in the morning for our new and improved flight. Ok, we can do this…even though we’ve been up for almost 24 hours, right? Right?! They told us we might have to wait a while for our bags because several flights were cancelled at once. So it gave us plenty of time to continue zombie-walking around the airport chasing a half delirious toddler with a stuffed Canadian moose from a newsstand. Did I mention we accidentally left Easter Monkey at home? Big time fail on my part.

I’ll just fast-forward though the 3 hours of agony of waiting for our luggage. We’ll skip to the part where the passengers start rioting. Everyone started making such a stink that the Toronto airport workers decided to check on our luggage. Imagine that! What a concept! (By the way, please excuse my excessive sarcasm and disdain for the Toronto airport in this post…I was NOT a happy mommy on this trip) Unfortunately, they sent someone looking for it about 2 hours too late…because some really intelligent person sent our bags very intelligently to the wrong place (which just happened to be BACK to U.S. customs). This makes a lot of sense especially since we are all in CANADA. Sigh. So, it’s law that U.S. customs locks its doors at 9 pm. Nothing can get in, and nothing can get out…including our luggage.

So this is when I get a bit hysterical. I realize that I have no pajamas, no way to rid my eyes of my dried-out contacts, and my son has no food to eat. I just sat in an airport for 7 hours for no reason. I. Am. Mad. I wanted to vent some frustration at someone who probably didn’t deserve it, but who was a much better alternative than, say, my husband. I walked right up to the guys who finally sent someone looking for my luggage and started ranting and raving. I yelled about the injustice of it all and demanded to know who would pay for all the junk I was about to pay for even though I have the same junk right upstairs locked away in the secret U.S. vault, HUH?! He sheepishly gave me a number that was apparently for claims such as mine. I did not feel better in any way, but we headed down to get in line to get a hotel room.

Now even though we’ve just endured all that, the Toronto airport won’t even pay for a hotel room. Nope. We get a voucher to discount our expense. We go downstairs, and the line is forever and a day long. About a third of the way up is a family I know has been waiting in line for over an hour. So I knew we were about 3 hours away from getting our voucher….at 11pm local time…or 5 am our time in Austria. We were so exhausted, we just zombie-walked outside to get on the first bus that came our way. It was a Hilton, and since the G20 was in session, the only room available was a suite…cha-CHING! I’m so glad we did our part to contribute to the Canadian economy.

Eli woke up in his stroller right as we zombie entered our hotel room, and he (rightfully so) started freaking out. We could not get him to calm down in his hotel crib, so he slept in between us (and on us) all night long. Neither one of the parental units got much sleep (I still don’t know how an 17-month-old can take up an entire king-sized bed), but it gave us the opportunity to get an early start for our flight the next morning. Eli woke up in a good mood ready for hotel cartoons, and that was what was important!

Thankfully our flight to Nashville was very uneventful, and Eli even fell asleep during takeoff again (and slept during the entire flight). I will say that Eli was a dream during this whole ordeal. I had several people on the cancelled flights stop and tell me they couldn’t believe how good he was being. Even during the 8-hour flight, he never cried or threw a tantrum! Regardless, I can’t say I ever want to go to Toronto again, but I’m glad we made it unscathed. Home was worth the wait! :o)

I Need Your Help!

2010-07-16T17:08:00.002+02:00

Greetings from Mississippi! We've been here for a few days now visiting Kristi's family, and we're having a great time. Even though it's unbelievably hot and humid, especially compared to Austria, we've had a great time of relaxation, visiting with family, and fantastic food. Eli has spent lots of time in the water, both at the lake with my parents and in the pool with MiMi. He loves swimming and splashing, and we love to watch him. Kristi has been diligently working on some great blog posts that will tell you all about our whole trip, but in the meantime I need some help from you, our wonderful Vienna Wilsons readers.

Let me explain. When we started 'The Vienna Wilsons', I sort of had in mind to use it to chronicle two things: 1) adjusting to life in a new country, and 2) my probationary period in the Vienna Philharmonic & Vienna State Opera. As our regular readers know, the first thing has been well-covered by my lovely and talented wife, but the second thing has been somewhat neglected. Kristi has done a great job of creating a sort of family journal for us, and a large chunk of TVW is now dedicated to posting the latest and greatest photos and adventures of Eli. I do occasionally share my orchestra experiences here, but because Kristi blogs relatively often I sometimes feel that posting music stuff equally as often would be a bit of overload. So I normally post just the really big things (i.e. tours, major concerts) and leave out my day-to-day thoughts and experiences. But I have an idea!

My idea is to start a sister blog that will be exclusively about music and my experiences in the orchestra. My goal is to do shorter posts, but more frequently. I would like to be able to just hop on a write a paragraph or two about a great concert, or a certain conductor, or a piece that moved me, or just something funny that happened. And I will still post those topics that would be of interest to everyone on The Vienna Wilsons, but the end goal is to have TVW be a family journal and my new blog be a journal of my time with the orchestra. The timing works out really well because I'm about to begin my 4th season and it just seems like a good starting point.

SO... the aforementioned help! I have the idea, the desire, and the web space. What I DON'T have is a NAME! I have no earthly idea what I would call the blog. I don't want something overly cheesy, but clever is OK. I also don't want to use the words "bone" or "wiener" if at all possible. :) Anyone got any ideas? Please comment with your suggestions, or message me directly via the link on the top right of the homepage if you don't want your suggestions published. Those that subscribe to emails can just reply to the emails. I really would like to get the blog going in the next week or two, so get those brains a-workin' and I'll do the same.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions. We'll have to come up with a prize for the winning name... maybe a free place to stay when vacationing in Vienna... :) And look for more info in the coming days about the new blog!

On The Road Again...

2010-06-26T21:58:00.003+02:00

Time flies when your having fun…or really busy…or you feel really busy. I didn’t even realize it had been 10 days since my last blog! Tomorrow we leave to fly to the States where we will be staying for 3 ½ weeks. Whoo hoo! We are so ready to go home. So, this past week has been filled with tying up last minute details…and of course, packing. I’m afraid that our bodies are going to absolutely revolt on us we step off the plane though. It has been record lows in Vienna…averaging in the 50’s as the high. I’m not joking! And the latest in Tennessee is highs in the high 90’s. I’m preparing to melt upon landing! The past few days has been a lot nicer and in the 70’s, but that’s still not enough to prepare us for the onslaught of heat. A few days ago we had a break in the rain, and I finally had an opportunity to take Eli outside again. The grass was SO tall because there was never a chance for Jeremy to mow it. Eli still had fun looking for sticks and getting his britches muddy though.

The grass looks pretty lush, huh? Even the wet swing didn’t phase my boy!

At the end of last week, we had Sally come and visit us. She was the girl I said was one of the first people I ever met in Vienna. When Jer and I first moved here, we made many a trip to Ikea to try to stock our apartment. This was before we owned a car, so we were still relying on public trans to get us to the Swedish home superstore. When we were waiting in line to check out, I heard two girls speaking “American” behind us. (I say “American” because it is much different that UK English!) It turned out that the girls got on the bus with us, so I used that opportunity to introduce myself. Sally was one of them, and she was a teacher at the English-speaking Christian school in Vienna. We ended up staying in touch and getting together a few times, but she went back to the States a couple of years ago. So I was happy to see her during this visit back to Wien! We just hung out around the house, and Eli got show off for her. I think he made a new friend. :o)

The next several days I spent trying to get the music ready for the next 8 weeks of services! Since we’ll be going to Salzburg right after the States, we had to find replacements for me and Jeremy leading worship. And I had to get the music ready, printed, and the powerpoint text done. Jeremy was on a whirlwind tour with the Philharmonic, so it gave me a good opportunity to do that. I also had the chance to do a first for me….take someone’s senior pictures! As you all know, I’m obsessed with pictures, though I’m quite amateur. I still love it though. You probably remember Katie from her graduation party that I posted about a few weeks ago. We met at the Volksgarten this week for a little mini shoot. Here are some of my favorites!

I tried to use the opportunity to get some pictures of Eli, since it was such a nice day. But all I got was the poor, sad face begging to let him chase the birds.

And no, I wasn’t kidding. Something I didn’t notice until now was the woman on the other side of the bird mass taking pictures of Eli! I wish I could have those pictures to see his face! He was squealing something fierce at those birds. Poor creatures! :o)

Well, I better get off and finish packing. Wish us luck flying with our little bundle of energy!

Hodge Podge

2010-06-16T21:50:00.003+02:00

I feel like I’m in a blogging slump. Or maybe just a slump period. I’m getting to that point where I NEED to go home and recharge my American batteries. Everything seems like an effort recently, and that usually happens close to a trip back to the States. I still love blogging. It’s the best way I’ve discovered to journal our lives (exciting or not), and I’m so glad I’ve stuck with it. It’s waaaaay better than a baby book because I put stuff on here that I would never have space for in one of those! But I’m hoping that I’ll come back from Tennessee revitalized with fresh bloggy inspiration!

With that said, the past few days have been a bit busy, but good! Last Friday was Eli’s best babysitter’s graduation party. We will be so sad to see her go back to the States to go to college! Unfortunately, the temptation of just staying here and babysitting the cutest boy in the world for a living wasn’t good enough for her. :o) We had a great time hanging out in the Hamm’s apartment garden, and Eli about ran himself ragged. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t have any pictures because they were all of the back of his head! I will say that he got his first face full of sprinkler. I might be a bad mother by telling this story. But a guy came out during the middle of the party (nice timing, right?) and set up a sprinkler. All the other children were old enough to understand to stay away from it. Not my little man though! He ran over to it as it fanned to the opposite side and watched as it came down right into his face. Eli’s head jerked straight back as if he’d been slapped! Jeremy ran over to get him as I hee-hawed on the ground. It was hilarious, but he even learned not to go back into the sprinkler!

Katie opened her present from us, which was a little something to remember Vienna.

I got this idea a while back, and I have given them to several people. I have always used last names in the past, but I figured an unmarried girl might appreciate her first name more. (In case you can’t tell from the glare, the name is “Katie”) The letters were all taken from famous places in Vienna, and I had a card on the back telling where they came from and a bit of history about them. Jeremy and I have “Wilson” above our entertainment center.

I gave most of these out at Christmas, and it was a lot of fun going around town searching for the letters. I think it would have been even more fun in warmer weather though! If any of you are interested in your own, drop me a line!

On Saturday, it was beautiful weather, so we got into the pool. The last time I blogged, I said we would get in that day, but we ended up not doing it. The water was so freezing, and I personally had no desire to get hypothermia in June. The water was a bit cold Saturday too, but we just decided to brave it.

When we put Eli in, he fussed for about 30 seconds until he got used to it. I actually think he cried for a shorter period of time than Jeremy did! :o) He ended up staying in the pool for 2 hours…and I got nicely burnt. Eli will probably be like his daddy and always be golden bronze!

Sunday, I ended up being stranded at home because our van wouldn’t start. Our starter gave out, so we’ll be taking it in to the dealership in order to take advantage of that good ol’ warranty! So Eli and I had a relaxing time at home, which was good because he was teething like crazy! I was sad I missed church though...luckily, Jeremy was scheduled to lead worship anyway.

Monday, we went to Little Big Ones, then over to Heather and Hegan’s apartment. We let the boys play and run all afternoon while we chatted…and ordered pizza! I forgot my camera, so I didn’t get a single picture. They look so cute together with Hegan’s cotton head and Eli’s dark hair. Even though I wasn’t running as much as Eli, I was pretty pooped when we got home. Eli and I just chilled in front of the TV a while. We both look worn out...or maybe it was just me!

Today we had our friends, the Gardners, over for some enchiladas and World Cup action. It was raining absolute cats and dogs, so the boys couldn’t go outside to swim or play. But we had fun anyway making laps around the house! I love this picture of Thad and Eli…a moment of quietness, which is very rare. :o)

Tomorrow we will welcome another guest to the European Wilson Inn for just a short time. Sally was actually one of the first English speakers we met here…on an Ikea bus! I’ll have to tell the full story in another post because it’s time for bed!