With all the snow we have been getting in Vienna, we decided to go skiing at the local hill near the house one more time! This time, we invited our friends Peter and his wife Beate (neat name, pronounced – Bay-Ah-Ta). We we are making the long march across the snow. This time I brought my skis with me so I could give the kids a better hand.
Here’s Oliver, all smiles! Elora and Peter are bringing up the rear. Their skills are about equal with Peter having a slight advantage 🙂
Elora now has regained full confidence going down the hill (like at the end of last year) and she’d be doing a lot better turning back and forth except for the fact that the hill was covered in sledders and smashed up bumpy snow!
I went down the hill a few times with Oliver while holding him. He was having a great time. When the bottom flattened out a bit, then I’d give him a chance to cruise along by himself. He’s doing a great job and needs just a little more practice to get over his fear of standing on his own two feet. In his defense, it does seem quite unnatural to glide across ice snow with your feet strapped into two planks of slick, waxed up, fiberglass wrapped wood.
But he’s having fun! There is a fine balance we have to play with not being too pushy, but also giving him a little nudge in the right direction so he realizes skiing is a lot of fun.
Peter and Beate brought along some Marille Krapfen, which we enjoyed on our break after going down and hiking back up for the 5th time.
Yes, it was a long, long hike back up each time with the skis and the kids! Luckily this time, we had a little more help. The view of the city was pretty nice too. This hill is probably one of the better kept secrets in Vienna. On those who live in the surrounding neighborhood seem to know about it, which is a good thing or it would be totally packed!
Oliver being a silly boy, rolling around in the snow. For some reason you can never keep his gloves on, he always has to have at least one hand free.
Peter brought the camp stove, and we brought the hot chocolate and enjoyed a little sip of hot chocolate for our break. This was after Elora and I skied all the way to the opposite end of the hill. Elora just wasn’t satisfied until we skied as far as absolutely possible. Which isn’t really a problem, except for we then had the long march back up.
Little chocolate mouth kids. The sun was going down and we started freezing! This made the hot chocolate turn cold rather quickly.
Here we all area! Karen, Oliver, Elora, Chris, Peter and Beate.
