We got to spend about three weeks in our Utah home. It was so nice to be home, and so different from our Vienna life. Here is a little glimpse of what we enjoyed during our vacation. First of all, we loved having our fireplace! There is no better spot than that place on the couch in front of the wood burning stove. We also enjoyed our huge, beautiful kitchen. Oh, how I have missed it! We tried making cheese kurtos kalacs, which is now my favorite food. I loved having my soup tureen. Weird, I know, but I love my soup tureen, especially when it is filled with soup!!!
We had some fun doing some science experiments while we were home. Elora had a great volcano building set that she had gotten as a gift and we had never built it. Fun times were had by all setting off the volcano reaction! We also had a baking soda rocket. It was fun to make, but we couldn’t get it to shoot off like it was supposed to. Some experiments just don’t work out right, but it was fun to try. I also used an entire bottle of vinegar trying to get it to work and I think most of it exploded all over my pants in the many attempts to get the rocket to launch.
I brought home some paper lanterns from Austria. They have fun lantern festivals that the kids had to miss while we were home in Utah. We had our own! We sang some German lantern songs, lit our paper lanterns, and enjoyed learning about St. Martin’s day, the holiday that inspired the original lantern festivals. The kids were impressed that the paper didn’t light on fire.
Elora loves being a Girl Scout and took part in some Girl Scout projects while we were home. She earned her Bronze Award by helping with the Night of Service that the troop planned. Elora had a Books for Baked Goods project where she baked a lot of treats and people from the community could “buy” them by donating books for the library. They could also purchase them with a cash donation. Elora raised almost $200 and got three boxes of books to donate. We are so proud of her desire to serve her community!
Best of all, we got to spend some time with great friends while we were home.
Chris and I headed down to St. George one day to run errands and then called Mom and Dad to ask permission to stay out late and see a movie! My Dad said “Sure” and we went to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. We loved it, although we determined it was too scary for the kids, much to Oliver’s disappointment. It was a fun night out and we are so grateful to Mom and Dad for watching the kids so we could go out.
My parents have a walnut tree that produced walnuts for the first time since they lived in their house. The kids picked up tons and tons of walnuts and had a lot of fun cracking and eating them.
Chris got an Instant Pot for Christmas, which was perfect because we have been talking about buying one for ages! My parents gave it to him early since they knew we wouldn’t be able to pack it to Austria. We got to try it out once before packing it up to wait for our return.
Marion got a cute sewing kit that made an octopus out of a pair of gloves. She did such a great job sewing and was very proud of her finished “Blubby”. We had some great times while visiting home. It was hard to say good bye again.
