Ski Week--Bavarian Alps

Henry rocked the giant slalom

Caleb and a few friends from the U.S. Olympic ski team

Our apartment was conveniently located above a pub

Valentine's Day Just Got Owned

I have been experimenting with Valentine's Day traditions for all 12 years of my married life. I think this year I might have found something that will stick. Some background:

We move a lot. In moving a lot, one thing we've noticed is that everywhere you go, there is always a person (or a family, or a church group) that "owns" just about every holiday. Christmas is always taken. Usually there is a family in each location that is famous for a big New Year's Eve bash, so no one else plans anything because you already know everyone is going to that family's event. And so on.

But Valentine's Day is always open. So I decided to own Valentine's Day. Inspired by the success of our Hart Family Reunion Lip Sync Contest last summer, I invited several families over for Love Song Lip Sync. The kids were especially enthusiastic, though they didn't really get the "love song" part. "The Awesome Mix" from Guardians of the Galaxy got a lot of coverage. Luckily, Frozen appears to have run its course.

Then we put all the kids in the media room with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, blah, blah, blah and had a nice evening of conversation. Valentine's Day just got owned!

Valentines Playlist 2015

Some that just make me think of Katie and some that relate to a fun memory of the last year. Valentine's Day Playlist 2015

1. Barking at the Moon, Jenny Lewis
2. Home, Phillip Phillips
3. Titanium, David Guetta
4. To Make You Feel My Love, Garth Brooks
5. Come and Get Your Love, Redbone
6. I Will Wait, Mumford and Sons
7. I'll Never Let You Go, Steelheart
8. Shut Up and Dance, Walk the Moon
9. You Were Born, Cloud Cult
10. Good Hearted Woman, Willie Nelson

12 Years

When we met, I had just started graduate school at Temple University. My ambition was modest but noble. I intended to get a PhD and find a college in some quiet town where I could teach, write, coach youth football, have a house with a yard, and drive a Honda Accord.

The curriculum was so dull as to be unbearable. The culture shock of North Philly for an Idaho boy was severe. I looked ahead to four to six more years of it and it looked awful. Katie and I were soon engaged and when she said she wanted to transfer to her firm's Boston office, I immediately started looking for work, any work, in Boston. Anything to no longer be a student years away from a degree I wasn't sure I wanted.

Selling life insurance was what I could find. We moved to Cambridge, MA. We bought a condo. We could hear the crowd at Fenway Park if we opened the window. Before we had any furniture other than a TV, we sat on the floor watching the Red Sox come from three games down against the Yankees and listening to the live crowd cheer three seconds ahead of what we saw on TV. Awesome memory. I sold life insurance. It was hard.

Three babies and the accompanying stress, joy, anger, and education.

I switched from life insurance to mutual funds. We moved to Utah so I could get an MBA.

Two years of business school. We felt poor. We discussed, debated, argued, fought quite a bit about which job offers to pursue. It was hard.

We chose what seemed the most adventurous option. The Foreign Service. We moved to Virginia. When circumstances dictated that my first overseas assignment would be a year without the family in Pakistan, we wondered anew whether we had made the right career choice. I went to Pakistan. It was hard.

After Pakistan, I met up with Katie and the kids at Disney World. I was delayed a day getting out of Islamabad so Katie had some time there without me. During this time, she told some Disney staffers where I was, why I was delayed, etc. Oh, Disney. This staffer called ahead to our reservations and our fees were waived as cast members thanked me for my service to the country. Awesome memory.

Then we moved to Cairo. We were evacuated during the counter-revolution and even when were allowed to return, our movement was severely limited. It was hard.

Then we were moved to Frankfurt to complete my "Cairo" tour.

So far, we've lived in Philadelphia, Cambridge, Provo, Arlington, Cairo, and Frankfurt. Doing hard things has been easier than I would have predicted, mainly because Katie Hart is awesome. 12 years. Bring on the next adventure.

Sunrise, Sunset

I have a new hobby. I study the sunrise-sunset patterns of Frankfurt, Germany. Interesting to note that the Blackberry weather app lists sunset times two minutes later than The Weather Channel. You were super interested in that, right? Thought so.

Also interesting that the sunset gets later much faster than the sunrise gets earlier. I like to pretend I'm smartish but I can't figure out how that makes sense. Why wouldn't the day get longer equally on both ends? Anyway, our day is now 8:16 am to 4:54 pm. I only have one work day to go before the sun will be out until 5 pm! I was so pleased to arrive home from work yesterday while the sky was still light. You can't get enough of this, I know. But, man, a few days of pitch dark by 4 pm back in December and suddenly one gets very curious about the sun.

Meanwhile:

• Kids are back in school. I spent all break helping Caleb on his "invention" for art class. We made a Blorg, which is a tesseract-powered emergency generator for your home. Then someone (Katie) chimes in with the "information-that-would-have-been-useful-yesterday" about how it is supposed to be a prototype of a thing that could really work. This is no longer art, by the way. What kind of school is this? Unable to locate a tesseract, we opted for a hand crank, thus making it a handy workout device as well. Of course a German school would call an engineering assignment "art."
• I have ADHVPS (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Vacation Planning Syndrome) now that I live in Europe. Related, Airbnb becomes more and more my friend every time I try to plan a vacation, which is like every three minutes. Really, besides business trips and Disney World, hotels are dead to me.
• We recently got the schedule for Maddie's swim club. Conveniently, they only practice every day. Similarly, we received the remaining schedule for Henry's soccer season, which goes through July (having started in September). Apparently in August they take a break for triathlons. I have yet to find an activity for the casual participant. Either you are training for the Olympics, or you just don't do it.

My Mom and Dad in Europe (It's Over)

We drove along the Danube on our return from Vienna. Awesome.

We found a nice little village (Durnstein) to help us spend the bit of cash we had left.

This is the path to the public restroom, which for some reason I found quite amusing (the path, not the restroom).

Martha, this one is waiting for you.

Once back in Germany, we continued trying to find the German country side.

Here is dad entering a vampire movie.

Dropped them off at the airport this morning. Super bummed.

My Mom and Dad in Europe (Austria Leg - Vienna)

There were a few small details of history that I somehow missed growing up. For example, German history begins before the Weimar Republic. Weird right? Also, prior to this trip, here is what I knew of Austria: 1) good Olympic ski team, 2) The Sound of Music. Alas, in the words of our hotel clerk, "No one in Austria watches that movie because it's completely inaccurate." Rogers and Hammerstein, you sit on a throne of lies.

So the visit to Vienna was quite elucidating. Turns out Austria has, like, history, and stuff. The emperor of Austria was, for quite some time, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Did everyone already know that? Am I the only dunce completely shocked by this new revelation? When did they discover this fact? This must be new, one of these things discovered because of readily available information on the Internet or something. I don't think anyone knew this until Wikipedia. Thank you, Wikipedia.

And here is the travel log part:

Step 1: Drive five hours from Frankfurt to Linz in dense fog. Three weeks in Europe and my parents have not yet seen the sun. Nor do they believe in this alleged "German country side." It's almost like believing there is more to Eastern Europe than the words "Iron Curtain." That's just silly.

Step 2: Pay too much for a very average dinner at the Linz Courtyard Marriott, which was otherwise a comfortable stopover point.

Step 3: Drive 90 minutes in dense fog to Salzburg. Observe Salzburg. This was accomplished and documented in the previous post. Return to Linz. (Three steps in one, I recognize, but we have to keep the narrative moving).

Step 4: Drive 2 hours to Vienna. The fog, by this point, had lifted. So my parents observed Austrian country side, which is stunning. They were quite awestruck by the presence of ancient castles on basically every hilltop. I still find myself quite awestruck by this. German country side remains a myth.

Step 5: Find McDonalds in Vienna. Don't judge.

Step 6: Buy tickets to live performance of Mozart and Strauss (!).

Step 7: Go down town and obtain tickets to Spanish Riding School.

We stopped for pastries (apparently famous in Vienna) after getting riding school tickets.

Step 8: I watch Panthers playoff game with Henry while other enjoy live performance of Mozart and Strauss. How did I end up with a Panthers fan in my family?

Cam Newton jersey, bag of M&Ms, and football streaming on the iPad. An American in Vienna.

Step 9: Drop the "step" convention of this post because it is tedious.

We spent the second day in Vienna touring Schoenbrunn Palace, as pictured below. This was awesome and very educational. I was quite shocked at my near complete Austrian history ignorance. Turns out, its fascinating.

Sampling schnitzel with cranberries, my personal favorite.

We started out day three at the riding school. When it was over, we listed things we could have done instead that would have been more fun: Look at dirt (Maddie), pick up a phone with no one on the other end and listen for an hour (Caleb). Literally, one hour after it was supposed to start, I asked when it was going to start. The usher said it had already started an hour ago. Okay. So we moved on to Stephansdom and the museum of natural history.

Watching dirt.

Atop the Stephansdom bell tower. It was really cold up there.

It said it was made of salt. So I licked it (not really)

My Mom and Dad in Europe (Austria Leg - Salzburg)

Here I am geared up for winter urban hiking in the plaza near the abbey of Von Trapp fame.

A nice view of Salzburg from the festung (fortress).

Alps

Maddie was very excited about the sledders down below. Knowing we were on our way to Vienna next, location of The Third Man, I made many jokes about how they were really just ants. No one got the jokes. Not even the seventh time.

Dad was especially interested in the wall around the opposing hill.

This is Katie's face for "Pam's about to buy more art."

With Mozart

Singing opera in front of the house where Mozart was born.

My Mom and Dad Christmas in Europe

We returned from Paris December 23, getting back to the house around 7 pm. So Katie and I generously gave my parents the evening off before putting them back to work on Christmas Eve. They thought they were coming here for a vacation. They're cute that way. Oh no, we have work for them to do. Hanging art work (sadly we ran out of nails), making ginger bread, and my dad is like an obsessed rubbish removal machine.

We have given them a modest leave window for events of cultural significance. For example, we went downtown at 5 pm on Christmas Eve to hear the simultaneous ringing of all the church bells in Frankfurt, which you can kind of hear in this video:

We also allowed them to participate in the Christmas morning reveal, as shown in the longish home video below (warning, content most appropriate for grandparents; individuals age 25 and below may experience severe boredom):

We also visited Baden-Baden in the Black Forest and enjoyed the first snow my kids have seen in three years.