Happy Birthday Alexa!!!

Today Alexa turns eight. She is an amazing little girl. She is so kind and soft hearted. She is the peacemaker of the family. She loves to dress up, sing and dance. She can make a mess like no other...she is a creative, free spirit. She tries so hard to be good and we love her so much!!!! Right now, I really should be taking her to the store to buy what we need to make her cake. I told her that she could decorate her own cake. She was so excited! Little does she know, that she is just helping me get out of much dreaded cake decorating. I don't enjoy cake making and it shows. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXA!!!! WE LOVE YOU BABY GIRL!

Schonbrunn Palace

Schonbrunn Palace was one of my favorite visits of the whole tripp. It is an 800 bedroom palace where several rulers of Austria lived. If I remember correctly it was Maria Theresa who had it built. It is the home where Marie Antonette was born and raised before being married off to France. It is also the place where Mozart first played for the Emperess at the age of 6. Napoleon lived there for a short time and it was also the place of the meeting between JFK and Kruschev (Not at all sure I spelled that right). Anyway, a fun place to visit. The grounds were amazing! We hiked to the top of a small hill in the back of the palace where we were able to enjoy a beautiful view of the Vienna skyline. So fun!

The view from the top of the hill. There is some scaffolding where workers were setting up for a concert.

Building at the top of the hill. The backyard of the Palace.

Fountain in the back of the Palace just before starting up the hill.

One of several smaller gardens just behind the palace.

The front of the palace.

Europe Trip

Well we had good intentions to blog everyday of our trip. At this point however, I think that we will just give an overview. Justin will have to fill in the parts before I arrived. To begin with, I was worried about leaving the kids for that long and I was nervous about the flight. I don't like flying, but I especially don't like flying alone. I mentioned this to my doctor and he gave me a prescription of anti-anxiety medication. My sister-in-law said that she had tried it and that it had helped her. So I decided to try taking a third of a pill. The first section of the flight was 4 hours and I slept for 3. Pretty good, I think, so I decide that I am going to take another third for the long leg. It doesn't really knock me out this time so I take the final third a couple of hours later. Well, that is all I remember.
I arrived in Vienna and we ate our first real weinerschnitzel. Which is more like chicken fried steak than a hot dog. Our guide Fritz took us for a walking tour through the city to show us the museum district and the government buildings. Here are some of the highlights:

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Government Building.

Mozart Concert. The orange/red walls are to remember when the building burned.

A museum in Vienna. It had a really long name that I can't remember. Amazing though.