Vienna

Vienna is amazingly beautiful, and even though it was really COLD, we enjoyed our visit. Since Vienna is famous for its palaces, I'll start with our visit to Schönbrunn Palace (shown above from the back and below from the front). We were amazed at how beautiful the flowers were with how cold it was. The Palace is beautiful, and we really enjoyed our tour (especially the strudel demonstration and sample).In the gardens is a maze, which was fun, and a play area, which some of the children among us really enjoyed. In addition to the Schönbrunn Palace, we also saw the Hofburg and Belvedere Palaces but didn't have time to fully tour them.

But Vienna is just plain beautiful, even when there's not a palace in sight, and even in the rain.

Also pictured below are the Parliament building, the Rathaus (city hall) and me with a statue of Goethe. I'd love to go back to Vienna when it's sunny and warm. :)

Morning tea

You know I love a good tea room experience. This morning Gavin and I went with Becky and Michaela to Peacock's in Ely. And it was wonderful. (If Ely sounds familiar, it's from when we visited the cathedral in February when my parents were here.)

We had an assortment of finger sandwiches, fruit scones, lemon cake, a brownie with cream, and a great time. Becky had the hot chocolate, which came overflowing with little marshmallows Gavin enjoyed tasting; and I had the lime blossom tea.It was an adorable place, and everyone was super-friendly, which isn't always the case when you have kids. And the food was great. I'm looking forward to going back!

Boating the Broads

Today we went boating in the Norfolk Broads, which is a network of canals. It was lots of fun and a GORGEOUS day. As you can see, we each took turns piloting the boat.

(Lest you think the above photo was staged, let me assure you we never turned the boat off or sat idle in the water. Gavin really was steering here. We were livin' on the edge--but not really because the speed limit was 5 miles per hour, sometimes 4.) The scenery was pretty, especially all the thatched-roof houses along the river. Such a beautiful day!

10 months

Gavin is 10 months old tomorrow! Over the past month, Gavin has learned a lot about various appliances and gadgets, including the dishwasher; washing machine; laptop; and the TV (notice how he's used the boxes, intended as a blockade from the DVR and DVD player, to get closer to the screen).He has also enjoyed a month (and still going) of gorgeous weather, which we maximized by going to the park often.Gavin has also expanded his culinary interests over the past month, eating such things as mom's chocolate chip cookies, yogurt for breakfast every day; apple cinnamon cake; and postage stamps (can you see the Queen on the chewed-up stamp packet I fished out of his mouth?).In addition to everything else this month, he's also just been super-cute, which is what these last few photos show. :)

Cowboy

My brother Mike and his wife Melissa sent Gavin this adorable sweatshirt from the University of Wyoming where they both work and Mike is getting his second Masters degree. The Wyoming mascot is a Cowboy, and before Gavin was born my Mom gave him a pair of cute little boots. I think the combination of Cowboy sweatshirt and boots (that he didn't want on his feet under any circumstances) is pretty cute.