Sledding near Innsbruck

After 2 days of skiing, we decided to spend the last 1/2 day of our trip sledding. One of our favorite things to do in Austria is to sled on paved trails. We found a neat little trail that was a 3km hike up (we pulled the kids behind us on the sleds), we loved the walk and exercise! At the top was a great little restaurant where we ate lunch, and then we sled down the trail back to the car. The trail was beautiful and quiet, and also not fast or steep. 

Skiing with friends

We took a 4 day trip to the snow near Innsbruck, Austria with 2 other families (6 adults, 7 kids). The winter around here has been quite bizarre. We've had no snow in Germany, and even Austria and the Alps are not getting very much at all. The towns have no snow, and you have to travel to the top of the mountain to find it (even there they were making snow). We were still pleasantly surprised that the snow conditions were decent on the mountains we skied. It was nice for Addy to have some peer pressure from older kids to really improve her skiing. She skied down some pretty tough mountains (even ones that I thought were challenging). Luke is still along for the ride between Jeff's legs. We had a great time with a large group and once again, Austria never disappoints!! 

New Year's Skiing in Austria

This year after Christmas, we took Mimi and Papa to Austria for a week to ski at Zillertal Arena. We made a note that every European likes to ski around the same time, so next year we'll probably hold off until February. Although we stood in some pretty long lines at the mountain, we still enjoyed it. The mountain was great for families and had a great learning hill for the kids. Addy started off the week kind of slow, but after a few days was skiing pretty well by herself. On the last day, she did ski school and went down the same mountain me and Jeff were skiing. We were so proud of her! Luke enjoyed skiing between Jeff's legs all week and had little interest in trying to go by himself. It was so nice to have 2 extra pairs of hands to keep the kids entertained! Mimi and Papa were able to ski with the kids a bit so we could go off on our own. We couldn't have asked for better weather! It was sunny, warm, and absolutely beautiful everyday! We also enjoyed an awesome New Year's Eve with over 6 hours of fireworks. We stayed at a great villa on the side of a hill that had panoramic views of several towns lighting off fireworks. We loved it!

Little ski bunny:

Her favorite part of the day, hot chocolate: