The Big Break

What a week. Larry left for Argentina on Sunday. I was optimistic about the week ahead...it is Spring and the sun is shining. I had a few fun events to look forward to. I don't like when Larry travels that far away, but we would be fine. 

My sweet friend Kim invited us over on Tuesday. We let the kids play on the playground after school, and then we planned go to their house and stay for dinner. The kids were playing and we were chatting. I honestly was watching Logan more than I was watching Chelsea, but Kim winced as she saw Chelsea fall. Chelsea came over to me crying that she hurt her arm. She wasn't hysterical or anything, so she sat by me for a few minutes, and I thought her arm would be okay. After a while, it was still hurting. She was holding it and I was a little concerned, so we found a school nurse. She gave her some ice, and we all left and went to Kim's house. 

By that time, it was about an hour after the fall. Chelsea still wasn't using her arm, so I decided to call the our pediatrician.  She asked me to bring her in right away. So, we left Cade with Kim and headed to the doctor. Thankfully, our doctor's office has x-ray equipment. Our sweet pediatrician was supposed to be off work, but she waited for us. The x-ray confirmed my suspicions - broken in 2 places!!

Reviewing the x-ray

Dr. Kinga was able to cast it right there, which was a huge relief to me. I did not want to visit a Hungarian hospital, especially by myself!! Chelsea was a trooper and I feel like I earned a mommy badge for "broken arm in a foreign country while hubby is away."  I am so thankful for many friends that I could have called on in those hours.

We visit the orthopedist today, where she may get a different cast. She is bummed that they don't have colored casts here like they do in the US.  They also don't have slings, and the cast goes over her elbow. So, the doctor fashioned us one out of some fabric. Yesterday, we also used a scarf which worked pretty well. 

Cade has been so sweet throughout the ordeal. The first night, he told her, "Sis, I'm sorry I can't fix it , but I'm just a little boy." He has repeatedly asked her if she is gonna be okay, then he switched to reassuring her that she would be okay and God would fix her arm. So sweet. 

Needless to say, we will be glad to see Larry this weekend!

Mayhem in Mohacs

Hungary has a version of Carnival, known as Farsang. The culmination of Farsang is a festival revolving around the Busos, basically men dressed in wooly costumes. They carry large wooden noisemakers to scare away winter.  The Buso parade takes place in Mohacs, a town in Southern Hungary. We have never been, so we decided that we should take advantage this year and make the  2 hour trek. 

Our sweet friends Paul and Erin made the road trip with us

Upon arriving, we discovered this was the most crowded event we have ever been to in Hungary. It was craziness. Thankfully, we had Paul and Erin to help with the kids and give them a boost!

 The kids learn about the Busos in school, so they weren't afraid. 

A Buso with his wooden noisemaker - some of them were 10x this big!

We decided we needed a Buso mask for a souvenir, so Chelsea tried this one on. We ultimately got an even larger one - we will always have a Halloween costume or school report prop! The only unfortunate thing is that it is made of sheep and it stinks....hopefully it will air out with time. 

Two is Terrific!

Our littlest guy turned 2 at the end of February, and we celebrated a week later with a "Pancakes and Pajamas" party. We are so thankful for the friends God has blessed us with while we are living here. In the expat world, friends are like family and we are thankful for everyone that celebrated with us!

A pancake bar, eggs, bacon, fruit, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes were on the menu. 

Special friends...fun times

Yummy!!

I am loving this age with Logan...he is so sweet and loves to grab my face and give big kisses. He is a little lover for sure! When he wants to be held, he says, "get you, get you" or sometimes, "need you." He is all boy and loves his cars and balls and being outside. He likes to "zoom" (slide) and is going to be our little daredevil I think. Happy Birthday, sweet boy!! You are so loved!!

Ski Break Wrap Up

After our crazy ski day, we had a much more successful week. 

We skied each morning, and then enjoyed the hotel amenities in the afternoons. 

Such a fun family week!!

Ski Success

On our second ski day, the sun was shining and the power was restored. Much better day!

Our kids are great little skiers. Cade skied with us instead of going to ski school this year and did great.

Chelsea is a little pro and has no trouble skiing with us. 

Our only mishap occurred early in the day. We took the chairlift up, and we planned to ski a couple of easy runs and then take the lift back down if we determined that the long run down was too difficult. After getting off the lift, we skied a short run down to another lift. The problem came here - this lift was a t-bar, which is very common in Europe but very hard for the kids. You have to balance on a little bar and be drug up the mountain. This one also happened to be steep and bumpy. 

We let Chelsea go first, followed by me, and then Larry held Cade. Well, Chelsea fell off about halfway up. I kept going, knowing that Larry would get her.  He did, but he had quite a time. He wasn't sure what to do, but thought the best plan was to cross from the lift line over to the slope. The problem was that there was 3 feet of snow in between. Somehow, he drug himself and both kids plus gear through all that snow. It was not a peasant experience for any of them!

When I met them, they had just gotten though that. Well, now we were stuck. We couldn't get back to the chair lift without doing the t-bar again, and no one wanted to do that. Our only was out was down the mountain via a red (intermediate) slope. This provoked much anxiety in me, mostly because of Cade. Thankfully, we all made it down in one piece. There were tears and crashes, but none too serious. Larry ended up carrying Cade about a third of the way down. Needless to say, we were all glad to see the end and we called it a day after that!

The Snowiest Day

So behind in blogging, but going to try to catch up....so, we go back to the Kinderhotel. 

We woke up on our first ski day to find that it had snowed all night and the power was out at the hotel. We would not be deterred from our plan, however. We ate breakfast, got all the gear, dropped Logan at childcare, and headed to the mountain. 

The ski area was a 20 minute drive away under normal conditions. As we began to drive, we knew these were not normal conditions. See the lump in the picture above? There is a car under all that snow. There was more snow than I have ever seen. The road was mostly okay, but got a bit interesting in places. Halfway to the ski area, our windshield wiper broke because there was so much snow. But, we pressed on. I was questioning our decision, but I did so only in my head. 

We finally made it to the ski area after about an hour. 

We parked in deep snow and you can see the wall of snow that was behind our car. 

We went into the ski shop and got all the skis, boots, etc on....definitely the least fun part of skiing. From there, it was a bit of an uphill hike to the bunny slope. We finally got everyone up there, and then the bunny lifts stopped. The power was out at the ski area as well. We had to laugh - too much snow to ski.

Larry was determined that the kids ski a bit, so he pulled them through the powder up the hill a couple of times. After that, we called it a day and headed an hour back to the hotel. The power ended up being out until 5 pm at the hotel thanks to multiple fallen trees in the area due to the snow. We made the most of our day anyway, and had much better success the next day!