This is me packing....

Well that's what I'm supposed to be doing right now. Which obviously I am not. I have the hardest time getting started when it's time to pack. Once I get going I can do it fairly quickly, it's just the getting started part that I can never do. So I'm blogging instead. Since I'm fairly depressed to be leaving Prague tomorrow and I have other vacations to catch this little blog up on , this is me productively procrastinating.

So vacation number two with the Krseks:

Corvara, Italy! This town is in South Tyrol, which is a region in Italy that was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Read: is basically Austria... with Italian speakers. It made me feel like I was back in Vienna almost, so I was already in love with the place as soon as we got there. The hotel we stayed at was super nice, but in a relaxed, comfy kind of way. Here's the room I got all to myself:

 

We flew to Innsbruck, Austria on Saturday and then took a three hour car ride to Corvara. As soon as we got to the hotel we ate lunch and then we went on a "walk". I'm not sure if the Krsek's understand there's a difference between a "hike" and a "walk", or if my version of a hike is a nice little stroll through the park for them.... they do take their ten and eight year old daughters rock climbing up sheer cliff faces that most adults wouldn't even attempt to brave, so I could be the one who's mistaken. All the same, the hike was gorgeous. We took the ski lift up to the top of the mountain behind the hotel and walked all around as we made our way back to the hotel. Here's some photos of our little excursion:

Magda is hilarious. I can't get over how much I love this girl. And we're name buddies (her full name is Magdalena, which is the Czech version of Madeline). So that automatically makes her cool.

Above is the view from my hotel room.

Wake me up, this must have just been a dream.

The next day we hiked up through the pass from the valley that Corvara is situated in over to the next one. It was some tough going at some points, but how could you be miserable when you are hiking through the Italian Alps with the sun out and shining.

Barbara got her own little backpack at a sports outfitter shop near the hotel, since the older two girls had backpacks and she felt left out. It came with a leash, and so she spent the rest of the day attaching it to everyone's backpacks and commanding them like dogs. Hahaha.

Just some cows chilling in the middle of the main thoroughfare...

At the top of the pass/mountain we stopped for lunch at Jimmy's Hütte (hut). We had this delicious bean and vegetable soup and apfel strüdel with vanilla sauce. German food is, as my grandpa would call it, larapin (did I spell that right grandpa?). Or you could say delicious, but I think larapin is a better word.

Tomas finally got the leash on Barbara, haha. Below is our view as we ate lunch at the "hut".

Me with Martina and the girls (left to right: Magda, Anna, and Barbara).

One day the older girls went with Martina and Tomas to do some serious rock climbing, so Barbara and I stayed behind in the town. We went to the park in the morning and then explored around the town. She didn't want to go into town at first, but after I looked in the first store, she wanted to go into everyone after that and buy everything they had. I told her she could get one thing, but that didn't stop her from asking for something each time we stepped foot in another shop. Haha. She finally decided on a coloring book with models that you could design and draw clothes on. I, of course, got some yarn from the area, a postcard, and a new swiss army knife. Haha. I just realized how the only normal souvenir I got was a postcard. Oh well. Here is Barbara proudly holding up her purchase:

The next day the kids got to decide what we did ("Kids day!"), so we went to the ropes courses. I hate heights, but I bravely decided to give it a try with Anna and Magda, and I actually really enjoyed it! Anna enjoyed it so much that we did it three more times throughout the week. I'll have to admit that we got the blue level course down to a science by the time we left.

The day after Kids Day, Martina and Tomas took the older girls rock climbing again, so Barbara and I stayed down below near where they were climbing and explored around there. There were lots of exquisite little wildflowers up there, so I practiced using my nifty fifty in reverse to take some macros. I should probably get a reversing ring so I don't have to just hold the lens backwards in front of my camera, but I'm cheap, so what can I say?

Hahahaha, this photo cracks me up. Barbara breakin' it down on the mountain top, yo.

There was also this really cool place where people had taken rocks and written their name or some other message. Barbara and I tried to right her name, but she got bored after "Bar" so we moved on.

And we found snow! Pink snow, actually. I wish I knew why it was pink, but to Barbara the only thing that mattered was that it was her favorite color and she could touch it. As soon as her parents left us she zeroed in on a patch of this pink snow in the distance and made it very apparent that she wanted to go there. For the next hour. Oh boy. She reminds me of Chloe in so many ways, both bad and good. We finally made it to a good patch of snow and so I snatched a few photos and a video:

We got some hot chocolate and a Ritter Sport at this little hut on the mountain top before heading back to meet up with her sisters and parents.

Some seriously steep ski lifts around this valley. And a pretty church in the center of town.

Below is the main street of Corvara. I'm too lazy to edit out that corner of the building in the top left corner. Pretend it's not there.

Playing with each other in the park:

We also went into the forest one day and took photos of the girls in dresses and flower crowns (which I very handily made by myself. I'm such a domestic goddess). When they said they wanted to model for me and be fairies, the photographer in me did leaps of excitement. I'll leave those for another post though, because this one is already overloaded with photos.  I also took some when we went up to their cabin in the Sumova mountains, so hopefully I will finish those soon and post them on here as well. Till then!