Road trip home from Austria

This post documents a very long day, the trip home.  You'll notice that Tonio does not appear in any of these pictures.  He flew back to Nice with his buddy Jordan.  It was nice to have a little more room in the back seat, but we missed Papa, that's for sure.

We started with our daily breakfast in our Austrian pension.

She enjoyed the cereal and raisins.

Sleepy time.

This rest stop came after a very unhappy baby. 

Chasing lizards helped lighten the morale.

It was good to walk around... freedom from the car seat!!!  Hallelujah!

Another stop to eat lunch.

This never happens... she let me do a ponytail and left it in!  It was hot, and I think she could feel the difference on her neck.

 

This was one of our last stops before arriving in Nice.  We were all tired and thankful to be so close to home.

Love Linz

Road trip to Austria

We began our road trip about 7am on Sunday, August 14th... left Nice, heading into Italy when...

Bam!  Flat tire!  Thankfully, God had His angels around the car.  Tonio was able to pull right over.  Tonio and Pierre fixed the tire in no time by putting on the spare, which was a legit tire.  We drove on it all the way to Austria!

Pit stop.

One of the many DIY things I brought to keep this chica entertained for 10+ hours.  You can check out the link here {velcro dot craft sticks}.  She did great on the "going" trip... we'll save another blog post for the return - another story.

Her bed head is just the best.

Stretching the legs with Papi.

Then a little stroll with Papa.

Naptime.

Somewhere in Italy [picture from Pierre].

Her favorite Baby Einstein video to buy us the last 20-30 minutes before arriving [picture from Pierre].

Gorgeous clouds and mountains.

We made it.  Our first view of the castle! [picture from Pierre]

And here we are by the lake!

Daphné and I hung out while Papi, Mamie and Daddy went to the castle for the orientation night.  Here, she is looking at little fishies that some guys were catching.

I LOVE HER!!!

First swan sighting.

Where'd he go?

There he is.

We enjoyed the sunset together before it started raining and we ran across the street to our beautiful villa pension.  We stayed here {Villa Margarethe}.

Kisses.

She's coming in to plant a wet one on her mommy!

On target!

I think she was petting me, not sure.

And the end of our first Austrian selfies together.

Stay tuned for more blog posts!

 

Love Linz

visit to Roseville

to see my brother Tanner and his beautiful wife Sarah

leaving at 5am was very doable since my thoughtful dad made the pregnant lady a bed in the car - i woke up after the grapevine

 view out the back window

 there truly isn't much between LA and Sacramento

 7 hours later...  the new home of the 2 love birds

 we visited a museum on the history of Roseville - the railroads definitely put this place on the map

 and I tripped out at old school 3-D goggles

 Tanner : old meets new

 a model of the city from many years ago

 a replica of an bomb explosion in 1973; the train was carrying over 7,000 bombs for Vietnam

 dance class from an early 1900s high school year book

 the gang : me, mom, Tanner, Sarah, dad

 hey, no loitering

 theatre

 my and my sis-in-law

 one of their doggies, Stella, in the backyard

 2 inspectors and a weeder in the front yard

 getting ready to go pannin' for them there gold nuggets pebbles flakes dust =)

 pans

 American river here we come... that tall bridge is apparently in many movies, including THIS ONE

 Tan and Sarah lead the way

we were so happy to get time with these guys in their new stomping grounds east of Sacramento

 classic - my dad holding coffee; my mom holding drift wood

 me and baby floating in the river

 my dad's turn

 the gold panners makin' us all rich - haha

 lunch break {yes, i'm wearing a napkin as a visor}

i think Sarah found the most gold flakes; i was surprised at how much we actually found... droughts = low rivers and lakes = more gold findings

 letting the bébé have some sun

 rock dancing as opposed to river dancing

 my cute mama and me

 determined

and here we are after a lovely day at the river

Thanks so much Tanner and Sarah for your hospitality and for showing us around your new home sweet home.

Love Linz (and Tim and Kathy)