Making Memories

For the last week, Kevin and I have been busy playing host and tour guide for my Aunt Ruth.  When she expressed her desire to come over, I was super excited and when she finally booked her ticket, I started planning immediately.  I love visitors!  I love playing host!  I love traveling!

This was Ruth's first trip overseas and I wanted to make sure she saw as many places as possible during her time here.  We started with Innsbruck.  Ruth and I were on our own for this one so it gave me a chance to show her my manual driving skills.  The drive went well, but the weather wasn't the greatest.  The skies were overcast so you couldn't see the mountains and it was pretty chilly.  For the most part, we just walked around Old Town and down by the river.  We only stayed a few hours before making our way back to Vipiteno to catch the Broncos hockey game...and they won! 

Ruth by the Inn River.

Our next stop was Venice.  Kevin was able to come with us for the day so he drove (best husband ever).  We introduced Ruth to our favorite take away pizza place, the local drinks, and gelato.  Ruth also did some serious shopping here!  Kevin had to head home that night, but Ruth and I stayed.  We were pretty tired so we just ate dinner and were in bed by 8:30...not asleep until 10:00 though.

Ruth was sick of pizza by the time she left.  Kevin and I can still eat it everyday.

Impromptu photo shoot by a crazy man at the Rialto Bridge. 

Baby Reiter's first trip to Venice.

We woke up the next morning to rain so we decided to head to Verona to see what the weather was like there.  There was rain, but it was warm so we decided to stay a few hours.  We caught up with Juliet at her casa, bought Baby Reiter the cutest outfit at Zara, and stuffed ourselves with pasta before boarding the train back to Vipiteno.

The rain wouldn't ruin our fun.

Ruth refused to rub Juliet's boob for good luck.

Our day in Vipiteno was a lazy one.  We had some serious snow here so we popped on our snow boots and headed to town so I could show Ruth around.  We had coffee, Ruth got to try a Krapfen, and we took her for pizza (again).  Kevin had to work that afternoon/night so Ruth and I bummed around and watched the inauguration.  She also got all packed up.

The next morning, all of us headed to Dachau to check out the Concentration Camp Memorial Site.  After a few hours there, we drove to Munich, checked into our hotel, and then made our way to the sights.  We hung out in the Marienplatz, had beers at Paulaner Beer Hall (I had coffee), bought treats at the Viktualienmarkt, and ate dinner at the Hofbräuhaus.

Ruth and I in the Marienplatz.

Kevin and I warming up at Paulaner Beer Hall.

When in Munich, eat a big pretzel. 

Our beers didn't stand a chance.  PLEASE NOTE: My beer was non-alcoholic. 

We dropped Ruth off at the airport yesterday and I can report that she made it home safely despite some delays and lost luggage.  Kevin and I are back to our normalcy.  That means he works and I play the role of pregnant house wife.

Our next BIG trip will be to the hospital so we better start packing for that! 

I'm so excited, I'm losing sleep!

When I told my best friend, Jana, that Kevin and I were going to be in Italy this year she swore to me she was going to come visit. I, of course, didn't believe her. I cannot tell you how many times people have said they were going to visit us in our 3 hockey seasons overseas, yet we have only had visitors twice...Kevin's parents our first year and Marina and Sergei, our Latvian visitors, in January.

Well, Jana kept her word and Kevin and I will be picking her and her wonderful mother, Kathy (also known as Momma T), up tomorrow. They flew into Munich on Thursday and have been doing some sightseeing and I still can't believe we are in the same time zone. Tomorrow morning, they are taking a train to Salzburg and we are going to meet them, check out the city, and then head back to Vipiteno. The plan is to check out Vipiteno and Innsbruck on Monday and Tuesday and then us girls are heading to Venice and Verona for 3 days (Sorry Kevin, you have to work).

I have been looking forward to their visit since Jana bought her plane ticket. This past week, I've been having trouble sleeping because I am so excited! I've kept busy by preparing for their visit though. I got my hair done (so I don't look a hot mess in our pictures), our refrigerator is stocked, the house is clean, the laundry is done, and the car is fueled up and ready to go. In less than 24 hours, Kevin and I will be taking in the sights of Salzburg with the Tomasewski ladies!

Only one more day and I'll be reunited with these lovely ladies!

Extreme sledding!

Sledding at Rosskopf is nothing like sledding at The Illinois State Fair Grounds. Here you take the gondola to the top of the mountain and then make your way down 10km to Vipiteno (the longest course in Italy). From what I saw yesterday, I'm starting to think sledding is more dangerous than skiing.

We all escaped unscathed except Sergei who has a bruised shoulder, a scraped nose, and a cut arm. He thought he would be daring and go down one stretch on his stomach. Unfortunately, he ended up over the side and met a tree (his words). When Kevin told me he saw him go over, I thought he was lying. And when Marina made it to us, she didn't believe Kevin either. Kevin thought maybe Sergei was playing around and was going to hit us with snowballs, but then we saw Sergei's hat get thrown up on the course from over the side. I felt bad taking a picture, but I had to capture the moment.

Kevin giving Sergei a helping hand.

Here are a few more pictures and a video of our sledding adventure. It was so much fun!

The weather was perfect.

Team Latvia

You really start picking up speed when you go down.

Team USA

Enjoying some post sledding Spritz.

Pizza with a Side of Profanity

Sunday night, Kevin and I took Marina and Sergei to the "best pizza place in Vipiteno." We were sitting next to a table with about eight people and another table with three guys. We all ordered our drinks and pizza and were talking when the three guys started getting louder and louder. You could tell they were drunk as they sloppily shoveled their spaghetti in their mouths. They were cussing and laughing so loudly it was started to get annoying, but we ignored them and dove into our pizzas once they were delivered.

Fast forward about 20 minutes to when we were finished and it was just us in the room with the three guys. Sergei and I were debating on ordering coffee and I noticed that one of the guys was getting louder and louder and I was pretty sure he was talking about us. It was kind of obvious considering he kept motioning towards us and was using the word "Yankees" (which is almost funny considering Marina and Sergei are Latvian). Finally, the guy got up and as he was passing us he called us "F#*king Hillbillies" so we all knew for sure he was talking about us.

We were trying to figure out what provoked us to be attacked in a pizzeria by a drunk asshole...and then we put it together. The waitress had brought Marina a box to take her pizza home in because she didn't even eat half of it. Marina didn't ask for the box; the waitress just brought it. He was mad because we were taking our food home with us. He came back to the table and the yelling and cussing continued and he added the word "McDonald's" into his ranting along side "Yankees," "Hillbillies," and "F#*k."

How is Marina supposed to finish a pizza that weighs more than her?

We kept our cool, finished our coffee, and got the hell out of there but not without Kevin giving them a parting "F#*k You!"

So the moral of the story...don't get a box from a pizzeria when you are sitting next to a drunk asshole.

Our Latvian Guests

Our friends, Marina and Sergei, arrived on Wednesday from Latvia and we are so excited to have them here. It has been four years since we've seen each other when the guys played together in Fort Wayne. Thanks to Facebook and Skype, Marina and I have stayed in contact over the years and I was thrilled when she told me they were going to come for a visit.

Unfortunately, Marina and Sergei ran into some trouble on the way here and had one of their bags stolen at the rental car place in Milan. As they were getting in their car, a woman came up to them to ask them where the rental office was and in the 20 seconds they were talking to her, her 'partner in crime' stole one of their bags they had set directly behind them. By the time they realized what happened, it was too late. What is wrong with people?

After they counted their losses, which included a GPS, camera, phone chargers, underwear, and Sergei's homework for school, they made the 3 hour drive to Vipiteno. We spent the night catching up and having drinks. Thursday, we hit up the outlet malls and Kevin's hockey game.

Yesterday, we decided to go to Innsbruck to watch the Youth Olympic Games. We were excited to see the ski jumping competition, but once we got into Innsbruck and saw the weather, we had a feeling it was cancelled (and it was). After sliding down the hillside and almost getting stuck, we thought it would be better to check out an event that was played indoors. When we got to the stadium, speed skating was going on so we caught the end of it, but no Lativan or Americans were competing in the finals. We made our way inside and found out women's hockey was going on so we checked it out for awhile. Kazakhstan was playing Sweden in the semi-finals. We only stayed for one period because it was painful to watch. The final score ended up being 11-0 with Sweden outshooting Kazakhstan 74-1.

The boys are excited for some women's hockey.

We will spend today in Bolzano shopping, meeting up with friends, and watching the hockey game. Hopefully the weather cooperates with us.