Family Park

 There is a fun little family Amusement park right across the border in Austria.

It is called Family Park with its German influence it is quirky, entertaining and 

completely unique experience. 

We couldn't wait to spend a weekend exploring this little part of the world. 

Having the amusement park on the border made it easy for us to stay in Sopron, Hungary.

A city we had wanted to visit for awhile. 

Its beautiful town square is famous for its 

Firewatch tower and elaborate buildings.

While there we wanted to visit the Sopron Branch, one of the Sister Missionaries 

serving in Sopron was in our ward in South Dakota. 

We couldn't pass up the chance to say hello to this sweet girl. :)

As with every trip, they are never complete without a Palace or Castle stop. 

This Ezsterhaza Palace is kept in pristine condition 

despite its tumultous past. 

The staircase was incredible, as with other Palace's I tried to imagine the Royalty and Nobility

that would traipse up and down these stairs in their lavish attire awaiting some grand ball or event. 

Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era…

End of an era

We all know I am not the biggest fan of my kids growing older,

although I do love to be a part of their milestone moments.

This is a classic case of

"I want my cake and to eat it too."

We also know I was a big fan of Callan's preschool.

They were top notch with their creativity, love

technological advances and their teachers.

Sadly, though all good things come to an end. 

There are no more preschoolers in my house. 

*sniff sniff*

Callan had a another incredible year of performances, swimming, art,

sport days, cooking, and all around fun.

his graduation program involved singing, homemade instruments, 

and even partner ball room dancing.

Be still my heart, it was over the top. 

Cikra and Kenneth took such great care of Callan for 2 years. 

They were the best.

Miller Time

The Millers are one of those families that

come into your life and make a lasting impression.

Unfortunately they left us for the

 greener pastures of China. 

But before they left, 

I got to be a third wheel (Cam had to leave town) to a BYU orchestra concert in

the beautiful Liszt Ference Music Academy. 

Creed and Heidi

A few days after the concert, we had the opportunity to hang with two of their boys while

they went house hunting in China. We had a great time having them around.

Apparently there is a famous European television game show that is sort of in a class all its own.

Think Wipeout meets Gladiator.

It was intense. 

They happened to be filming the competition in Hungary.

It went on for a week with tapings at all hours of the day and night.

We chose a Saturday afternoon session for obvious reasons.

They had 6 different teams competing from different countries in a variety of 

physical activities.

Lots of us came to support the America's team. Which was a hodge-podge of random people 

pulled together last minute who happen to be living in Budapest and are from any country in North or South America.

Other teams were professional and very trained and competitive teams.

I'm looking at you Russia…

The yellow rollers were especially brutal, we watched a girl who was believed to have broken her spine

by being bent in half backwards. It was not pretty.

And that was actually on the beginning…

The Russian team and its supporters all had these jackets with this patch on it. 

I thought it looked kind of cool.

The scoreboard. As you can see the Americas weren't doing so hot on our watch. 

We were scheduled to watch 4-5 events over a 2-3 hour period. We were there 4 hours and saw 1 full event (the rollers) and 15 minutes of an event that consisted of the contestants dressing up like sardines and being chased by a bull in a pen. 

The contestants would run back and forth between metal containers that looked like sardine canisters and the pool. Which seemed to be going fine until the bull decided to act like the an animal (rude) and be unpredictable and charges into the pool. 

So, fun fact and I don't know if you know this, but bulls can't swim. 

Many people tried to figure out what to do and how to help him.

But they are also heavy and not very friendly. 

You get the idea.

1 of the 4 people hauled away on a stretcher after trying to rescue the bull. 

It started to get a little frightening. 

And because they knew mayhem might ensue, either with the angry bull or the angry wranglers, 

we were all evacuated. And sat on the lot for awhile before they would clear us to leave. 

They didn't want us blocking traffic for the emergency personnel.

Sort of a bummer that we didn't get to see a lot of the competition, which was disappointing. 

However, what we did get to see was our little city 

break the Guiness Book of World record,

for building the largest Lego tower.

Not a bad back drop for a record breaking Lego tower.

Our friend Luke made a pretty cool Mario for the display wall.