Austria!

We decided to go in search of winter weather, snow, and Christmas cheer ... none of which exist in Doha.  So we flew to Munich and took the train to Zell am See, Austria.  It's in the middle of the Austria Alps and it was glorious!!!  We were a bit nervous there wouldn't be enough snow to ski ... it is still early in the ski season for Austria, but it dumped several inches of fresh powder while we were there!! 

We went skiing, ice skating, sledding, and on a sleigh ride!  The boys did fantastic on skis and we look forward to many more ski trips in the future!!! 

Enjoy the pictures and videos!

Night or day, Zell am See was beautiful!
Twinkling lights at night and Christmas
decorations everywhere!

 

Our hotel was on the pedestrican part of town,
so we walked everywhere ... no car to hassle with!

Zell am See is a little town that sits on the edge of this lake
with mountains surrounding it in every direction!

By the lake ...

Ice skating fun!

 

Everywhere we went, Jaden and Nicholas wanted to make snow angels in the fresh snow...

 

 

 

Nicholas getting his ski gear ...

Riding the gondola up the mountain for ski school.

 

Breathtaking view from mountain top!
It was a beautiful day to be on the mountain!!

 

Same location the next day ... near blizzard conditions!
Terrible visability, but the powder was heaven sent!!

 

Nicholas ready for ski school

 

 

Jaden rocked ski school!!

 

Nicholas refused to smile! 

 

For ski school, the boys rode the snow mobile
 up the mountain and skiied down. 
They loved the snow mobile!!

Jaden did exceptionally well at ski school, but Nicholas can hold his own. 

I love this picture of their class ... every kid fell over except for Nicholas. 

 

Nicholas was the last one standing.

 Video action on skis:

 

 

Turn your volume off for this next video if you don't want to hear crazy

proud parents cheering for their little one on his first day skiing!!!

 

 

I just loved all the snow covered trees!  So pretty!!

 

Snow was too dry to make a snow man, but Ken and the boys tried. 
Can you even see the puny little snow man in the picture??

 

Time for some sledding!

 

Horse drawn sleigh ride through the snow covered mountains!

All snuggly and warm.

 

 

Our amazing view for almost the entire sleigh ride!

Train station sign.  Good bye Zell am See!!!