It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We've decorated the tree


set up the manger

and though it hasn't snowed, its cold enough to provide a nice white layer of frost on everything (day and night). I guess for now its as close as we're going to get for a white Christmas.

Lech, Austria

This weekend was our first ski trip to Lech, Austria. The area of Lech is beautiful with the town sitting among the mountains and the ability to ski straight down into town. Everything was covered with at least 3 feet of snow, so it was really a winter wonderland.

Since it was only Javier's 2nd time skiing we took advantage of the Ski Club offering free lessons. He had lessons all day on Saturday so, once he was settled, Dave and I took the opportunity to go do some exploring on the mountain. The second day I played ski instructor and took Javier skiing for the day.

In the afternoon we thought we'd try a bigger slope. So Dave, Mike and I took Javier up the chairlift and over to an area that we thought would be fairly easy for him to ski on. He did a great job on the middle of the mountain and his turns were looking great. Unfortunately with any mountain that ends in a small town, the trails end steeply and abruptly. Javier and I ended the run "skiing" down a walking path trying to avoid the germans giving us strange looks and the attack dogs we met along the way. We finally made it to the bottom and thank goodness, because it was time for lunch.

All in all it was a great ski trip. I know this because Javier said two things to me during the weekend that he has not yet taken back:
1) Let's go skiing again!
2) Maybe you can buy me skis and boots for Christmas!

Here are the pictures of our trip. Enjoy!

20071214 - Ski Trip to Lech

Where it all began...

This is how our ski trip to Lech, Austria started.

Javier was testing out some of his new gear to make sure it all worked properly.


Here's a video I took as we were packing (sorry I can't figure out how to rotate it)

Our trip to Egypt: Gifton Island

Our trip to Gifton Island was fun and relaxing. We took a boat out into the Red Sea to do some snorkling near the Reef. The fish and the coral we saw were amazing. After about an hour in the water we headed back to the boat for a great lunch then headed over to Gifton Island for some beach time. Our last stop was a bit more snorkling at a second spot. I stayed on the boat to warm up and get some sun while Javier and Dave headed back in the water. Only one casualty for the day: Javier. The jelly fish loved him and wouldn't let him leave before they got him twice with their stingers! Here's a few pictures of the day. We've got the underwater pictures on real film so those will take a while to get back.

Our trip to Egypt: Luxor (part 2)

The second part of our trip to Luxor was visiting the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. Both were the burial places for royalty built during the span of their reign.

The Valley of the kings was impressive for the complexity of the tombs and the tunnels that led to them. Often buried deep in the mountains the tunnels leading down were covered with hieroglyphics and painted in beautiful bright colors. Once arriving at the burial location there were multiple rooms for the king and all of his possessions that he would need in the afterlife. We were able to see 4 different tombs. The highlight was Tut-ankh-Amun (a.k.a King Tut). The Egyptian government had just put the mummy of King Tut on display so we were able to see the mummified head and feed. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was impressive looking.

The Valley of the Queens has not been preserved as well as the Valley of the Kings. Much of the structure is no longer standing, but we were able to see one of the main tombs that still stands.

Here are some of our pictures from this part of the trip:

Our trip to Egypt: Luxor (part 1)

There were two main sites that we visited in Luxor. The first was the Temple Karnak. It's difficult to express the awe an amazement of what we saw. Take a look at our pictures and you'll be amazed as well with what the Egyptians were able to build such enormous structures more than 3000 years ago. What is even more amazing is that much of the original paint/colors remain today and allows you to imagine how magnificent this temple really was.

Here's some additional information on the Temple Karnak
http://touregypt.net/karnak.htm

Here are our pictures:

Luxor - Temple of Karnac

Our trip to Egypt: Cairo

After having a day to relax on the beach we were up bright and early to catch a 6am flight to Cairo. It was a long day, but we saw so much. Some of the highlights were:

-- The pyramids
-- Riding on a camel
-- Seeing the Cairo Museum (and king Tut's gold mask)
-- Surviving the bazaar

Check out our photo album to catch a glimpse of all that we saw. I've narrated a bit through the captions.

Cairo

Egypt

The day after Thanksgiving we packed our bags and headed to Hurghada, Egypt for 7 days of sight seeing and sun. We did three big trips: Cairo, Luxor and Gifton Island, then spent the rest of our time relaxing by the ocean or playing by the pool. It was a great trip, but there are some things that are very different:

- All tourists receive a government mandated police escort whether it be from the airport to Luxor (our caravan to Luxor included almost 90 luxury buses)
- You've got to barter for anything that you're going to buy. While normally this might be enjoyable to haggle the seller down to a good price, what they don't warn you about is that the sellers are very aggressive. They are not afraid to grab you by the arm to get you to buy their wares
- Unlike Mexico stray cats are the norm. Even at our resort they were everywhere. And even stranger, everyone was picking them up and playing with them (who knows what kind of diseases they could be carrying).
- It was not uncommon to see both the sun and the moon in the sky at the same time

Here are some pictures of the resort:

20071123 - Egypt

Halloween Pictures are up!

I finally got the pictures from Danielle and Jonathan's halloween party. Check out some of the crazy costumes!

a plug and socket, Rainbow Brite and her date from "The Office"


a knight and his queen and a girl scout and the "bad guy" from Team America,


the crew from Harry Potter, and Napoleon Dynamite, a pregnant Prom Queen and a rhino



Austin Powers, a sexy cop, a German stud and the wine and corkscrew!