Skiing in Austria

Ok, so this blog post is way overdue. We did a ski trip in Serfaus, Austria for a week at the beginning of March and it’s now almost June. In the interest of catching up, I’m going to just give a quick overview of the highlights.

• Serfaus, Austria - Same place we went last year. Same friends. Same hotel. Same great experience.
• Nate was happy - he got to ski 5 out of the 6 days we were there. I being pregnant did not ski and instead was super happy relaxing, having a spa day and taking leisurely walks outside.
• Josephine had fun running around in the snow, taking a gondola ride to meet daddy for lunch, sledding, playing in the indoor pool and exploring the kids club at the hotel (Let’s be truthful, this one made all of us happy. While it took Josephine a bit of adjusting to get dropped off here, she did really love their big slide and all the fun things to do and we got to have free time to do the things mentioned above).

And that about sums up our week in Austria. We once again had a fantastic experience at the hotel with all food being included plus daycare. The weather was a bit colder and snowy in the beginning of the week and the sun came out at the end of the week. It truly felt like a restful, relaxing vacation. And those can be hard to come by when you have a toddler with you.

Big Changes Coming Up

It looks like 2016 will be a year filled with a couple of big changes for us. First off, Nate has received a great job opportunity through Nasdaq. However this new position is based in London. That means as of June 1 we will leave Paris and make a new home in London. He’ll get a chance to try out management and see how he likes it.

And on top of this, I am pregnant and due at the end of August. So all the more reason we want to get to London as soon as we can to get settled.

As for London, Nate and I took a quick trip there a couple of weeks ago as we are working with an agency to help us find a new home. We don’t want to (nor do we have time to deal with) a temporary home so we want to find a home and move into it right when we get there. We spent a day with the agency and saw 15-16 different places. Lots of variety which was good. There was one place in particular that we both liked and lucky for us, the landlord accepted our offer. Our new home will be in Parsons Green, in the southwest part of London. We are just finalizing the tenancy agreement now so barring anything unexpected, we should be able to get the keys on June 1. We’re really excited about the neighborhood as it had been recommended by a couple of people. It’s very family friendly, has a few good market streets with shops and restaurants and should make a good new home for us.

Our visas also came through this past week so we are officially allowed to move to London. Things are all moving in the right direction.

As for the new baby. We found out we’re expecting a girl! No big surprise there I suppose as our family seems to definitely favor girls over boys. We’re very excited though and Josephine loves to talk about her “baby sister”.

Now that we have a place to live, that’s created a whole new list of things to do. I’m working on finding a hospital for delivery, a doctor and childcare. It’s definitely a busy time right now trying to get everything organized but I’ll be excited to get to London and get settled there.

I’ll definitely miss Paris and I don’t think it’s quite hit me yet that we’re leaving. I guess I have too much other stuff occupying me for the time being. I know for sure I’ll miss the boulangeries, cheese and cheap but great wine. But I have to admit, I’m also really excited about living in an English speaking country again.

The countdown is on. Only 3 weekends left here in Paris. Hard to believe that we’re moving to yet another country. Let the adventure continue!