Tour de famille (and a stop in Banff and BC)

Rachel will be set apart as a missionary in about a week. She and Auntie Josie took a road trip up to Canada to see some family and some places before Rachel settles down to business. 

Here they are at Elizabeth's house on the first night of their journey. She lives in Rexburg, so they didn't get too far their first day, but there's just something about driving 10 hours versus driving 13 hours that feels so much more doable, so I'm glad they stopped. Plus they got to visit with Elizabeth and her family!

Rachel's Alberta roadtrip

Rachel and Auntie Josie decided to take advantage of the Labour Day weekend and drove up to Alberta to do some visiting before Rachel leaves on her mission. They drove up to Rexburg on Wednesday after work and spent the night at my cousin Elizabeth's house, and then made it all the way to Grassy Lake to my cousin Eric's house on Thursday. 

I'm so proud of them for taking this road trip! What cool people! 

Earlier in the summer Rachel took a solo roadtrip from Atlanta to Tallahassee, which she was terribly afraid to do, but which she said kind of changed her brain. She managed that drive all on her own, and she managed the drive up to Alberta with Auntie Josie just fine (she said it was even better than all the city traffic in Atlanta/Tallahassee areas....and I believe that...I quite like driving in the middle of nowhere compared to city driving). 

Here's Rachel, having just made it to Alberta:

Gold club lite

Every metro train here has a "gold club" car, followed by a "family" car, followed by however many "standard" cars. We have mostly travelled in the family car, although I don't know why because this isn't Moscow or London or DC or Cairo or Rome—Doha has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. The likelihood of getting harassed or assaulted or pickpocketed on the train in Doha is virtually nil. 

But the first time we rode the metro here everyone directed us down to the family car, so...that's where we sat and then, as creatures of habit, that's where we continued to sit. 

The children—particularly Phoebe—have been staring at the "gold club" car with quite a lot of longing (perhaps even with a tinge of coveting). You see, there are two chairs at the front of the "gold club" car, through which you can see out the window and down the metro tunnel and that is very exciting. 

Sure, there are windows on the side of the train, but it's really so dark that you can't see much of anything through them (so they're a little disappointing—our friends went to a Harry Potter themed restaurant and were telling us that the windows of the train cars were screens that showed scenery passing by...perhaps the metro also needs these windows).

Here are the kids staring into the gold car, wishing they could use those seats. But a ride in the gold club car costs a whopping 10 QAR (while standard fare is 2 QAR...which is only like $2.75 compared to 55 cents...which is still honestly a good price for a metro ride...but you also have to buy a gold club membership and...anyway...we just keep telling Phoebe no):

Vienna 🤝 Doha

When Josie and I visited Patrick in Vienna, he took us to the Vienna Central Cemetery to see graves both famous and interesting. One of his favourite graves to take people to see is that of Franz West, a sculptor from Vienna.

Here is his grave with this interesting worm-thing poking out of the ground:

And here is the sculpture we stumbled upon this evening in the park:

Packing casualties

Out of a grand total of 27 suitcases (once Miriam got here), we had...

• one bottle of children's liquid medicine leak somehow (not sure how because the bottle isn't actually broken)
• one bottle of hair detangling spray leak (fortunately both the spray and the medicine were double-bagged so all the mess was contained. I haven't even tried to rescue the detangling spray yet but/because we found detangling spray at the store. I will get around to investigating this leak someday soon, I'm sure).
• one suitcase open and inspected by TSA (Miriam's suitcase with all the Magnatiles inside)
• 18 suitcases get stuck waiting to load the plane in the pouring rain in Atlanta, but miraculously nothing that shouldn't have gotten wet inside got wet. We had one cardboard tube (with much-wanted posters inside) that got wet all the way through (like one end of the tube was completely soggy). I opened it up to check things out inside and the posters were all snuggled down at the other end of the tube, so they didn't even get a little bit wet! Incredible! Sure, we had to unpack everything as quickly as we could and lay out ten million articles of clothing to dry before they molded inside our suitcases...but nothing got ruined, which is pretty neat. All our carry-ons and Miriam's luggage were spared from The Great Luggage Sogging of 2026. 

Not too bad! 

I remember when we moved to Cairo we had a bottle of vanilla break and leak onto a stack of cloth diapers. It stained them terribly (but, I mean...they're diapers) but made them smell so good! (And also we were down a bottle of vanilla—but we consider that a tolerable loss as well). 

Pretty good luck, I'd say!

Miriam and the libraaaaaaar...ian

After we finished with our school work, we took the metro to the Qatar National Library. I really like the metro (I just wish it went more places). It's very clean, riding in the family car was perfectly chill (though Andrew really felt like a duck out of water because he was the only man in the car; without us he would have to ride in the "standard" cars, which he reports are also just fine). 

Here we are ready to hop on once the doors open:

ATL to IST to DOH

We sent several pictures of ourselves at the airport to our families, but for some reason couldn't manage to satisfy Oaklyn and Ireland. I sent a picture of the boys and they wanted to know where Zoë was. I sent a picture of me with all the kids and they wanted to know where Andrew was. I sent a picture of Andrew and they wanted to know if he was traveling alone or whether we were still with him. So we tried to get everyone in this selfie:

A truncated account of our journey across the planet

We left for the airport shortly after 3:00 on Thursday afternoon, with all of our stuff loaded into our neighbour's suburban and all of our people loaded into our minivan. Our neighbour's son purchased our minivan, so it made good sense (and was so helpful) to have them drive us to the airport and take possession of our vehicle there.

6 people. 18 checked bags. 6 carry-on bags. 6 backpacks.

Rachel's mission call!

At 4:00 this afternoon (2:00 MST), we were in the process of chucking our couch off our second storey deck (for not the first time—that thing is sturdy) when Rachel suddenly exclaimed, "I got my mission call! My mission call is here! I have an email with my mission call in it! What do I do?! Guys! What do I do?!"

"Well, first I guess we'll finish pushing this couch off the deck that we have balanced on the railing and then you'll open your mission call."

Listen...

I have tried to give these couches away on multiple occasions on multiple platforms. No one wants them. They're a little scratched up (thanks, Waffles) and definitely not trendy. Our local Goodwill didn't want them. So they were destined for the landfill one way or another. 

We could have kept them to sit on for the next little while, but Andrew started this project with Miriam and Benjamin while I was in a meeting and by the time I came out they had already taken a saw and crowbar to it and were working on the first deck-chuck. So we were pretty committed to the destruction path at that point. 

He figures that this way we can sneak bits of the couch into the garbage can every week and save on the cost of disposing it. 

Anyway, we threw the couch off the balcony for the second time and then gathered around to watch Rachel open her mission call. She didn't want a big to-do about it (and even told me that if came while she was in Florida—she drove down to Florida for Corbin's mission farewell...he's off to Argentina soon—that she would just open it there and text me about it so I guess we're lucky it arrived the day after she got home from Florida), but we did take a minute to have everyone make a quick guess about where she might go.

Zoë: Tanzania or France

Alexander: Utah
Miriam: Berlin

Benjamin: Stockholm

Dad: Pennsylvania

Mom: Spanish Speaking or Canada

Phoebe: California

Global Entry

The kids had their interviews for the Global Entry cards this morning. The younger three missed their swim practices, so we'll be heading to the pool for afternoon practices. But we made it home just in time for Benjamin to make his practice!

Phoebe had a surprisingly difficult time leaving this morning. She cried about a specific Duplo set that she loves and was upset generally that we told the kids to choose a book to read in the car—how would she ever choose one?

Then, as we were driving down the road she goes, "I didn't know we were moving today!"

"Oh, we're not moving today!" we reassured her. "We're just doing an interview at the airport."

"Oh, just an interview..." she echoed, but I'm not sure she really understood what that meant because when we turned into the airport and saw the big "Welcome to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport" sign above the road (which was dividing into a spaghetti bowl of lanes going this way and that) and air traffic towers and airplane hangars and so forth, she gasped and said, "Wow! So this is Doha!? It's so big!"

Again we had to remind her that we were only going to the airport today, that Doha was much farther away (we'd have to actually get on a plane for that trip and it would take many hours, not just one). 

"Who knew that planes were so big!!?!" she wondered next. "They look so small in the sky!"

It has been a long time since any of the kids last flew (aside from Miriam and Rachel). They are going to have so much fun on our trip, I'm sure. Just this short outing to the airport had them all gasping in wonder.

When we approached the escalator, Alexander and Phoebe completely froze. I had to force them onto it and then when it was time to step off, Alexander did a tremendous leap from several stairs above because he was afraid of the teeth at the bottom (with good reason, but the leap was a bit much). 

Anyway, here are the kids waiting for their interviews:

Schönbrunn in the morning and Vienna at night (and the trip home)

On Tuesday morning (May 12), Patrick took me out to visit Schönbrunn Palace, the Habsburg family's summer residence (in view of their winter residence, the Hofburg). It is large (but only about a third of the size of Versailles). We didn't get tickets to any of the exclusive tours, but the grounds are free to wander through—we even saw a handful of joggers enjoying the paths. 

Eurovision!

When we found out that we'd be in Vienna for Eurovision we jumped through all the necessary hoops to get tickets. We had to apply to get in the lottery to have the chance to buy tickets at all? Something like that. All I know is that Patrick, Josie, and I all got through the first lottery round (Hadis did not) and then Patrick and I managed to buy a set of four tickets (the maximum number you could buy) while Josie did not. So Patrick sold/transferred his tickets to some friends and we used the tickets that I got. 

All of our tickets were really bad, but not really, really bad, so we felt okay about them. 

It helped (or hurt?) that they were only 15 euro each. 

We attended on Tuesday afternoon. It was cold and drizzly. 

The security for the event was...significant. Each ticket had to be designated for one person and one person only, and the name on the ticket had to match the name on whatever government ID you chose to present to prove your identity. We had to walk through metal detectors and get a pat down. We were allowed to bring only a few things that could fit in our pockets (no bags of any sort were allowed). We had to check our jackets at the counter. People who had brought umbrellas had to throw them away. 

It was pretty intense (but that's the kind of world we live in). 

Here we are, having all found our seats:

Vienna's First District (and Better than an Iranian Restaurant)

Patrick had a meeting with his advisor Monday afternoon, so we went into Vienna's First District in the morning. This worked out well because Josie and I still had valid 24-hour passes in the morning and because a tremendous thunderstorm rolled in later in the afternoon (completely shutting down all Eurovision activities for the evening). 

Speaking of which, who's got two thumbs and accidentally planned a trip to Vienna during Eurovision and over Mother's Day? 

It's me! 

Really Josie and I were going off of cheap airfare, which meant that we had to fly as close to the end of the semester as possible, which meant that I flew out the day after my semester ended. That sounded good in theory as well...when we initially made these plans. It felt a little less good when I was in the middle of finishing up all my final projects. 

And we actually managed to get tickets to see Eurovision live (well, a rehearsal anyway) so that's today's activities. 

Anyway, the first district, or the Innere Stadt is the city centre, where all the administrative buildings and things are...and it's also where a big Eurovision village is set up, where the opening ceremonies were on Sunday, and...let's just say it's been bustling!

Andrew and I visited downtown Vienna in April of 2006 while on a 14-hour layover on our way to spend our summer in Jordan (also to secure cheap tickets, I'm sure). I only remembered that we'd shared some fries (and didn't understand how to validate our transport tickets), but apparently we had pizza and ice cream as well (good for us). That is to say, it's been a hot minute since I've been here (20 years, to be precise). A few things were familiar to me, but I was glad to have a knowledgable guide in Patrick. 

I believe Patrick lives in the sixteenth district, which is actually much closer to the first district than you might assume—only the eighth district separates it from the first district. We left his apartment in the morning when Hadis needed to leave for work since we were all going the same direction.

Here's one of his streets with gardens filled with allium blossoms: 

Vienna Central Cemetery

On Sunday we went to Vienna's Central Cemetery, which was not very central according to Vienna residents in 1863 when the cemetery was established. In fact, it was so far removed from city life that hardly anyone cared to visit the graveyard at all...until city authorities began Ehrengräber (honorary graves) and even exhumed and reinterred famous people who died before the cemetery's opening (such as Beethoven and Schubert). 

See—here's Beethoven (who died in 1827)...

Salzburg: The End (and an Iranian restaurant)

We more or less just slept in on Saturday morning. We didn't have to check out of the hotel until 11:00  am, our train wasn't until 1:11 pm, and we didn't have much else on our Salzburg to-do list. It was nice to be unhurried in the morning. 

We went to the Billa (grocery store) to get some breakfast pastries and then went for a walk to St. Sebastian's Cemetery, which was immediately so peaceful compared to the street outside. 

There are some Mozarts buried here (but not the Mozart, who got a pauper's funeral in Vienna).

Salzburg: Hohensalzburg Fortress and more

We made our way up to the Petersfriedhof (cemetery) at the base of Festungsberg and debated whether and how we wanted to get up to Hohensalzburg Fortress. 

Here you can see part of the Salzburg Cathedral at the end of the street: 

Salzburg: from the Sound of Music to Mozart (and a little bit of Mother's Day)

We stayed up way too late on Thursday night and then could hardly sleep because we knew we had to wake up early on Friday morning to catch the train to Salzburg. Optimistically we had told ourselves that we could sleep on the train, but we didn't really do that, either. The views were beautiful—I was surprised by how much countryside there was (that is, there was much less urban sprawl than I would have expected). 

Fortunately, it's a fairly short trip. When we arrived and found our hotel (to ask if we could store our bags while we walked around) the receptionist offered to see if she had any rooms available right then (though our check-in time wasn't until much later in the day). As it turned out she did have two rooms available, so we checked in and had a quick little rest before hitting the town. 

Georgia > Turkey > Austria

I survived the semester! 

I turned in all my final papers! 

...and then I hopped on a plane to join Josie in visiting Patrick and Hadis in Austria! 

I flew on Turkish airlines, which boasts ample legroom, but which did not feel ample (perhaps because the man I sat next to was rather large and kept blowing his nose...on his blanket...and perhaps because the seat in front of me was broken and stuck in a recline). It wasn't an unpleasant flight, though! I finished a book (Looking for Palestine) and watched a movie (Nuremberg) and slept. 

After landing in Istanbul, I had time for a quick jog through the airport, hopping in line to board my flight to Vienna just in time. So here is my one picture from Turkey: 

Meeting Dean

We finally got up to Tennessee to meet our newest cousin Dean! It was a whirlwind trip—and kind of chaotic with the Nashville Marathon, which Austin ran with his sister Hallee—but we were so happy to get to visit with Rosie and her family and to be there for Dean's blessing.

Phoebe has been so very excited about meeting Dean...and then spent most of her time playing with Oaklyn and Ireland. But that post isn't about that. It's all about Dean!

Here's Phoebe with Dean (he has two sisters right around Phoebe's age and has learned to be a little nervous around kids that size):

The kids' trip to DC! (March 8-13)

Before Grandpa and Darla got married, Grandpa had talked about taking Benjamin and Zoë up to Washington, DC, as he had done with Rachel and Miriam. Last year was the year he decided he was going to do it, but just before it was time to head out...Grandpa had a medical emergency. So the trip was postponed for six more months, but just before it was time to head out...the government shut down.

So the trip was postponed again until March of this year, a kind of final hurrah before Grandpa and Darla leave for their mission (which has been a whole nother circus of events requiring patience and adaptability because they were first assigned to Jordan and then to the UAE somewhere and now to...nowhere in particular...but definitely in Salt Lake for a while). Anyway, they did finally make it on their DC trip. 

Grandpa sent me this itinerary: