Total Eclipse of the Heart

People travel to witness solar eclipses for several reasons: awe and wonder, to witness a rare occurrence, to check something off as a bucket list experience, scientific interest, spiritual significance, or just the adventure of explore new places, meet fellow eclipse chasers, and to share the experience.

I guess, in a strange way, we did all these things.

Flashback to 2017. In August of 2017, Dallas was in the 75% eclipse ban for an eclipse. I was on maternity leave after having Charlotte and I remember I was at a Mommy & Me exercise class. We paused class for 15 minutes and all went outside. I just thought it looked / felt like a cloudy day & didn't quite understand all the hoopla. The news that evening talked about how in 2024 Dallas would be in total eclipse zone and it would last 3 minutes and 52 seconds. I then remember talking to my parents and telling them this and saying they should come up to visit me in 2024 for it. My dad quickly pointed out that where they lived it would be 4 minutes and 14 seconds of totality so really I should come down to him (and bring his granddaughter with me). I laughed and said that Charlotte would be in first grade by then, but maybe I'd pull her from school for it.

This conversation was pretty much forgotten about as we packed up and left Texas in 2022.

Flashforward to 2024 when we were trying to figure out when to go home. Charlotte gets two weeks off at Easter which this year was March 28 - April 14 and we decided that was the best for us to travel home. When we told the families that we were coming back, my dad quickly reminded me that the eclipse was on April 8th and I'd promised to come to his house for it. I did point out that the longest duration of totality was near Torreón, Mexico, lasting 4 minutes and 28 seconds. He was quite convinced that the extra 14 seconds of totality was not worth traveling 600 miles to see.

In the meantime, six of my aunts/uncles, five cousins & their children and my brother & sister-in-law also decided to come ... to see me? to see the eclipse? to not be left out of the party? Pick your own ending of the sentence.

Can you fit 19 people in your house for dinner?

Don't mind my confused look. I was trying to capture everyone in the photo & still missed a cousin!

It was a busy weekend leading up to the main event. We playground, we read books, we "raked leaves", we did crafts, we played dominos & card games, and we ate. ALOT.

Grandmother would have been so proud of everyone's flower arranging (then quietly fixed them in the background).

Aunt Kristy loved it when all the kids got excited about science!

This is called "helping".

In the 20+ years Adam has been part of this family, this is his 2nd win at dominos

SPLAT! was one of my favorite games as a child. I'm so grateful my parents saved it for the next generation!

We made it to Monday the 8th. The eclipse began at 12:23. We all headed outside see what we could (or couldn't) see. 

Over the weekend we had made eclipse viewers (Pinterest for the win!). We also made several attempts on explaining how Earth orbits the sun and the moon orbits the Earth to those who haven't taken 7th Grade science yet. The reenactment portion of this explanation may have lacked the backing of the general science community.

After attempt #1 of the eclipse viewers, we decided more instruction might be necessary.

We got there ... eventually

Between 1:36 and 1:40, it was completely dark. The strangest part to me was all the birds stopped chirping. It was completely silent. An eerie, what is happening here??, type of silence. The sky was pretty cool too.

Though I don't know that I would consider myself an eclipse follower & doubt I'll ever travel internationally to see another eclipse, it was a pretty cool 4 minutes and I'm glad this event brought 15 of my family members + my crew of 4 together so we could see everyone.

You May All Go to Hell, and I Will Go to Texas

It's Easter Time! Which also means it's time for our annual return to the US. School break for Easter here in Liechtenstein is 2 weeks so it's the perfect time for an extended stay back home to see family and celebrate one of our favorite holidays.

Is it time to go yet?

Our journey this year was a little different than last year as we decided to take a direct flight out of Frankfurt rather than departing from Zurich and fighting through a layover in Philly. The change in route also meant a longer train ride which my daughters thankfully still enjoy.

Unless we miss our nap time.

But we made it to our hotel without issue and tried to get some sleep before the big flight. But not before a room inspection!

The next morning we got up early and out the door on time. Go us! However, we might have been a little too on time as we made it to gate security before they had started checking passengers for our flight.

But after about 30 minutes we breezed through security and tried to relax in the waiting area. Charlotte and Wilbur found a private chair to mentally prepare for all the family fun and favorite restaurants they were planning on visiting. Pretty sure Wilbur is focused on family while C is thinking about tacos!

Meanwhile, Olivia and Baby Doll were practicing their next death defying circus routine.

I'm not at all certain how she got Baby Doll in that position but she did it multiple times after I inspected Baby's grip and couldn't recreate the trick. We may have a future magician on our hands! And this mystery provided a good distraction until we could finally board the plane and settle in for the long flight to Dallas.

We weren't going to miss a nap two days in a row!

We even flew over the entrance to Red Route One!

We arrived in Dallas late afternoon on the Friday before Easter so we visited a bit and then got to bed for a big Easter weekend.

On Saturday the girls went down to one of the local department stores to see the Easter Bunny!

And Olivia tried to do a little shopping...

While the girls were being pretty, Dad and I crossed Bar-B-Que off my list of visit accomplishments.

And then it was time to dye Easter Eggs!

Easter Sunday we made our way to Easter Mass.

The next few days the girls got to spend some much needed time with my parents while Amanda and I went into the office. Pretty sure they had a lot more fun since every other word out of the 3 year old was either playground or ice cream! 

We even worked in the most critical stop during our Dallas time: our annual pilgrimage to La Hacienda Ranch! To say it's our favorite restaurant doesn't do our feelings justice. But I feel like their role in bringing the world frozen margaritas more than justifies their standing!

All is right in the world again.

So long, farewell, Auf Wiederseh'n, goodbye

The awesome part of expat-ing is to get to meet people from all over the world and to get to know them while you’re both trying to figure out this part of the world together. 

I've been blessed by this group of Mom's who love and support not only each other, but each other's kids too. We couldn't have asked for a better away-from-family network.

The sad part is then when your time together in a magical place ends because it’s time for their assignment to end.

We've had to say goodbye see you later soon to several families this winter & spring. Not going to sugar coat it. It's been hard.

Knowing it was our “lasts”, we celebrated hard the last few weeks with playdates, learning to roller skate, baking in the play kitchen and the real one, reading on the patio (which is apparently a full contact activity), and preparing to pack.

 

Oh, and I’d be remiss if I don’t mention the fact that you have to sprint for one last bus ride together.

We had plans to go out to one last girls night and were meeting friends ON THE NIGHT HER MOVERS CAME. Needless to say, the movers ran late, children were melting down and it took longer to get out the door than we’d planned. So, what is normally a rather nice 15 min walk to the bus stop became an all out sprint to see if we could make it in 7. Maybe the bus will be late today. Ha. Swiss busses are not late. EVER. And there’s not another one for 45 minutes.  

Presprint, we'd both touched up our make up. Don't let the photo fool you.

We made it.

Barely.

We are so blessed by these crazy crews.

Until we get to come together again!

Free Wine Date Day

Wine, is amazing! A gift from the gods in ancient mythology. It's also one of mine and Amanda's favorite excuses to get away for a little bit.

Liechtenstein is also a pretty amazing place with beautiful mountains, moderate climate and a generally lovely place to raise a family.

So what do you get when an amazing place comes together with an amazing beverage. Well hopefully amazing wine, and if your lucky FREE amazing wine!

When we first moved here, Amanda joined a small but energetic community of expats wives and moms. Through this group, she discovered many great activities for our family to enjoy throughout the seasons. From easy vacation spots to best hikes for kids under 5 to restaurants and grocery stores opened on Sundays -- this group imparted priceless knowledge to all who joined. But by far the best information this group shared : Free Wine Night at the Prince's Cellars.

Twice a year the Hofkellerei Vaduz (the Prince of Liechtenstein's family winery) holds a free wine tasting event for anyone of legal age who shows up at their doors. Normally, the expat ladies reserve these nights as their evening away from kids to drink some amazing wine and enjoy a little well earned freedom. At the end of the evening, I get a few good stories about the most popular wine of the night or a rundown on the accompanying charcuterie options. But I've never gotten to go before.

Until this year! It turns Amanda was hiding a small secret...free wine night isn't just one night. It actually runs Friday AND Saturday. With great no arm twisting, Amanda agreed to go twice in one weekend and even arranged for one of our friends to babysit the girls for the afternoon so we could take our time and enjoy the experience.

On our arrival Amanda took me back to the cellar tasting room which featured predominately white and dessert wines mostly from the princely vineyards but a few from neighboring wineries as well.

Since whites aren't really our color of choice, we moved on to the next room after a few sips and into a smaller tasting room that had a few local reds that were all good to very good. However, we quickly became overwhelmed by the crowd and Amanda wanted to show me her favorite selections.

 

This is our speed!

By this time it was approaching mid afternoon and since gurgling wine can be a hunger inducing activity we picked up one of the charcuterie boards (these you pay for) and slowly made our way down the Table of Joy in the main dinning area.

Here were wines from all over Europe and all free to try. Some of them exceeding 150 CHF (170 USD) per bottle! But we started with a few simpler wines from Austria and Germany while we finished off our food.

Before finishing with the most expensive bottle on offer.

I can't recall the name of the wine, but it was excellent!

And with that our free wine tasting date at Hofkellerei came to a close. And now all other tastings have a great deal to live up to!