Quick Scene Setting: 2011-2018
Paige and Henry were in the same nursery together (Mama Bear) in NYC for two years. Over that time we formed a close friendship with Henry and his parents, Mira & Tobias. They even took Paige in when we went to the hospital for Sadie's delivery (for which we are eternally grateful)! They moved back to their native Germany in August 2013 and we were sad to see them go. We missed them so much we all hopped on a plan in April 2014 to visit them outside Frankfurt :) By then their family had expanded to four, with baby Lotta joining the ranks.
Tobias came through NYC a few times in subsequent years, but we had a long stretch not seeing Mira, Henry & Lotta. We stayed in close contact and always talked of when our next family meet-up could be. As soon as we made our decision to travel, we got in touch with Mira & Tobias to hatch a plan to meet up in Europe! Pause for little collage of Paige & Henry pics :)
Fast Forward: August 2019
Several rounds of back & forth emails and we were ready to go! Reunion destination: Au, Austria, not far from the border with Germany. We rented an awesome spot on AirBnB that worked out brilliantly as our home base to explore the beautiful surroundings.
Big hugs & smiles reuniting! We kicked off the weekend with a toast to our friendship and our first of many delicious Austrian meals. We lucked out with the amazing Gasthaus Antonia a mere 2 minute walk from our place. Schnitzles, mouth-watering knoodles (dumplings), and kaiserschmarrn (fluffly pancake dessert) galore.
Side note: Mira & Tobias speak English fluently, so us adults were covered in the language department. The kids on the other hand, had more of a challenge. Paige & Sadie don't speak a lick of German, and Henry & Lotta speak only limited English. But somehow that didn't temper the fun they had! They immediately clicked into a playful groove and stayed that way all weekend :)
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