They were really good lessons and the children had their own lessons put on by one of the chaplains. I am not sure she knew exactly what she was getting in to. :-)
Here are the five kids before our morning session - you can see how beautiful of a setting it was to have this retreat! After the lessons in the morning, we were given the rest of the day off. We wanted to make the most of it so we grabbed subway and hot dogs and ate lunch on the way to Partnachklamm aka the Gorge. It is supposed to be a beautiful hike and it really was!!
So one thing that we didn't even think about is that it was a Saturday and not only that a Saturday of a four day weekend. So you not only had all the Germans out, you had a ton of Americans out also. The parking lot was PACKED! So we went driving around the side streets and finally found parking for our two big mini-vans. It was a bit of a walk to the base of the hike.
David was going to throw Michael in the river...
but then thought better of it ;-) This was our first site of the river and it was so clear that you couldn't even really see the water when you looked straight down. From here we had about a 20 minute walk - with the kids probably 30 minutes - until we made it to the bottom of the hike.
The kids - even the big kids - liked to climb and walk up on anything high!
This was on the way up to the bottom of the hike - I am not a great photographer, but it truly is so beautiful there!
I LOVE this one of the kids!!! They all look so great and I love the old shed behind them!!! Such a great one!! This was when they weren't all complaining about how tired they were. ;-)
A little different scenery with the rolling green hills - breathtaking!
The crew finally making it to the beginning of the hike! Here the adults were trying to decide whether to hike up and down or take the cable car up to the top of the mountain. After discussion, and the long walk there, we thought it would be best to take the cable car up and then walk down.
While we were waiting there were goats all walking in a line. It was interesting how they really do follow one goat. When the lead goat stopped to eat, all of them stopped to eat.
The Andiarena family heading up on the cable car
Here they are almost half way up. They only have two cars so when one goes up the other comes down.
Our turn to head up the mountain!
I thought this was a neat rock formation on our ride up in the cable car.
At the top there is a hotel, restaurant and houses. I would not want to live up here in the winter, maybe it is just summer homes, I am not sure.
The view from the top where we went. There was a trail to go higher if you wanted, but again we decided with the five children it would be better to head down the mountain than farther up. It ended up being a good decision since there were complaints about how tired they were and that their feet hurt. I finally told all five of them, if there were any more complaints, they would not get ice cream after the hike. They were all pretty quiet after that. :-)
Me beside some pretty flowers outside a quaint house.
This is part of the crew on the way down. As I look at this I am really glad we didn't hike up and down it. :-)
The three older boys were out in front most of the time. :-)
We got down to a flat part right next to the river so we took a good long break so the kids could throw rocks into the stream. I am not sure if you can see it really well, but there is a stack of rocks on the other side of AJ that are stacked up in a tower. Pretty impressive!
Michael decided he had to go hunt for big rocks to throw, this was from one of his trips. :-)
The older boys also were compiling big rocks
This is the hill they kept climbing to find the big rocks. Andre in front was building a fort with the ones they already had brought down.
Porchea and Gracie sitting and enjoying the scenery!
Porchea braved going close to the water and we warned all the kids not to get wet. I am happy to say they did a great job and didn't get wet!! I think that is a first!
This is the entrance to the gorge part of our hike. The Partnach Gorge is 2,305 feet in length and its walls rise up to 263 feet. It is also accessible in winter due to galleries cut into the rocks and an alley where bizarre ice sculptures give this natural beauty it unique charm.
I obviously didn't take this one, but wanted to give you a perspective of it during the winter. Now you can check it out during the summer months below.
If we get there in the winter again I think I would really like to go and see this. It would be completely different. Back in the 1800s they used it as transportation for wood. They would mark their trees and then send it down the river to where they lived.
This is when we first went into the tunnels. In many places it was pitch black, but they had many chances to see the river, etc. as we went on down.
Girls photo - we are extremely outnumbered during our trips it is 8 boys to 3 girls, so we have to stick together!
My two boys! Michael was in such a silly mood - check out his expression!
The family with the river roaring behind us.
This is one of my favorite photos - look at how clear that water is.
Another showing how high the cliffs go above the river.
This is so peaceful and serene. I am sorry there are so many, but I had a hard time deciding which ones because I took a ton of pictures on this walk.
You can see David and Andre up on the walk - this is one of the most open parts of the hike.
Here the boys are feeling the water that is dripping off of the ceiling.
I love the water drops in this picture.
The group enjoying the wonderful day!
This one shows the color really well of the river, look at that turquoise! After that we finished our walk back and the kids were on their feet for a LONG time and did really well, so what did we do after our hike...
of course ice cream!!!!!! Gelato to be exact, it is so much better than ice cream!
And of course we walked all that way and deserved ice cream as well! Then we headed back to the hotel in search of something for dinner and what did we find out front - bouncy castles. So of course the kids being tired was gone and so was their hunger. All they wanted to do was play, so play they did!
AJ getting ready to tumble down the slide, and I mean tumble, he did somersaults all the way down.
The boys went down together!
Then they wanted to do the obstacle course bouncy castle. It was a little bit of a wait and AJ is being the great protective big brother!
Up they go on the first wall
then at the end a huge slide that was really fast. I was surprised at how fast it was.
Check out the air that Michael has!
Michael and Andre heading up the big climbing wall
AJ went with Gracie and he was so protective of her the whole way. He wouldn't let kids run over her and made sure she was protected on the way down. Such a wonderful, loving kid!
Michael at the bottom of the slide after he tumbled down.
Michael truly likes to get air when he goes down - look at this one
I didn't get many pictures of AJ going down this slide because he was in the back helping the other four kids up to the top of the slide since there were no stairs for them to climb. You can see his head right behind Gracie as he pushes her up! He did that almost the whole time they were in this bouncy castle. He has such a big heart!
The crew in front of the bouncy castle. So after the kids were thoroughly worn out we headed down to have some dinner.
We decided after that long day we all wanted to have one drink at dinner - the girls foo-foo drinks
And the boys with their beer sampler! We all were very happy with our choices!
And how do you keep the kids quiet when the wait for food is really long and they are tired, yep electronics! They were angels!!! It was another fantastic day with great memories made by all!!!
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