One year ago today we landed at Budapest Ferihegy airport with 12 bags, three carseats, and three tired kids.  It’s been a great year!  Click here to read a letter we’ve written to our Hungarian friends.

We got our residency permits today!  Exhale.  Ahhhh.

~70 days + 30-some documents + 9 visits to government offices + ~12 hours of traveling to these offices + ~13 hours of waiting in lines + many hours of help from our friend Bob = 5 residency permits

Next April we can start the process all over again!  Actually, we learned some things about the process this year.  Hopefully things will be more efficient next year.  But no expectations!

Yesterday evening, I took Laura and the boys up to Visegrad (35 minutes away) to explore a new hiking trail.  We found a trail map, then we found the trail and started hiking around the top of Mogyoróhegy.  After 20 minutes, the trail opened up into a grassy field on top of the mountain….it overlooked the Danube river and a couple mountain ranges in the distance.  Sweet.  There aren’t any huge mountains in our area, but this was still a spectacular view. 

We walked out into the field, and Laura and I just stood there taking in the view with an occasional deep sigh of enjoyment.  The kids were running circles around us, and we were just soaking in the view.

I find that there are some activities, some forms of “doing” that create in me a greater sense of “being.”  They cultivate in me a greater ability “to see” and a greater awareness of who I am, who I am not, the quality of my inner-life, my own “something-ness” or “nothing-ness,” my ability to be “human” or my tendency toward “dis-humanity.” 

There are some ways of “doing” that point toward (or flow out of) my “being.”  Hiking to this grassy field took some time and effort.  But it led to a grassy field.  Or was it my desire for something like a grassy field that produced the time and effort needed to hike?

Last Saturday we left for Croatia at 4:48 AM.  At 5:04 AM, Jacob asked, “how much longer till we be there?”  It was an 11 hour trip.  There are some amazing tunnels along the way, including a 6 kilometer one.  10 minutes after arriving to our coastal apartment, we were in the water.  It was awesome. 

This was probably one of the most beautiful places we’ve been to.  The Adriatic was spectacular with a mountainous peninsula 5 kilometers opposite of us.  Our apartment faced south, so we could see both the sunrise and sunset from our terrace.  

Laura did an amazing job finding this place for us, and there was actually a sandy beach within walking distance.  The boys practiced their swimming everyday. 

There was also a soccer field just down the road.

We took a day trip down to Krka national park, where we hiked around these water falls.  As an aside, Crotians have forgotten the importance of vowels in their language.  No human mouth can actually say “krka” without spitting. 

Oh, and remember these incredible spinning rides that we used to have on the playgrounds in America?  Those were the greatest.  I think they’re outlawed now. 

On Friday night, the community had a festival where they roasted a cow.  The boys had to watch this process for about an hour. 

Croatia has “Bobi Flips.”  They are peanut butter flavored puffy chips.  All in all, we had a fantastic time.  Of course when you have three little boys, the word “vacation” is pretty subjective.  The days of sitting on a beach with a good book are long gone.  BUT, there is still the opportunity to sit on a beach with some good Bobi flips.

Tomorrow morning we will drive to the Croatian coast for a week-long holiday!  The boys are really excited about it.  And so are we.  We’ve got a bunch of sand toys, a beach umbrella, two chairs, and a couple of good books.  I probably will not have easy access to the internet while in Croatia, but I’ll post some pictures when we return. 

My blogging has been lame lately.  Sorry!  Today I had the “opportunity” to go back to the infamous “BÁH” office (bevándorlási állampolgárság hivátal…the office that requires 24573 documents to prove that you are worth having in Hungary).  It appears that we’ll have to take the kids to the BÁH on August 11th or 14th to prove that they exist.  Hopefully we’ll have less than a 3 hour wait!  (Don’t worry, I’m not bitter:-)

We are getting really excited!  At 3:00 AM this coming Saturday, we’re going to drive to the Croatian coast for a week long vacation!  Whoa.  It’s about 8-9 hours away.  We’re staying in a little fishing village near Zadar, and there is actually a sandy beach (most Croatian beaches are pebble).  Oh my goodness, I can’t wait. 

We had a humongous rain/hail storm today.  In a matter of minutes Batthány utca turned into a river.  The hail was the size of a two Forint coin. 

Lastly, Laura and I had a conversation tonight in which I suggested that there has only been two, maybe three, movie sequals that were as good as the first movie (Star Wars, God Father, LOTR, Pink Panther).  We haven’t seen the sequal to Pirates of the Carribean yet, but I’m counting on it to be a flop.  We’ll see!

Last Saturday morning, we took a day trip to Lake Balaton.  We found this amazing little spot in Siofok.  Balaton is a very shallow lake, and you can walk 300 meters out into the water.  In this spot, the water was about knee-high for 100 meters.

Fagyi!  (Ice Cream)

 Seth and Jacob are monkeys.

 Smiling Monkey.

 Nathan is growing like crazy these days.

We’re so excited that we can get Watermelon in Hungary!  (Görögdinnye)

This is my 98th post! The thing I love the most about blogging is how it keeps us connected with friends…here in Budapest and around the world. In the near future my friend Matthew will help me rebuild and redesign this blog on a Wordpress platform. Keep your eyes peeled!

In order to celebrate my first 100 posts I have selected my top ten favorite posts thus far. Here they are, in no particular order:

• Seth’s and Jacob’s birthdays
• Rudas baths
• one tree at a time
• Treeman
• grandmom
• Bono’s national day of prayer speech
• homelessness
• six months
• corrections
• how?

We had an incredible eleven days with Laura’s parents and sister here in Budapest. It was a special time. Among the many things we did together was a day trip to Visegrad to see the castle on the hill. Here’s a couple pictures from that time.

Jacob (3) learned how to ride his bike without training wheels a couple days ago! I think the Hungarian word for training wheel are “pótkerék.”

Here’s a picture of the boys while going to the airport to pick up granny, grandaddy, and aunt Mary Kay.

This morning we took the HÉV to Batthány tér and hiked up the stairs on Buda Hill. We walked around the old castle district and had lunch overlooking the city. I could never grow tired of that view. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it. :(

Welp, tomorrow morning Laura’s parents and sister arrive at 9:40 AM for an 11 day visit. We’re excited! They’re taking one of only two direct flights from the U.S. to Budapest (BUD). It is with Malév from JFK (New York). This is good deal for our family, because Laura’s brother and sister-in-law live on Long Island (just an hour from the airport, I think, depending on traffic). We’ll keep the schedule loose and relaxed, but we also have a bunch of fun things to do. I’ll post some pictures and thoughts during their stay!