In the last couple weeks, we’ve been given two opportunities to see some of the most beautiful parts of Hungary and Slovenia (The next post will be pictures from our meetings in Slovenia). First, our friends Tamas and Zita took us to North Eastern Hungary into the Matras. I guess we’ve been waiting for almost three years to visit that part of Hungary. NorthEastern Hungary is about 3.5 hours from Budapest and is full of beautiful mountains, vineyards, and castles.

T & Z are the master program coordinators, and I think we took about 300 pictures of the following: Tokaji borvidéken séta, Telkibánya kincskeresés, piknik a réten a zemplénben, vacsora az ágyban mese, a panzió Sárospatakon, tengerszem Sárospatak mellett (túra), Füzéri vár, Sátoraljaújhely libegő, a leghosszabb Hu-n, Sárospatak Rákoczi vár, panzió reggeli, mesenézés, Tokaji borgyár, Boldogkőváralja várban, Lilafüred, ebéd, bableves. (In English, we walked through a Tokaji vineyard, we excavated crystals and gems from an extinct volcano, we had a picnic on a sheep farm, stayed in a panzio in Sárospatak, we hiked up to a mountain-top lakelet, we visited the Füzéri castle, we rode the longest mountain-side chair lift in Hungary in Sátoraljaújhely, we visited the Rákoczi castle, we visited the Boldogkőváralja castle, we hiked through Lilafüred and ate bean soup.)

Thanks T & Z for the great weekend!! You can see more pictures if you click here. Here’s a few pictures:

This is the Füzéri castle

Excavating gems from the surface of an extinct volcano.

This is a mountaintop lakelet near Sárospatak.

Seth lost a tooth.

Picnic on a sheep farm.

Picture by the Rákoczi castle.

Just 28 days until our visit to America!  It’s going to be so good to see family and friends.  But we still have 6 big things to do before we head home.  So we’re enjoying and living in the NOW while eagerly anticipating what WILL COME.

Way to go Daniel.  Big South Champion!

Yesterday was my beautiful wife’s birthday.  As part of her birthday celebration we had the wonderful opportunity to spend 5 hours at the immigration office (the BÁH).  And the surprise birthday gift was a two year residency permit (well…once we collect four more papers and spend two more half days at the immigration office).  Woohoo!  So we made our way home for a late dinner with some pizza from Don Pepe’s, and Joanna baked an awesome chocolate cake which featured a blue peep sitting in the middle of a pond.  Yum!  Happy Birthday Laura!

Last weekend, BKV, the Budapest Transportation Department, celebrated its 40th anniversary. So our friends took us to the BKV traffic Museum. It was so awesome. Thanks T & Z! Here are some pictures:

On Monday I turned 35.
Hmmm….
That’s almost 40…
Half way to 70…
A quarter of the way to 140…
Seven times the age of my middlest son….
1/27th of Methuselah
But it feels good too.
This was a special year because my birthday came the day after Easter.
Easter Monday.
Thoughts about birth and resurrection…
In Hungary Easter Monday is the day when boys spray girls with perfume/water, and the girls reward the boys with a coin or an Easter egg.
Laura has a special role of being the only girl in our house  :)
She got sprayed.
It was a great day!

Yesterday we went downtown to see the Easter market at Vörösmarty tér.  On the way we stopped to play on one of the many awesome (and somewhat dangerous) playground toys they have in Hungary.

We also happened to see the city’s annual pillow fight.

It was so awesome to have a visit from our Szegedi friends (the Georges) and to share an early Easter dinner.

Seth has been working hard on reading and writing.  Here’s three of his latest words.  :)

Sziasztok! Nagyon jó volt veletek lenni tegnap este. Köszönöm, hogy eljöttetek! Remélem, mindannyian túlélitek a vizsgaidőszakot! Itt egy pár fényképet a mult hétról!

Vártunk néhány honapig a bogárokat eljönni.

Csaladi nap Visegrádon.

It is good to be home.  We had a great time at the education conference in Balaton Füred, and we gained some really helpful input for coaching our boys through their experiences in national schools.  This picture is taken of Lake Balaton behind the hotel where we stayed. 

Life is ultra busy lately.  But we are really looking forward to an education conference for third culture kids next week.  We have a load of questions, and this will really help us.

We’re also really getting excited about our next trip to the U.S. late May through June.  For our american friends reading this blog, we are looking forward to seeing you soon!

While I was out of town this weekend for some meetings, Joanna came and stayed with Laura and the boys.  Joanna hanging out with the kids for a weekend = FUN.  Besides learning some new funky dances, the boys went to the city zoo.  (Jo, I lifted some of your pictures from facebook.  :)  THANK YOU Joanna for serving us!  It was a beatuiful weekend, and Seth and Jacob were excited to finally  be able to wear their hokie hats.

At the Zoo.

Reading the Map

Jake and Dori discussing Hungarian politics.

On Friday night, while I was gone, Laura had a női búli, and she made the best cheesecake ever known to humankind.

Milyen magas vagy?

Backwards pants