Week in Review: Auf Wiederschauen to Andrew and to Summer 2024

A big piece of my heart is now living in Gaming, Austria for the fall semester!  Andrew flew over on Wednesday night and arrived in Vienna on Thursday morning, met up with other students and got picked up by a bus which took them to the Franciscan University campus in Gaming (pronounced Gah-ming, not Game-ing).  There he will live in a restored 14th century monastery, take classes in English four days a week from American professors, and have long weekends and two ten day trips to travel through Europe and beyond.  I am so excited for him!!

Before he left, my mom made him a Coconut Cream pie because the boy loves his coconut:

Darian and Andrew stopped by The Cottage for an ice cream flight before his flight:

Then we all hugged him and told him to behave and off he went:

He said he took a walk around the town on the first day there...no big deal, just walking around in the Austrian Alps on a beautiful summer day.

Day two had him sending some fun photos of creek jumping and pool diving. Andrew's guardian angel has always worked overtime as he is a bit of a daredevil:

Life goes on back here in America, with school starting next week and The Ice Cream Cottage winding down.  Declan was invited out with friends for a fun day, and they stopped by for a treat:

Phil took the little boys mini golfing one day:

Grandpa took them fishing and out to lunch and I heard lots of stories about hooking worms and catching turtles by accident and having to kill a fish who swallowed the hook.  It was all very exciting and disgusting, a perfect boy day :)

Maggie and Eamon have been at sports tryouts this past week, not too stressful since they are both Captains on their Varsity teams, so they knew they weren't getting cut!

Eamon modeling the new soccer uniform

The coach calls the captains: Mama Cop (Maggie), Bad Cop (Darian), Good Cop

During the summer, my work hours are 8-3 and during the rest of the year I work from 8-4 and this week was back to the 4:00 end time which makes me want to crawl into a fetal position because that last hour feels like three days.  It was so nice to come home on that first "late" day and see/smell that my husband had made Guinness Beef Stew in the crockpot for dinner.  Teamwork makes the dream work.

Our town's community TV crew came by The Cottage last week and shot a little ditty about us, and posted it this week.  Phil said they cut all his answers and put them together, but I think it came out well!  Hey free advertising is the best kind of advertising!  You can watch it here if you are interested.

And that, my dears, is a last week of summer review.  See ya on the school-has-started-flip-side!