Summer holidays - part 2 (to the mountains - how to survive a trip with friends)

Before I get started - a quick shout out to Michael W who isn't "part of my target group" but still reads my blog :) 

For some time there was a general mention with two friends of ours to organise a trip together over the summer holiday. After we booked our UK trip, the Husband and I decided that we would need one more relaxing trip to the mountains here. He agreed that I could check if our friends were still interested to join us. We had found a lovely looking chalet resort by Kreischberg and there was still lots of flexibility to find a place that could house either the four of us or the ten of us! After some discussions with their husbands - it was all booked and we were ready to spend a week together at the end of August.

We booked a lovely five bedroom chalet with a big window front and spent some time the days before on whatsapp figuring out the shopping and activities for the kids (dolls house) and adults (rummikub) we wanted to bring. The main benefit of us all going together was that the three toddlers could have someone to play with so the adults could have some peace - actually, main benefit is increasing the parent to toddler ratio!

View from our terrace at Kreischberg

Organising a trip with friends is pretty risky and fortunately we all left as good friends! The photos below show some of our highlights and if you are looking for somewhere to visit then we can all highly recommend the Kreischberg Chalets. We are even ready to plan and book our trip next year.

Instead of posting about what we did, here are some of my tips on organising and surviving a trip with friends!

• Decision maker - Have someone set the dates and propose a location - then check with the others. Someone needs to take the lead and make decisions to get it settled.
• Cost tracking - Download an app to track the costs (one of my favourites is Settle Up which was purchased on a girly trip to Slovenia and has since been used numerous times) so that you can easily see who owes what at the end of the trip.
• Car - Bring at least one car, with that many people and the daily milk consumption of three toddlers it is a necessity (bonus element: the kids loved playing in there for at least an hour a day!)
• Food - Cook simple things that are quick and easy so that when hangry toddlers strike you are ready! We also had lots of snacks ready that everyone could share if needed. With one vegetarian we could also be a bit flexible with most of our meals which was good.
• Bedtime - Don't expect to interact much with each other once the kids are being put to bed. They all have their own time and routines and also it is good to respect some private time on the trip as well. Watching movies or playing games together is a nice treat as well - just add some bourbon to the mix and you are ready to go!
• Parenting rules - Agree at the start who can say what to your kids, as we all know each other very well and are even "mama and papa" to some it was easy. First rule - if one of them does something dangerous, you are allowed to shout and stop the situation! 
• Simple kids activities - the Husband ordered four little squirt guns for the kids to use during bath time and these were a big hit! It was very simple but it kept them entertained in a confined space for a bit longer - the windows in the bathroom were also very clean afterwards. We also made pizza dough and decorated the pizzas together one evening and having the kids help to make pancakes was also great.

Just have fun and relax! Do activities together but also feel free to do some things by yourselves and have some quiet time in your room if needed - renting a place a bit bigger than you might do if it were just yourselves might be worth the extra cost.

Two kitties who kept coming to visit us were a big highlight!

Playing in the grass

Making Mickey Mouse pizza (we actually surprised ourselves with this one!) - it was a great activity to do with the kids, we used our trusted Jamie Oliver recipe

Gondola up the mountain

The final walk down!

It was exhausting, but great being in the mountain air!