Skiing in Bánkút

Hungary is famous for a lot of things: Music, food, thermal baths, wine, and many other things.
One thing Hungary is not famous for? - Skiing.

I have been snowboarding twice in Hungary - one of them was today, when I took Rosemary, Nate and Felicia to Bánkút ski area in the Bükk mountains, mostly to let Nate try out skiing.
A few years ago I went snowboarding on the highest peak in Hungary, Kékes tető (1014 m/ 3330 ft). It wasn't so great.

I spent the first hour today in Bánkút teaching Nate how to ski, and then I decided to buy a lift ticket and take a few runs myself.
There was actually much more snow there than I expected, considering that it is not far from Eger, and in Eger there is no snow at all.
Nonetheless, I kind of felt like I was snowboarding on frozen grass. There wasn't much of a base, to say the least.

But, there are a few positive things I would have to say about Bánkút:

• It was CHEAP. I paid 1000 HUF (3.23 EUR) for my lift ticket - which lets me ride the lift 6 times, any time between now and when they close in March (providing that they have snow until then. They could close earlier if there is not enough snow). Also, I was able to rent skis for Nate for 1000 HUF too. That is cheap.
• It was CLOSE to Eger. It was a short 1 hour drive from our house.
• It is a great place to teach people how to ski - especially kids. If you are going to be teaching someone how to ski or snowboard, it makes a lot more sense to go to Bánkút rather than spending a lot more money on gas and lift tickets to go to bigger mountains in Slovakia or Austria, when all you really need to teach them is a minimal amount of snow and some short runs. There is nothing more frustrating than driving a long way to an awesome ski mountain, only to not be able to ski on it because you spend the whole day on the beginners' hill teaching someone the basics.

So, I thought up a few possible slogans for Bánkút:

• "Bánkút: The Most Frozen Grass in Hungary!"
• "Bánkút: Ne válaszd műsípályát - inkább gyere hozzánk és válaszd FŰsípályát!"

Here is a video of our trip today to Bánkút. Nate even did a bit of skiing on his own, but we didn't get video of that.

Counting Down OR How to Save Money as a Parent, Part 3.

Tomorrow morning Balázs leaves to Vajta for 1 month to serve as a volunteer in the Summer of Service program. We are excited for him, and expect that this will be a great experience and that he will grow a lot as he serves the Lord there.

We told Nate today that Balázs will be gone for a month, and he was pretty sad about it, and told Balázs that he should stay home and not go.

So Rosemary made a way for the kids to count down the days until Balázs comes back. She strung together old toilet paper rolls and numbered them and hung them up in Nate's room.



Every day they will take one roll off, until Balázs gets back home.

God bless you, Balázs! Have a good time in Vajta. We'll be counting the days until you return.

How to Save Money as a Parent - Part 2: Use Your Hands

Being a parent is expensive.

As if feeding them and clothing them isn't enough - they want to have fun all the time. No matter where you take them, there are advertisements for films or products that they don't need, but they would enjoy nonetheless. Of course, every parent wants their kid to be happy and enjoy life, but some of us are on a budget!

One method I use to save money: Using my hands.
Here's what I mean:


I have probably saved THOUSANDS of Hungarian Forints using this method (roughly about 10 US Dollars) - but that is $10 more I can spend on sending my kids to college, right?

How to Save Money as a Parent - Part 1: Rescue Toys from the Trash

Being a parent is expensive.

According to this report from the New York Times, the U.S.D.A. study shows that the average cost for a middle income family in the US to raise a child is $222,360.
If you can manage to spend no more than $2.50 on your child every day, it will still cost you $16,500 to raise them to age 18.

The point is, it is expensive.
We are not a wealthy family, but we want our kids to have a nice life - and I'm sure that there are many others of you out there in a similar situation who feel the same way.

Here are a few tips for how to save money as a parent whilst ensuring your kids enjoy themselves:

Tip #1: Rescue Toys.

Toys are extremely expensive.

However, we have a dump truck which we found outside an óvoda, which was going to be thrown out. It was trash, but we rescued it, cleaned it up, and our kids love it. And it was free.

Here's a video of our kids playing with the dump truck: