Vienna Officers Ball

We started our night with dinner -

Leaving the hotel. Josh is so adorable in his uniform.

Me and Emma at dinner.

At dinner

In the car on the way to the ball.

The Vienna Officers Ball was with out a doubt a once in a life time thing and something that I will certainly remember forever. It was a great experience, made better by the fact that I got to spend it with my brother! There is no one else I would have rather been with (not even David Beckham). It was held in Hofsburg Palace- so basically it was guaranteed to be amazing. I mean, it's a palace. Seriously how could it go wrong? It's a legitimate ball, in a legitimate palace. I figured it would be fabulous -and I was right, it was. 

Right outside the palace

The staircase walking into the ball

Rumor had it you would get kicked out of the ball if you weren't dressed fancy enough -floor length dress=mandatory- but I don't think that was the case. Everyone was dressed very nice, but I saw some ankles: scandalous! The military dress uniforms were all really cool and I had fun trying to guess what country people were from. (Also did you know the British really do still have red coats?! Slightly awesome.) 

The main ballroom

The ball started with a debutante dance-they each had their own officer to dance with. I have to say I always wanted to be a debutante, but after watching this I decided maybe not (good thing too I think I am about eight years too old for it). They had to stand perfectly still holding a flower for (I swear) like two hours. Yikes! Props to them though.

There were lots of different ballrooms, tons of cool bands and dancing. Right next door to where we had out tables the American Military Band was playing and they were amazing! They played really fun swing music and people were really getting into it.

One of the ballrooms.

Josh and I spent most of the night with the other American officers (and some German officers) talking and had a great time. But we ended up leaving around 2:30 am (it lasted till 4). We went back to the hotel and picked up Joseph and changed real quick. Then we went to a roof top bar that looked over the Stephendom to just talk and ended up joking and laughing the whole time, it was the perfect ending to a great night. We totally let our nerds out and talked about Animorphs (remember that book series? Josh and I were obsessed) and Star Wars and naturally Star Trek too (which none of us have ever watched but apparently there are a lot of hidden political messages in it). It was an amazing experience and I was extremely lucky to have had the chance to attend a real life ball!! Seriously Princess status! 

Grawwrrrr