A once in a lifetime trip

In two weeks, I will be on the other side of the Atlantic.

Holy crap.

Backstory:  My beloved Memere left me some money when she died.  When Jeff and I received this, we both decided that we wanted to do something with it that would be meaningful and that Memere would have approved of.  (aka., not paying off the new siding).  We contemplated finally taking the kids to Disney World, but after 30 seconds we decided to go on a trip for our 15th wedding anniversary.

And since she was my Memere, afterall, we decided that Paris would be a fitting place.

I didn't want to leave the kids more than 7 days, so we are doing a 7 day tour of the City of Lights.  Of course, in order to fly for free, we needed to fly there a few days early and come back a few days later...so it is now an 11 day trip.

The night after we booked our trip, I had a dream that I was standing under the Eiffel Tower with my Memere and she was telling me to look up!

I think she approves.

But it is all well and good to dream about going on a trip like this, and another thing to just do it when you have 3 children to think about.  And, no, we didn't not ever consider taking them with us.  Memere didn't leave us THAT much money ;)

Have I ever mentioned just how wonderful our parents are?  How incredibly lucky we have always been to have them?  If our marriage ends up being a success, we will have to give a lot of credit to our parents.  They encourage us to nurture and cultivate our relationship in the most practical of ways...watching our children.  My in-laws will be here for the first half, and my parents for the second half.  We purposefully planned the trip for when sports will be over and school will still be in session.  The easiest time of the year ;)

I am creating a binder for them.  I am not nervous about leaving the children with either of them...I just want to make it as easy as possible.  As enjoyable as possible.

There are things that I cannot do.  Living in our house will be like camping for them.  We don't exactly live up to the standards of our parents.  But I remember the orange vinyl couch we had when my parents were in their 30s!  I know they haven't lived at that standard forever!  But it is hard enough to live in someone else's house.  And when you have to know that half the windows don't open, and the toilet downstairs clogs really easily, and be careful with that one drawer in the dresser, etc etc.  It's a lot to ask.  And we're not even mentioning the children.  This one likes butter and syrup on his waffle, but this one absolutely cannot tolerate even the sight of butter, and this one needs 2 instead of 1 waffle.  Oh.  My binder is going to be thick.

Most of all...I am so excited.  I have never been to Europe, and now I get to go with my favorite person in the whole world!  It is definitely a once in a lifetime trip.