Our family has done our fair share of traveling, but nothing like what was coming. This would be Crew's first time on an airplane EVER. It would be my very first time on Europe. It would be the first of many adventures for the summer!
How it all came about:
Josh works for a company that owns hundreds if even thousands of other entities around the world. Their international hub is in Amsterdam because it is central to so much of Europe and Asia. He was asked to take over the controller position until a replacement was found which would take up to 6 months. He was asked once before but it was right when we moved into our home in Brentwood, CA and right as Kadie was starting middle school so it was just not good timing and it would have been for a few years.
This time around it was just the change our family needed! We only see Josh on the weekends, as he works in San Francisco and has about a 1.5 hr commute to and from. I have been hard at work on my business for the last 2 years so our family needed this long sabbatical from our crazy life! It would mean we would see Josh every day, and it also meant we would have the opportunity of a life time to travel with our children around Europe! So the answer was YES!
And so it started with Josh leaving us about 3 weeks prior to our official family move. He came home to tie up some loose ends at work and travel the long 10 hr flight to Amsterdam.
June 19th, Fathers Day 2016 we were off!
Kadie didn't sleep a wink the night before so she was very tired.
It was sad to leave on Fathers Day but I am lucky to have the best Father and Mother in the world that offered to take their day to drive us to the airport!
Aunt Morgan, Uncle Cade and Baby James are taking care of our house while we are away!
9 GIANT pieces of luggage, 4 pretty cool kids, 2 adults, and a lot of nerves boarding one flight.
We headed to San Francisco Airport!
Leaving was full of hugs and kisses.
Something wasn't working right at the check-in so we had to wait 1.5 hours to get all checked in. We were worried that we would miss our flight.
Finally we made it to the gate the LAST 6 people to board the plane. As we are headed down the hall we realize that none of our seats are together. We had paid an extra premium price to sit together and the airline sold our tickets while we were in the long wait trying to check in.
We finally got on the plane and seated; Kadie by herself, Laney and Crew somewhere together, Leo and I together in the very back and of course somehow Josh got seated up front in First Class. I was hoping they would get it all situated or I was going to kill someone. I probably would have killed Josh since he was in first class. Our bags were also all over the plane so I had no idea where my bag, Leo's backpack, any of our items we got ready to bring with us for the 10 hour flight were. But eventually the awesome flight attendant got us all seated back together and Josh found all of our bags.
Leo was AMAZING on the flight. We had no crying or fighting or any attitude from any of the kids.
Suddenly 10 hours of flying was over and we were in Amsterdam!
End result. 4 kids, 2 adults and 7 bags of luggage made it! We got our missing 2 pieces of luggage (that were somehow left in San Francisco) to us 2 days later.
Mission Accomplished!
