“Isn’t it awesome to wake up smiling because your real life is better than your dreams?”

This last week was a bit of a fairy tale. My husband and I took our son Dalton on a trip to Europe. We started our trip off in London. We were really excited to go because none of us have ever been there and we have a lot of our ancestors that came from London so we knew it would be full of history for us to learn about. Having never been there before I was a little nervous about being in charge of planning our trip – I really wanted everyone to have a great time so I sought out advice from friends who have been there in the past and then I pulled up good ole Google and started researching all the best places to visit. We decided to spend several days in London itself and we decided to hire a tour guide that could show us around the city and to explain all the history to us. That ended up being a great decision because we had the most darling woman as our guide and she did a phenomenal job of making sure we learned all about the past kings and queens of England and the stories that went along with each. It was all very exciting to learn.  We visited Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, the British Museum, the Churchill War Room, the Victoria Albert Museum, the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, and so much more. We were able to make fantastic memories together.

Next we boarded a cruise ship from South Hampton London and headed out to Belgium. What a quaint little place Burges is! We walked through the city and ended up at a chocolate museum where they walked us through a demonstration of how chocolate is made from the harvesting of the cocoa beans to the yummy treats we eat. It was fascinating to learn about and incredibly good to eat….and boy did we ever eat chocolate…so much I can’t fit into most of my pants (yikes!..back on a diet for me).

Next we got back on our ship and headed for France. We drove a few hours from the port into downtown Paris and spent the day there. We drove through the city and saw all the sites from our tour bus. Then we were able to jump off our bus and walk through the city. We went to the Arch de Triumph and then to a few shops along Champs Elysees. We ended our day at the Eifel Tower where, of course, we had to get a picture of the tow of us kissing….its tradition after all….then back we went to the cruise ship to return to London in order to catch our flight back home.

The trip was amazing, but what really made it incredible wasn’t so much the places we were, it was really about the people we were with and able to interact with. From the fact we were able to be there as a family together to the fact that every person we met and interacted with on the trip was incredibly kind and attentive. Everyone made us feel just like we were at home in every place we went, and that made our week feel like a bit of a fairy tale. It was a week I will never forget and I so appreciated having this time away with my husband and son.

As great of a trip as it was, when we got off the plane in Utah tonight and walked back into our home tonight all we could say was, “Be it ever so humble there is no place like home.”  Our fairy tale trip was amazing but without question, it is good to be home.

~Amy