With my sister being in Italy we decided to go back and spend Christmas with them in Europe. Her and I had been talking and planning for months. We decided we wanted to see German Christmas markets, go to Amsterdam and spend New Years in Paris! Sounds dreamy. We put all those plans into action and made it happen. My brother Hunter was going to go with us.

We did not want to check any luggage. We all crammed 2 weeks worth into backpacks. We had one carry on that was full of items to bring to my sister. We wanted an empty case to bring stuff back with so this worked out well.

We left for Europe on my 40th birthday – the 21st. We flew out of Boise at noon to San Fran. I had purposely wanted to fly somewhere with milder weather rather than somewhere like Denver or Chicago where the weather can be unpredictable. We had a 5 hour layover in San Fran. We went and got some lunch (it was mega expensive there), I had some passes to the United Club lounge. Greg and I ditched the kids with my brother and went to the lounge. Once there we immediately wished we hadn’t just ate. There was a bunch of free food but we were too full to eat. We did however, get a few free drinks. We hung out in there for a few hours. It was quiet and comfortable. We returned back to the peasant, LOL when it was close to boarding time.

We had an 11 hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany. We watched on the flight map as we crossed back over Boise. We were lucky that on this flight were were all by each other. The flight wasn’t too bad, we got a few meals, watched a lot of movies and tried to sleep.

When we got to Frankfurt we had to get on another plane for an hour and some flight to Milan. Our flight was delayed a bit so we had to be there longer than expected. When we finally got to Milan, not having any luggage and jamming everything into backpacks paid off by not having to wait to get our luggage. We got right out and met our Taxi driver.

When we got to my sisters house she had a cake for me! My favorite chocolate with a cute little owl on it. Ryan my brother in law made it! That was a nice topper. Brandi and Ryan made dinner for us and then it was pretty much bed time.

Jaelee wore a mask because the day she left she started to feel sick and have a cough.

It was getting LONG on the plane.