The Story of a Family Vacation - Europe 2012

Family vacations were an important part of my childhood.  We had a few traditions that grew over the years, and created many happy memories for us.  As my four sisters and I grew older and started to "go our separate ways" they naturally stopped; we went on to create our own memories and traditions with our new families.

I think our Mother felt the blessing and power of traditions as a unifying force.  In her later years, she had a new dream - she somehow came upon the idea of her five children and their spouses taking a vacation together, without the grandchildren.  I think she wanted us to stay close, to maintain good relationships with each other.  She occasionally suggested the idea of the shared "adults only" vacation, urging us to try to work something out.  She even offered to pay the expenses if we all did something like go on a cruise together!

Mom and her five children in Provo Canyon, July 2005

We tried a number of times to plan something.  But with our different family needs and challenges, each keeping up with careers and children and other obligations, we could never pull it off - it was impossible to find a time that worked for everyone.  I'm sure Mom was disappointed.  How nice it would have been for her to be able to share an experience like that with us.

When Mom passed on in November 2009, we agreed to not give up on her dream.  We set aside a portion of the inheritance money, earmarked for the "adults only" trip.  And we kept trying to plan.

Finally, with most of our children out on their own and our lives a little simpler, it started to fall into place.  We found a window of time at the end of May 2012 that worked for all five couples.  We talked about several options but settled quickly on one that had been on the list during our previous investigations - a Rhine River cruise.  That seemed especially attractive because it would take us back to our "motherland" - literally, the land of our mother.  The saved inheritance money paid for the cruise; we each came up with additional funds to cover our airfare and other expenses, and after several more months of finalizing details, we were off and running.

Cruise Route

As each couple did their own planning, we found had some different interests for getting to Europe and taking advantage of the trip.  Bonnie and I spent a few days in Paris, and other family members took other options.  Reid has struggled with some health issues and we were particularly thrilled when he and Doris worked things out.  We all met in Basel, Switzerland on Sunday May 24 for the beginning of a very memorable experience.  It was fun to envision all of us converging from different directions.  We haven't all been together since Mom's funeral, and there's no telling when it will happen again after this.

We thought a lot about Mom and talked of her repeatedly throughout the week.  We all think she was smiling down from above, glad to see her dream finally realized.

Family photo, Kinderdijk, Netherlands