We girls had always said that one day we would come back, and bring our families with us. (This was, of course, before any of us had families, and before some of us had even met our future husbands!)
This year we made that dream come true. Not everybody made it - one of us girls had an incredible job opportunity come up and couldn't go at the last minute, and not all of the husbands and kids were there - but we had a huge group of 6 of the original 7 friends and seven family members.
We had the best time! We fell right back into comfortable old friendships, and did many of the things we had always dreamed of doing "someday" with our kids in tow.
Financially, this was not a good time for my family to be making such an expensive trip - but really, for most families, when is a good time? Years and years could go by and there would always be something that seemed more important to spend your money on than jaunting off to Europe with old friends.
My advice - just do it. There will never be a "perfect" time, and if you wait too long it will be too late, and then instead of beautiful new memories you'll have only regrets. The bit of belt-tightening we'll have to do now is nothing in comparison to the fantastic trip of a lifetime with my old friends and my darling family!
Below, photo of the friends that was a bit blurry, so I made it into a "watercolor" on Photoshop, then made it into a greeting card on Shutterfly! Fun, huh?
