18 Summers

Someone once told me “You’ve got 18 summers with your kid - if you’re lucky, before they are too busy with their own lives”. That really stuck with me. And with Edward. And so we went ahead with the splurge vacation. The one we’ve been talking about for well 3 summers now.

Every year Edward goes to Cannes for work and sometimes I come along and we travel a bit after. For the last few years we’ve thought about bringing Ruby but then somewhere along the way we decide it’s just not worth it if we really did it right. But this year things just fell into place, so we took our first ever Davis Family European Vacation. We went to Cannes, Portugal, and Paris for 2 1/2 weeks! And Rebeca came too so that was a treat.

I had no idea how Ruby would be but she was amazing on the travel days - and we had some super long days! It did take her a bit to get used to the time difference and acclimating to people speaking different languages. I actually couldn’t figure it out at first but looking back I think she was a bit overwhelmed which is totally natural. Edward was super busy in Cannes with work so Ruby, Rebeca, and I had a few fancy girls nights (Hotel Du Cap and La Petite Maison). I was amazed at how lovely Europeans are to Moms/Families - whenever Ruby was there we got the Royal Treatment….even at the best restaurants. We stayed at the work Villa (which was glorious) so when Ruby was down for the night I got to hang with Edward and his co-workers sipping way too much Rose! And tbh I think the pool at the villa was Ruby’s favorite part of the whole trip!

Portugal was a whirlwind. We were in Porto for a day - we did some touristy things (Harry Potter bookstore, River Cruise) but we were tired and did a lot of Room Service. And then we were off to Amares for the wedding of the century. Our friends Chris and Leann got married in the most epic way - the venue was just magical. The whole day/night was a dream - lush gardens, fireworks, sparklers, so much alcohol, lots of friend time, lots of love, lots of dancing - it was unreal honestly and still feels like a fairy tale.

And then we were off to Paris! Ruby had been wanting to go to Paris since her Fancy Nancy passion project at age 3 so we were both so excited for her to experience it. :) We stayed in the cutest AirBnB in St. Germain - right next to Luxembourg Gardens….and a park. We shopped, we cafe’d, we drank too much champagne, we rode on the Ferris Wheel, we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, we had dance parties in our PJs, we hired a Photographer for the best ever Family Photo session, we held hands, we ate lots of bread and cheese and croissants. We even made it to some touristy stuff - Louvre outside, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre. It was glorious. It really was one of my favorite times in Paris. I’m so thankful we could do it.

18 summers….I sure hope this was one she’ll remember forever. I know I will.