The Once-in-a-Lifetime, All-Together, European Excursion.

We begin at Malpensa airport, just outside Milan, Italy. Sandy organizes her purse, Mom tells Ken to organize his bag, Kensey scratches her stomach, Robyn scratches her head, Ken searches his unorganized bag, Brynn looks like she has cramps, Kris does a fashion check, Denise is frozen, Scott checks itinerary... and that is only 9 out of 26 people.

Uncle Jess loads his van with Isabel as his backpack.

And we are off... 4 vans, 6 walkie talkies... and with Van 4 blocking for us, we navigated Italy and France with relative ease.

Our first Italian meal begins at our 'Hotel Julia' restaurant in Cassano D'adda (an hour outside Milan). Jessica eats the first of many slices of pizza.

Freckles and all, Brynn (foreground) and Erin eat their first meal.

From left, Kensey, Gaeby, Ken (standing), Robyn, Jay, Doug, Erin, Brynn.