A time of reflection......

I have been in sort of an off mood lately. I am not really sure why. It might just be getting into the new year and back into a routine with the girls. I have found my thoughts drifting to times I have spent with my family. I do have the best parents in the world. I know that is a given and something that I am very thankful for. I am also very lucky to have a great sister and brother. I am the oldest then my sister and my brother is the baby of the family. My sister and I talk nearly everyday usually. I look forward to seeing her and especially times when we go to Scrapbook Expos. My nieces and nephews are so AWESOME! I love them all so much. They all have different qualities that touch my heart and make me smile.My brother is an accomplished runner. He has run in the Boston Marathon and plans to do so again this year. He is amazing. I mean I can't run a block and this guy can run 26 miles! Wow.My parents are originally from Canada. While we were growing up we got to go to Vancouver every summer. This was always something that we looked forward to. We would go for 2 weeks usually. There were many times though that we either got to stay longer or go up earlier. We would get to stay with my aunt and uncle. This was awesome. It was always so much fun. I have two cousins who we loved to spend time with. No amount of time was ever really enough though. We used to stay with my grandma and visit my other relatives everyday. My grandma had a great house. It was always fun to play there. She eventually moved out close to my aunts house and we then got to stay at my aunts which we LOVED. We would just run around the yard and swim. We could also be found sneaking into the garden and snagging ourselves some fresh peas right of the vine.

We did get to venture out while we were there as well. One of our favorite places to go was Stanley Park. We loved the totem poles there. We would walk around all over the park. Sometimes we would go to the zoo and the aquarium. Other times we would go to a couple of the beach areas and meet up with other relatives or family friends. We loved to watch the racoons.

There were a few times once we got older that we would walk around the park along the sea wall. The views were beautiful. It was a place that we loved to go visit.

The city itself is beautiful. I love the views from North Vancouver looking right across the inlet.

Gastown was another of our favorite stops. We used to love to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory. The famous steam clock was always a stop we had to make.

These things are all great memories but some of my most favorite and best memories are of the time spent with my aunt,uncle and cousins. I can remeber back to being a very young girl at my grandmas house and my uncle coming over for lunch. I used to pretend to be a waitress and take his order. When it came time for him to leave I always found a little tip at his place. Another thing that tops my list is spending time with my aunt and brushing her hair. She used to have very long hair. She would let us comb it for hours. She also had this silver comb I loved. I think she still has it today. I used to watch her put her lipstick on. I am lucky to have a great aunt and uncle too. I don't get to see them much anymore. This makes me sad. They do make it down to California about once a year or so but they are in the area that my family lives and it is not always possible for me to get out there. The girls have so many activities and not much free time. My cousins are at the top of my list too. I remember once I took my youngest cousin to a function of his while I was visiting. His friend told him something about his cousin and my cousin commented to him that he was lucky because his cousins lived close. I miss my aunt,uncle and cousins very much. The sad thing too is that both of my cousins now have children of their own and I have never seen them. I hope to one day. I haven't been to Vancouver since 2002.I hope to make it up to Vancouver again one day. Even though I don't get to see them often at all I can honestly say that they are never far from my mind. I love them and miss them.


I hope that I can be as good of an aunt to my nieces and nephews as my aunt has been to me over the years. I have so many good memories and sometimes I just think about them and feel a bit blue. It reminds me of saying goodbye to them every summer or every time they were here for a visit. It was always really sad to say goodbye and boy did the waterworks ever happen. As you can tell I am lucky to have such a great family. I just wanted to share this as it has been on my mind so much lately.