Mom and I arrived safely back in Holland after a really enjoyable two-week road trip in Europe, hitting six wonderful countries (Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany)! I’m so thankful to have the chance to make so many wonderful memories with my mom.

I want to give a special shout out on this Mother’s Day to my Mom and her Mom.

Mom and Grandma                                                              Mom and Grandma

My grandma is freaking awesome and her actions explain so much about why my family ended up the way it did. So to start off with an example, she turned 84 last week and for Mother’s Day she thought it would be nice to drive five hours north of Vancouver to our family cottage up in the middle of the forest all alone where there isn’t even cell phone reception. She and Grandpa bought the 23 acres of land 30+ years ago and built the 3 bedroom cottage on it together with their six kids!!!

The Cottage                                                                                        Loon Lake BC

This is a trip she does often, and every time I tell her to be careful, she just smiles in a way that makes me feel like I’m overreacting. As much as I love the cottage, that place is scary as heck at night when you have to venture to the outhouse toilet in the woods where there are deer, bears and cougars lurking in the dark!

The Outhouse                                                                 Getting a little firewood

This lady has been to 40 or so countries and still travels solo. For anyone who wonders where the wanderlust in my family comes from, you need search no longer. At her beautiful age, she still takes cruises to explore the world and gets in her car and drives to Toronto Ontario her birth town 3,000 miles away 2/3 the way across Canada, by herself. To put it into perspective, the road trip Mom and I just did to Spain and back again, isn’t even the equivalent of going across Canada one way….Dang!

Grandma (then)                                                                     Grandma and Skylar (now)

Not only does her love for travel amaze me, but also how much love, comfort and support she has given so many people in her life. As an only child, she certainly was not lonely for long! With six amazing kids, 17 grandkids and 13 great grandkids with twins on the way (that’s just from ONE of her kids so far), she is the Queen Bee and centre of attention. I can’t get over that she is responsible for bringing a whopping 36 humans into this incredible world! She is someone you can always count on and she amazes me daily with her enormous heart.

Grandma with her 6 children                             Grandma with 9 of the great grandkids

And I must also thank her for my incredible mother. I couldn’t have asked for a more unique and amazing mother than the one Grandma gave me. I hope to follow in their footsteps and be just as inspiring as they are.

Grandma and Mom                                                 Grandma and a great granddaughter

And just for fun these are my Grandma’s parents

Savannah

P.S. I’ve discounted my first book, “I Grew My Boobs in China” to a Mother’s Day deal price 99cents!

Credit goes to my uncle Stuart (child #2) for copying and sending some of these old photos to us along with many others from their childhood. As a side note, he is a photographer and if you’d like, you can see some of his work here.