Terrible weather forced us to abort our skiing mission and drive home to Vancouver early on Friday.

We had a wonderful sushi dinner with family and friends at our favorite, Yuko Maki. I’ll never forget the way my #1 fan, Melanee from Black Bond Books (the most amazing lady in the whole wide world!!!) turned in her seat towards Sandra and said, “Sandra from the book!?!? You’re Sandra from the BOOK!!??” Hahaha, gosh, I love Melanee so much.

Those of you who are struggling to recall, Sandra is Ammon’s friend who met us in Hong Kong and helped show us around on our VERY first days of our four year journey around the world. You will get to know her better in the third volume of Sihpromatum when she joins us in India. 

The following night we had another family get together, this time at Grandma’s house. A bunch of the cousins came over, we ordered in pizza, teased each other and did spontaneous swing dancing in the living room at midnight. Truly, nothing makes me happier than having a house full of family and seeing Grandma with a smile on her face of sheer proudness as she sits back and watches her grandchildren interact and laugh together. I love that woman to death! She is an only child who is extremely close to all six of her children, 17 grand children and 15 great grand children. She inspires me every day and there’s no mystery when it comes to the origins of the travel bug in our family. That woman, at 85 years old, continues to travel and be an inspiration to others. She just got back from two weeks in Dominican Republic, she drives ALONE on long distance road trips throughout Canada once a year and is planning on visiting us for the second time in Holland this summer! 

Okay, this post was not meant to turn into a Grandma loving rave from me, haha! 

Because I love that grandma of mine so very much, Bree and I agreed to go to church with her the next morning. Fighting a cold, and having stayed up super late the night before laughing ourselves into tears with Grandma, Ammon (who was in town from Prince George where he is now based for Air Traffic Control) and Bree, made it hard to get up early for church. Afterwards, we explored downtown Vancouver with brother Skylar, his wife Adriana and my cousin Rebecca (who visited us in Holland and went flyboarding).

After Rebecca left to go work on her studies Bree met up with us and we went to the stunning Cloud 9 Revolving Restaurant for dinner. It was my first time in one of Vancouver’s revolving restaurants and both Kees and I were blown away by the city views.

 Following dinner walked back to Sky’s apartment in the city and had one of his famous Whisky tasting nights with an……interesting game of “Cards Against Humanity”. It was absolutely perfect being able to spend this night with my three siblings, my best friends in the whole world! There’s just something so special about sharing the same two parents with these people!!

Monday morning Donavin was on babysitting Kees duty and they went on an adventure to the Popkum motorcross track in Chilliwack while Bree took me on a half-work half-pamper day.

We went to a really cool brewery and met up with one of Bree’s old gymnastic friends who is now an editor working for GreyStone Publishing and will be my second editor for Volume 3 “Rusty Tracks and Booby Traps”. After meeting her we checked into the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown where Kees and I would spend the night before hosting my #TRLT Tweet Meet the next morning in the lovely Lord Byron meeting room. Bree spoiled me with a much needed massage after all of the exercise and adventures from the week. We met up with the boys afterwards and listened to all of their funny stories of renting a TM 450 and a Trials bike and their shopping date at Holeshot Motorsports.

Kees and I quickly stopped for a delicious sushi dinner before crashing in our more than comfortable bed in the Hyatt Regency Hotel room on the 32nd floor!!! What a perfect way to end a perfect day.  

Savannah