One of my most treasured posessions is a gift that my grandma gave me when I graduated from high school in 2006.

It’s a scrapbook called “Grandmother Remembers”. I was flipping through it this weekend and wanted to share some of the pages with you guys.

Below is a picture of my grandma with my mom when she was a baby.

These two pages talk about what my mom when she was a teenager and that’s her on the dirtbike! My grandma wrote that what she remembered most about my mom’s teenage years is “how busy she was, working, going to school, and babysitting so much. She was very ambitious.”

This is my grandma and grandpa on their wedding day. I love this photo!

This is a book that I made when I was about seven and my grandma saved it. I guess it just goes to show that I’ve been thinking about pursuing journalism for a longg time!

The right hand page shows pictures of my great-grandma, my grandma, my mom and then me all when we were around the same age. I think it’s funny how we all look kind of alike. I love this page!

And finally, a picture of me on my 3rd birthday – I was terrified of the sparkler on the cake! And this is what my grandma was talking about on the page above when my grandpa was upset that they lit my cake on fire. Haha.

These are only a few pages from the book, there were many more pages with lots of pictures from my childhood as well as my mom and my grandma’s childhood! You can probably see why I treasure this book so much.

What’s a possession that you especially treasure?

Today I’m going to answer some questions that I was asked about travelling and trips! Lisa asked me what my favourite city is in Canada? What the best vacation I’ve ever taken is and if I could go on vacation, anywhere in the world, where would I go?

OK, I’ll start by saying – I’m not a very good Canadian because I’ve only ever been to three provinces: British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan (western provinces). And I’ve only ever spent significant amounts of time in British Columbia and Alberta. In my defence, Canada is freaking huge! One day I plan on visiting my entire country, though.

So, I guess my favourite city in Canada right now would have to be Vancouver. I always say that I love Vancouver and then when I go there it stresses me out like there’s no tomorrow (really hard to drive in/navigate, HUGE, lots of slummy areas) BUT when it comes right down to it you can’t get much better than having a city that has the ocean on one side of it and mountains on the other side. It’s truly a beautiful city with a lot of interesting culture! All of my favourite cities/areas are in BC though. I’m probably biased since I live here and have grown up here, but BC is a really, really beautiful province! There are so many lakes and mountains, it’s right along the ocean, it has islands (Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands). Our license plates here say “Beautiful British Columbia” on them and they are so right. It’s a gorgeous place and I feel very lucky to live here! (For some pics of mine and Eric’s vacay in the mountains a few weeks ago, go here).

Best vacation ever: I have a few for different reasons. The only international vacations I’ve ever been on is when we went to Disneyland almost four years ago and when me and my brother travelled to Germany last summer. Germany was definitely a very cultural vacation. I LOVED seeing all of the old architecture and being around people who spoke a different language. It was an amazing experience and it gave my travel bug a little taste of international travel, which only made him more hungry!

Some of the best vacations I’ve ever had have been simple ones; when Eric and I travelled to Hazelton, BC in the summer of 2007 for his sisters wedding (photo below), family vacations to Penticton, BC for hockey school – staying in a house right on the lake/beach, weekends away camping, Torwood Lodge; those kinds of things. Any kind of vacation is a good one for me, I like the relaxing kinds where you lay on the beach and sleep, I like the busy kinds where you’re going-going-going and I like the cultural kinds where your sightseeing. I just like to travel and do things in general!

In Hazelton, two summers ago, where I learned that fishing can actually be really fun (Erics sister and brother-in-law are avid fisherpeople, their whole wedding was fishing-themed)

Finally, if I could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would I go? This is a tough one because there are SO many places I’d like to go. BUT I think my ultimate vacation would be an African Safari!!! The people we stayed with in Germany went on one for Christmas 2007 and they said it was amazing! They saw all kinds of wild animals and had a great time. Those kinds of vacations are pricey – but if I can help it, I will be going on one, one day! Except right now, with this heat, I think I’d like to go on vacation to Alaska!

OK, your turn: What is your favourite city in your country and/or state/province? What is the best vacation you’ve ever taken? If you could go on vacation, anywhere in the world, where would you go?

African safari photo found here.

Taking a break from the scheduled Q & A to use my blog for some good, old-fashioned bitching.

I’m burnt out. Big time.

It has been so, so, so hot here. Yesterday it was 41 C (106 F). I’m sorry, but that is TOO hot. I know that some of you live in much hotter climates than that and I have to say that I feel for you, I really do. I’m a northern girl who is used to summers that hit the 30′s (80′s) at the hottest. I do not enjoy this incredibly hot weather. I think part of the reason I’m so grumpy and blah is because I’ve been sleeping like crap due to this extreme heat. The other night I HAD to go sleep on the couch under our air conditioner because I could not sleep in the bedroom, I woke up dripping sweat. Sick, right?

July has been a whirlwind of activity for me – especially the last two weeks. We’ve gone camping the past two weekends in a row and then my family was visiting the first part of this week. Which, don’t get me wrong, was awesome. I love having them here and really wish they could stay longer, it just makes for a lot of go-go-go! It’s hard to spend your whole weekend sleeping on the ground and then head for work the following week, especially in the hot weather. It’s even worse when you aren’t getting any sleep because it’s so hot and you are getting up at 5:30 just to fit a workout in!

All I have to say is that the August long weekend could not come a minute sooner. I have a long run (10 miles with the group) scheduled for early Saturday morning, but then I plan on lying around – napping, perhaps – all day Saturday and I will most definitely be sleeping in on both Sunday AND Monday. It’s a much needed break that I’m really, really, really, really looking forward to. Ugh, is it really only Wednesday!?

Can you guys believe it’s almost August? Hola, where has the summer gone!

OK, sorry to be a debbie downer today. Back to answering questions tomorrow! LOVED them all, btw!

PS: Whew, it sure did feel good to write all that down and just take a breather!!