Life with Liz - A Scrapbooking Treasure

Welcome to the first weekly edition of "Life with Liz". This is going to be a weekly post by myself (ScrappingwithLiz), and I'll be posting about all different kinds of things: my life, my layouts, etc.  I guess the first thing that I should tell you is that I don't go by Liz in my "real" life. I go by Elizabeth. My mom never liked any of the nicknames for Elizabeth so I was always Elizabeth. When I started doing more stuff in forums, facebook, e-mails etc., it was always easier to just type - Liz. So that is why I go by Liz in my digi life. It's kind of fun having two lives!

Anyway, on to today's subject. I was over at my mom's and she had been going through some old photos, scrapbooks, etc. Well, as I was browsing through her stacks of photos I came across two older looking scrapbooks. So, of course, I had to take a peek. They were from my grandmother and they were dated 1966 and 1969 - a 40 year old scrapbook! I was excited. I knew scrapbooking must be in my genes. So I asked my mom if I could take them....not really sure what I was going to do with them but I knew I had to do something. I'm not even really sure what I should do with them or how I can preserve them. One of the scrapbooks is about travels that my Grandmother, Aunt, and Mom took through Michigan, Canada, and Montana. The other one, which is my favorite, is a scrapbook about a vacation my grandparents took with my mom when she was 9. My grandmother's journaling is on every page describing the pics, events, miles driven, places stayed, prices, etc. It's wonderful. Plus there are pamphlets and postcards from their travels across the states. This is a real treasure. Here's a little peek into the scrapbook.

This is the first page of the scrapbook of my Grandparents and Mom's travels:

"We (Dad, Mom and Sara) left home at 5:30 a.m. on August 25-Thursday-1966. We ate our breakfast in Jackson, Minnesota at 8:30 in a beautiful wayside park. Crossed the state line into Iowa at 9:30. 192 miles. We stopped in Whiting to see Floyd, Jessie, Jonathan & Mary Louise but didn't find them home. We ate dinner in the park where we took this picture. 324 miles."

That's my mom on the swing.

That's my mom in the left photo and my grandparents in the right at Mount Rushmore (my mom took that photo).

This page brings back memories. Yes I know, I wasn't there, but my family took a trip out west when I was growing up and I remember us seeing signs for "Reptile Gardens." My sisters and I made up a goofy song about "Reptile Gardens" and I remember laughing about it hysterically. I don't remember if we actually went there but I do remember the song!

Here's the last page in the book.
That's my mom and her nieces and nephews in the photo to the left. My mom was the youngest by about 10 years in her family so she already had lots of nieces and nephews.

"Tuesday, Aug. 30. Crossed into Minnesota at Pipestone at 10:00 - 2207 miles. Stopped at Truman to see John, Marcia and Andy was quite hot driving - but not as bad as yesterday when we had to stop at that Motel for ice cubes for Sara. We drove in hard rain after leaving Hayfield - decided we have driven 2447 miles by the time we get home."


And here's the traditional school paper my mom had to write when she went back to school in the fall. You know, the one where you have to write about something you did during the summer.

My Vacation
My Mother and Dad and I went to Greeley Colorado to see the mountains.
We came up through Wyoming and South Dakota and saw the Badland and Mount Rushmore. Then we all got home last night.

I'm so glad that my grandmother preserved these memories so that I can know more about my grandparents and mom's life. I want to do the same thing for my children and future grandchildren. Now I just need to figure out how to preserve these older scrapbooks so that I can pass them on.