It was Thanksgiving Day 2001 and I was sitting on my grandma’s living room floor in McDonald, Ohio watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when I heard my mom tell my dad to call around and see if he could find a hotel.

Mom felt New York City looked nice and decided if we could get a room somewhere we should go for the weekend. Sure enough they were able to get a room so the next morning we hopped in the car and the 5 of us were on our way to New York City.

This is was my first clear memory of my mom’s spontaneous behavior when it came to booking trips. And over the next 19ish years she made quite a pattern of it especially during the last 3 years of her life.

After her surgery she was in an insane amount of pain and her dream was to just get 6 months to travel. Her first post diagnosis trip was a weekend trip to NYC with dad February 2017 and her last was a trip with all of us January 2020 to Disney. Almost 3 years of travel!

So today as I am missing her terribly I am thankful for the beautiful life she and my dad have given us and her spontaneous nature for creating memories to last a lifetime.