Norse Force

With our upcoming Vermont/NY/Canada trip on the brain, I am catching some family tree fever -- even though our autumn excursion is all about hubby's family.

This weekend when I was staying with my sister Romey, I had her dig out her photo album from her trip with our Grandma Minnie back in 1980 -- less than a month before Grandma turned 90 and 8 months before she passed. Flipping through it brought back so many memories of a special grandmother who died when I was only 12.

While I was scanning in some family tree type photos (yes, tombstones), I couldn't resist scanning and sharing this photo of Grandma looking so sharp with her smart traveling hat! And such a big smile! Love this picture!

In fact, that smile is on her face in just about every photo from that trip. She was in her glory, speaking her slightly rusty Norwegian with long-lost cousins who I wish I had been smart enough to ask about at the time. Even though Grandma was born in the States, I think I always assumed she was born in Norway since she could sing songs to us and say prayers in Norwegian. Am I doing anything to carry on that tradition?

Not much besides saying, "Uff da".

I do hope at some point I'll be able to use names of people they visited to piece together some of the puzzles of our family tree. Who knew "cousin" was such a vague word? A cousin how -- father's side or mother's side? And who are their parents?

Yup, these are the clues that were not left behind. Good thing I like a challenge!

May the Norse Force be with me!