Do You Know Where You Come From?

For the last little while, I've been thinking a lot about where I come from.

I'm lucky enough to have all of my grandparents still around.

But it makes me sad to think that one day, my kids will consider my grandparents

"ancestors".

I don't know if they will ever remember them, or anything about them.

So, I've been really trying lately to gather stories and information about my grandparents before they are gone.

So...I put together this picture collage on our dining room wall.

It's the past (my grandparents and their families)

The present (me & Nate)

The future (my kids)

I just started by collecting frames at thrift stores and painting them or staining them to match.  I put my family (me & Nate & the kids) in the middle, and just built around it.

As I started asking for pictures from my grandparents, I discovered all kinds of pictures and stories that I would have never known otherwise.

This is my Grandmother...Beth.

She is my mom's mom.

She is an artist...a painter.

This picture was taken when she was 16.

This is my Grandfather on my Dad's side, John, as a baby with his family in Germany.

He moved to the United States from Germany when he was a child.

This is my mom's dad, my Grandpa Roy.

He built a hotdog shack on Venice Beach when he was 18 and his whole family worked at it.  This is him with his parents.

This has been a really fun project, and an adventure.

Hopefully, one day, it will be a treasure for my kids.

It's still a work in progress, but I love how it's going so far.

Do you know where you come from?