18 and road tripping…

Last month I got to spend an amazing few days with my sister Coli. Coli is my youngest sister, turning 18 (holy cow!) on March 6th. Coli, like me, LOVES to travel and just recently obtained her very 1st passport! She had yet to leave the country and I thought it a prime opportunity for us to take a little road trip up to Vancouver B.C. during her visit to Seattle over her spring break.

I wanted our trip to not only be filled with fun, sightseeing, laughter and lots of shopping : ), but also be a moment in time that was memorable and meaningful for the both of us. I have struggled a bit (okay a whole bit) in the past year realizing that my baby sister is “growing up” and will soon be heading off to college. I knew this trip had the potential to be incredibly special and I kinda viewed it as our last “childhood” trip together.

As a means of also making the trip a birthday celebration, I decided to include an overnight stay at the St. Regis  (gorgeous hotel by the way) as a birthday gift to Coli.  I didn’t tell her I was planning to have us stay overnight or what we would be doing during our time in Canada, but instead sent her a birthday box with a paper creation tucked inside, in the hopes of clueing her in on our trip details and to get her excited about our trip.

Using cardstock, scrapbooking doodads, and ribbon, I created a trip itinerary flip book. I filled the pages with all of the sights and adventures we would see/do during our time in Canada. I attempted to use as many bright colors as possible to make it fun and eye-catching and also included these cute little red envelopes that I found at a paper crafting store . I attached the red envelopes to a few of the pages and included little “tickets” inside for Coli to redeem on our trip ; )

I am so lucky to have a sister like Coli. She is intelligent, beautiful, creative, amazingly gifted, and a woman I greatly admire in my life. I love her to tears and had the time of my life on our trip. Here are some pictures of my paper creation for Coli and my favorite picture of her from our time together. I love you Coli!