I remember going on some great family vacations when I was younger. No matter what the circumstances were, we always seemed to set aside some time in the summer to go on a trip. Whether we drove to the beach or flew to an amusement park, we always had a great time.
The only part I used to hate about those summer trips were all the vacation photos. For some reason my parents were obsessed with taking pictures of me and my brothers. I never quite understood why. Maybe they were looking for a good shot for our photo Christmas cards. Or perhaps that was just their way of enjoying themselves. Regardless, it’s tough to put a genuine smile on your face when you were staring into the hot summer sun. As a child, all you wanted to do is build a sand castle, eat an ice cream cone, or go on the next exciting ride; lining up for yet another boring picture and being asked to “smile naturally” was not on the top of the list.
As the years passed by, we all grew to have a finer appreciation for those dreaded vacation photos. Every so often an album pops up and we get a good laugh at each other. As we flip though the pages I start to understand why my parents took so many of those pictures. It wasn’t about the faces we were making or the beautiful scenery. It was about reliving the moment and sharing the memories years later.
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Christmas photo cards from a vacation shot are great ways to show people what you did for fun that year, and a nice reminder to de-stress with during the hectic holidays. Once we used a shot taken of us while hanging on for dear life on a log flume ride at an amusement park. No time to tell the kids to smile, we were all too busy surviving! We look sweaty and soaked, but the exhilaration on our faces is priceless, and I feel a little bit of that every time I come across it. Hopefully the folks we sent it to that year felt it too.