Family Journal

So, this idea of a family travel journal started when we were on our first “official” vacation back in May of 2017 (picture above of that vacation, which also happens to be one of my favorite pictures of all time). I say it was our first “official” vacation, because at this point we had already traveled 2000+ miles to see family in Texas and introduce them all to CW.  (I’m still praisin’ Jesus that we survived that week, with a 5 month old and Gus, and we all made it back in one piece!) I love it, we start out on a road trip and that seems to be where Doc and I try and solve all the world’s problems, talk about the next adventure we should go on (yes, while we’re on a current adventure, I know it’s crazy) and I spit to him all these crazy ideas I have in my head, like literally about any and everything I’ve been thinking about. It’s my way of knowing Doc is trapped and has to listen to me (see his enthusiasm in the picture below)! One of these ideas was…… a family travel journal…. blog style.

When I was a kid vacationing with my grandparents, my Mom encouraged me to keep a journal. Y’all my Mom kept these for me all these years (see pictures below)! They are HILARIOUS to read. I reference the time we leave and arrive for everything, the temperature it was, what mood I’m in, USING THE BAG PHONE TO CALL HOME, where and what I ate, what we saw sight-seeing, what the landscape looked like, if I saw a cute boy…. It’s absolutely GLORIOUS! I told Doc on that first family vacation, “…what if we, I mean I, did like a blog/journal for CW and friends/family to read? We always take A TON of pictures, have great stories, have ideas to share and what are we going to do with them if we don’t write them down?” To which Doc responded, “uhhh huhh, ok….” Doc… God Bless you, you either have learned to nod and smile REAL WELL (again…see picture above) as I’m telling you all my ideas… or you’re actually listening. I guess we’ll never know, HA!

I really, truly, think EVERYONE should journal their vacations, adventures, family outings… birthdays, events and well life for that matter. I look back and probably wouldn’t have remembered some of the fun memories if I didn’t have them written down and able to look back on. Encourage your kids to journal…. I think as a parent it’s also our secret right to pour a glass of wine and read what they say, laugh about it and share it with our mom-friends!

Oh yea, and… GET YOUR PICTURES PRINTED! Do you remember the excitement of dropping off a roll of film and painstakingly waiting to see if ANY of them turned out? We clearly take more pictures today than ever with cell phones and “nice cameras”, but… I LOVE to hang up REAL pictures in my house. Let’s face it, if I didn’t have all the pictures circa 1990’s, my blog and Instagram stories wouldn’t be near as funny! I also like to make a photo book of every vacation we go on. Partly so that I don’t forget the order and places we went, but so that it also just gets done, let’s be real…. #momlife gets in the way of being productive sometimes. Journal, print pictures, make photo books…. Do what you need to do to preserve your fun! The below photo is of me (on the left) and my cousin… Grand Canyon sometime in the 90’s. I mean…. you just can’t recreate the coolness in this photo!

 So… CW (and possible future children), you might not read this for another 15+ years, but when you do… I hope you think your Dad and I are cool. I’ve also been reading your journals bwahahahaha!