Summer Bucket List 2017: In Review

Summer has come and gone and we’re finally out of the triple digit temperatures here in Las Vegas! Kids have been in school for a month and our days are packed and busy again. Anyone else out there ready for a break already?!?

I thought I’d go back and relive a little bit of our summer fun! As you all know, we’ve been putting together a summer bucket list for years now, but I think this year’s was a little too ambitious and it’s no surprise we didn’t get to do everything on the list. Some things we didn’t do together as a family, such as the grandparents taking the kiddos to Dave & Buster’s while we were away in Napa and Jason taking the kiddos to the drive in movies while I had book club. Diego got to go to Wet N Wild water park with some friends and I took Elysse to Gravady Trampoline Park last weekend with her friend. Sure we didn’t get a chance to try rolled ice cream, but we did enjoy plenty of ice cream this summer, including the famous Salt n Straw in Portland! YUMmmm! Although we didn’t get to visit Zion National Park, we did visit Sand Hollow Sate Park in Utah.

We’ll have to try to get to doing some ice skating this winter, try to get a camping trip in this spring, even if it’s close to home in Mount Charleston, and Spring Mountain Ranch Super Summer Theater will be back on the list for summer 2018!

Hope your summer was fun and that you got to spend time together as a family and make some messy memories together!! XO

Surprise Trip to Southern California | Summer Bucket List

The kiddos are on their 3rd week back to school and although it’s been nice getting into a regular routine and being able to work without interruptions, sometimes the school grind has me missing the lazy days of summer. The heat in Las Vegas has not let up, so carpooling and driving back and forth in 105+ degrees is the worse!! So, it make me so happy that we were able to squeeze in one more super quick trip before school started earlier this month.

Ever since Diego started school we’ve taken a beach trip to Southern California in August as our end of summer/back to school trip. We had such a busy summer this year that we just didn’t think the trip would happen. We told the kids and they were totally fine with it But, It’s been our tradition for years and I still wanted to make the trip happen! I decided to redeem some of our Hilton Honors Rewards points for the hotel and drive out to SoCal on Friday morning and head back Sunday!

Since the kids didn’t think it was happening, we thought it would be fun to surprise them! For the past few years we’ve added a “mystery activity” to our yearly Summer Bucket List and they’ve been simple things like mini golf with friends and driving out to get ice cream. Well, we totally surprised them Friday morning when we woke them up to our favorite California song! You can listen to it HERE 😉 Elysse got it pretty quickly and started jumping up and down and ran into Diego’s room yelling, “We’re going to California! It’s our mystery surprise!” It was a pretty funny moment! We had packed the car beforehand, so we had them get in the car in PJs and change when we got there. It was epic.

And just like that, 4 hours later, we were sitting on the beach under our umbrella in Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach, CA! The kids had a great time boogie boarding, building sandcastles, and just playing in the water. Once everyone started getting tired, we packed up and headed to our hotel to shower and grab some dinner. We were all beat after our long day on Saturday, so we slept in Sunday morning and took our time checking out. We decided to hit the beach again, this time making our way towards L.A. and hanging out in Venice Beach for a bit. Jason and Diego skateboarded along the boardwalk and Elysse and I hung out at the beach. The boys joined us after a bit and we stayed a little longer but we didn’t stay too long since we were driving back to Vegas.

It was definitely a whirlwind trip but it was still a good time and we made some fun memories together, which is always the best. The kids were so appreciative of their surprise trip and kept thanking us. I’m so glad we made it work and didn’t break one of our family traditions. Now, I hope the kids don’t expect us to top this “mystery activity” next year! LOL

What traditions do you have with your family? Have you ever had to break a tradition? How do you keep them going year after year?

Summer Family Vacation Part I: Seattle, WA

As I mentioned in my last post, I got to run the Rock N Roll Seattle Half Marathon last month. And, having never been to the Pacific Northwest, we decided to make it a family vacation, adding Portland and the Oregon coast to our trip. Today, I’ll be sharing all about our weekend in Seattle first and Part II will go into our 4 days Oregon.

Since our trip ended in Portland, that’s where we flew into. Whenever we have trips where we are visiting a few cities or doing a road trip once we land, I prefer to fly into the city we’ll be visiting last. The main reasons I prefer to do this are 1: Renting a car one-way is a lot more expensive than returning it at the same airport. 2: It’s less stressful to be near your airport at departure than having to calculate for a few hours drive. I’d hate to miss our flight due to unforeseen traffic or getting lost.

The drive to Seattle from Portland took longer than anticipated due to traffic, but we had plenty of time to pick up my race packet at the expo and then make our way to Pioneer Square for our walking tour by Beneath the Streets. We’d heard about these tours from some friends and when I saw they were giving 1 complimentary tour to Rock N Roll runners, I figured we’d give it a try. We don’t normally do group tours on vacation because I prefer a more authentic vibe, plus with little ones, you just never know if they’ll find them interesting. Well, to my surprise the kids, who aren’t so little anymore, did enjoy the tour. They found it interesting and even asked some really good questions to our tour guide. Afterwards, we stayed in the area and enjoyed some of the fun games they had in the square.

Our next stop was Pike Place Market. The market was closing when we arrived but it was still super crowded. I know this is an icon Seattle tourist spot, but I wasn’t really impressed. I think there were just way too many people walking around aimlessly and being, well, tourists. We originally planned to walk around the market, watch the famous fish throwing, and eat from a few of the popular food places. With the market closing, we didn’t get to see much and we only made it to one place Beecher’s Handmade Cheese for some mac n cheese. It was cool to see the cheese making process through the window, but it wasn’t really amazing mac n cheese. The best part was seeing all the beautiful flower stands.

Afterwards, we checked into our hotel room for the night and we were all so tired & a bit cranky from waking up early for our flight and walking around all day, that we just ordered a pizza and salad and had it in our room.

It was another early morning for me on Sunday to get up and run the half marathon. It was a great course and I really enjoyed it and the VIP lounge area. You can read the race recap on my previous post HERE. After the race, we made our way to Seattle Center for a closer look at the Space Needle and to grab some lunch before making our way to Portland! I wish we would/could have spent more time in this area. I would like to go back and check out some of the museums, but we still enjoyed our time walking around the pretty gardens and the kids had a blast at the playground there. Our last stop was to go see the Fremont Troll under the Aurora Bridge. Such a quirky spot and I’m so glad we got to see it!

Although it was a bit of a whirlwind, our weekend in Seattle was a ton of fun. Coming from Vegas, we welcomed the gloomy and rainy weather. It never really rained but we did have a few drizzles. Ideally, I think 3 days in Seattle would have been perfect and would have allowed us to visit a museum or two and not crammed so much into 2 days.

Have you been to Seattle? Besides the museums, what else would you recommend we do or see on our next trip to Seattle? What side trips would be worth a visit from Seattle? Thanks for stopping by and be sure to come back for the rest of our PNW trip!

Summer Bucket List 2017

This year Elysse is in a new elementary school and Diego started middle school and both are traditional 9-month schools. Before that they both were in a year-round school that had 3- week track breaks throughout the year. To say they are excited for this summer break is a bit of an understatement. With being in the middle of buying a new house and moving, I’ll admit last summer was kinda lame. We kept our list small and simple! This year we decided to go all out!!! Since I’m scheduled to run 17 races in 2017 (YIKES!!) the kids thought it’d be fun to keep the same theme going for our family summer bucket list. I think this may be our biggest and most ambitious summer bucket list to date! So, without further ado, here is our epic summer bucket list for 2017:

Each year we always find a fun way to display our list so we don’t forget what our plans are! Plus, it’s so much fun to see all the fun we’ve had and all the fun activities we still have to do. This year we wrote each activity on a note card and hung them along our dining room wall. We then plan on taking a photo with our fuji instax camera and trade it out for the note card as we do each activity. We hope that by Labor Day, we’ll have zero note cards and a wall full of fun photos of our summer adventures!

What fun activities and adventures do you have planned for this summer? If your stumped, get your family together and work on your own family summer bucket list this weekend! I promise it will make this summer one to remember. Check out my blog post HERE for tips on how to create your own list and follow the links there for some inspiration from our past summer bucket lists too!

Bristlecone Events Groundhog Day 5K Community Run

Earlier this month the kiddos and I woke up early, drove to the other side of town and ran Bristlecone Events Groundhog Day 5K Community Run! I’m part of a running group on Facebook and one of the members was offering free registrations for this upcoming event and of course, I was all for it! Free Race, count me in!

Bristelcone Events is a new racing company in Las Vegas and they’ll be putting some new and fun events this year. The cool thing about their community race series, is that they are only $15 and although they don’t have tshrits and medals at the finish, they’re still fun, community oriented, and organized. They also provide a water station and treats at the end 🙂

This was Diego’s first 5K and he did so great. He took off at the starting line and Elysse and I never caught up! The race was 3 loops with 1 aid station. Jason was waiting at the aid station and cheered us on at each lap. Since Diego was running ahead, I stayed with Elysse and ran alongside her. She started off super excited but about halfway through our first lap, she started to get tired. I’ll admit she got a little whiny and started complaining. It was hard to keep positive with her complaining, but I tried to motivate her as we ran and walked.

Diego finished strong about 5 or so minutes before us and he was so pumped! I think he may have experienced his first runner’s high!!! He went on and on about how much he loved it and how good he was feeling. I was a proud momma 🙂

We’re already looking into doing another family 5K run together and hopefully Jason will join us next time 😉

Have you ever ran a 5K together as a family? What’s been your favorite race?

American Girl Shopping Trip: 3 Tips for a Fun Experience

My daughter is almost 8 years old and she is so much fun to around! Sure, her and her big brother bicker more than I like. And, yes she whines about minor paper cuts or when asked to go to bed. Oh and one more thing, she is so forgetful! It’s kinda ridiculous. BUT….she is also an amazing spirited kid. She has the best imagination and I just love to see her play with her dolls and make all kinds of crafts from sewing clothes for her dolls to making pop-up greeting cards. She’s such a girly girl too.

So, it came to no surprise that about a year ago or so, she began to show interest in American Girl dolls. Now, I was not about to spend that kind of money on a doll for her. It seemed way over priced. Honestly, I’m not big on buying my kiddos too many toys. I can’t remember the last toy we bought them. I’m way more willing to spend money on taking them on fun adventures and experiences. That being said, when she came home with a D in writing on her progress report last year, Jason promised if she brought that D up to a B she would get her American Girl doll. Well, I gotta hand it to her. She put in the work and made huge progress. She came home at the end of the year with all A’s and one B, yup in writing. We were all so proud of her and her grandparents who live in NY, knowing about the deal made with her, sent her the money for the doll as an end-of-the-year gift. She was beyond excited and we were beyond grateful!

When it came down to buying the doll, we considered just ordering it online since there isn’t a store in Las Vegas, but it just didn’t seem as fun. I knew they had a store in L.A. and since we’d be in California in September, we thought it would be a lot more fun to go to the actual store and make it part of an experience! There I go again with the “experiences” huh!

Elysse patiently waited the month or so before our trip and it was so worth it! I did my research and came up with a good strategy to make the best of our trip and not break the bank!

Playing around in the store before our shopping appointment.

With her grandparents already contributing to the purchase of an actual doll, I knew we’d have to splurge a little on clothing and accessories. Jason and I came up with a budget and then I sat with her and we checked out the website and started thinking of which doll she’d like. If you’ve never seen the website, you should check it out. The accessories and clothes are insane! I got an idea of the things she liked and then it came down to deciding. Mind you, we did this at home and not in the store! I didn’t give her an exact dollar amount, I just steered her in the general ball park. We decided we’d buy her doll 1 outfit, a pair of glasses (like hers), maybe a matching t-shirt or accessory for Elysse. Plus the one thing she absolutely had to have, which was a carrying case for her new doll.

When I was checking out American Girl website, I saw that they offered personal shoppers and that it was a totally free service. Well, I was totally up for that and made our appointment. Our personal shopper greeted us as we arrived to the store, gave us a tour of the store, along with a little history on the dolls and each of their stories. It was definitely a treat for us, especially since this was our first visit. This store is huge. It’s about the size of a department store, think Macy’s but only with doll stuff! Plus, it was just super nice to have someone helping Elysse choose her doll and not having to ask for assistance every time she wanted to see a doll or accessory. I also loved that she gave us time to shop without her, so there was no sales pressure! It turned out they were running a sales promotion on TrulyMe dolls, where you purchased 2 outfits and an accessory and received 20% off. So, in the end, she ended up with an additional doll outfit for her doll. She chose a fancy glittery outfit and a gymnastics outfit. Plus, matching glasses like hers and the coveted doll carrier. Once it was time to make the purchase, we didn’t have to go to the check out, but rather we went into the personal shopper office and we sat in comfy couches, while she took care of ringing us up and throwing in a few goodies, like a poster and magazine, for us. I can definitely see the advantages of this on a busy weekend or during the holiday season.

The store has 2 levels! It's that huge. — The store has 2 levels! It’s that huge.

The other big splurge was having lunch reservations at the cafe. Yes, there is even a cafe in the store. Elysse wanted to eat at on the balcony and it ended up we were the only ones outside. To be honest, there were only a handful of other tables filled during our lunch spot. I’m sue this was because it was a school day and it was also the later lunch slot. You should know it’s not set up like a regular restaurant, but rather you can only make reservations for specific time slots and you choose from a few options in a pre-fix menu. You can also host private parties there. Once seated, the service was just ok. Nothing amazing. They did have a special seat for Ely’s new doll, as well as a plate and cup for her to “eat”. But that’s all. Our food was not very tasty. Think over-priced theme park meals. The food was bland and not very appealing. Ely’s fries were probably the best thing at the table. But, I suppose you pay for the experience. It was not something I would do again.

All and all, the American Girl shopping experience was a success! Elysse and I had some quality mother-daughter time. She absolutely loves her doll and takes her everywhere! It’s super adorable to see her interact with Lilly. I really like the American Girl philosophy and how they work on empowering girls and encouraging them to enjoy girlhood by playing and using their imagination. They also have educational books, movies, crafts, and activities that help girls face various issues as they grow up.

Below is a summary of my tips if and when you take your own daughter, niece, granddaughter, friend. And, if you’ve been before and love it, please let me know that too! I’d love to hear any other tips you may have.

3 Tips for Enjoying Your Day at the American Girl Store

Prepare a budget and set expectations before your visit. Unless you have an unlimited budget, this will be a lifesaver and especially a money saver! One could easily get carried away in that store 🙂
Get a personal shopper. It’s a free service and they’ll will help guide you through the store. Plus, it’s pretty cool to have that personalized service 🙂
Skip the cafe. Unless your daughter really wants to go and you really want to make it a special occasion for her, I don’t recommend it. As much as I want to say it was worth it, I just can’t. The food is bland and sub-par. I would have much rather made a reservation at a nearby “fancy” restaurant and enjoyed my meal a lot more. I would suggest you do the same 🙂

Documenting Life

As some of you may know already or if you read My Story, I’m a wedding and portrait photographer. I make my living documenting milestone events and moments in the lives of others. It is my dream job. Being able to capture these special moments for people is amazing. As a photographer, I strive to not just tell people where to stand and how to pose, but to capture how they are as a person, as a couple, as a family. I think these photos, with the real smiles, real expressions, and real moments are the ones that tell the story. These photos will tell future generations who we really were. What we were about. What and who we loved. How we lived and what mattered to us most.

So, why am I telling you all of this? Because for the past few years I have gotten away from documenting my own family’s life. Business is going great. I am capturing some great moments for my clients, but when it comes to my own family, I am slacking. I realized I never take out my “fancy” camera unless it’s for work. I got lazy. That’s the bottom line. It’s just so easy to take a snap shot with my iphone, I mean, I carry it with me everywhere I go anyhow. I was also finding that with my pro camera in hand, I missed out on a lot of the fun and I worried about keeping my camera protected too, especially if we were outdoors like at the beach or something. So, a year or so ago we purchased a nice high end digital rangefinder camera that is small and convenient, so we’ve been using that for our trips and leaving our pro cameras at home. And although I love the convenience and ease of the smaller camera, I feel like something is missing. There is something about my professional DSLR camera that I can’t capture in the smaller camera.

The other problem I have with documenting life is that photos rarely live outside of a screen. With sharing on Instagram, facebook, this blog, or my photography blog, I’m not getting photos printed. I remember being a kid and getting so excited when we’d develop a roll of film and eagerly flipping through the photos, careful not to get any fingerprints on them. Or as I got older, making scrapbooks and putting the pictures in albums or small “brag books”. Remember those? I want that for my kids. I want them to be able to sit down and open a book and look through the images and remember all the fun we had on a certain vacation, hiking our favorite trails, or just on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

After giving this much thought, I’ve come up with a plan. Because, come on, you know me, there is always a plan! First of all, I’ve got to be realistic. I know that I won’t carry my pro camera everywhere. It’s just not who I am. So, there will still be lots of documenting with my iphone on instagram. However, I’m excited to check out Chat Books. They are small 6×6 60 page books where every photo you shear to Instagram creats a page in your book series. The best part is that you can easily remove photos and add captions to create perfect book each time. Because come on, I post a lot of photos of food and running that probably don’t need to be printed each time. The best part is that each book is only $6 and they also offer subscription plans. I can’t wait to try them out and let you know how they are!

My days of scrapbooking are over. Who has time for that?!? But, I do love the photo books from My Publisher. I made one for our 2013 summer vacation and the kiddos love looking through it! I know I said I had a plan, but I’m honestly not sure how I want to go about these books, yet. Ideally, I would love to make books for each season of the year or at least from each of our family vacations. Any ideas? Please share them in the comments!

Lastly, like I said, I know I won’t take my pro camera with me everywhere we go. But, I will make it a point to take it on longer vacations and periodically on hikes and stuff. I want to document, not just the special occasions, but pieces of everyday life too. Because it’s the everyday adventures and shenanigans that make up our life. It’s the forts made out of sheets in Elysee’s room, the cool kendama tricks Diego does daily, the family game nights, the bbq’s with friends. It’s these moments that make up our life. It’s these moments that are worth documenting.

Bonus: In an effort to keep up with documenting our lives, I ask that you join me too! I know I am not the only one struggling to take out the camera, be it the point and shoot, camera phone, or DSLR. I challenge you to document your life for the month of August. Let’s see how much we can photograph and document in one month. I’ll be sharing my favorite moments here on my blog and if you are also a blogger, I’d love to have you share your favorite photos on your blog. Maybe this could even become a monthly or weekly blog swap! Who’s in? We may be surprised to see that the ordinary moments are the ones that make life extraordinary.

5 Tips for a Fun & Successful Family Camping Trip

Our first camping trip as a family was a great success! Jason and I had been on few camping trips in Florida before we had the kiddos, but it’d been 12 years since then. Plus, camping with kids is way different. The kids had been asking to go camping since last summer, so we decided to make it part of our summer bucket list this year. Our trip was 2 nights and I think this was just enough for us. It was long enough to make the effort worthwhile, but not too long to get boring or overwhelming. We went out to Navajo Lake, UT, which is about a 3 hr drive from Las Vegas. This was a good distance for us. Far enough that it felt like a getaway and the scenery was completely different, but close enough that we didn’t have to drive for too long.

Of course, I don’t by any means think we’re camping experts or suggest we had a flawless trip, but I think we did pretty good and I’d love to share some of the ups and downs (but mostly the ups!) of our trip and share 5 tips that helped make our first camping trip fun!

1. Make a list! There are tons of websites you can find online or on pinterest with extensive checklists on what to pack for your camping trip. REI had a great one we used, here. These lists are pretty long and detailed, so you may or may not need all of these items for your trip, but it’s a good idea to print one out and use as a starting point. Camping requires lots of stuff. I still can’t get over the amount of things you have to take!

2. Prepare! Go on some day trips and/or family hikes if you aren’t used to the great outdoors. Our family loves to go on hikes & picnics together, so overnight camping was the natural next step for us. If you’re new to the outdoors, start off slow with a picnic at a park and walks through natural settings and work your way up to longer hikes.

3. Go with friends! Even before Jason and I had kids, we always went camping with a group of friends. The more the merrier. Going with another family was perfect for us. The kids had friends to play with, so they weren’t always looking for us to entertain them. Don’t get me wrong, we did get some, “I’m bored!” What can we do now?” but I know it would have been tons more had it just been the 4 of us.

4. Plan some activities! Yes, I’m a planner and the idea of just going on a trip without any set plans is not within my comfort zone. This trip was pretty spontaneous for us and we didn’t have huge plans for when we got there, but the few things we did have planned were just enough. It doesn’t have to be anything huge and you definitely do not need to plan every minute, but having a few activities for the kids was super helpful. Jason took some supplies for a little battery-electicity science experiment for the kids, we had them do a scavenger hunt, and the highlight of the day was going fishing! We have an awesome book titled Camp Out!: The Ultimate Kids’ Guide and it’s packed with stuff for kids to do on camping trips. (Tip: this book is also great for day trips and hikes)

5. Get the kids involved! Camping is a lot of work. There’s the setting up camp, putting up your tents, making a fire, cooking, cleaning, etc. Just unloading and loading up the cars is a lot of work. Kids love helping out and feeling useful, so get them involved in “camp life”. We gave our kids small tasks they could handle depending on their age and with some supervision and direction, they were all able to help out.

No trip with kiddos is guaranteed to be stress-free and some trips will be better than others. We had our share of issues from thunderstorms, leaking tents, and a few kid meltdowns! But, nothing we couldn’t handle with a little flexibility and a good attitude!

I’ll admit before this trip, I was pretty nervous about taking the kids camping. But, with a little preparation, I think we’ll be ready to go again soon. There’s something special about being outdoors without all the comforts of modern daily living that helps ground you. I think it’s important to let kids “rough it” for a few days, get dirty, and disconnect for a bit. I’m looking forward to our next camping trip, for sure. Any expert campers out there have any additional tips for our next trip? I’d love to hear them!

Happy National Sibling Day!

Today, April 10th, is National Sibling Day! Who knew?!? Well, now that you know go tell your sibling how much you love them. My sibling is so lucky I blog and she gets to read all about herself via this blog post! LOL

I’ve totally boasted about how awesome my sister is before on this blog. She has truly been by my side my whole life (she’s my older sister 😉 ) But seriously, when I got into this whole crazy running and obstacle race thing she’s been my biggest supporter. She cheered for me during my first half marathon, bought me new sneakers when Jason forgot them at home before the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon, she’s traveled with us, woken up early to not miss a race, watched my kids while I ran, and even ran a few races with me too!

Aside from the support on the fitness front, she is always there for me when I need her. Which, I’ll admit, is quite often. She’s the person I vent to about life, the one I call when a problem arises, she can calm me down when I’m ready to explode, but she’s the first person with good news too! We live about 3 miles from each other, but with life and work, sometimes a week can go by without seeing each other. That makes me sad sometimes, but a day doesn’t go by without us talking or texting!

My sister is one of the strongest persons I know. She’s classy and has great fashion sense. If it wasn’t for her, I think I’d still think it was ok to wear black socks with white shoes. Yea…I had an awkward stage in life. Thank goodness for big sisters who can tell it to you like it is, huh?

So, sis, this one’s for you! For sticking by me through my awkward years, through the rebellious stage, and every other crazy moment I’ve had, I thank you. Thanks for being my best friend. I love you to the moon and back.

5 Tips to Enjoy Photographing Your Next Family Vacation

Traveling is my absolute favorite thing! I love to go on any kind of trip, I’m not picky. Long weekend getaways, day trips, road trips, family vacations, staycation, I love them all. And, if you go on vacation and don’t take pictures, did it really happen? I think not!

Seriously though, taking photos of your trips is part of the fun. Photographs are our memory keepers, our heirlooms, our triggers. Looking at a photo can help bring back all the emotions of that day, the whole vacation, or even that time in your life. Photographs can help us remember what we may have forgotten or overlooked. Photographs are not only visual reminders of times past, but they bring back so much more. They help us remember how we felt, how the grass smelled, what we ate, even how we felt when we woke up that day.

Yes, photographs are powerful. It’s important to document life. Not just the fun, beautiful moments, but the ordinary days too. But, that’s for another post. Today, let’s talk about how you can document your family vacations. We work hard for that time off from work. We plan, we save, we sacrifice, all so we can spend a week or so away from our routine. To spend time with the ones we love and maybe show them something new or go back to a place you love. Documenting family vacations through photographs can be tricky. We don’t want to spend our entire time behind the lens and miss out on the fun and/or not be in any of the pictures. But, we don’t want to forget to take any pictures and get back home and regret not having taken photos to remember all the fun you had. So, here are a few tips to help you balance out having awesome family pictures and enjoy your vacation too.

1. Have a Plan! I’m big on planning and making itineraries, but I’ve come to learn that with kids we need to be flexible. So have a loose plan of things to do and then figure out where picture-taking is going to be a must! Obviously, if you’re going sight seeing or to the zoo, you’ll want to plan on taking your camera with you all day. But, if you’re going to be relaxing by the pool, then you won’t need your camera there, at least not the entire time.

2. Use your timer setting! This works great for those fun and cheezy family photo ops and ensures everyone gets in the shot! We don’t travel with a tripod, but there’s usually a spot where we can set the camera up safely to get our photo.

3. It’s about the people! Here’s a pet peeve of mine. When people take tons of pictures of the Disney parade or the zoo animals, but hardly any photos of the family members. I get it. We all get caught up in the details and yes, the penguins are super cute, but at the end of the day, our family is what matters most. Don’t forget who is there with you. Take tons of photos of your kids playing, interacting, and having fun. A few scenery and animal shots are fine, but you want to capture your family in that space too. A photo of the Golden Gate Bride is awesome, but a photo of your kiddos walking on the Golden Gate Bride is even cooler! I’m sure you’ll think so too years after the vacation is over.

4. Share the camera! Don’t be afraid to share the camera with your spouse, even if you are the better photographer 😉 Depending on the age of your kiddos, you can even let them take a photo or two! This will give you a different perspective and views from your trip, you’ll actually get to be in some of the photos, and enjoy the day or activity without worrying about taking pictures.

5. Know your camera! I can’t stress this enough. Even if you prefer to shoot on auto-mode (which is totally fine!) It’s good to learn your camera settings. Play around with the various settings and functions prior to your trip, so you aren’t dealing with camera malfunctions or blurry photos due to “user error”.

BONUS: Have Fun! Don’t feel stressed our pressured into taking perfectly composed images during your family trip. I used to do this and it took the joy out of it sometimes. I had to learn to leave my “job” behind me and be a mom and enjoy my vacation. So, now we don’t even take our big DSLR cameras on most of our family trips. I will take my DSLR for some trips, but 80% of the time we simply pack our Fuji X100s digital viewfinder camera and that’s it! The camera is small, lightweight, but does a great job for capturing our family vacation snapshots. Of course, we also take tons of photos with our iPhones too! Come follow along on Instagram 😉

I sure hope these simple and easy tips help you when taking photos during next family vacation. Do you have any tips you’d like to share with me too? When’s your next trip?