Making Family Memories Through Travel

Paula — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 13:33:12 +0000

“The days are long, but the years are short,” That quote by Gretchen Rubin haunts me as a parent. You have no idea how relevant that is until you become a parent and you are staring at a sick infant or a pile of laundry through zombie Mom eyes one moment, followed by the realization that your baby is now graduating from high school but a beat later. Time defies all logic when you are a parent. This is a little piece of why I travel with my family. Making family memories is something that’s especially important these days. I remember a time when I thought my kids would never grow up. It seemed like I’d have those years forever. Now, my oldest is getting ready to graduate from high school, and my youngest is hot on her heels. Where before, time seemed to sometimes pass by so slowly, it’s now traveling at warp speed. Every day, it seems like the kids are older and more independent, and I know the time is coming when they’ll spread their wings and fly from the nest. That’s why it’s so important to me to use travel as a tool to make family memories that last even after they’re grown and flown. Making Family Memories Now Although making lifelong memories has always been high on my list, there was a time when I first started my business when that fell down the ladder a bit. It never really felt like I had all the time in the world, but it did feel like I needed to work all the time and money was tight when kids were small. So I pushed my business forward hard. But time doesn’t stand still. Milestones happen whether you are watching for them or not. There came a point where we had more than enough toys and decided that making family memories through travel was high priority. Now. Not later. Now is all we’re really promised, and it’s important to make the most of that time. That’s why family travel is so important to me. It’s the perfect way to forge lifelong memories that unite the family no matter where we all end up. Recent Memories This past fall, my family took an RV camping trip through several Northern Ontario Parks. We’d always wanted to do it but we’d never been able to find the right scheduling to make it happen. Finally, my husband and I just decided that we would make it happen. A few weeks of planning and shuffling schedules around had us in the RV and on our way to some of the most beautiful country in all of this province. In September, we picked up an RV and took our first ever trip through five of Ontario’s Parks in five days!! Of all our recent adventures, this one ranks the highest across the board for all of us. We had days filled with laughter and campfires and so many adventures. It was one of the best trips we’ve had, and I know it will remain in our hearts forever. Prior to that amazing family experience I had a one on one mother daughter trip with my youngest girl, sporty spice, through Philadelphia. That trip was our time together and I wouldn’t trade that for the world. When Payton was younger I took her with me on a Puerto Vallarta mother daughter trip. Mother daughter travel has become extremely important to me as a Mom. It’s something I wish I had been able to do more with my own Mom, so I build experiences with both of my girls. Philadelphia was charming and fun and we explored museums and the zoo and the Eastern State Penitentiary too. Together, we learned new things, sampled new foods and shared a lot of laughs. Making Family Memories Last with Collage.com Although we’ll always have the memory of this trip in our hearts and minds, I wanted to commemorate one of our best family getaways yet with something special. I went to Collage.com and had a framed poster print made of the three best photos from our RV trip. All three were shots of our family together, which makes me happy to see on the gallery wall in the basement of our home. Oh The Places… I picked a saying to go on the print – “Oh The Places You’ll Go” – because travel with the girls feels so full of potential and yet so urgent. This will remind us of all the amazing adventures we’ve had and the ones we’ll have in the future. I also had an absolutely gigantic personalized puzzle made for Ainsley, my youngest. She’s 14 now, and for as long as she’s had manual dexterity, she’s loved puzzles. They also help her focus and calm down, which is great. I know she’ll love this massive, 1,000+ puzzle featuring 4 big photos of us on our summer trip to Philadelphia together. It was just the two of us, and it was a magical time for us both. Making Family Memories Last with a Giveaway! I know how much we all love giveaways, and because I love Collage.com so much, I’m offering a great giveaway here for my readers. This one is epic! But even if you don’t win, you should head over to collage.com to start making family memories last in a fun, unique way! We received product for consideration here. My opinion is all my own. Entry-Form

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How to Create a Stunning Photo Gallery Wall Now

Paula — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 12:18:26 +0000

This post has been sponsored by BestCanvas.ca. A photo gallery wall is a great way to help commemorate the most important times and memories a family has. Whether it’s a collage of several different events or a themed wall, this kind of photo setup helps keep memories alive and showcased for visitors and family members, alike. Over the past two years we have been building and adding to our photo gallery wall in our family room. Piece by piece it is shaping up to be something I am happy with. Today, I’m ready to share it with you. I thought I’d take some time to provide a few photo gallery wall tips to help keep your photo space unique, attractive, and full of all those wonderful memories you cherish so much. Photo Gallery Wall 101 It takes some thought and planning to make an impressive gallery wall. You could just slap photos up there in whatever frames you have, but that wouldn’t look very good. You want your gallery to tell a story, and you don’t want that story interrupted by the design – or lack thereof – of your wall. Pick Your Spot A great gallery wall begins with choosing the right spot. You want to find a wall with plenty of space. You could also find an area of the home that has plenty of connected wall space. For example, my gallery wall is in the basement on a large open wall. It’s an ever-growing collage of photos that capture our adventures together as a family. However, you might have a staircase situation with a couple of walls or a big, triangular wall space that could lend itself to a gallery wall. It’s up to you, but the main point is that you need space so that your photo story can grow. Choose a Theme and a Focal Point The best gallery walls have themes. This allows you to tell a story with your photos. Our gallery wall is focused on our family adventures in travel. Each piece tells the story of our travels together. We have a huge canvas of us zip lining and we have many photos of our favourite family travel moments. This week I added one of our most recent adventures – a large framed canvas photo print of the family skiing at Bromley in Vermont. We love to ski and we only learned how to ski at Tremblant in 2015!! It’s an activity which is becoming increasingly difficult to schedule in as the kids get older. But each family ski trip together holds a super special place in all of our hearts. This year my youngest turned 14 on our family ski trip to Bromley. Such a great addition to our gallery wall. Choose a Great Photo Partner A photo gallery wall usually requires some large prints for focal points and to keep things interesting. Even if you don’t need large prints, it’s always fun to find a partner that can help you make your gallery wall unique in some way. For me, that’s using BestCanvas.ca. They specialize in photo to canvas pictures that offer a visual experience for your gallery wall that’s as unique as your memories. I love their canvas printing options because they offer a variety of sizes and styles that can be framed or unframed. This unique approach makes for a gallery wall that will have people stopping and staring. A Photo Gallery Wall Makes Memories Last We love our photo gallery wall, and I’m happy to report that so does everyone else who sees it. I know these family moments won’t last forever. The girls are going to graduate high school, then it’s off to college and careers and spouses. I hope they have amazing, full lives, but while they’re here, I want as many memories as I can get of these moments to help me once the nest empties out. I love the way our wall has turned out. If you’re interested in their process, head over to BestCanvas.ca and check out what they can do to help you save those important family memories. And also created a little discount code for your fans: Special Offer – USE this code THRIFTYMOMMASTIPS – to get an additional 10 % off all canvas print formats as seen on www.BestCanvas.ca website (valid until end of the summer, that is 31.08.2018.) This post has been sponsored by BestCanvas.ca which means I received compensation for my work here. My opinion is all my own and it is also truthful.

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Making Family Memories Through Travel

How to Create a Stunning Photo Gallery Wall Now