Mark taking photos that we’ll use for a photo book of our trip later on.
T-Swift for life! Even Wilson will belt that tune…
How are we documenting our trip?
I’m doing several things to make sure this trip is remembered by Jane and Wilson.
Blog: One is obviously this blog. As much as I don’t enjoy writing, or spelling, or grammar, I know I’ll be happy to have documented the trip this way. I hope I’ll come across photos and stories and think, “Oh,Yea! I remember how excited the kids were to slide down that rock for an hour.” Or something that stirs feelings of the joy we’re experiencing on this trip together.
Telling Stories: Another way is having Jane tell and re-tell some of the stories of the things that have happened to her on the trip. She’s been really good about remembering specific things and can tell you the name of the park they happened in. It surprises me how many park names and specifics about each place she remembers. For instance, she’ll look out her window and see a Bison and say, “There are bison in the Badlands, we saw bison in Yellowstone!” By having her tell and re-tell her stories (and try to video her telling them) we hope that the stories will stick with her even if the exact memory doesn’t.
Jane and her Junior Ranger badge collection to date.
Junior Ranger Badges: Jane’s trying to get a Junior Ranger badge at almost every State and each of the National Parks we visit. She has 29 now. There are a few State Parks that she’s missed or that didn’t offer one, but she’s completed the workbook and got the badge for each of the National Parks we have visited. I’m thinking Santa will bring her a Junior Ranger vest for Christmas, and she can put all her pins and patches on it, wear it for a while (a day), and then I’ll have it nicely framed so that she can keep it hung up on her wall.
While visiting Yellowstone we spent over an hour waiting for Grand Geyser to go off. We gave up and grabbed an ice cream only to come back out and see it erupting in the distance. The kids were way more into the ice cream. This was what I wrote home about. Not the geyser.
Postcards: Every park we go to I’m trying to buy 3 postcards of the sites we see. I’ve missed Mount Rushmore (not technically a National Park) and Mesa Verde. We send one to my parents, one to Mark’s mom, and one to a friend. I’m trying to write the kids favorite part of the park or a funny experience we shared on the back so that will jog our memory of a specific experience from that park. My hope is that one of these three end points will save them and give them back to us later.
Instagram: I’m taking at least one photo daily and posting it on Instagram (@katiezkelley). I know chat books offers a print a book of your Instagram photos option, and I’m sure other sites do too. My hope is to make a coffee table book of some sort afterwards of our photos.
Any other ideas for things I can do to document our travels? Any kind of photo advice would be great! The easier the better!
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