Florida Family Beach Trip

Wouldn’t it be great to have a professional photographer on vacation with you documenting your family fun from day one?

If you said yes, you are correct. It is totally great.

This blog post represents a lot for me. Starting when I was about 3 years old, my family went to the beach for a week every summer. We drove from Tennessee to Alabama, where we picked up my nana, aunt and cousin(s), then headed to the Gulf. We rented an oceanfront condo and blue beach chairs and divvied up our time between the water and sand. We ate seafood, collected seashells and bought souvenirs, like airbrushed t-shirts and hermit crabs (for super weird/awesome/short-lived pets). My love for family met my love for the ocean in a jam packed week of southern fun. The highlight of my youth year after year.

Fast forward many years later. The same beach trips are happening again, but with family members playing different roles. My sister and I are now the moms with kids in tow, husbands present too. Said kids are the cousins having a 24/7 blast. My mom is their Nanny, enjoying her daughters’ families by the beach, the same place she too has been coming since she was a young girl.

This trip was our 7th of this nature. It’s a special time to say the least.

I loved watching Penny (2) play in the sand and swim in the sea with her cousins Emma (6) and Henry (3), who she absolutely adores. This was the first family trip for Willow (4 months). Bringing a baby to the beach is no breeze, but we did have some sweet times with her, even if mostly in the air conditioned condo. It’s hard to beat the endless horizon-line view from up there anyway.

Having a husband who willingly photographs the trip from start to finish is icing on the cake. My brother-in-law happens to be an incredible videographer and has made some awesome videos from the beach too. Killer documenting combo for one family right there.

I’m not a kid riding waves on a green alligator float or searching the shore for shells and treasures anymore. But being there with my mom and sister and our families is worth more to me than gold.

Major thanks and appreciation to my mom for making these trips possible for everyone every year. And to my amazingly skilled husband Tyler for taking all the pictures. I’ll cherish them more than I cherished my pet hermit crabs. Definitely more than the hermit crabs. (Mom, how did you ever let us take those things home?)

Till next summer, Florida!