This has been a long time in the making.  I probably should have blogged about this months ago, but it took a backseat during wedding season.  As most of you know, we took a little road trip back in June.   It was really fun and I’d love to take another.  This time, it will need to be longer than 1 week and probably shouldn’t be during wedding season! haha.

One thing we want to give our kids is experience.  As much as I’m sure they’d love the fanciest new toy on the shelf, we do not want to spoil our kids with materialistic things.  Instead we want to give them experience.  They are emotionally over their toys about 2 weeks after they get them.  So, we would much rather prefer taking a trip and doing something they can remember.  Having 2 parents that are photographers, you can imagine that every single trip we take is documented.  I’m  not sure about you, but I know for me…when I look at these pictures years from now, I’ll remember this trip is such detail.  This is the beauty of lifestyle documenting.  If we had it our way, we would do every family shoot like this.  We will not necessarily follow them around on their family trips (unless of course they wanted that ;0), but document them as a family in that particular time in their lives vs. the traditional look at the camera and now smile.   Don’t get me wrong, that’s nice and all, but it doesn’t pull the strings of my heart the way documenting a family would do.

That being said, we are also grateful and most importantly grateful, for our family.   We are thankful for our kids and the light that they bring to our lives.   Over the last few years, they’ve put so much into perspective for us.  They’ve changed us and in the grand scheme of things, they helped us see what is really important in life.  Not fancy new things, not a million pairs of shoes (although I do love me some nice boots), and not the biggest house on the block.  That stuff doesn’t matter to us. What matters is that we have each other and we get to live this life with each other vs. alone.   We do not have super powers, but we do have the gift of documenting life and just like so many other photographers, we feel blessed that we are able to do this.

So this brings us to part one of our road trip.  Part one documented our first stop at six flags, our New York visit, a quick stop in Connecticut and lastly our weekend in Boston.  Part two, which documented our Niagara falls stop, will be up later this evening 🙂

These pictures were taken with both our phones as well as our camera.  Sorry for any quality differences ;0)

Excited and ready to do this.  I don’t think they realized how much we’d be in the car, lol.   We were prepared though…we had a dvd player for the car with dual screens.  We also had a backup portable Dvd player and about a million movies.  They also had our phones and tablets, etc.   They even had their own headphones….their momma loves to drive, but also loves to sing while driving.

It seems that whenever we take a trip, it’s always record breaking temperatures.  Seriously, story of our lives!

Hot and humid = not so happy kids!

We stayed here for most of the day, haha.

Day one almost over!  Well, for them, it sure looks that way!

I booked a room with only 1 bed…my bad!  So the girls and I shared this bed, and Michael slept on the couch.   I’m such a terrible wife! ;0)

Day 2-3 we ventured into New York.   There was traffic going into NY..no surprise.  The girls were not a fan of the long, dark, and smelly tunnel.

A bed must always be tested!

We were on the 32nd floor, so you can imagine they loved looking out the window.

Our first stop!  Surprisingly we walked out of their empty handed…almost didn’t happen that way, but it did.

Day 2…we found some fountains..

imagine…wet, sticky, dirty…so gross!

 

Not another drive!  See the enthusiasm? lol.

We met up with some clients to personally delivery their dvd!  I told you we have a high respect for customer service, haha.

We had Ava take a shot of us…sadly, we had little faith in that she would get us all in the frame {hence us all leaning over}.  Who are the fools now?!  She has photographer in her blood!

On our way to Boston and hit some traffic 🙁

It’s been too long since I’ve seen a good friend of mine.  She was my first friend when I moved to Philadelphia and she holds a special place in my heart.  Thanks for being such a great tour guide Jess!

Boston is one of my favorite cities…ever!  We saw it, fell in love with it, and could live here.  Honestly, I’m dying to shoot a wedding here {any takers?}.

Yum!

This city is so clean!

Meet Paris!

Haha…This sign cracks me up!

I’m terrified of snakes and none of us knew which one we were picking…of course, I would pick the snake!

This looks like a sweet family portrait, meet my fill in mom and wife.  haha

Somehow Michael tore a hole in his shorts (at his butt cheeks). Thankfully, Jess knows how to sew, lol.

The first time Uggs meets Paris.  I had so much fun on this trip, but I did miss Mr. Ugglesworth.  Just look at that cute little face!

There is something comforting about being able to see your feet in the ocean.  I’m not a fan of cloudy, dirty, stinky water.  The waters off New England are perfect (and a little cold).

She’s so cute!

I think we all had loads of sand in our swimming suits, haha.  So embarrassing!

Last night in Boston.

Off to Canada =0)

 

Stay tuned for part two of our trip!  Canada is pretty spectacular!

<3

Melissa.