Top ways to preserve your travel memories

One thing I know without a doubt about myself is that I LOVE pictures!!  Especially those of family and friends, second runner up being the places we have traveled.  The trouble is that so many of them are kept on our personal phones or SD cards and not being shared with our family and friends.

So, how do we fix that?

Keep reading below for more information!

 

I love to look at them over and over but don’t always get to share as many as I would like with others.  With more pictures being taken on our phones or digital cameras they are not being seen and shared as often anymore.

 

I have always loved looking at them, taking them.  There is something about the jog down memory lane it can take me down.  I love seeing a look in to my family’s past and how they lived.  When I think about it, it may be a bit strange that I didn’t pursue a career in photography.  Back when it was time to figure out initially what to do with my life photography wasn’t exactly a great paying job or an encouraged profession to get in to.

 

I had considered it when I decided to join the Army but again it was encouraged to choose an occupation I could use outside the military.  Ultimately, I chose linguistics because I liked the places my sister in law had traveled and she was a linguist.  Isn’t that how everyone chooses their profession?  LOL  Now I’m a SAHM (stay at home mom) who is dabbling in blogging about my family’s travel lifestyle.  Now, if only his work would take us overseas!  Funny how our lives play out sometimes.

 

Back to those pictures and memories…

There are several reasons I focus on preserving those picture and memories now;

 

Your story to tell

As I mentioned above those pictures can provide a flashback for you or a talking point if you are sharing the pictures with someone else.  You could be showing your children, another family member or a friend. If you get in to some business with photos it could be a complete stranger.  Whoever it may be, you have a story to tell and you SHOULD tell it!

 

Family history

Whether it be for your own children or maybe your family historian your pictures are able to show how you lived, what you liked to do and where you traveled.  They document the growth of your family.  The types of things you were in to, the clothes you wore and even the food you enjoyed.

 

Pictures capture all your achievements too!  These pictures help us remember where we came from and where we are now.  What obstacles we crossed to get to here.

 

All in the details

If you are anything like me, you will forget a lot!  I barely remember what we did yesterday let alone what job we were on back in 2007. My pictures help me with that, along with my chronicles on Facebook and most recently Instagram.

 

Our memories play tricks on us as well.  I remember a trip that I took with my oldest brother, his wife and my parents to a wilderness area near Ely, MN that escapes me right now.  (SEE, I told you your memory will fail!). It had Boundary or boundaries in it.

 

OH WAIT!  I remember now, Boundary Waters.  Beautiful place in northern MN!!  Anywhoo, for years after I told everyone that we went there for a month right before I went to basic.  When I shared this fact with my family, they looked at me like I was crazy.  We had spent just two weeks there.

 

You would think based on my exaggerated timeline that it was not an enjoyable trip but on the contrary it was
one of my most memorable!  I went kayaking for my first time, we camped in a tent the entire time, crossed paths with moose and my mom tried to save her camera over me when we capsized in the lake.  Who could forget those moments!!

 

Now on to where you should keep these photos.  Obviously, it is your choice what pictures to keep and how you want to display them but here are some of the ways that I help preserve our memories;

 

Annual book

The annual book is something I started around 2013 when I found out we were pregnant with our first child.  I wanted a reminder (hello pregnancy brain!) of what we had done through the year, whether it was travels or special occasions within the family.  The ones I use are through Shutterfly and I generally do an 8×11 book using their storytelling layouts.  They basically create a template and you insert your pics. They can store your pics and they usually have pretty great sales all year!  Plus, on Groupon you can get them for $5 when they run specials.

 

Social media

Social media is great for the daily remembrances.  Sometimes just a lot of fillers or random pics but generally we document something interesting that happened.  These have been great for helping me remember where we were and specific dates.

 

Blogging

Blogging is something new that I have added.  This pertains more to me sharing my story of our life and hoping that there are people out there that want to read about it! Saving your pictures here means you also get to tell the story that goes along with the picture!!  I’ll be sharing our travel pictures, family pictures and also pictures I have created in relation to the blog.

 

Scrapbooks/Baby books

Scrapbooks are more like just a photo album with some random mementos thrown in at the end.  This used to be all I did until I found Shutterfly. This was prior to most social media as well so I am talking real camera photos, not just on my phone photos.  We had to take the film out of the camera and bring it to a store or professional where they would develop the pictures. You had no idea if they were any good most of the time and almost everyone I know got duplicates because you might want to hand them out.

 

Baby books are another great option for documenting your little one’s lives.  I did pretty good with our first and got a bit behind with our second.  For both books I have yet to actually print any pics and put them in a book.  At least I tried, right?

 

Hindsight is 20/20 so, of course, I wish I would have started blogging or keeping a journal a lot sooner to document our travel life.  Even just my life earlier.  I did actually do interesting things before I met my husband!!  LOL

 

Most of us tend to think our life is not exciting but to others not living it, it can be.  Even if you don’t share your pictures with others do it for yourself!!

 

As always, thanks for reading!

–Katie

 

Here are a few links for the type of memory preservation I used…

 

https://www.shutterfly.com/custom-path/stylecatalog.sfly?fromLocation=lightbox&order=false&defaultBookTitle=My%20Photo%20Book&bookSize=8×11&occasions=Our%20Top%20Picks

 

https://www.amazon.com/Pearhead-First-Memory-Sonogram-Insert/dp/B072PSF84S/ref=sr_1_14?crid=2XT8EDSLJVNNW&keywords=baby%2Bmemory%2Bbook&qid=1552654556&s=gateway&sprefix=baby%2Bmemory%2B%2Caps%2C161&sr=8-14&th=1