Wordless Wednesday: Highway Perspective

Wordless Wednesday: Snowy Days Are Here!

Wordless Wednesday: Pumpkins

Do you and your family carve or decorate your pumpkins for Halloween?

Wordless Wednesday: Creepy Crawly Hay Bale

Photo Copyright Amanda R. Dollak 2013

What is the most memorable fall / Halloween decoration you have had the opportunity to see?

Wordless Wednesday: Fall Family Fun

Photo Copyright 2013 Amanda R. Dollak

What is your favorite fall activity to do with the family?

A Vacation of a Lifetime

Taking my kids to SC this summer to the beach for the very first time is truly one of the highlights of my life.  Their excitement, raw energy, and awe of the ocean will forever stay with me.  I have never witnessed my son and daughter so happy and content...and this mama was extremely content and happy, too.

We learned that one week at the beach is NOT enough!  We all missed home, but we left the ocean behind with sadden hearts.  Being by the sea completely felt like the most natural thing, and no one wanted to leave that feeling behind.

If I ever win the lottery or get rich through some amazing book deal, I know we will sell our current home in an instant and move somewhere south and closer to the beach.  A part of our hearts were left on that beautiful SC beach, and we returned with plenty of sand in our luggage--and gorgeous memories to hold us over until we can visit the sea once again.

I took lots of photographs of our vacation, and we plan to have a photo book created from over favorite snapshots.  We even collected seashells, other beach trinkets, and some sand so we can create a beach jar. We will cherish this vacation forever, and perhaps my son and daughter will pass on some of the stories from our beach adventure on to their own children someday.  I live for moments like these--so special, so breathtaking, and so miraculous.  I won't ever forget to savor every single second!

F: Show Me Your Fabulous Facebook Face!

One of my daughter's many "Facebook faces"

I’m not sure if it’s a sign that this IS the social media age or if it is evidence that I spend a little too much time on Facebook. Either way, my kids have coined the phrase “Facebook face” in our house. Over the years, they have had a lot of fun making silly faces and asking me to photograph them. Since a lot of family and friends live out of our area, I started privately sharing these silly photos on Facebook. What better way to keep in touch than chronicling my kids’ ever evolving silly faces, right?

It wasn’t long before they would walk in the room, strike a goofy pose, and giggle, “Mommy, take a picture so we can put it on Facebook!”

In time, it got shortened to, “Hey, Mommy, look at my Facebook face!”

Now my camera, cell phone, desktop, laptop, and Facebook page is full of silly photos of my son and daughter. In our house, sitting to watch a slideshow of some of their goofy photos is our version of reviewing family videos. It’s actually a lot of fun and guarantees an evening of laughter and even some hiccups.

I just wonder how long it will take before these photos go from being hilarious to humiliating. Whether I like it or not, my kids’ teenage years are ahead. Although I found most of my childhood photos entertaining as I teen, I remember that there were a few that I wanted to steal from my parents and burn. Will my children continue to look fondly on these photographs as reminders of all the great times we had as a family? Or will they eventually view them in horror and want to pretend they don’t exist? I guess time will only tell.