Summer Travels – Blairsville, GA

SUMMER ADVENTURES
Summer is always a highly anticipated time for our family with hopes of slowing down and having some unscheduled time to reconnect. As the kids get older school time activities now extend into summer with practices, intensives and sports boot camps. Knowing that commitments tend to increase with age, I am even more determined to carve out as much time as I can. Instead of waiting for these moments to happen, I create them. 

My husband and I have decided that each summer we will take our family on some sort of adventure vacation. This may sound exhausting to you and maybe lounging on the beach is more your style, but our family needs to move (if you have met my children, you know this to be true!). We have planned trips in the past to Utah for hiking, dog sledding in the rainforests of Alaska, sightseeing in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park and our last (pre-covid) adventure was a cross-country tour of Scotland (by far our favorite adventure!). When we get back, I might post a few pictures on my somewhat neglected Facebook page but what you may not know is that I have documented our entire trip that we can now enjoy in print. Believe me, we revisited these albums many times last summer while dreaming of the day we could travel again. I thought this summer I would share our travels with you in hopes of inspiring you to document your own. Enjoy!

WHILE THE BOYS ARE AWAY
This summer we were fortunate to have a bonus trip since our son was off to Boy Scout camp in Blairsville, GA. We decided to stay at a lake house down the street where Andrew could have plenty of Wifi to work and the girls and I could create some of our own memories before bringing Oliver home. Our family loves to hike and waterfalls are always a great destination so we headed to Desoto Falls after horseback riding and tubing down the Toccoa River in the days before. I love to give perspective of time in my albums so I included Ella’s Winter Park Corksicle (off to high school next year), our masks hanging in the entryway and maybe a teen magazine to remember our Harry Styles fascination! Even inside on a rainy day we practiced our splits, backbends and silly faces.

Next up is our highly anticipated trip to Oregon and Washington and our adventures through the Olympic National Park. Wish us luck as we head out with a carry-on each. Remember that travel is not needed and these moments can be captured in your backyard. Time is fleeting so get your camera out!
Happy month of June! XO, Shelby