A Photographer’s Vacation

It’s slowly becoming a family tradition for us to go to the beach with our extended family every year. By slowly, I mean, we’ve done it twice, but this year especially was a lot of fun, and we seem to have hit a sweet spot with traveling with kids. We had to take fewer accoutrements this year, and were able to spend more time on the actual beach instead of running back and forth to the house for naps.

We love going to the beach with our family because it gives us all a break from each other, even while we’re all together. There are so many of us, we can kind of decant into our own spaces and everyone is still nearby and safe. The kids can argue over which adult’s lap they want to sit in (Nana’s, obviously), and whose hand they want to hold (nearly always Papa’s), and I can be chopped liver and just hang out and take pictures. Which really is the perfect photographer’s vacation, if you ask me.

We explored farther north this year than we usually do, and visited the Currituck Lighthouse and the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge (just the walking trail. It was too close to lunch/afternoon naps to drive out on the sand this time).

We also hit up Oregon Inlet to watch some boats come in. We got there too late to see the fish being unloaded, but did get to watch some boats coming into dock and the kids seemed to enjoy that.

Mostly though, we got to be together, and that happens far too rarely for any of our liking. We got to play in the sand, dodge sand flies (so rude), eat ice cream past our bedtime (those of us with a 7:30pm bedtime), watch the sunset and the sunrise, and reconnect. And connection is what I’ve been focused on the most this year. After the disconnection we’ve all felt over the last 18 months or so, it’s nice to be all together again.

Want to see more family photos that aren’t of my family? Check out my family portfolio and see lots of other families connecting during their family photo sessions.