Life seems to always be so busy and crazy that in our family, we put a really big emphasis on our family vacations. We try to plan one big or two smaller family vacations each year. Keeping the memories we have built together and the traditions we started during our travels alive throughout the year help us to continue to have fun, lasting memories everyday even while we are home. Here’s a few of the ways we build traditions that help keep our memories alive long after we return home from our vacations.
Build Lasting Memories on Vacations
– Invite family along – We have traveled with my parents, in-laws, and even my sister-in-law and her family. It builds great memories with for our children and the good times are always recalled when we get together again.
– Plan vacations around special family dates – Our boys all have fall birthdays so we use it as an excuse to take a vacation. The kids always remember the neat places they have gone for their birthdays.
– LOTS of Pictures – This one is probably a given, but it is still really important. Don’t forget your camera and make sure you share and receive the pictures taken from anyone else in your group!
– Simple collectible souvenirs – We like to pick out something to remember our vacation but souvenirs can add to your household clutter rather than helping to build memories. Stick to something simple and easy to store and inexpensive, too. Postcards and key chains work well. We look for the penny collector boxes everywhere we go smashing a penny with an icon from the different places we visit.
– Something new for everyone – Each trip, we plan something new to take with us on our trip. This can be anything but for us we do clothes. Our past camping trip everyone got a new set of pajamas while previous trips to Disneyland we all got a new Disney character shirt. It’s fun to have something similar for everyone in the family.
When your trip is over, create a family photo album or print out a couple of pictures and add them to frames updating older pictures. This is a great way to look back at your favorite family memories you created!