I ran across this quote on Twitter last year and immediately felt at home.  You know how sometimes you hear stuff or see stuff and think “That’s me, that is SO me!”  Well this quote totally struck a cord in my heart and it was the most amazing feeling.  Like I had been looking for just this saying to describe how I felt and I finally found it and now I could stop searching.  Total peace and relaxation.

When I was a little girl, my Mother use to say that I had “Wander Lust.”  Basically, she felt like I could wander just about anywhere and be perfectly content, as long as it was different than home.  I never really understood that until I went off to college and I found myself constantly looking for weekend getaways and fun girls nights on the town.  As usual, Mothers totally know their daughters, and she had me pegged.  She used to say that if someone said “Go” my ears would immediately perk up and I’d be like “When, where?”  I can’t argue with that even slightly.  Just typing this makes me want to go somewhere.

Lots of folks are headed off on vacations this summer (some of us have already been and are ready to go again )! And so I got to thinking about this quote and my “wander lust.”  The thing that I think makes me unique is that I don’t just want to go, I want to remember every. single. minute. of the trip.  I know it has to be super annoying to my husband when I say things like “Wait hun, don’t drink that milkshake, I need to take a picture first!” I just want to be a big huge travel sponge with a camera and experience the world.

When my husband and I got married we started a vaca tradition – a travel book.  Every time we get home from a vacation the first thing I do (after mountains of laundry) is to create a book of our journey.  My hope is that by the time we’re 80 we have an entire library of vacation books to remember our amazing trips together.  So far we’ve got 6, and I think that’s a great start after 4 years of marriage!

I challenge you to take time this summer to remember the little things, take pictures of the little things, and make every second special because it’s the little things that make every day memorable and unique.

If I hadn’t taken this picture I wouldn’t have proof that I had just shot my first ever legitimate par 3 or that I had out-drove Chris on hole 14.   See, totally worth making a book.

And this is my most favorite travel memory of all – Lahaina Harbor in Maui.  It’s possible that my soul lives there and I think I should go back every other year just to check on it.

This kid was BRAVE!  He must’ve popped in and out of the water about 10 times while we were watching.  That stream of water coming from the back of his helmet is because he had just popped up again – WOW!

I love the motion in this one – seriously, these kids were AMAZING!

See what I mean about the crowd?  Rafting on Monday was a spectator sport for sure!

“We’ve got a swimmer!”  She was back in the raft almost as fast as she fell out!

We watched the fireworks next to these 2 awesome pups.  The one on the left is Sadie (17 months old) – the one on the right we didn’t get to meet but I decided her name is Goldie Locks.  Such happy faces.

Now the funny part about mobile pictures is that usually there’s a story behind them.  If the moment were beautiful and self-explanatory, I’d probably have the SLR with me.  So sometimes I find myself looking back through mobile shots and literally laughing out loud at the random moments I shared with my plain ole 2008 cell phone.  Instead of explaining these, I thought I’d let them stand on their own, and if you don’t laugh, you might at least catch yourself staring at the computer screen thinking OMG – what and why does this picture even exist?    Enjoy!

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.  I need to make it a priority to stop and enjoy the current moment instead of planning and worrying about what is to come.  As I was thinking about this today it reminded me of my very first professional photography shoot with an awesome pup named Charlie.  This little fella hit the jackpot – adopted by two loving parents that have a sleep number bed set to HIS sleep number (seriously – most dogs only dream of things like this)!  I had so much fun at this shoot that I knew I had to find a way to turn my passion into a reality.  Thinking long term, goals always feel tangible, but whenever I think about today’s agenda the long term goals always take a back burner.  Looking back at these pictures, I realized that Charlie can teach us all two very valuable lessons – 1) When you’re laying in the sun, close your eyes, tuck your ears back and enjoy the moment, and 2) If you eat something good, don’t be embarrassed to lick your face (or nose).  In honor of Charlie I’m going to promise right now to do a better job of enjoying today this summer!

This little trip down memory lane reminded me that my “other alma mater” deserved some blog love, especially since that’s where we spend 50% of our Saturdays in the fall and there are officially 100 days left until football season starts!  So here’s to the Gamecocks!  Let’s bring home that SEC championship this year guys!  Go Gamecocks!

On our cruise earlier this month, there was a “love and marriage” game show one evening.  The game show was set up like the old Newlywed game show except they had one newlywed couple, one married 25 years and one married 52 years.  As you can imagine, the newlyweds got almost zero questions correct, the 25 year couple got about 50%, and the 52 year couple knocked it out of the park.  By the end of the game show the crowd was chanting the name of the husband in the 52 year couple.  They were amazing!  After the show Chris and I were discussing some of the questions and it suddenly hit me that we wouldn’t have known a lot of those answers when we were newlyweds either.   Seven years ago when we met, we just enjoyed spending time together.  3 years later, when we got married, we wanted to spend our lives together.  And now, 4 years after that, we try to enjoy every moment we possibly can and live life to the fullest, because it’s become so clear to us that life is what you make of it and we want to make it great together.

My husband dreams of becoming a sail boat captain, living in Maui, going to the 2012 Olympics, having a meaningful career, and watching the Gamecocks win the national title.  I hope all of his dreams come true, and that 35 years from now we can look back on our lives together with total satisfaction that we seized every day like it was our last.  Happy Birthday to my better half – here’s to the next 35!

Tomorrow it’s time to get back to the daily grind, and after a week like this I feel like I can conquer the world!    Maybe I should take vacation every month?   Here are just a few of my favorite pics – I might need to browse through these and day dream for just a few more hours before the real world sets in….

As a daughter, I was a fun challenge.  I hated rollers in my hair, dresses, any clothes that “itched” (which pretty much meant all lace), all things pink, and anything “girly.”  I never really got into makeup, finger nail polish, or anything that most little girls might consider cool.  My folks just went with the flow and let me be myself.  As a Mom, my Mother has always been full of  typical “Motherly Advice”, but she also let me do things at my own speed (typically slower and later than everyone else), and waited to offer the advice at the most opportune moment for daughter absorption.    So, in honor of the best Mother in the world, here are the top 10 reasons I love my Mother and I hope she has the best Mother’s Day EVER!

10.  She makes THE BEST macaroni and cheese in the world.  Don’t argue, I’m right.  And she’s always there to assist her cooking-challenged daughter when needed.

9.  She’s the only person I know that can fold a fitted sheet to make it look like and be the same folded size as a flat sheet.  Really an amazing talent!

8.  She let me have the wedding of my dreams, which meant I was wearing flip flops down the aisle!  I still wouldn’t change one minute of that day.

7.  She would drop anything she was doing to play a board game with me when I was little – normally “Guess Who?” or “Life” – and we had a blast.

6.  When I made the Dean’s list in college she made a BIG deal about it.  I can still remember the look on her face when I got my grades from the mailbox.

5.  I know that I’ve got at least two people in the world that pray for me everyday, and I feel so blessed to be able to say that.

4.  She makes an amazing Black Friday shopping partner.  This year we were at Target at 4:30am – a new record!  We got absolutely nothing we went for, but we laughed the entire time.

3.  Our Mother-Daughter weekends:  Boston (her first plane ride), New Bern (we’re both huge Nick Sparks fans), and Savannah.  Those were amazing weekends I’ll never forget.

2.  Every year, for as long as I can remember, she’s made sure I had a homemade birthday cake (with blue icing – it does taste different).  Sometimes this meant driving 2 hours to bring me one when I was at college – other times it meant e-mailing my boyfriend (now husband) the recipe and making sure he came through strong (which he did).

1.  She’s going to kill me for posting this picture so I had to make it number one (check out the last pic) – not only did she buy me the Double Dare home game, but she would play it with me!  Now those were good times!