“The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.”

—Henry Ward Beecher

Getting everyone together is something we often take for granted growing up. It is not until people move away (on opposite sides of the country in my family’s case), grow up, and have children of their own that we realize how sacred that time together really is. Yes, there can be drama and it isn’t peaches and cream all the time, but it is so important to make memory making a priority. My parents have been so good to make sure it happens once a year. I am sure they would love for it to happen more often, but at this point, it isn’t super realistic for that to happen all the time. So, we take what we can get and run with it. Everyone travels in during the summer and my parents rent a house for everyone to stay in and we are together for a few days. We explore and play games and we always, always, always get pictures taken. I usually end up being the one to be the photographer and bring along my tripod and remote. We snap away and I love looking back on these photos of our expanding extended family. I love the memories that I am immediately brought back to-the laughter, the silliness, the cousins running around together. I love that photographs can take us back into the moment and we can be right where we were. I know taking pictures together is A LOT of work and usually involves quite a bit of stress leading up to it….but, I also know that we would regret it 100% of the time if we didn’t take the opportunity to document when we were together. It is always worth it.