Cora watched me hop on our newly acquired paddle board the other day and wasn't sure what to think.
What was this new "boat" we were hopping on and off of?
Hmmmmmmm.
Well Cora, let us show you!
This paddle board might be the best thing ever. It's definitely coming with us on our trip and will be our second "dinghy." I LOVE it. It's so easy to step on it and go. It will be a great way to explore and a wonderful way to get some exercise.
We've wasted no time in sharing it with friends.
Colin and Cora snag a ride on the new paddle board
Cora loves having other kids on the boat and they love being on her boat too!
Cora and Maddi share a hug
Cody, Colin, and Eric
It is mom-approved too, as Paige demonstrates so gracefully.
Gotta hand it to Eric on this purchase. I think our blog readers will be seeing many more pictures of this paddle board in action!
And soon there will be a lot more pictures like this too :)
Detail of a gargoyle at the Benedictine Palace in Fecamp, Normandy, France
And this photo:
Charlotte and Marco with Lucerne, Switzerland in back groundAnd this photo have in common?
Morrisette family in Murfreesboro, TN, circa 1982Answer: they were all digitally scanned by Scan My Photos, International. Scan My Photos is a photo and slide scanning service based out of Irvine, California that helps people preserve memories, time, and money by digitally scanning the hard copies of their photos and creating backs up on discs or external hard drives in order to preserve those memories forever.
As we prepare to leave for a world cruise one of the biggest issues we have faced is how to safely preserve keepsakes, like photos, so we don't have to worry about them while we are gone sailing. Some cruisers rent a storage space and leave treasured photos behind. Paying for a storage space is not in our monthly cruising budget. Others leave important items with family and friends. I have done this before when I lived in Europe and came home to find my boxes placed on the dirt floor of a basement, soaked through with water damage.
Needless to say, I have been looking for a way to ensure that my memories won't be ruined while I'm gone.
Enter Scan My Photos. I contacted them to see if they'd like to work with me to get my memories safe and secure before we leave for our world cruise. I'm so happy they agreed! In case you are curious about how the process works, I've outlined it below based on my own experience.
I was a little skeptical when a large, thin envelope showed up in my mailbox. For some reason I figured that I would received a big box, but inside the envelope was a pre-addressed, flattened box that I just needed to form and then tape securely before sending back. I was also impressed with the detailed instructions that came with the order.
I already had a memory box of organized photos set aside for this project and it fit snugly right inside the box that Scan My Photos sent me to ship back to them.
The photos in my memory box were organized by life event but after watching this video on how to pack my photos I realized I also needed to organize them by size. Scan My Photos also recommended making a paper cover for each stack of pictures so I could organize them once they were sent back to me as digital files.
Out came the handy-dandy paper cutter:
Once everything was packed the way they suggested, I sent off my box of memories and crossed my fingers that everything would be alright. Don't get me wrong, working with Scan My Photos was a smooth experience every step of the way. Still, to put something precious like that in a box and hand it to postman can make you cross your fingers that your pictures come back safe and sound.
And then I waited.
And within two weeks...POOF! The box was back!
I quickly ripped it open to make sure everything was included just like how I had sent it.
Everything looked great. Now I have a box of organized photos AND two discs full of high-resolution images of my memories. Awesome.
I also have classic photos like this:
Morrisette Family circa 1983And treasured photos like this:
Me and my little sister, Sariah, circa 1983And all of these memories are backed up digitally. I didn't stop at just having the photos on disc though. I uploaded the photos to an external hard drive and will be mailing that hard drive to my younger sister (picture above :) for safekeeping while we travel. I also uploaded all of the photos to my Picasa Web Albums. Now I have the photos triple backed up. And that makes me breathe a sigh of relief.
A couple of final thoughts on working with Scan My Photos:
- I loved that they are based in and do all of their work in the USA (some of their competitors ship your photos overseas to scan them).
- They offer great options like 'Photo Soap' that automatically "fix" a lot of the imperfections of older photographs for you.
- Check out this link for all of the additional services they offer (like image rotation and a photo index book to help you quickly find what you are looking for.)
- Even if I hadn't been preparing for a world cruise, I would have wanted to get this done anyway. When I went through my old photos I had to peel them out of yellowing photo albums which would have eventually destroyed the photos. Now I can share the pictures I uploaded online and have my family collaborate to tag, date, and identify everyone in the pictures. Brilliant!
- And if all of these reasons don't convince you that it is time to get your photos scanned, check out this piece that KTLA did on Scan My Photo's services and remember that a natural disaster, or home fire can happen to almost anyone and that if you aren't prepared, you are really going to miss all your pictures!
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Scan My Photos provided the scanning services described above in an exchange for a review on this site. All of the opinions expressed above are my own.
Eric and I have decided to push up our departure and leave in the fall. The countdown clock on our home page represents when we'll leave for our shakedown cruise in the Channel Islands mid August.
More info to come. Just so excited to announce this publicly!
Eric and I got two nights baby-free as part of our family vacation because my sister, her family, and my mom were awesome enough to watch her for us (for free!!) I LOVE my family!
So we did this when we got there (it's the first place we go every time we hit up Taos):
The pizza at Taos Pizza Outback is the best I've ever had: http://taospizzaoutback.com/
and this...
Hot tub lounging at El Pueble Lodge, Taos, NM: http://www.elpueblolodge.com/
But we also did a lot of this:
Back from a run on vacation in Taos, NM
And this:
For a long time now Eric and I have been writing about how we incorporate fitness into our lives (more specifically, Eric and then Charlotte). Part of that is making sure that even on vacation we work out.
I get the whole argument that vacation is a time to 'relax' but both of us really enjoy being fit so we incorporate healthy practices into vacations too. A few things we do:
- Try to eat out for only one meal. We usually stay at places with kitchenettes or that have mini-fridges so we can eat fresh, healthy food. This also makes you savor the meal even more when you do go out.
- Don't eat everything they serve you. Take that pizza pic above for example. 1/4 of that pizza went home with me and was eaten for dinner along wtih a fresh Greek salad we picked up at a local health food store.
- Bring your own snacks and treats. In the pic below you can see that we brought along chocolate chips, almonds, seaweed, and snack bars.
- You also make do with what you have. The Fitness Room at El Pueble Lodge was spartan to say the least:
There was, however, some weights in the corner by the bench, so Eric ran me through some exercises.
After a quick warm up run we did box jumps in the parking lot.
Eric worked on dumbbell cleans. We also both did squats and lunges.
Rockin' some dumbbell rows
Have you ever heard of 'suitcase' dead lifts? I tried those too:
If you are wondering why we are lifting in socks, it is because most tennis shoes or running shoes have a slight heel to them and in many weightlifting exercises your feet need to be flat. Normally we both wear Converse when we lift but neither of us had packed them.
Dumbbell pressing it up
Another reason I like having a focus on fitness in our relationship is that it gives us something to do together, and it will teach Cora the principles of healthy living.
Oh, and if anyone wants to say that this was "easy" for us to do because Cora wasn't with us, I beg to differ. It was definitely fun to have a break, but Cora goes with us when we work. The only thing we wouldn't have been able to do was run together since we don't travel with our jogging stroller.
She even has her own little weights she carries around:
More pics of her royal cuteness later :)
So what about you? Do you bring your running shoes along when you vacation? How do you incorporate the whole family? Oh, and if you are ever in Taos, go get eat the pizza here. DELISH.
Eric and I flew with Cora on our laps over to Albuquerque, New Mexico for our first family vacation NOT on Catalina Island. As usual, the kid was a dream. I give major props to babywearing for making the whole airport and airplane experience easy to manage.
Rocking my Tula Baby Carrier on the back and my trusy REI backpack on the front
We flew into Albuquerque to visit my sister Sariah. Her husband, Jake, is in the Air Force and was just stationed there. My mom flew down from Utah to hang out too.
Mom is recovering from a wrist surgery and doing great.
Sariah, Cora, Warren, and Kimball
Cora fit right into life on land. This is her waking up from a nap. Other fun things to do in a house?
Try out an elliptical.
Find a 'seat seat' on all available furniture.
Roll around on carpet with her daddy.
Help her mom and cousin Phoebe make dinner and dessert.
Watch the big kids hop on the bus to go to school. This was a major highlight for Cora whose favorite song right now is "The Wheels on the Bus." She loves buses!!!
And lots and lots of playtime with mom, dad, Bella, and her cousins.
And then dinner with her cousins:
And then...asleep at last. Traveling is tiring for a 21 month old!
Eric and I left our little Cora with my mom and Sariah and her family in Albuquerque on Friday morning and then drove up to Taos, New Mexico for two nights on our own (first time alone like that since she was born.)
Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 15:17 ;)
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Colin and Cora snag a ride on the new paddle board;)
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Cora and Maddi share a hug;)
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