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If a picture is worth a thousand words then what is an Instagram picture worth? Facebook thinks it’s worth a billion dollars! Can you believe that?!?
This year, for our annual trip to Palm Springs, I decided to do something different with my pictures. We’ve gone for so many years that I needed a change. I was tired of taking the same types of pictures so to keep it fresh I challenged myself to tell the story of our trip with Instagram on my iPhone. I’d never used it before but I’d seen fun ‘day in the life’ type pictures so I thought I’d give it a shot. (Get it? A shot? Yeah, I crack myself up!)
What a hoot! I found myself taking way more pictures of the things we were doing because I didn’t care so much. I did have to think about the lighting and composition, but if the shot was of something random or the background wasn’t quite right that was okay. It was more about telling the story than producing something I might put on my wall as a large canvas. What freedom!
Here is our trip. In somewhat chronological order. Most of these pictures speak for themselves, but I numbered them so I could explain a few.
Arrival and Easter
We had an easy flight into LA and then we got to listen to our new CD, in it’s entirety, three times on the drive to Palm Springs. The first thing the kids did was hit the pool. Apparently the first thing I did was hit the Margaritas. The drive wasn’t that bad, honest!
#5 – Our Easter Bunny leaves a jelly bean trail. After all these years I’ve finally gotten a good picture of it!
The Golf Course
My parents’ house is right on the golf course so as soon as the golfers are done (around 6:30) the kids love to run up and down the sloping hills and the bunker became their personal sandbox.
Family Pictures
It’s an annual tradition to take pictures on the golf course during magic hour light. For some reason we always end up at mexican food on the night we choose to do family pictures. (image 21) To keep the boys excited and interested we promised M&M’s for good smiles. (image 23) Look closely at image 19, to get a good idea why we needed to bribe them!
Night Swims
One of the favorite activities in Palm Springs is the night swim. The kids usually jump in the pool around 7:30 and stay in there until it gets nice and dark. That’s the exciting part!
Unfortunately for my kids they got my uber sensitive skin. So starting on Day 2 we had to lather everybody up (image 31) with eczema cream and cortizone all the hot spots. I guess this is what happens when you swim at least three times a day for an hour each time.
Food
It’s not a good vacation without good food, right? (That is exactly how I keep landing myself at Weight Watchers!) We hit all our favorites.
#34 – We begged Stephen to make his famous beer can chicken. This chicken is so moist when it is done it practically falls off the bone. Yum!
#39 – We have a Five Guys burgers not far from our house but we hardly ever indulge. We went there twice while we were on vacation for a week!
#40 – My Dad is a big frozen yogurt fan. A few years ago he found a place where you can serve yourself the yogurt AND the toppings. This is a big hit with all the grand kids so we just have to eat this TWICE in the week too!
Family Time
Seven doors down from my parents’ house is my aunt and uncle’s house. They live in Toronto so it is always a treat to see them. This year two of their three daughters and their families were there too. AND my Dad’s cousins from San Francisco and Hong Kong were also in town. So we had a big dinner together and my uncle was the pied piper for all the grand kids when he brought out his dollar store kite. Mr. Popular!
Random
#49 – This year we found a place for mini golf. It was a fun activity that all of us could do together.
#50 – Before we left for our trip I talked to the girls about all the fruit that grows on trees down there. Since they’d never tried a grapefruit we made a quick, unauthorized, stop in the golf cart. That was the forbidden fruit!
#52 – ‘Sexy and I Know It’ is one of the songs from our Palm Springs playlist. In the airport Kate could be heard singing ‘I’ve got passion in my pants and I’m not afraid to show it. I’m Elmo and I know it.’ She was mixing two songs together there but I’m pretty sure Elmo doesn’t wear pants.
#54 – One of my favorite pictures from the trip! For the record I wasn’t driving when I took this shot. Joelle’s boys had no idea she was making all these faces at us, but my girls thought it was hilarious!
There is one shot I forgot to take and I am just kicking myself for it. I really wanted a shot of my Mom playing Angry Birds on her iPad with my nephews. Did you see that last sentence people? Mom, Angery Birds and iPad all in the same sentence! That really needed to be documented and it just didn’t happen. The big one that got away…