Just a note: This is a purely personal post about our most recent family vacation. If you are looking for weddings, sessions, or general photography content please scroll to previous posts. However, if you are looking for some cool images of airplanes and want a look into our everyday life keep on reading!

We survived our first family vacation!

Last month, we embarked on our first real family vacation. Don’t get me wrong, we have done plenty of traveling since Eleanor joined our family. But many of those trips were up to MI for holidays or family events, and regularly involved me taking pictures. Which don’t get me wrong, I LOVE photographing events for my family and friends when I’m back in my home state, but it was so nice to finally go on a trip that was just about getting some family time.

Our excursion, to provide some context, involved leaving NC very very early on a Friday morning to begin the drive to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Our reason for going? EAA Airventure! A weeklong aircraft professionals & enthusiasts extravaganza. The trip would take us two days, roughly eight hours of driving + stops, per day, and we’d have to face Chicago. Our crew involved Paul and me, our girls and then Paul’s brother Jonnie, his wife Rachel and their son. So four adults and three kiddos, three and under.

While traveling with littles is an adventure unto itself, the trip was, all things considered so smooth. God was so kind to us. We left at 4 am on Friday and arrived to our destination Saturday evening around 8ish, and had a hot meal waiting for us! The other super fun aspect to this adventure was the fact that we were meeting my entire family. Over the course of the week our little campground city was home to my parents, all three siblings and their spouses, three cousins and their families and some in-laws! Not to mention we were able to touch base with more than a few old friends, who were also attending that year.

There was definitely a learning curve to camping with the girls, but y’all they seriously slept so well. So, yes, we were exhausted all week long, but not as exhausted as I was thinking we would be. The week went by far too fast. Highlights were the fighter jets constantly demonstrating over the campground. (I’ll admit by the end, I was getting a little annoyed, because gracious don’t they know my baby is trying to nap! Lol), an appearance by the Italian Airforce, the Royal Canadian Airforce Demonstration Team known as the Snowbirds, a flyby from the Blue Angels, the Night Airshow and the Seaplane Base!

While I took lots of pictures, somehow, I don’t feel like I took enough. But, I seriously wanted to make sure I focused more on family time, than documenting the vacation. It can be a tricky balance. Please enjoy these favorites from the trip!

The Snowbirds were incredible to see again. It’s been eight years since I’ve watched them. And it’s still unbelievable how close they get to each other. What a performance!

I hope you enjoyed!