Ah, family vacation time! In a weary economy, many families are finding it difficult to afford a “real” vacation – which makes the trips that they do get to take memorable events that should be preserved for the sensational times they are! The tips that follow will help you to keep the memory of your once-in-a-lifetime vacation fresh in your thoughts when you want to take a stroll down memory lane to relive the fun and togetherness you embraced as a family.

• Compile an artistic scrapbook. Scrapbooking is a very fun activity, and creating a scrapbook of your vacation is a wonderful way to preserve the vacation memories you consider precious. Include things like photographs, ticket stubs, receipts, flyers, hotel matchbooks and other little items that you gathered on the excursion. Use fun vacation cut-outs connected to the type of vacation, for example beach themed cut-outs for your trip to Orlando, Florida, nautical cut-outs for that cruise to Alaska, or cut-outs of the Eiffel Tower and other points of interest for a visit to France.
• Make a digital album. Displaying your family trip on a digital album not only gives you a fun way to show off your pictures, but also preserves the memories that you have in a format which will allow you to reprint your photographs if the originals become damaged or lost.
• Framing. Buy several fun wood 5×7 picture frames and frame the best shots from your journey. Wood collage picture frames are another option, which makes it possible for you to frame multiple pictures at one time.
• Make a shadow box. Shadow boxes are fun and reasonably priced, supplies to make them are available at just about every big box retailer, within the craft section. Add stuff to the shadow box that help you remember the trip you took, such as a little jar of sand, a handful of seashells, and a snapshot or two from your beach trip. This activity isn’t only for adults, you can get the kids involved too, and they can even make their own personalized shadow box to show off in their bedroom.
• Keep a travel journal. Vacations are a great time to do this fun activity. Acquire an unlined journal and write in it every day as you’re traveling, leaving an empty space after each day’s entries for photos. Take associated shots to back up the things that you are writing about; you can print these photos and glue them to the blank pages when you return home. You may also gather postcards from your favorite spots and put them in the journal too.
• Buy a digital picture frame. when you get back from vacation, all of your family and friends will be thrilled to view your family pictures in a digital picture frame. This could be a picture frame that you just put on your desktop like any other photo frames – only that it plays a slideshow of your family vacation pictures, or maybe even a keychain picture frame that you can carry around with you on your key ring.

From fun activities to simple store-bought frames, there are many fun and creative ways to preserve all the wonderful memories of your fun family getaways.