Vacation scrapbooking is my favorite scrapbooking, and also something I think I’ll love to look back on when I’m old, decrepit, and housebound. So I’ve decided to make a compilation album of all the big vacations JK and I have taken as a couple – our Poland right after we started dating, Turkey, our honeymoon in India, and then a whole bunch of wonderful trips to Hawai’i, the Southwest, and various National Parks.

I’ll probably also add my vacations with the girls and JK’s school/nerd contest-related trips to China and Brazil.

But first, St. John, the best of them all. Man, I really loved that island.

I’ll make one spread of highlights (or single page, depending on the amount/quality of our old photos and how they fit together) for each trip and arrange them chronologically.

Hopefully I’ll end up with an album stuffed full of excellent memories that span a whole (relationship’s) lifetime.

…although there’s really no such thing as being caught up when it comes to scrapbooking, unless you’re trying to drive yourself mental (or want to fill your entire house with albums). That being said, I do want to at the very least document my favorite trips that I went on during my scrapbooking hiatus, starting with my solo adventure on the Wonderland Trail.

I often copy the journaling straight from my blog post, but this time it was just too long – a list of favorite moments and memories worked better.

One can never have too many Enchantments layouts, so I made a new one for my trip back to the magical mountains in 2010.

I had a hard time limiting the photos on these spreads, so because of the sheer amount of pics and all the different colors in them, I kept the layouts really, really simple. Maybe too simple when it comes to the last one…how can I get a manufacturer to start making wood veneer mountain goats?

Almost all my scrapbook projects start with a sketch. It’s usually one I’ve come up with myself and jotted down in my ever-present notebook, but I also enjoy a good sketch challenge to get me started.

Lately I’ve been into Studio Calico’s Sunday Sketch, so I was thrilled when they asked me to make a layout for their latest challenge! I picked the card sketch and made this page about our last hike of 2012 (trip report to follow, soonish):

I also made this tree-huntin’ page (yes, we finally ditched our plastic tree for a real one this Christmas!) for a Sunday Sketch in December…

…and this wildlife highlight page back in November. My layouts don’t usually end up looking anything like the sketch, but hey, whatever gets me scrapping makes me happy.

If you want to join the challenge this week, go to Studio Calico, let one of these two sketches inspire you, make your masterpiece, upload said masterpiece to the Studio Calico gallery, and then post your link in the comment section on the Studio Calico blog post. Happy scrapping!!

I have a hard time picking a favorite photo since I seem to get emotionally attached to a lot of our hiking pics – they just bring back such good memories – but this family photo from Skyline Divide last year is definitely high on the list.

It’s interesting to read that blog post now and realize that this year, it’s been the opposite. We love our new house and neighborhood trails so much that we only made it out on two short overnighters this year! Maybe someday we’ll strike a balance between lazy weekends at home and adventurous weekends in the mountains (and I’ll have to find something else to whine about).

Speaking of things that were lacking this year, I didn’t go on any grand adventures with Karen, and it was totally my fault. Boo!

I finally got to spend time with her this weekend, and decided to make a tribute page to my favorite Canadian (she beats both Mukmuk and Leonard Cohen – not bad, eh?) and one of my favorite people, period.

Note to self for 2013: say yes to Karen. You will not regret it.

Look, I made things out of paper again! I haven’t shared any scrapbook pages on this blog in a year and a half, but the urge to glue things on top of other things has come back with a vengeance. I apologize to those of you who stop by just to read trip reports.

Anyhoo, upon my return to scrapbooking, I noticed a certain lack of equality in my albums – the hiking album was bursting at the seams while the friends & family album looked positively emaciated in comparison. My friends do pop up in my hiking pages once in a while, but it’s time to give them the space they deserve, from my oldest friend (sorry, Tom) to my very youngest little friend.

There seems to be a movement in the industry now to call what we do ‘memory keeping’ instead of ‘scrapbooking’, and I’ll admit that I’ve never been a fan of the s-word. I agree with Cathy Zielske: “I feel this moral obligation to elaborate – to help vaporize the stereotype of ladies wearing applique sweaters, running amok with decorative scissors and teddy bear stickers.”

Cathy goes on to say (and I hope she will forgive me for stealing an entire paragraph of her excellent book, Clean & Simple Scrapbooking | The Sequel):

See, the scrapbooking of today is really an exploration of life through words and images. It gives people the chance to celebrate that which matters, that which enlightens, that which makes up the very fabric of life. It’s really cool. No, I’m serious. I see you smirking, but I’m telling you: don’t knock it until you try it, and then, don’t come crying to me when you’ve maxed out your credit cards on scrapbook stuff.

I’m sure I’ll keep scrapbooking mostly our trips and adventures – those pictures make me feel happy and so lucky that we’re able to do all of these amazing things – but I’ll try to fatten up my friends & family album a little bit as well. Once in a while I need to remind my introvert self that human connection truly is what matters most.