My grandparents have always been so amazing at creating opportunities for my mom's side of the family to all get together. In the past, we have been blessed to go on cruises from time to time. The last cruise we went on, I was a senior in high school and considering majority of us cousins were going into college or already in college at that point, my grandparents told us it would probably be the last one. But we were lucky enough that our grandparents once more blessed us with an opportunity to all spend the holidays together.

​

My mom’s side of the family is rather large. She has two older brothers and an older sister, and each of her siblings are all married with at least two kids, her older sister having three. So when we all get together, it’s a huge ordeal. My cousins and I are all ranging right now from age 18-25, so we’re all relatively close in age and essentially grew up together. We live all over the country, and now all over the world, so when we have the opportunity to all be together for a holiday, we don’t take that lightly.

 

The cruise was to go through parts of the Caribbean, and then the Bahamas. We started out with a couple days on the ship where we all relaxed and ate together at the buffet and attended comedy shows while tanning whenever we weren’t doing anything else. And it was wonderful. Especially, considering I’d just gotten back from traveling constantly for an entire semester, I had really been getting restless in Minnesota. And so to be back out traveling, even doing the super touristy things, was really a good pick-me-up. Our dog had also recently passed away, and by recently I mean a day before we left for the airport, so my spirits were very, very low.

 

But something about the Caribbean blue surrounding us did a lot to lift our spirits exponentially. Our first stop off ship was at St. Thomas. As a family, we had been to St. Thomas now three times, so we kind of knew our stuff when getting there. We all got in a taxi – one of those crazy fast taxis with no doors or windows – and made our way to Magen’s Bay where we spent the day lounging and playing in the crystal clear water. We went as an entire family and considering I had just spent my entire semester constantly with the same 20 other people, I was pretty okay with traveling as a big group.

 

So when we got to Tortola on our next stop in the British Virgin Islands, it was only my family that decided to go and hang out at the beach. Our other family members had all booked certain expeditions or cool activities that I would have loved to go on, but my family was exhausted. We’d just gone through a very long ordeal with our dog, and had barely gotten off work before boarding our plane to Florida to meet up with everyone else.

 

And so Tortola was the perfect relaxing and small venue we didn’t know we needed until we got there. The beach was hardly booked with anyone where we were. We bypassed all the expensive beach chairs and bars and made our way down to the part of the beach that was completely empty. It wasn’t five minutes after we’d sat down that a small black dog came and hung out with us and it was so perfect. He was so little and happy and would just sit with us as we build sandcastles, read our books, and waded in the ocean.

 

Considering I had had my camera out 24/7 during my abroad, I hadn’t been using my camera much during this trip. I just really wanted a break. But that day was really special for us, especially my mom, brother and I as we all laughed and hung out in the beautiful water. The pictures I got of my brother were really fun, because he doesn’t let me photograph him often willingly. He’s dabbling in photography himself, so it had been his camera that had been out so often during this trip. But to get these pictures of my brother – especially as he’s finishing up his senior year of high school – was really nice for me.

 

I used the suggestions and differences I’d learned in editing my pictures and really turned up the exposure and shadows on these pictures. I wanted the pictures to radiate the warmth and almost blinding sunshine that we soaked up that day, and I loved getting the water droplets all over my brother as he ran in and out of the water.

 

The day was a great success, and I was reminded how wonderful it is to just take a moment and relax while traveling. It was my favorite place we stopped on the entire cruise, and we stopped at some amazing places after Tortola for sure. The rest of the cruise in general was really nice. I appreciate my grandparents so much, they are so special to me, and to have some extra time to be with them as well as the rest of my busy cousins and family was an experience I appreciate more and more every time I get to see them.