Capturing those special moments…

Last weekend we celebrated my daughter’s Sweet 16. This is a moment she has been looking forward to since we started planning her older sister’s Sweet 16 over five years ago. She has talked about it and talked about it for years.

We spent plenty of time planning the event, right down to what food, what it will look like, when her brothers will dance with her, when her sisters will dance with her, what the rest of the familia will be doing….it’s all been in the planning stages for what seems forever.

So it was only natural that I wanted to capture every moment. Even more so, since I love capturing those special moments with my camera. Actually, I love capturing any moment on my camera. 🙂 And the older my teens get, the more I don’t want to miss out on anything. I realize even more today, that there is only so much time left with them. Having four adult children already, there is so much that I miss. And that’s ok, they are adults and have to be about adulting. But, the only way I get to share in those moments is when they share with me what they have been doing, whether it be a conversation, a photo, or both!

Luckily, my son’s girlfriend shares a love for photographing with me. So when we celebrated family style, she was all about capturing those precious moments for me. And between the two of us, we captured a lot of memories.

But there was a precise moment, when we were all dancing together and having fun, and I thought to myself, “I need to stop and go get my camera.”

And then, it hit me. Sometimes we need to take a step back and just enjoy the moment that we are in. We just can’t capture everything on camera. And that is ok. What’s more important is for us to just relax, be in the moment, have fun, smile, and make a memory.

Capturing a moment on camera is something to be treasured.

Making a memory is something never will never be offered again.

And so, I put down my camera, and I danced. And I laughed. And I captured the moment in my heart.