Daddy's Footsteps

To me, this is a very precious layout. It's physical proof that I have kept one of the promises I made to Dave before he died.

Before we had children, Dave and I discovered that we loved to travel - especially by cruise ship! We loved exploring new places, trying new foods, and creating our own adventures. Our best travel experiences usually happened when we got to a new port of call, rented a car for the day and set out with a map.

When Caleb was diagnosed, we were devastated at the possibility that traveling might not be an option. We had wanted to travel with the boys and show them the world. SMA is a horrible disease, and if what the doctors told us was true, Caleb would not only be wheelchair bound, but could end up needing a ventilator and feeding tube. Dave decided that we were going to travel while we could. The money we had saved for a mini-van went to pay for a cruise to the Western Caribbean, and while the boys were 2 years old and 10 months old, we got them their first passports!

From 2009 - 2013, we traveled every opportunity we could! We did multiple cruises visiting the Bahamas, Belize, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Grand Turk. We went to Disney World, Sea World, and Niagara Falls. We took a road trip to Minnesota for a Cure SMA Conference and made some awesome memories with all the mishaps. We swam with the Sting Rays, visited zoos, museums and beaches. We had some awesome times!

Our focus was going and doing to give Caleb the memories in the event his SMA progressed quickly, but little did we know that Dave would be the one who was unexpectedly taken. I was so grateful we had been intentional in traveling and making those memories. Although the boys were little and most likely don't remember everything, I documented everything and have the scrapbooks to prove it.

Although Dave was unconscious after his accident, when I went into kiss him good-bye, I made some promises to him - and one was that I would make sure the boys saw the world! I will admit that this has been a challenge to keep this promise as Caleb has grown and the SMA has weakened him, but we still do what we can. And we've gotten pretty creative!

When Jim came into our lives, we cruised again and one of our ports of call was Old San Juan in Puerto Rico. This was bittersweet for me. Old San Juan had been the very first port of call Dave and I ever had back in 2004. We visited Castillo San Cristobal and I had taken pictures of Dave sitting on the wall outside of the fortress. While I was there in 2017 with my newly blended family, I was able to take the boys back to the same spot. I took photos of them individually and tried to recreate the photo as best as I could. For one brief moment in time, I felt like I had given the boys a new kind of memory with their dad, and our newly blended family. It made my heart happy.

Scrapbooking Tips:

To create this layout, I needed to get the photo of Dave that I had originally taken, but unfortunately, we did not own a digital camera at the time, and I could not find my negatives. I was determined to create this layout though and took a picture of the original photo. I laid the photo out flat on my table and turned the flash off my camera. I did not zoom in though. To get a clearer, less pixelated picture, it's better to crop a photo than zoom in while taking the picture.

After I edited the photo, I sent it out to have it printed. I know that the picture of Dave is not the best, but it is focused enough that you can obviously make the comparison between the photos of him and the boys. That was what was important to me.

A pre-printed journaling card that came with this Simple Stories paper collection was perfect for my journaling. I wrote from my heart, and although I could have said so much more, I limited myself to space I had.

To keep this layout simple, I used hearts to embellish it and they coordinated with the hearts on the journaling card.

When I scrapbook, my family is my most important critic. They are a driving force of why I do what I do. When Caleb and Zach saw this, they both sincerely smiled. It was the best reaction I could have gotten!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock: Bazill

Pattern Paper: Simple Stories

Letter Stickers: Doodlebug Designs

Embroidery Floss: DMC